Election 2024: Here’s how OC’s election officials are preparing to count your ballot

With just about a month to go until Election Day — and less than a week before ballots are sent out — Orange County’s election officials are gearing up for what they anticipate will be a high-turnout election.

As is typical for general elections, Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said he expects more voters to participate in the upcoming election than in March’s primary contests. That means a lot more ballots will be submitted, and they will need to be verified and counted.

In Orange County, more than 1.8 million people are registered to vote, just over 83% of all eligible individuals. Ballots for Orange County voters will be picked up by the U.S. Postal Service on Saturday, Oct. 5, starting at 7:30 a.m.

After the 2022 midterm elections, when the registrar’s office experienced the highest number of vote-by-mail ballots cast on Election Day, elections officials knew they had to be thinking about how to manage the significant influx of ballots better, Page said. So the county invested $4.1 million, he said, and that allowed the registrar’s office to increase its capacity for processing mail ballots.

“We immediately saw some improvement in our efficiency for the presidential primary election,” said Page.

He said 91% of the early vote-by-mail ballots cast were included in the first batch of results posted on election night in March, a jump from 85% in the 2022 general election.

Additionally, the registrar’s office was able to process ballots more quickly in the following week, he said. One week after the primary, election workers had counted and included in the results 96% of all ballots, up from 89% in November 2022.

“We may not see these same percentages for this election because we’re going to have higher turnout … but at least we saw that improvement for the primary, and we know that increasing our equipment capacity has had a positive impact on our operations,” Page said.

The registrar initially had one machine for inserting ballots into envelopes but decided to purchase a second one, he said. The number of sorting machines — these take an image of each vote-by-mail ballot envelope, which is then sent to election workers who conduct signature verifications — also increased from two to four.

Ballot extractors, which separate the ballot from its envelope by slicing it open and blowing air into it, increased from eight to 16.

The registrar’s office also has several measures in place to ensure the closely-watched election is conducted securely and in a transparent manner, said Page.

Physical security includes bolting ballot drop boxes, made of thick metal and weighing more than 1,000 pounds, to the concrete and using individual keys for each box. The boxes are also placed in high-traffic areas, Page said.

Technical measures include using electronic poll books — not connected to any voting equipment — that transport voter information between the registrar’s office and every single vote center almost in real-time, Page said, which helps prevent people from voting more than once.

The registrar’s office has hired more than 1,900 people to assist with the election, all of whom have undergone criminal background checks, he said.

State law also allows the public to observe election activity, and those interested can follow the observation schedule at ocvote.gov/media/election-observation.

As in previous years, voters in Orange County have multiple options for casting their ballots. Voters will be able to mail their ballots through the U.S. Postal Service, drop them off at a ballot box or deliver them in person at a vote center. In-person voting is also available at any vote center.

Starting Oct. 7, Orange County’s 123 secure ballot drop boxes will be open until 8 p.m. on Election Day. These boxes, which are individually keyed and anchored to the ground, will remain open 24/7 until Nov. 4.

On Oct. 26, 38 vote centers will open throughout the county, followed by an additional 146 centers on Nov. 2. Unlike the ballot drop boxes that only allow voters to submit their ballots, vote centers offer in-person voting, voter registration services, replacement ballots, and other general assistance.