As the countdown to the US presidential election on November 5 enters its final week, workers at the Los Angeles County ballot processing center have already begun the busy task of counting votes: with machines running at high speed, each mailed ballot is being entered into the system, awaiting the revelation on election night.
As of October 29, the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office has received over 900,000 mailed ballots. Many voters are concerned about the security of their ballots and the counting procedures.
On Tuesday morning, Dean Logan, the head of the RR/CC (Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk) office, along with Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, held a press conference stating that all ballots this year will be processed at the City of Industry’s counting center. In the days to come, law enforcement will also increase enforcement efforts to ensure the security and fairness of the ballots.
“When we receive ballots from the post office or collected from various ballot boxes, we first deploy K-9 police dogs from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office to inspect all ballots to ensure there are no suspicious substances mixed in,” Logan said, noting that after the initial inspection is cleared, the staff will proceed to the next step.
Luna also introduced that on election night, the police will work in coordination with the registrar’s office: deploying patrol cars and helicopters to transport sealed ballots from all 648 voting stations in the county to the ballot processing center.
To handle all aspects of this election, approximately 12,000 staff members are involved in the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office. By Tuesday, the ballot counting center in Los Angeles County was already filled with boxes of mailed ballots.
Officials explained that the entire counting process is mainly divided into four steps: (1) After the K-9 inspection, staff manually sort the ballots and then input them into machines for organization; (2) Subsequently, staff will verify the signatures on the ballots through machine scanning to ensure they match the voter’s registration signature; (3) Ballots with verified signatures will be sent to the “unseal” department, where staff will manually open the ballots from each envelope; (4) The final step involves machine scanning the contents of the ballots and storing them in the system.
Registrar’s office official Monica Flores noted that from observing the mailed ballots received so far, the most common mistake voters make is forgetting to sign the envelope. “There must be a signature on the envelope; if not, we will notify the voter to sign it, otherwise, unsigned ballots will be invalidated.”
Additionally, if there are stains or other issues on the ballots, they will need to be manually duplicated, and duplication team members will complete the work under a camera.
On the night of the election, the public can apply to be observers and supervise the entire sorting, scanning, signature verification, and duplication processes at the counting center. The center is staffed with security personnel 24 hours a day and has hundreds of surveillance devices.
According to the schedule set by the Secretary of State, after 8 p.m. on November 5, all polling stations in California will close, and county registrar’s office staff will begin counting votes, reporting the numbers to the Secretary of State at least every two hours until completion.
The Los Angeles County Registrar’s office expects to release the first preliminary results after 8:30 p.m. on election day and update every 15 minutes thereafter. Flores explained that staff will work around the clock that night to tally until all votes are processed, but since many mailed ballots from voters may arrive late, there will not be a final result that evening. December 3 is the last day for the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office to confirm the election results.
Logan pointed out that this election ballot is extensive, including votes for the president, state propositions, federal senators, federal congress members for respective districts, state senators, state assembly members, county judges, and city officials. He advises voters to cast their ballots early.
Last Saturday (26th), Los Angeles County was the first to open 122 early voting stations; starting from November 2, all 648 voting stations in the county will be fully operational, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily; on election day, November 5, the stations will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters can find the nearest voting station online at locator.lavote.gov.
“You can vote at any location within the county, without being limited to a specific place,” Logan said. ◇