Starting Saturday, July 12, the registrar is hosting several workshops to hear from Orange County voters on polling and ballot drop box locations, accessibility of polling stations, language access, voting outreach programs and safety procedures.

The workshops — several of which offer other languages, including Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese — run through the rest of the month and into August.

They are an effort to solicit feedback on how the county can update and improve its Election Administration Plan, which governs how the voting process works in Orange County, said Bob Page, the registrar of voters.

Workshops, which can last between one and one and a half hours, will be split into two categories: general public workshops and accessibility language workshops.

General public workshops are opportunities for anyone to provide feedback. Accessibility language workshops — in addition to having translators for various languages — will focus on how polling centers can better accommodate those whose first language is not English.

Rooms will be divided into five sections — voting and ballot drop box locations, accessibility of voting facilities, language assistance and accessibility services, voter education and outreach programs and safety and security of the election process — where attendees can provide verbal or written feedback, said Page.

Attendees can participate in one or all of the categories. There will also be a packet for attendees who would rather write down all of their feedback instead of visiting each station separately.

“We wanted to give them an opportunity to be comfortable providing feedback in the method they want in the areas they want,” said Page.

The Voters Choice Act, a state law that lays out how counties administer an all-mail ballot election system with ballot drop-off locations and vote centers, requires the registrar to hold a public feedback forum after initial changes are made to the election plan. But Page said his office is hosting the series of workshops — before the plan is edited — to give local voters more involvement in the process.

“We don’t want to just do the minimum required,” Page said. “We want to make sure that we’re getting feedback from as many different people as we can.”

Other factors the registrar is considering for updates include federal and state law, data from previous elections, best practices determined by the registrar and the county budget, Page said.

“The community input and feedback is a very important part of any update we make, but that has to be balanced with those other four elements in terms of what is actually in the plan,” Page said.

Aside from the 15 scheduled workshops, the registrar has invited more than 250 organizations to schedule small group meetings. Many of these organizations are involved in voter outreach and the voting process by lending their facilities for polling locations and drop-off boxes, Page said.

The registrar plans to complete the initial feedback process in the first week of August, Page said. The registrar’s office will then compile summaries of the feedback to be published online and create the first draft of the new 2026-2030 EAP.

“I’ve got a deadline to meet and I’m trying to do my best to give people as much time as possible and as many different formats to provide input,” Page said.

The secretary of state has requested the final draft of the EAP by Dec. 1, although by law it is due 120 days before the June 2026 primary election, which would be in February 2026, Page said.

After the first draft of the EAP is published, there will be a 14-day public review period during which people can provide additional comments on the plan. The registrar’s office has also scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 25 at the Irvine City Hall for in-person feedback.

The registrar will make necessary changes based on feedback received online and at the hearing, Page said. The office will then post a final draft that receives the same 14-day review before final changes are made and the EAP is sent to the secretary of state.

The election plan spanning 2021-2025 is available in 10 languages on the registrar of voters’ website. More information about the workshops or how to submit a feedback form online can also be found on the registrar’s website.

Workshops are scheduled for:

• Saturday, July 12: San Juan Capistrano Community Center (25925 Camino Del Avion), 10-11:30 a.m.

• Monday, July 14: Buena Park Community Center (6688 Beach Blvd.), 6-7 p.m.; Korean language meeting

• Wednesday, July 16: Los Olivos Community Center in Irvine (101 Alfonso), 6-7 p.m.; Farsi interpretation available

• Thursday, July 17: Delhi Center in Santa Ana (505 E. Central Ave.), 6-7 p.m.; Spanish language meeting

• Saturday, July 19: Fountain Valley Recreation Center (16400 Brookhurst St.), 10-11 a.m.; Vietnamese language meeting

• Monday, July 21: South Coast Chinese Cultural Center in Irvine (9 Truman St.), 6-7 p.m.; Chinese language meeting

• Tuesday, July 22: Southwest Senior Center in Santa Ana (2201 W. McFadden Ave.), 6-7:30 p.m.

• Wednesday, July 23: Zoom meeting with ASL interpretation available, 6-7 p.m.

• Thursday, July 24: West Anaheim Youth Center (320 S. Beach Blvd.), 6-7 p.m., Tagalog interpretation available

• Saturday, July 26: Huntington Beach Central Library (7111 Talbert Ave.), 10-11:30 a.m.

• Monday, July 28: Northwood Community Center in Irvine (4531 Bryan Ave.), 6-7 p.m., Japanese interpretation available

• Tuesday, July 29: Norman P. Murray Community Center in Mission Viejo (24932 Veterans Way), 6-7:30 p.m.

• Wednesday, July 30: Buena Park Library (7150 La Palma Ave.), 6-7 p.m.; Hindi interpretation available

• Thursday, July 31: East Anaheim Community Center (8201 E. Santa Ana Canyon Rd.), 6-7 p.m.; Gujarati interpretation available

• Saturday, Aug. 2: Brea Community Center (695 Madison Way), 10-11:30 a.m.

On July 8, the governor embarked on a two-day, multi-county tour of South Carolina with the state’s Democratic Party, a trek billed as an opportunity for Newsom to hear from rural communities that the party said is “too often left to recover alone from economic setbacks and natural disasters.”

It’s that latter part — disaster relief — that Newsom and his camp have said he’s focused on this trip.

California, reeling from the catastrophic wildfires that destroyed communities and killed 30 people six months ago, is still waiting on a $40 billion request for federal disaster relief. South Carolina, also still reeling from September’s Hurricane Helene devastation that left 50 people dead, received federal disaster aid last year.

Still, it’s impossible to ignore the massive elephant — or rather donkey — in the room, the 2028 of it all.

Newsom, longstanding denials notwithstanding, has been viewed as a presidential candidate for years now. And South Carolina, for even more years, has been a key player in national presidential politics.

The Palmetto State has earned a moniker, ‘First in the South,’ based on a consistent record for picking candidates in primary elections who eventually go on to become presidential nominees for both the Democratic and Republican parties.

In 2024, national Democrats moved the South Carolina primary to the top spot. And while it’s not yet set where it will land on the 2028 calendar, South Carolina is still expected to be an early state, if not first again.

But regardless of where it falls on the primary calendar, there’s no overstating how prominent a role South Carolina voters, particularly Black voters, play in Democratic presidential politics.

Since 1988, when South Carolina began holding presidential primaries, the winner of the Democratic primary has only failed to clinch the party’s nomination two times: John Edwards in 2004 and Jesse Jackson in 1988, both of whom were born in South Carolina. Last year, South Carolina Democratic primary voters picked President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the reelection race.

Experts say that makes Newsom’s visit to South Carolina — even this early in the cycle, even without formally declaring it to be a presidential campaign stop — a smart move. If Newsom, or any Democrat, is going to win a national election, he or she will have to win over voters less liberal than those who have supported Newsom throughout his career.

“California is going to go Democratic in the presidential election, but South Carolina is often make or break for who becomes the Democratic nominee,” said Scott Huffmon, who teaches American politics and voting behavior at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

“The road to the White House,” he said, “leads through South Carolina.”

‘Heads Carolina, Tails California’

Over two days, Newsom barnstormed around South Carolina in relatively rural areas, including places that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump in previous elections. He met with supporters and the curious in coffee shops, churches and meeting halls.

He encouraged Democrats to stand up to Trump’s policies and didn’t shy away from talking about his home state.

At a stop in Pickens — where Trump drew tens of thousands of supporters for a 2023 rally and in a county where more than 75% of voters chose Trump in 2024 — Newsom talked about the relationship between his state and the president. He drew heavily on the administration’s actions in recent months, as Trump has deployed troops to Los Angeles amid aggressive deportation efforts, the Greenville News reported.

While Republicans and Fox News have painted California as a liberal hellscape — Rep. Sheri Biggs, a freshman Republican who represents the western part of South Carolina, sent a text message blast encouraging recipients to reject “California’s woke agenda” that includes “letting mob rule and crime run rampant” — not everyone thinks Newsom should avoid his Golden State bona fides.

California, after all, generates more economic output per person, contributes more in federal taxes and ranks better (or far better) than national averages for homicide, obesity, cancer deaths and educational attainment, among other things.

“I certainly think if you were to ask a Republican about Gov. Newsom, you’d hear things about California not being a great place to live,” said state Rep. Kambrell Garvin, a Democrat who represents Richland County in the statehouse.

“But I think if you talk to Democrats, I don’t think that perception is the same,” Garvin said. “As a lawmaker, I look to California for many of the progressive policies that are being implemented there as a template of what can be done in South Carolina.”

“Of course, there are going to be conservatives who say we don’t want to do things the way California does, but there are some actually good things happening in California that the rest of the nation can follow.”

Still, South Carolina — as it long has been for Democratic presidential hopefuls, official or not — has long been a testing ground for candidates’ messaging.

And Newsom has some work to do there, said Joshua Hollington, a Democratic voter in South Carolina, who argued that the Democratic Party, as a whole, needs to do more to win back rural communities, blue-collar workers and suburban voters.

If Newsom is to be successful, he said, the governor has to shake any reputation as “being out of touch with the average person” and solidify himself as “an everyday guy you want to have a beer with.”

“The only way to do that is to connect with rural voters,” Hollington said.

“You’ve got to get out of your posh areas and into the heartbeat of America.”

“I think it’s smart to meet people and campaign, and there’s no better way than to meet (voters) face-to-face. Good for him for coming to South Carolina,” said Rep. Neal Collins, a Republican who represents Greenville and Pickens counties in the Upstate.

“In the general, we’re maybe not as important,” said Collins, noting South Carolina has a Republican supermajority and is extremely likely to go for the Republican candidate in the general presidential election.

“But we’re immensely important for the primary.”

‘Gone to Carolina’

Newsom isn’t the only Democrat whose name is being whispered along with “2028” and “White House” who has forayed into South Carolina in recent months.

In May, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee) and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore headlined events in Columbia, the capital city.

“I would be interested to see who else is going to journey to South Carolina,” said Chase Meyer, who teaches American politics and elections at the University of South Carolina.

“How you run for president, a lot of it is determined by who else is running and how they’re running their campaigns,” Meyer added.

Take 2020, for example. That year, Meyer said, many Democratic presidential hopefuls took more left-wing positions, an attempt to woo supporters away from progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The shift, he said, left room for more moderate candidates, like then-South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and eventual nominee and president Joe Biden, to find success.

“Newsom has recently started to position himself to try to be more moderate,” Meyer said, pointing to Newsom’s podcast featuring a host of right-wing figures.

“Is that going to play well with Democratic voters? It depends on what everyone else does. If every other candidate says, ‘No, that’s horrible, I’d never talk to Steve Bannon,’ there might be an opening for such a candidate,” he said.

For Democrats, South Carolina is the place to test whether a candidate has national appeal. The state is incredibly diverse, and local voters can help champion a candidate in other southern states, including potential swing states like Georgia and North Carolina.

That means the first step for Newsom — should he decide he is running for president — is to start building a network in South Carolina, said Huffmon, the Winthrop professor who leads the school’s Center for Public Opinion & Policy Research.

“If Gavin Newsom is smart,” Meyer echoed, “he’ll be meeting with Democrats in the state legislature, local Democratic mayors, local City Council, and will put their political machinery to work behind him. That means their volunteers and political consultants.”

If history provides any lessons that might be key in the next presidential election cycle, it’s the 2008 Democratic primary where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clashed in South Carolina. Their battle only underscored how important Black voters, particularly Black women, are in the Democratic primary.

“Black women voters in South Carolina are very smart, and they know their power. They’re going to spot a fake appeal a mile away,” said Huffmon, saying the last candidate to court Black women voters organically was Obama.

While the former secretary of state’s strategy for winning over women was to deploy her husband, former President Bill Clinton, he ended up putting his foot in his mouth, said Huffmon. Bill Clinton, who was nicknamed the “first Black president,” was perceived as angry during the primary campaign in South Carolina, and called Obama’s opposition to the Iraq War “the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.”

“But the Obama folks had the beauty parlor campaign. They’d call up Black beauty parlors and say, ‘Can I come and talk about this candidate who’s running?’ It’s tough to catch lightning in a bottle like that again, but you do need to find a way to appeal to African American voters, especially African American women, in a legitimate way.”

Democrats in South Carolina, said Garvin, the state representative, are looking for a leader.

“What Democrats need most right now is somebody who is willing to fight and can take the message of why being a Democrat — and what we stand for — is a positive thing,” said Garvin, who has not yet endorsed anyone for 2028.

“Democrats are at a point where we must decide who we are as a party, and what we believe,” Garvin said. “I think that we have got to do a better job of explaining to people why it’s cool to be a Democrat and why what we believe can be transformational to their lives and to our future.”

“Everything I’ve seen from Gov. Newsom thus far, he’s checked those boxes,” he added.

While Newsom has remained relatively mum on his presidential aspirations, others are less so, including one of the most important figures in South Carolina politics, longtime Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn.

Clyburn, who is credited with saving Biden’s 2020 campaign, appeared with Newsom at a stop in Camden, just northeast of Columbia, introducing him as one of the “candidates that are running for president.” Clyburn later told reporters that he feels “good about (Newsom’s) chances” in 2028.

Just what Newsom’s future political plans are remains to be seen.

In Los Angeles, before he left for the East Coast, Newsom waved away questions ahead of the trip about 2028, insisting that it’s important to him to “work with governors, not just Democratic governors but Republican governors” on the issue of disaster relief.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster did not meet with Newsom this week, said Brandon Charochak, a spokesperson for the Republican chief executive.

But if Newsom is preparing a run for the White House, getting to know South Carolina — its voters, its issues and maybe even just how important Joe’s Ice Cream Parlor in Easley is to the community — is a first step.

He was, after all, one of the founding members of the pop-rock band OneRepublic. He’s written hundreds of songs, his biography boasts, and he founded record label Palladium Records, which has signed more than 60 artists.

But Myers, 40, has turned his attention to different voices — this time, less musical, more political.

Myers has launched a 2026 bid for California lieutenant governor, the No. 2 spot in state government.

The former OneRepublic bassist said he’s been disappointed in California’s current leadership.

As a Democrat, Myers said he wants to see state leaders stand up more to President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies, specifically pointing to the deployment of troops to Los Angeles amid increased immigration enforcement operations and scaled-back or eliminated funding to universities and Medicaid, to name a few.

He is also concerned about affordability and homelessness in California and “career politicians.”

“One of the main reasons I’m running is I want to be a loud voice that’s standing up to the political establishment and standing up to Trump and the Republicans,” Myers said in an interview.

A Hidden Hills resident now, Myers was born in Orange and grew up in Corona, where his father served as a pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside. His family eventually moved to the valley, where he attended Newbury Park High School.

It’s his experiences growing up that has, in part, fueled his desire to run for public office.

Myers remembers feeding the homeless with his father, a tradition he has since continued with his own two daughters. Pre-OneRepublic fame, Myers worked as a janitor at his dad’s church and later juggled opening up Starbucks at 5 a.m. as a barista along with attending school and playing in multiple bands, he said.

“My story is a story of the California dream,” Myers said, “which is coming from nothing … and becoming something.”

Myers had previously said he was running for California’s 41st Congressional District, a challenge to Inland Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona.

“Ken Calvert has been in Washington for 30 years,” Myers said in his original announcement. The “status quo isn’t working.”

But he has since changed his mind, saying in a statement this week that he has “witnessed things that are deeply disturbing — and impossible to ignore.”

“But when I looked around, I didn’t see our state politicians standing with us, and I realized: I can’t stay silent. I can’t stay on the sidelines. That’s why I’m shifting my campaign from Congress to California lieutenant governor — to represent all 40 million voices across this state and to fight for a government that actually works for us.”

Myers joins an already relatively crowded field in the race for lieutenant governor.

There’s California Treasurer Fiona Ma and California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday, as well as former Sausalito Mayor Janelle Kellman and Mike Schaefer, a member of the California Board of Equalization. All are Democrats.

Fryday, a Navy veteran and Novato native, said he is running for the seat “to fix the problems in the communities we love and make it possible for us all to build a better future here.”

Ma is a former state legislator and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors where, according to her bio, she led an effort to combat human trafficking and prostitution rings in massage parlors.

Schaefer served on the San Diego City Council and has said he’s “dedicated (his) life to protecting taxpayers and challenging powerful interests.”

Kellman grew up in a small Pennsylvania mining town, later earning an environmental law degree at Stanford Law School. She founded the nonprofit Center for Sea Rise Solutions, which aims to build coastal resilience with local decision-makers.

Myers, meanwhile, said he wants to represent a new generation in California politics.

“I want to be a new voice, a different voice that we haven’t heard yet in California politics,” he said. “We need something new.”

Aside from his work in the music industry, Myers is also a dad, a die-hard L.A. Kings fan and a big fan of California cuisine. (You might find him on the campaign trail at a Mexican joint or In-N-Out.)

He is also looking at his own family dynamics as he runs for a statewide office. He is running as a Democrat, but he considers his parents to be “moderate Republicans.” He has one sibling who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and another who is also a Republican.

“We love each other, and we talk to each other,” Myers said. “It’s interesting the dynamics we’re in right now. There’s a lot of hate, you know, but I’m really hoping here in California I can bring people together and create some major, major change in the state.”

The recent law school graduate — and new contender for California’s 47th Congressional District in 2026 — is part of a younger group of Democratic candidates across the country who want to challenge the establishment in the midterms.

And that includes going up against Democratic incumbents, like Miranda plans to do in the 47th District in 2026, where Rep. Dave Min says he will run for re-election.

“The (Democratic) Party and our government have veered away from championing these essentially key issues that average Americans need and are reliant on,” Miranda said, pointing specifically to cost of living and high taxes. “They have great slogans, but when it comes to implementing the changes that need to happen, they’ve failed.”

“If people genuinely think a status quo politician … is going to make the fundamental changes we need, then by all means, vote for that. But I’m excited for voters to be aware that there’s an alternative,” he said.

The 27-year-old was born and raised in Orange County, residing now in Rancho Santa Margarita after recently finishing up law school at American University in Washington, D.C.

He’s focused full-time on his campaign, he said, but is looking into doing some legal work on the side in immigration, an issue he said is particularly important as the Trump administration continues to ramp up enforcement operations in Southern California.

Miranda credits his family’s long history of service for one of the reasons he felt compelled to run for office. His grandfather served in World War II, his father in Vietnam and his brother in Iraq.

“Their dedication to the country really inspired me growing up,” said the UC Berkeley alumnus, “the importance of service and giving back to the country.”

California’s 47th Congressional District spans the coastline of Orange County and juts inland to include Costa Mesa and Irvine.

Min, a former state legislator, is in the midst of his first term representing the seat. He was elected in 2024, defeating Republican Scott Baugh in an open race after former Rep. Katie Porter opted to run for U.S. Senate instead.

So far, Min, who is also an attorney, has advocated for the cap on state and local tax deductions to be lifted, introduced legislation to track marine life along Southern California’s coastline and joined a bipartisan effort to boost wildfire mitigation efforts in shrubland ecosystems.

A spokesperson for Min’s reelection campaign declined to comment for this story.

Miranda said he’s part of the “groundswell of people stepping up and saying the party is no longer doing what it needs to be doing for people like us.”

In California’s 32nd Congressional District, which covers communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, Jake Rakov, a former staffer to Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, is running against his ex-boss in 2026. Rakov, 37, has said it’s time for a new generation of Democrats to lead in Congress.

While still relatively early in the 2026 cycle, the 47th Congressional District is considered to “lean Democrat” now, according to the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan site that analyzes elections.

Min raised more than $750,000 during the first quarter of 2025, according to FEC data.

Kirby joins former NFL player Chris Kluwe and Huntington Beach Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark, who have already declared their candidacies for the open seat in 2026.

Kirby grew up in Riverside County and spent 12 years as a U.S. Coast Guard petty officer. After leaving the Coast Guard in 2023, he founded Krieger Gaming, a veteran and first responders nonprofit that aims to connect people experiencing mental health problems or facing isolation to come together through video games.

“One of my deep passions is mental health and actually getting people the help they need,” Kirby, a Huntington Beach resident, said.

Kirby recently earned a bachelor’s degree in science and environmental science from the American Military University. But in mid-June — after watching the military intervention during the protests in L.A. and growing unhappy with what he called the Trump administration’s “misuse of power” — Kirby said he decided to run for office.

“Prior to that, I had no interest in being a politician,” Kirby said. “But I feel like this is going to be the best way for me to actually push forward ideas that I believe are going to benefit all Californians, not just picking sides or playing party politics.”

Kirby, who is running as a Democrat, said he has always been unaffiliated with a political party, but running as an independent would pit him against both parties. He said his voting behavior and platform mostly align with the Democratic Party.

His priority focus is protecting individual and constitutional rights, especially the freedom of speech and the importance of giving everyday citizens a voice, he said. Kirby also wants to improve the problem of homelessness in the 72nd Assembly District.

“We have all of these things that we’re not actually solving, we’re just moving them around from place to place,” Kirby said.

In addition to focusing on mental health and protecting the coastlines and water systems, Kirby said he wants to invite the people affected by state legislation into the lawmaking process itself.

“I want to start a program that I want to push forward to the state of California, where we peer review all of our documents,” Kirby said. “It should be peer reviewed by people that it affects.”

The 72nd Assembly District spans from Seal Beach to Laguna Beach and juts inland to include  Aliso Viejo, Lake Forest and Laguna Woods. Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, is running for a spot on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Like Kirby, Kluwe — a former player for the Minnesota Vikings — is also a first-time candidate. He announced his bid for election after his recent arrest during a Huntington Beach City Council meeting regarding the installation of a plaque with a MAGA acrostic outside the city library.

Van Der Mark was the first to announce her campaign for the open Assembly seat. She sits on the Huntington Beach City Council and previously served one year as the city’s mayor.

The OC Registrar of Voters is posting updates daily on the counting as it works its way through mailed-in and dropped-off ballots in the elections.

In Wednesday’s update, Andrea McElroy held on to her lead over Kirsten Walsh to fill the vacant seat on the Newport-Mesa Unified School Board.

The district’s board had appointed Walsh in January to the Area 5 seat, but a successful petition drive forced the special election.

Grassroots efforts had also successfully collected enough signatures to force the public vote held in Huntington Beach, with Measure A and Measure B both appearing to pass as of Wednesday’s update on ballot counting.

If Measure A succeeds, it would eliminate the law approved by the Huntington Beach City Council that creates a 21-member community review board that would decide books that should be relocated from the children’s section and require parental permission for checkout and could block the purchase of new books if a majority of the members feel a title doesn’t meet “community standards.”

The measure would instead make the director of the city’s libraries the person in charge of setting standards for what materials the library holds.

Measure A was succeeding with more than 58% of the vote as of Wednesday’s update of unofficial results.

If results also continue to return in Measure B’s favor, a public vote would be required if the city ever pursued privatizing operations of the city’s libraries in the future. The measure was passing with more than 60% of the vote as of Wednesday.

Carol Daus, one of Our Library Matters’ many volunteers who campaigned for the measures, and a longtime Huntington Beach Public Library volunteer, said she was ecstatic with the early results as they came in.

“You never know in a place like Huntington Beach, it’s a conservative city and they poured a lot of money into the campaign,” she said. “It was somehow complicated with the ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ We didn’t know how many we reached. I’m just grateful if it holds. Right now, it’s looking pretty good on both measures. I feel pretty confident.”

Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark, who first raised the issue of screening out children’s books with sexually explicit material when she was mayor in 2023, said she and others on the “No on Measures A and B” team had been “swimming upstream” with their campaign, but still vow to remain committed to protecting the community’s children.

“This won’t change that we will continue to expose what is going on in our public libraries and protect our children from it,” she said. “What we were trying to do with these measures is to bring in the community and involve them in the process.”

McElroy had also partly campaigned on an issue of parental rights, saying she felt she most connected with voters over opposition to the state’s SAFETY Act, which prohibits school districts from requiring staff to disclose information about a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to parents without the student’s consent.

“Parents do not want secrets kept from them,” McElroy said.

McElroy, 55, held more than 54% of the votes as of Wednesday’s results update.

“This process has been about giving Area 5 voters a chance to speak and they have,” McElroy said. “My thanks to my husband, Thom, my campaign team and every voter in Area 5. Kirsten ran a spirited campaign, and it will be my responsibility to represent our entire community.”

The Registrar of Voters will update results daily at 5 p.m. at ocvote.gov. An estimated 3,360 ballots remain to be counted.

The winner will serve the remaining term of the district’s Area 5 seat after former trustee Michelle Barto was elected to the Newport Beach City Council in November.

Walsh had been appointed to the trustee seat over McElroy and other applicants by a divided school board in late January. But a petition collected enough signatures to reverse the appointment and require a public vote instead.

The two candidates on Tuesday were hopeful and confident, both saying they felt their platforms resonated with voters in District Area 5.

McElroy, 55, who held more than 54% of the votes counted Tuesday night, said she frequently volunteered as room mom, with theater programs and the tennis team when her daughter, now a college senior, was in the district.

On Tuesday, she said she was spending the evening having a private party with her family and her election team.

McElroy said she felt she most connected with voters over opposition to the state’s SAFETY Act, which prohibits school districts from requiring staff to disclose information about a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to parents without the student’s consent.

“Parents do not want secrets kept from them,” McElroy said.

She said she was often told by residents during campaigning that they were happy they had an opportunity to vote for someone who represents their values, she said. “They said this is a democracy and they believe in governing by the will of the people.”

Walsh, 53, who was flying to Florida to watch her son race in rowing at the Junior National Championships in Sarasota, said she felt voters wanted to see someone on the school board whom they could trust in promoting the best interests of their children and grandchildren first.

“People that show up every day to make their schools a better place are the ones that give kids opportunity to reach their highest potential,” she said, adding that many voters she spoke with were looking for a nonpartisan candidate whose only concern is the schools and the wellbeing of the kids, not party politics.

Walsh has a sophomore and a senior at Newport Harbor High School and is the school’s PTA president.

Both candidates touted their experience in the district and said their background with Newport-Mesa Unified will enable them to make informed decisions and gain insight into what the district most needs.

Walsh said she brings “both professional expertise in child development and lived experience as an NMUSD parent,” and her time as a volunteer at schools “taught me the importance of building bridges between families, educators, and administrators.”

McElroy said her involvement in the district community “has shown me the importance of caring for our families, jumping right in, and getting things done. I’m ready for this role, committed to our students and families, and no one will out work me.”

The OC Registrar of Voters will post updates daily at 5 p.m. as the remaining mailed-in or dropped-off ballots are counted.

Measure A, which had nearly 59% of voters support as of Tuesday night’s returns, pushes to get rid of a law the Huntington Beach City Council approved in 2023 that created rules for a proposed 21-member children’s book review board. While the board hasn’t been set up, it could relocate library books from the regular children’s section to a more restricted area that requires parental permission for children to check out those books.

Additionally, it could also block the purchase of new books if a majority of the members feel a title doesn’t meet “community standards.”

If Measure A  wins, it eliminates the law creating the review board and instead declares the director of the city’s libraries as the person in charge of setting standards for what materials the library holds.

Supporters of Measure A argued to voters that the motive behind the law amounts to banning books and silencing ideas. If they are successful, they said, it will keep parents in charge of their family’s reading choices and not politicians.

Councilmembers said the law they created is to prevent children from being exposed to “library books and/or materials that may be considered lewd or pornographic.” A vote against Measure A, they told voters, would preserve community input on what children are exposed to in city libraries.

Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark in June 2023 ignited the issue when she proposed making a law to screen out children’s books with sexually explicit material.

Measure B, which has more than 60% of voters support, stems from when the Huntington Beach City Council considered having the library managed by a private company. If Measure B is passed, it would create a law requiring the City Council and a majority of voters in an election to approve a change in library management.

Both initiatives are supported by a grassroots group known as Our Library Matters.

The group’s campaign manager, Spencer Hagaman, said on Tuesday that he and the group of about 120 volunteers, who knocked on 10,000 doors, sent mailers and worked a phone bank, were optimistic.

“This is about fundamental American rights,” he said. “It’s a battle over something that shouldn’t be a battle.”

“Regardless of tonight’s votes, I’ll call it a win,” he added. “I’ve never seen so many Huntington Beach residents motivated. I’m proud of the work we did.”

Carol Daus, one of Our Library Matters’ many volunteers and a longtime Huntington Beach Public Library volunteer, said she was ecstatic with the early results as they came in.

“You never know in a place like Huntington Beach, it’s a conservative city and they poured a lot of money into the campaign,” she said. “It was somehow complicated with the ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ We didn’t know how many we reached. I’m just grateful if it holds. Right now, it’s looking pretty good on both measures. I feel pretty confident.”

Opponents to Measure B say it would strip the council’s ability to make financial decisions in the city’s best interest.

Among those is Mayor Pat Burns, who has been on the council since 2022, and said he was spending his evening taking down campaign signs.

He was optimistic, he said, despite the extensive campaign launched by Our Library Matters, that the council’s decisions would stand.

“People definitely don’t like the books that were put in the library for kids unmonitored by the parents,” he said. “So, I try to be optimistic. But the pro-yes people have launched a campaign that has a lot of distortions of the truth. I’m optimistic people see through it and hopeful that we’ll prevail.”

Van Der Mark, disappointed with the early returns, said she and others on the “No on Measures A and B” team were “swimming upstream,” but still vow to remain committed to protecting the community’s children.

“This won’t change that we will continue to expose what is going on in our public libraries and protect our children from it,” she said. “What we were trying to do with these measures is to bring in the community and involve them in the process.”

The OC Registrar of Voters will post updates daily at 5 p.m. as the remaining mailed-in or dropped-off ballots are counted.

Staff Writer Michael Slaten contributed to this report. 

That’s more or less the idea behind a relatively new organization, Our Republican Legacy, a group that formed last year “to provide a contrasting voice to the MAGA movement” within the GOP. The Republican Party needs to be “restored,” the group argues, to one without the “chaos and division that populism has unleashed.”

In other words, a party with choices that are not carbon copies of President Donald Trump and his frenetic, often defiant and anti-establishment governing style.

And with just over 500 days until the 2026 midterm elections, the group has mobilized a grassroots campaign “to restore the party’s core conservative principles and reclaim its future.”

In California, it’s Willing, an Encinitas resident, leading those efforts.

“We feel there are a lot of people who have been part of the Republican Party in the past but don’t feel there is a place for them anymore, or for people who have traditional conservative values, and they don’t see MAGA as being the same,” said Willing, referring to the “Make America Great Again” slogan linked to Trump.

So Willing, and Our Republican Legacy, has set out to recruit like-minded Republicans, with a goal of attending local GOP events and driving conversations about the party’s goals and future.

“We want the debate, but we want it to be civil,” said Willing. “We want to try to work with the Republican Party the best we can, but it can be difficult sometimes when it gets caught up in MAGA or ‘our way or the highway’ mentalities.”

The group boasts big-name former Republican lawmakers among its founders and leadership team, including former House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, former Vice Presidents Mike Pence and Dan Quayle and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele.

“Faced with the chaos and division that populism has unleashed in our party, we are stepping forward to give Americans a Republican alternative they can once again be proud to support,” said former Sen. John Danforth, a Missouri Republican and one of the Our Republican Legacy founders.

The group also includes among its leadership former Sen. William Cohen, who served as defense secretary in the Clinton administration; former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024; and former Rep. Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican who backed Joe Biden in 2020.

Those Democratic connections are important to note, said Jon Fleischman, a veteran political strategist in California and former executive director of the state’s GOP.

“One of the challenges for this group is they have to decide: Is it the case that Donald Trump is so bad that we’d rather have a liberal Democrat as president,” Fleischman said.

“They want to have a conversation inside of the Republican Party, but they’ve made it clear they have no problem leaving the Republican Party, and that makes it harder for them to make their case because they are not loyal or diehard Republicans,” he said.

But former Rep. Mimi Walters, a founding member of Our Republican Legacy, was more optimistic that pro-Trump and anti-Trump camps can coexist.

Walters — who climbed the ranks in Orange County politics and served two terms in Congress representing an Orange County seat before losing to now former Rep. Katie Porter in a 2018 blue wave election — likened the GOP divide to a married couple who might not share every viewpoint but still respect each other’s ideas.

“The president has brought in many new people into our party and a lot of viewpoints in terms of populism, which absolutely there is a place for that. We want to be a big tent,” said Walters, who, when she was in Congress, voted to support Trump policies nearly 99% of the time, according to data from FiveThirtyEight, which in 2018 was a news site that analyzed political data.

“We just want to also make sure that people know that our party stands for,” Walters added, noting that those values include adherence to the Constitution, fiscal responsibility, free enterprise and a “peace through strength” foreign policy strategy.

The group says it’s “deeply concerned about the future of our country,” on its website.

But its focus is on the future of the Republican Party.

In a recent op-ed, Danforth wrote said the country’s “core political well-being depends on the existence of a healthy two-party system.” Members of Our Republican Legacy, he said, are “may be Republicans in exile,” but they vow to “serve as the resistance to the new populist direction taken by the GOP.”

For now, it’s still fairly early days for Our Republican Legacy’s mobilizing efforts. The group convened in Washington, D.C., last week for what Willing described as a “kick-off” event.

Although he’s a longtime Republican voter, Willing, 59, is making his first foray into Republican politics.

But he’s drawing on his experiences in the business world and his international travels as he heads up the group’s efforts to mobilize like-minded Republicans in California.

“I didn’t want to just complain about the government,” Willing said.

“All my experience tells me we are throwing away something valuable.”

The Attorney General’s Office has been critical of the charter amendment since it was proposed. Approved by voters, the ordinance allows the city to require voters to present their identification at polling places in city elections as early as 2026. The notice of appeal filed moves the case forward to a state appeals court that will be fully briefed and consider arguments.

“California’s elections are fair, safe and secure,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “We respectfully ask the California Fourth District Court of Appeal to reverse the lower court’s decision and overturn Huntington Beach’s unlawful voter ID policy. State law supersedes local law when it comes to constitutional matters like the right to vote — and we will continue to fight to safeguard this fundamental right in court.”

Voters approved Measure A in early 2024, and the city since has been defending it from a lawsuit brought by the state office.

The city has argued in court that the state prohibition on voter ID requirements doesn’t explicitly apply to city elections that aren’t consolidated with statewide elections.

The City Council has yet to present details for how voter ID might work in city elections. The Attorney General’s Office has warned that the law could throw the 2026 elections “into chaos” as planning for them begins later this year.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who oversees elections in the state, called the voter ID policy “unlawful.”

“Municipalities should not be allowed to defy state laws in the name of solving nonexistent problems,” Weber said in a statement.

Huntington Beach officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit earlier this year was, briefly, in front of a panel of judges in the California Fourth District Court of Appeal. They called the city’s arguments that it had a right to regulate its elections free from state interference “problematic” before sending the matter back to the Superior Court judge to reconsider an early ruling made to dismiss the case.