In the 2024 election, voters are particularly concerned about whether the election process is transparent, fair, and secure. On October 29th, a briefing was held at the Orange County Election Center to help the public understand the entire process of collecting, counting ballots, and certifying the election results.
Orange County Registrar of Voters, Bob Page, California State Senator for the 38th district, Catherine Blakespear, Assistant District Attorney of Orange County, Keith Bogardus, and Assistant Sheriff, John McCulloch, attended and spoke at the event.
Following the opening of 38 voting centers on the 26th, all 184 voting centers in Orange County will be open on November 2nd (Saturday). The county sent out mail-in ballots to voters 29 days in advance and opened ballot drop boxes on the same day. According to data from the Orange County Voter Center, they have received over 446,000 ballots. The county’s voter registration numbers have been steadily increasing since the end of August, with nearly 1.9 million active voters (12,846 inactive voters). There are 702,026 registered Democrats, 653,112 Republicans, 442,501 with no party preference, and about 100,000 registered with other parties.
As the Chair of the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee, Blakespear expressed confidence after seeing the transparency of the election work in Orange County. She emphasized the importance of ensuring a fair and objective election process, stating that people will “respect the will of the people, respect democracy” and accept the election results. At the state level, efforts are being made to prevent fraud, combat misinformation, AI fraud, and prevent incidents of violence and threats like the setting fire to ballot boxes seen in other states.
Bogardus stated that in Orange County, each voter’s voice and each ballot are important; they are leaders in elections statewide with a complete election response team responsible for ensuring the integrity of the election. He mentioned that Orange County has prosecuted dozens of election-related crimes in the past 20 years, including false residency reporting, document forgery, and voter intimidation. Anyone can report election fraud by calling the 24-hour hotline at 657-707-408 or emailing to [email protected].
Page explained that each day, personnel are sent to collect ballots from the 123 yellow and white roadside ballot drop boxes in Orange County, each weighing over 1,000 pounds and secured to the ground with individual keys. The process involves two-person teams collecting ballots from 10 to 12 drop boxes per day. Upon returning to their vehicle, they take photos for record-keeping, including emptying the boxes, inspecting the internal fire extinguisher powder, sealing the ballot boxes, and capturing the key ring to ensure nothing is left behind. The photos are verified by the central office staff before moving on to the next drop box. The routes taken by the collection personnel are also tracked and recorded via GPS.
Addressing concerns about fires in ballot drop boxes in places like Seattle, Page mentioned that Orange County’s earliest drop boxes from 2020 are equipped with narrower ballot slots and fire extinguishers with a lifespan of 6 years.
After ballots are brought to the election center, the seals and codes on ballot bags must be verified to match. All personnel involved in processing the ballots must sign, ensuring accountability at every stage. There are also TV screens on-site for election observers to monitor the process.
Page shared that during the primaries in March, about 85% of Orange County voters used mail-in ballots, while about 15% voted in person at voting centers. According to California law, voters must provide identification (such as a driver’s license or social security number) when registering to vote for verification against the DMV records. If identification was not provided during registration, Orange County requires voters to provide identification before casting their vote.
“When verifying voter identification, we use a network connection, but the printers, voting machines, and scanners are not connected to the Internet,” Page stated. Voters can choose to manually fill out the ballot or select candidates on a machine, print the ballot, and scan it. The scan results are saved on a storage card.
All paper ballots are returned to the Orange County Election Center daily, where new sorting and extracting machines purchased this year are used to expedite the processing of received ballots. Page explained, “After ballots are removed from the envelopes, they are scanned, and we also perform signature verification on the ballots.” Paper ballots are typically retained for two years.
Residents can observe the sorting, extracting, scanning, signature verification, and manual counting processes at the election center.
Voting software systems will be deleted after the election, and the original voting system from the Secretary of State will be installed before the next election; the software is coded and safeguarded against tampering. Test ballots are created on each scanner to ensure accurate tabulation. Page stated, “We’ve created a new video for this election, explaining that Orange County elections are both simple and secure, with members of both parties discussing the security of trusting Orange County elections.”
State law mandates that 1% of ballots be randomly selected for manual count. Page mentioned that since 2018, no issues of the tabulation system malfunctioning have been found in the two counties he oversees.
“By law, we are not allowed to view the contents of ballots before 8 p.m. on election day, so the initial results will be announced after 8 p.m. that evening,” Page said. “We encourage people to vote early so their ballots can be included in the day-of tally; for late votes, we will process them over the following 28 days.”
One unique aspect of this year’s election is that the state legislature has set a specific date to address people’s concerns. All voters can submit remedial statements by 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 1st. Page stated, “Typically, county elections do not require 28 or 30 days to tally votes, but California currently prohibits certifying election results before December 3rd. Therefore, based on that law, we will certify the election results on December 3rd.”