Twitter Updates For Tuesday Election

June 5, 2011 - On Tuesday we will be conducting the San Juan Capistrano Special Municipal Election. Our growing list of Twitter followers can monitor our election operations and receive updates throughout the day. Updates include poll site operations, voter information, turnout, and other areas of interest. If you are interested in following our updates check us out at www.twitter.com/ocregistrar.

Public Notice of Random Draw

June 2, 2011 - Pursuant to California Election Code section 15360 (d) this serves as public notice that we will be conducting a random draw of 1% of our precincts (in the San Juan Capistrano election) to be used in a manual tally of votes cast. This manual tally is used to verify the electronic tally of our voting system and the vote-by-mail tally system. The random draw will occur on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. The manual tallies will follow the random draw and will take place until complete. Both processes are open to the public. Our office is located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, California.

Ballot Opening and Processing Begins Today

May 27, 2010 - With just ten days to go until the June 7th San Juan Capistrano Special Municipal Election we have begun the process of opening vote-by-mail ballots. As of this morning we have received 2,862 ballots in the mail. All of the signatures have been verified and those eligible ballots will be sliced open and the ballots extracted using our newly installed automation systems. We should have this batch opened and prepared for scanning in less than a few hours.

All of these ballots will be the first reported on the night of the election at 8:05 p.m.

Voter Registration Closed for Special Election

May 24, 2011 - Voter registration for the San Juan Capistrano Special Municipal Election closed on May 23, 2011. State law requires that in order to vote in a scheduled election a potential voter must submit a voter registration form at least 15-days prior to an election. Several individuals registered in the last few days in order to make sure they could vote in the June 7th election. We closed our registration totals with 19,805 voters for the city.

Voters will vote on a local development proposal. Polls will open at 7 a.m. on June 7th.

Testing of Voting System for San Juan Capistrano

We will test the accuracy of our voting system Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. for the June 7, 2011 San Juan Capistrano Special Election.

The Logic and Accuracy test is required by law to be performed prior to each election. Logic and Accuracy tests include proofing the programming of the ballot, each ballot style and each contest position on the ballot. All previous tests of the voting system have proven it to be 100% accurate.

The process is open to the public. It will take place at our office at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana.

San Juan Capistrano Official Ballots Mailed

May 13, 2011 - As of today we have mailed 8,296 ballots to voters in San Juan Capistrano. Voters in the city will be voting in the June 7, 2011 Special Municipal Election. The question before the voters falls under Measure B, which asks voters if "A Resolution of the City Council of the City of San Juan Capistrano, California Approving General Plan Amendment (GPA) 07-01 for a Mixed-Use Planned Community Located Along the North and South Sides of La Novia Avenue East of Valle Road" should be approved.

Voters have until June 7th at 8 p.m. to return their ballots (postmarks do not count). Polls will also be open throughout San Juan Capistrano on June 7th - voters can check their sample ballots for the location of their poll site.

San Juan Capistrano Sample Ballots Mailed

April 28, 2011 - We are right on schedule with our sample ballot production for the June 7, 2011 San Juan Capistrano municipal election. This election contains Measure B, a development measure for a project comprised of two sites in San Juan Capistrano ( the San Juan Meadows site and the Distrito La Novia site would be combined into a single project under the proposed measure before the voters).

All of our sample ballots are proofed, printed and addressed and will be headed to the Post Office later this morning. Voters should expect to receive these in the mail in the next few days. We will begin to mail vote-by-mail ballots on May 9, 2011.

2011 Vote-by-Mail Program Report Update Released

Earlier today we released our 2011 Orange County Vote-by-Mail Program Report Update. The update follows the release of our 2009 Vote-by-Mail report requested by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The report update discusses all vote-by-mail elections in Oregon and Washington. A review of voter turnout in all vote-by-mail elections in those states is provided along with an assessment of voter fraud. A review of additional states undertaking all vote-by-mail elections is also provided. From West Virginia to Hawaii, vote-by-mail elections have either become law for certain elections or will be conducted under pilot programs to determine the feasibility of making all vote-by-mail elections a permanent fixture. We also provide a detailed update of vote-by-mail patterns here in Orange County.

We realize many voters still prefer to vote in-person at their polling place, which is an option we offer countywide. Many voters who now vote-by-mail are also choosing to drop off their vote-by-mail ballot at their polling place.

You can access our 2009 and 2011 reports, press release and a complete press kit by visiting ocvote.com/stayconnected and click on our Pressroom.

November Survey Report Released

March 18, 2011 - Yesterday we released results of several customer service surveys taken during the recent November Statewide General Election held on November 2, 2010.

During the Statewide General Election cycle extensive surveys were used to gather data on eight levels of service provided by the Orange County Registrar of Voters. Written and telephone surveys were distributed to various participants and stakeholders. Overall, the results of this survey reflected extremely well on the department. Areas of improvement have been noted and will be addressed in upcoming elections.

Highlights of the report include - A high percentage of first time poll workers volunteered in November; The department received some of the highest levels of quality service scores provided over the past four elections; High ratings were noted from operators of poll sites.

You can view the entire report by visiting ocvote.com/stayconnected and clicking on our Pressroom.

Our Seven Year Journey

March 13, 2011 - We are proud to release our new report, "Our Seven Year Journey", which chronicles our efforts as we have worked on improving our operations. This report covers all of the major initiatives and projects we have embarked on since 2004 - each designed to further expand our goal of continual improvement.

The purpose of the document is to reflect on our operations and look for ways to continue improving elections for voters here in Orange County. This truly has been a passage without a destination - we believe that we will always be able to improve and look forward to the next seven years.

You can find all of the details - including the report - by visiting ocvote.com/journey.

Follow Us Tuesday on Twitter

March 5, 2011 - Interested in the San Clemente election on Tuesday? Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/ocregistrar for up-to-the-minute details throughout the day.

You will receive turnout information, details about our operations, any parking issues, responses to technical issues and more. Our Twitter feeds on election days are a good way to keep informed - even if you´re not interested in San Clemente´s election you will get a sense of what it takes to conduct an election.

Middle of Week Popular for Ballots

March 3, 2011 - Now that the deadline has passed for requesting a vote-by-mail ballot in next Tuesday´s San Clemente election we thought it would be interesting to share some data with you.

It seems (at least in this election) that the most popular days to request a vote-by-mail ballot is the middle of the week. On Tuesday´s and Wednesday´s since we started mailing these ballots on January 31st we have sent, on average, three times as many ballots out in the middle of the week than the beginning or end of the week. These requests came into us in three ways - via fax, a mailed application or online.

As of this afternoon 10,202 voters have returned their vote-by-mail ballot. Voters have until 8 p.m. on Tuesday night to have them in our office (postmarks do not count).

Public Notice of Random Draw

March 2, 2011 - Pursuant to California Election Code section 15360 (d) this serves as public notice that we will be conducting a random draw of 1% of our precincts (in the San Clemente election) to be used in a manual tally of votes cast. This manual tally is used to verify the electronic tally of our voting system and the vote-by-mail tally system. The random draw will occur on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. The manual tallies will follow the random draw and will take place until complete. Both processes are open to the public. Our office is located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, California.

Red Seals on the Beach

March 2, 2011 - Of course we don´t mean seals literally, but we are talking about security seals on our voting equipment. Never slowing down and always improving brings us to this newest improvement - new smaller seals on our Judges Booth Controllers (JBCs). JBCs are the electronic ballot box that stores the votes cast on our voting booths. It is very important that these devices remain secure in poll sites and during transport.

We have been discovering an inordinate amount of broken seals in the container used for transport. After investigating we noticed the seals we´re too long and rode below the bottom of the JBC case. The solution? Hunting down a smaller seal that sits above the bottom of the case - eliminating the possibility that the seal will break when the JBC is placed back into the case following an election. We will deploy these new seals next Tuesday for the San Clemente election.

Clean Ballots

February 26, 2011 - What don´t mean "clean" like you might think of your house, or a hotel. When we refer to clean ballots we are talking about the marks voters sometimes place on ballots, or spills, or smudges. The ballots we are seeing from the upcoming San Clemente election are for the most part very clean. This is an advantage for two reasons - the first is that if a voter places an identifying mark (such as a phone number) on their ballot it will void their vote. Second, for our operations we do not have to duplicate as many ballots, speeding up the preparation and scanning of ballots.

Voters have until 8 p.m. on March 8th to return their vote-by-mail ballot (as we always remind voters - postmarks do not count).

Testing of Voting System for San Clemente Election

We will test the accuracy of our voting system Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. for the March 8, 2011 San Clemente Special Election.

The Logic and Accuracy test is required by law to be performed prior to each election. Logic and Accuracy tests include proofing the programming of the ballot, each ballot style and each contest position on the ballot. All previous tests of the voting system have proven it to be 100% accurate.

The process is open to the public. It will take place at our office at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana.

San Clemente Ballot Opening Begins

February 24, 2010 - The upcoming March 8th San Clemente election may not be on voters´ minds outside of San Clemente, but it is very important to San Clemente´s voters. We have received nearly 1/3 of the vote-by-mail ballots we issued back from voters (8,370 total).

We will start opening these ballots tomorrow and prepare them for scanning. In just a few days we will have all of these ballots ready for tabulation, which will be reported at 8:05 p.m. on Election Night.

Measure "A" addresses the Playa del Norte commercial development project. The question before the voters will be "Shall the Playa del Norte commercial development project in the City´s North Beach area be adopted?".

New Election Coming Soon

January 13, 2011 - Our next election is just around the corner - on March 8, 2011 we will be conducting a municipal election for the City of San Clemente. The voters of San Clemente will be deciding if a development project will be moving forward. Measure "A" addresses the Playa del Norte commercial development project. The question before the voters will be "Shall the Playa del Norte commercial development project in the City´s North Beach area be adopted?".

We will be operating a little over 30 poll sites on Election Day. We will begin mailing sample ballots around January 27th and vote-by-mail ballots on February 7th.

City of Fullerton Recount Cancelled

December 14, 2010 - Following the second day of recounting ballots in the City of Fullerton city council contest, Doug Chaffee, the candidate who originally requested the recount, asked that it be discontinued.

During the course of the last two days we recounted nine precincts and nearly 2,200 ballots. Two candidates, their volunteers (and in some cases attorneys) were present for the recount.

As a result of the cancellation there will be no further recounting of ballots in the City of Fullerton race. The original election certification results stand and there will be no change in the vote totals.

City of Los Alamitos Recount Cancelled

December 13, 2010 - A few moments ago we received notification from candidate Dean Zarkos (who originally requested the City of Los Alamitos city council contest recount) to end the recount process.

Today we recounted nearly 50% of all ballots cast in the contest. Many candidates, their volunteers (and in some cases attorneys) were present for the recount.

As a result of the cancellation there will be no further recounting of ballots in the City of Los Alamitos race. The original election certification results stand and there will be no change in the vote totals.

The City of Fullerton city council recount will continue tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Full details on both recounts can be found at ocvote.com/recount.

Some Facts About Recounts and the Process

December 8, 2010 - As you can imagine we receive many inquiries about recounts and the process of counting votes. Like many things if people do not understand the process speculation can move quickly. Here are some basic facts about how recounts work:

1. This process is open to the public but observers at each recount table are limited to candidates (or their representative). This is to limit crowding and distractions as the recount moves forward.

2. Numerous materials are available to the candidates for inspection, which include items used in the election as well as reports, data, etc.

3. Ballots are separated from envelopes and cannot be tied back to a voter. This is a practice nearly as old as our country - for obvious reasons - your vote is secret and shall always remain that way.

4. Nearly a month is spent processing and investigating provisional ballots. No, not every provisional ballot is counted, which includes individuals not registered to vote in Orange County. Thousands of hours are spent before any election is certified to ensure only those eligible to vote are voting. Remember - provisional ballots are just that - they are cast "under terms that are not final or worked out". Just because someone fills out a provisional envelope does not guarantee their vote is included in the final tally.

5. Our office is fully dedicated to ensuring fair and accurate elections, which have been tested in previous recounts and election challenges. We understand the emotions of an election and serve as the neutral party making sure all ballots are accounted for and tabulated accurately.

These are just a few examples of the facts behind recounts and how the process of counting ballots work. We also appreciate the intense interest elections can muster and as such operate in an open and transparent environment.

Live Coverage of Upcoming Recounts

December 8, 2010 - With the Los Alamitos and Fullerton recounts just around the corner we have been busy with numerous planning details. Included in our open process will be live streaming video of the entire process. Visitors to our recount web pages will be able to view live video feeds of the recount room itself as well as the ballot challenge room. The ballot challenge room will be where final decisions are made on ballots that are challenged during the recount process. This will take place at 4 p.m. on each day of the recount. Look for our recount pages ready for viewing on Friday (with the recounts beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday morning).

Recount Process Open and Transparent

December 2, 2010 - As we prepare for two upcoming recounts we thought we would give you some insight into our plans to keep the public well informed.

Both recounts will be taking place at the same time, in the same location, so that observers have full access to the process. We are currently building web pages that will be used to update the public on the status of the recounts, which will include precincts completed, updated tally (if any), total votes re-counted, information on the number of challenged ballots and live, streaming video of the recount process. You will be able to find these web pages by accessing our home page at ocvote.com.

We have pioneered the process of open and transparent recounts and these will be no exception. As a reminder the recounting of the ballots for both Fullerton and Los Alamitos will begin Monday, December 13th. Stay tuned to our newsfeeds for the latest information.

Public Notice of City of Fullerton Recount

December 2, 2010 - Pursuant to California Elections Code section 15628 the Orange County Registrar of Voters will be conducting a recount of the ballots cast in the General 2010 City of Fullerton, (full-term) City Council Election. The election was conducted on November 2, 2010 and was certified on November 22, 2010. The recount of ballots will begin at the Registrar of Voters office, 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, on Monday, December 13, 2010 beginning at 9 a.m.

Public Notice of City of Los Alamitos Recount

Pursuant to California Elections Code section 15628 the Orange County Registrar of Voters will be conducting a recount of the ballots cast in the General 2010 City of Los Alamitos City Council Election. The election was conducted on November 2, 2010 and was certified on November 22, 2010. The recount will commence at the Registrar of Voters office, 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, on Monday, December 13, 2010 beginning at 9 a.m.

Recount Updates

November 29, 2010 - Here are a couple of updates to the status of our recount requests:

The candidate for the Mesa Consolidated Water District, Short Term, Division 2 has withdrawn his request. The election certification stands and there will be no recount.

We received a request for a recount in the Fullerton city council contest, which did arrive prior to the deadline. The request asks for a recount of the ballots in the city council race. As noted in our previous newsfeed we also have a request for a recount of the Los Alamitos city council race.

We currently do not have a date or time for the start of these recounts as we are working with the parties in both races to finalize those details. Once we have a start time we will post an additional newsfeed and the required public notices.

Two Recount Requests Received

November 28, 2010 - Yesterday we received two recount requests, which were submitted prior to the five day deadline following our certification. The first is for the City of Los Alamitos city council contest. The difference between the two candidates is 24 votes. The total number of ballots cast in this race was 4,007.

The second request is for the Mesa Consolidated Water District Director, Division 2, Short Term. The difference between the two candidates is 66 votes. The total number of ballots cast in this race was 6,430.

Recounts are not uncommon in narrow contests. The start time of these two recounts has not been determined and will depend on various factors, such as scheduling, precincts requested, etc. Stay tuned to our newsfeeds for the latest up-to-the-minute news on these recounts.

Recount Information

November 22, 2010 - Whenever there are close contests, as there are up and down the state, there are always questions about how to request a recount. We thought we would post some helpful information.

Recount requests must be made within 5 calendar days of the official election certification. The deadline to request a recount for the November election (in Orange County) is Saturday, November 27, 2010. Any voter may file a request, which must be made in writing and can be sent via fax to 714-567-7556. The request must specify the contest to be recounted, must state on behalf of which candidate (or position or measure), may specify the order in which precincts are to be recounted and may specify any other relevant material to be examined.

There are costs associated with recounts, which average about $1,200 per day (depending on the scope of the recount).

Required Audits Completed Today

November 20, 2010 - At about 4 p.m. today we finished the required manually tally of 1% of all precincts within Orange County. This process involves tedious work - a manual review of 100% of the contests on most of these ballots (and a partial review of others). The audit boards are made up of four individuals each (we employed 22 of these four person teams) - one person calls the vote, two tally and one proofs and conducts quality control. The totals must match the results from our machine tallies. This important process ensures that our vote counts are correct.

Tomorrow we will finish piecing together the final Statement of Votes, which will be included with our official certification documents that we will submit to the Secretary of State on Monday.

Anatomy of a Ballot Path

November 18, 2010 - As we near the end of our complete ballot counting and subsequent election certification, we thought it would be helpful to explain how a single ballot can take longer to count than others.

For the sake of this example, we´ll use "Jane Doe´s" ballot, which was dropped off at a poll site on Election Day. Inside the envelope was a single ballot, instead of the two pages we mailed Jane. In addition, Jane´s ballot was torn in three pieces (we have heard "the dog ate my ballot" story before). Because we must count every ballot we work carefully to reconstruct the ballot, making sure the pieces are placed in the correct locations.

We attempt to scan the ballot, but it won´t scan due to the damage. This ballot is then headed for the duplication team, where Jane´s votes are transferred, by hand, to a blank piece of ballot stock, which is then proofed for the correct votes cast. The new ballot then heads back to our scanning team for processing.

Let´s go back to the beginning of the example - remember Jane only submitted a single page - leaving off votes for dozens of other races, including her local city council. We don´t take for granted that Jane did not send back a second ballot. Using the barcode from her original ballot, we now embark on a CSI style hunt for a second page - sifting through nearly one million pieces of paper looking for a possible second page. In this case we don´t find one - the final step in ensuring all of Jane´s votes were captured as she intended them to be cast.

Take this example and magnify it by thousands - this is when many people realize why the State of California allows 28 days to finish an election. All of this is done to make sure every single vote counts.

Coming in for a Landing

November 14, 2010 - We are down to less than 2,000 ballots left in Orange County. This means we have prepared, processed and tallied 893,532 ballots. For our vote-by-mail ballots we have processed 860,000 individual pieces of paper (a ballot for this election equaled two individual pieces of ballot stock). The final ballots are the last of our duplication efforts, which consist of ballots that will not scan, were damaged, or were cast on federal ballot stock (for those in the military of living overseas).

Audit Underway on Voting Booth Printouts

November 12, 2010 - Today our auditing process continued on the required review of 1% of the County´s precincts. These audits include a manual tally on the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail printers and vote-by-mail ballots. We have teams of individuals, working in groups of four, that are going through the rolls of printouts from voting booths. They look at the randomly selected precincts and contests and manually county the votes cast and then compare it to the vote tallies we produced on Election Night. Our quality control process includes a second layer of review, which verifies that the counts are correct. All of this must take place prior to our official certification of the election.

Strong Provisional Progress Today

November 11, 2010 - We worked through Veteran´s Day today processing provisional ballots and working on the required audits before we can certify. Member of our staff continued to research and verify every provisional ballot cast in the county. Today we were able to process nearly 7,500 provisional ballots. So far we have finished 32,091 of 44,800. Nearly 13,000 of these were from voters who were issued a vote-by-mail ballot but did not surrender it at their poll site and 18,500 were either out of their precinct, registered in another county or not registered at all.

We should be finished with the first round of provisional processing by Saturday. Those that need additional research will continue through Monday.

Closing in on Close Races

November 10, 2010 - There are several close races throughout Orange County at the moment, including Rancho Santa Margarita, Seal Beach, Laguna Hills and Los Alamitos city council races. Normally people do not see the daily changes in races that occur every election during our "canvas" process. In California election officials have 28 days to complete the counting of ballots following an election. Why 28 days? Because we are the most populous state in the nation we often have the most ballots cast in any statewide election. Accounting for every single ballot is a tedious process that takes time, which is what the canvas if designed for - a 100% accurate vote count.

Towards the end of the bulk of counting comes the "grains of sand" - this is where all of the pieces of the puzzle come together, such as damaged ballots that must be repaired, marked up ballots deciphered (yes, we receive numerous ballots where kids obviously got ahold of them), and duplicating military ballots that were marked on basic federal absentee forms. The canvas is critical and is what ensures every ballot, for every voter, is counted fairly and accurately.

We plan to complete this process long before the allowed November 30th deadline.

Ballot Estimates Are Estimates

November 10, 2010 - We are the only county in the state to provide detailed estimates by contest (such as a city or special district) of ballots left to count. We do this in order to provide as much information to candidates and the public about the approximate ballots left to count. These cannot be precise estimates for two very important reasons. The first is due to "orphan" ballots. Our ballot for November was a two page ballot. When we scan ballots many times there is only one ballot from a voter. After the bulk of scanning is done we must then search for the second page of these single ballots to make sure one wasn´t returned in a spouse´s envelope, at a poll site, or was separated during the scanning process. This involves searching for a needle in a haystack. We must pour through nearly 500,000 ballots looking for that missing ballot (if it was returned).

The second reason is due to paper ballots voted at poll sites. Until these ballots are machine counted there is no way to ensure a precise estimate (since these are not issued from our voter registration system). We must balance the voter rosters to match up to the ballots cast at poll sites, which takes time. This tedious and very necessary process takes place every election because we must account for every single ballot, down to the last needle in the stack.

Progress Today in Provisional Ballot Processing

November 9, 2010 - Our provisional ballot processing picked up today as we finished the second day of provisional ballots. As of this evening we have approximately 37,000 provisionals left to process. Provisional ballots take longer to process because we must research each individual ballot to make sure it is an eligible vote. The breakdown of the total ballots we added to the totals today are as follows:

4,723 electronic provisionals

3,185 vote-by-mail ballots

1,343 Election Day paper ballots and paper provisionals

Good Progress on Ballot Processing

November 7, 2010 - Even as this is being written on Sunday night our scanning team is busy processing the final vote-by-mail and paper ballots dropped off at poll sites on Tuesday. We are ahead of schedule and well ahead of our statutory deadline to finish (November 30th). The final ballots left to be counted (outside of provisional ballots) fall into the category of damaged and torn ballots. Every one of these ballots will be repaired and if they cannot be scanned they will be duplicated one at a time. Once the duplication takes place the ballot will be scanned and tabulated.

Provisional Processing Begins Monday

November 6, 2010 - As we approach the completion of our paper ballot processing we will begin to process provisional ballots on Monday morning. Provisional ballots are those ballots cast in poll sites if an individual is out of precinct, is not on the roster or is a vote-by-mail voter and did not surrender their vote-by-mail ballot. We will finish preparing all of these envelopes by tomorrow evening and will be ready to research each one starting Monday. Before the green light can be given to count the ballot research must take place to ensure that the voter was eligible to cast a ballot. We also will remove contests that a voter is not eligible to vote on (for example if an Anaheim resident, who works in Huntington Beach, voted at a Huntington Beach poll site, they would not be allowed to vote for Huntington Beach City Council).

Approaching Paper Ballot Completion

November 6, 2010 - Today we processed nearly 50,000 vote-by-mail and paper ballots cast at poll sites. We will continue to operate Sunday and late Monday evening to process the remaining (approximate) 80,000 paper ballots remaining. It is an approximate number until the precise machine counts have been completed - however our estimates are generally very close to the final counts. You can continue to track what is left to count by visiting our home page at ocvote.com and clicking "what´s left to count".

Scanning Volume Increasing

November 6, 2010 - Less than three days since the November 2nd election we have scanned over 100,000 ballots. These ballots are the result of heavy volume at poll sites (dropped off) and mailed in the days leading up to the election. Our breakdown for yesterday is 49,494 ballots scanned (from 4 p.m. Thursday to 4 p.m. Friday). We should have good volume through the weekend and we are planning to complete the paper ballot scanning by Monday evening. Remember - our exclusive updates will continue everyday at 5 p.m.

Updates At Five Continue

November 6, 2010 - We will continue with our exclusive daily updates during the weekend. We will post our 5 p.m. update today and Sunday as we continue to scan additional ballots throughout the weekend. Yesterday we updated ballots that included a mix of vote-by-mail ballots and paper ballots cast at poll sites. We have a few thousand ballots that need to be duplicated due to damaged ballots (yes, we receive quite a few with coffee spilt on the ballot) and those where marks in the barcode prevent scanning. We will continue to process these on Saturday and Sunday.

Update on Ballot Processing

November 5, 2010 - So where are we at on ballot processing? Actually we are ahead of schedule. Our volume of ballots swelled just before and during Election Day. Nearly 90,000 arrived from Saturday to Tuesday in the mail and 112,000 were dropped off at poll sites throughout Orange County. We have crews working throughout the weekend to keep up with the volume and are right on schedule to have the majority of ballots counted by the end of next week. More newsfeeds to come on specific types of ballot updates.

On Schedule

October 31, 2010 - Working long shifts in preparation for Election Day includes scanning ballots. So where are we at? We are ahead of our planned schedule, which puts us within 60,000 ballots of being fully caught up for Election Night. We have opened every ballot we have in-house (nearly 326,000) and have scanned 265,000 of these. Tomorrow´s mail will likely be heavy and we will work late to scan as much as possible (at full operation we can scan nearly 50,000 per day). At 8:05 p.m. on Election Night we will post all of the vote-by-mail ballots completed as of Tuesday afternoon. (Remember - we cannot tally any of these votes until 8 p.m. on Election Night).

Calling in Sick For An Election

October 31, 2010 - What happens when you call in sick for work? If you work for an airline they might have to cancel a flight, or a package shipper and they might have to delay a package delivery, or a cable company and they may have to postpone a service call. But what happens if you are in charge of a poll site and you call in sick? We must work feverishly to replace these individuals - because unlike the examples mentioned above we cannot close a poll site - they must open without exception. Add to this the fact that these are volunteers and it makes it even more difficult to replace them. Our teams are working tonight to replace these last minute cancellations, which is a difficult part of every election.

200,000 Ballots Ready and 29,000 Left to Open

October 30, 2010 - We have scanned and prepared nearly 200,000 ballots in preparation for tally on Election Night. Currently we have only 29,000 ballots left to open, which we are working on tonight and will continue tomorrow. This leaves about 125,000 ballots left to scan - and we are on track to have the majority of these prepared by Tuesday night. The unknown element at this point is how many ballots we will receive in the mail on Monday and Tuesday. In addition, large volumes of ballots dropped off at poll sites will add to the total ballots remaining. Nevertheless, we are well ahead of our production numbers at this same time prior to the election in June. We will continue to keep moving forward and work to increase our daily output.

Over 800 Boxes Picked Up Today

October 30, 2010 - Despite early morning rain we had a little over 800 poll site Inspectors picked up their election supply boxes today. We operated sites throughout Orange County, from San Juan Capistrano to Anaheim. It takes a lot of care to make sure the boxes remained dry, which is important because they are heavy and contain supplies for an entire poll site.

Poll workers used our new Poll Worker PASS card that they presented when they picked up their supplies - this card and their supplies are scanned and updated in real time in their online accounts.

Election Supply Delivery in the Rain

October 29, 2010 - Tomorrow we will be delivering nearly 1,000 election supply boxes to poll site Inspectors throughout Orange County. We conduct supply delivery during every election - the difference this time? Weather. Tomorrow´s forecast calls for rain and then showers. The problem with this is that all of our distribution takes place outdoors - from school parking lots, churches and our own parking lot in Santa Ana. We have been preparing today for inclement weather to make certain the supply boxes stay dry, which includes tarps to protect the boxes. Despite the expected rain we expect most Inspectors to pick up their supplies tomorrow.

Our Strong Returns Matches Statewide

October 29, 2010 - We have been flooded with vote-by-mail ballots since voting opened nearly four weeks ago. When compared to 2006 (at this point in time) we have 76,000 additional ballots in-house. This trend is also being seen throughout California. The top five counties throughout the state have higher than normal vote-by-mail returns and as of today here is the rundown of these counties:

1. Los Angeles - 379,000

2. Orange - 298,000

3. San Diego - 279,000

4. Santa Clara - 158,000

5. Riverside - 138,000

Public Notice of Random Draw

October 28, 2010 - Pursuant to California Election Code section 15360 (d) this serves as public notice that we will be conducting a random draw of 1% of our precincts to be used in a manual tally of votes cast. This manual tally is used to verify the electronic tally of our voting system and the vote-by-mail tally system. The random draw will occur on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. The manual tallies will follow the random draw and will take place until complete. Both processes are open to the public. Our office is located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, California.

Election Supply Pick-Ups Begin Tomorrow

October 26, 2010 - Our Inspectors (those in charge of a poll site) will have the opportunity to pick up their election supplies starting tomorrow. We are the only California county to offer options for our Inspectors to pick up their supplies early and via online reservations. Nearly 300 of these poll workers have already reserved a time to pick up their supplies, which include poll site rosters, signs, flags, pens, stickers, and more. This supply pick up will run through Sunday at our Linwood (Santa Ana) operations warehouse. Additional info can be found by visiting ocvote.com/supplies.

Truckload of Ballots Received Today

October 26, 2010 - A truckload of ballots arrived at our Santa Ana facility today in what is one of the largest returns of vote-by-mail ballots in a gubernatorial election. 40,096 ballots arrived amid heavier than normal returns to date. We are working late into the evening to process, open and scan these ballots. Our plans call for all vote-by-mail ballots received by Monday afternoon to be processed for Tuesday´s results. And no, we don´t know the results - votes are not tallied until 8 p.m. on Election Night.

Scanning Begins as Volume Stays Heavy

October 23, 2010 - We are in the process of scanning vote-by-mail ballots in preparation for the tally process (to take place Election Night). It is critical that we start this process early due to the increasing vote-by-mail volume. The amount of ballots coming into our office remains strong and in order to report the majority of vote-by-mail ballots on Election Night we need to scan ballots on a daily basis. We use six high speed scanners to scan (what will likely be) 250,000 ballots. New to this election is the addition of another resolving station for each scanner (which will allow us to look at ballots that need a manual decision at twice the speed as before).

Our vote-by-mail ballot totals will be posted at 8:05 p.m. on November 2nd.

Race to the Finish

October 23, 2010 - In a sprint to the finish we recruited 209 poll workers today for the November 2, 2010 General Election. As of yesterday we had recruited 5,100 for an election where we will need about 5,700. Recruitment went well as our online, student and other applications continued to pour in. Many of these individuals will be taking our online training while others will be attending training classes next week (that operate at various times everyday throughout Orange County).

3,000 Weekends and 1,000 Daily

October 20, 2010 - Requests for vote-by-mail ballots are running at all time highs for a gubernatorial election. In particular - online applications are flooding in to our office. Over the past weekend we received 3,000 requests and on average we are receiving 1,000 requests per day Monday through Friday. In addition we are receiving hundreds of requests daily made through voters´ sample ballots. Voters who request a vote-by-mail ballot can generally expect to see their requested ballot in 48 hours or less.

Live Webcast for Candidates Coming Soon

October 18, 2010 - We will be hosting a live webcast for candidates and other interested parties on our Election Day and Election Night operations. The purpose of the webcast is to provide information on how we process vote-by-mail ballots, how we stack up to other counties reporting schedules, background on our exclusive 30 minute results updates, our Election Night reporting schedule, our 24 hour updates post Election Night, how long certification will take and more. These are questions we receive every election from candidates and since we are the first of large urban counties to report every election we thought we would provide additional details on how this process works for interested parties.

The live webcast will be held on Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 4:30 p.m. Interested parties can R.S.V.P. at ocvote.com/rsvp or find additional information at ocvote.com/webcast.

Why Such Strong Turnout?

October 18, 2010 - We are a little surprised at the strong vote-by-mail turnout to date as compared to four years ago, but there could be some rational explanations for it. But first, the numbers:

* At 20 days prior to Election Day in 2006 we had 14,044 and now we have 17,390

* At 19 days prior to Election Day in 2006 we had 4,450 and now we have 10,210

* At 18 days prior to Election Day in 2006 we had 6,667 and now we have 9,653

* At 15 days prior to Election Day in 2006 we had 13,390 and now we have 19,070

So to date in 2006 we had 38,551 and now we have 60,009. But keep in mind we have nearly 100,000 more vote-by-mail voters than in 2006 and we have a much more efficient process of mailing, which puts vote-by-mail ballots in the mail sooner (which could account for some of the strong returns earlier). Either way we are seeing strong vote-by-mail returns.

4,173 Voting Booths Ready to Go

October 17, 2010 - As Election Day approaches our need to have voting booths ready for delivery increases. With nearly 10,000 voting booths in our inventory preparing these for Election Day takes time. We are currently running two production lines - each line capable of processing about 50 booths apiece per hour. This phase includes installation of a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail printer, security seals and testing. On Saturday we prepared 852 booths. Deliveries will begin around October 22nd.

Digital Government Achievement Award

October 16, 2010 - Our office was just awarded the Digital Government Achievement Award (DGAA) for our website. The competition, which recognizes usability, visual design and functionality, is competitive and receives entries from numerous United States and international government agencies.

The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. The Digital Government Achievement Awards recognize outstanding agency and department websites and projects at the application and infrastructure level.

Election Assistance Commission Testimony

October 15, 2010 - Yesterday Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, testified before the U.S. Election Assistance Commission at a regional hearing held in Pasadena. He provided information on plans for the upcoming November election. In addition, he walked Commissioners through all of the outreach efforts Orange County uses to inform voters and stakeholders during election cycles.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission charged with developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration.

The four EAC commissioners are appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Single Stamp Required for Ballot Return

September 14, 2010 - Some counties in California have ballots that are three pages or more, requiring additional postage. In Orange County (with a small exception) we only have a two page ballot, which is not on card stock. This makes our ballots weigh less than one ounce, only requiring a single stamp. (A small group of language ballots are three pages but voters have received notice of the extra weight).

Slowly Picking Up

October 12, 2010 - With just three weeks to go to Election Day things are starting to get a little busier in our lobby. The lobby is a good indicator of voting countywide. We see increases in our lobby (in much smaller numbers, but the same ratios) at the same time our phone volume continues to rise. It stands to reason - as the election approaches and interest intensifies, so does voting. Here is an example of this:

On Friday we had 15 voters and today we had 47 in our lobby that voted a ballot. In contrast we had just under 300 ballots received in the mail Friday and today we received nearly 9,000.

Stay tuned.

Ballot Arrivals

October 9, 2010 - We received our first ballots in the mail yesterday afternoon for the November 2, 2010 General Election. We received a total of 238. Yesterday was the first day we would begin receiving these ballots since they were just mailed out Wednesday evening. We are the only County in California that provides detailed, online tracking of incoming ballots. Plus this year we have added a new feature - the ability to track these returns by political party (which can be sorted by contest). We´ll provide more details on this in future newsfeeds (including a press release coming next week).

You can track all of our ballot returns by clicking here or visiting our home page at ocvote.com and clicking ""Vote-by-Mail Ballot Tracking".

Ballot Extractors to be Installed

October 9, 2010 - Late this week we received delivery of two ballot extraction devices that are ready for installation. As we continue our plans for increased automation, these extractors will serve to improve our processing efficiencies. We looked to the utility industry, such as Southern California Edison, AT&T and Southern California Gas, for methods of high speed document extraction equipment. These machines are the same type used to "pull out" bills and checks that are sent in to utilities.

This should shorten our window of opening and preparing ballots for scanning and reduce our overall costs to manually pull these ballots out. Installation and testing is scheduled for next week.

Third Year of MyBallot Program Success

October 7, 2010 - Our MyBallot program, unique among student election programs, was created by our office in 2008. The program combines the history of voting, ballot creation and production, vote tally and more. Students are involved in this process from start to finish - which culminates in us conducting their homecoming or ASB election. High school students get the opportunity to vote on the same voting booths used in regular elections - exposing them to the voting process.

Today we conducted elections at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove and Loara High School in Anaheim. We recruited 300 students from each high school to work the November election. While not everyone of these students will be eligible or able to work these leads will be useful in increasing our poll site staffing.

Language Sample Ballots Available

October 7, 2010 - Our translated sample ballots have been on our website since late last week. We translate every sample ballot from English to Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese. This is required under federal law and these materials are available for those registered voters who request these materials (which are provided in both English and their requested language).

Candidates who are interested in the translation of their candidate statements, or voters who wish to review their sample ballot in advance of receiving it in the mail, can view sample ballots by clicking here (or by visiting ocvote.com/november).

Sample Ballot Coverage

October 6, 2010 - Prior to releasing our vote-by-mail ballots today we collected data from around the County confirming delivery of sample ballots. In all cities (with the exception of La Habra) we were able to communicate with voters and verified that our sample ballots had reached their mailboxes. This is important so that voters do not receive their ballots before their sample ballots arrive.

Of course we can never verify the delivery of 1.6 million sample ballots and there will be some that arrive slightly later than ballots. If this occurs voters can visit our website to view their sample ballot - the web address is ocvote.com/november.

Vote-by-Mail Ballots in the Mail

October 6, 2010 - Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters, has just released nearly 600,000 vote-by-mail ballots for mail delivery.

These ballots, which make up the total permanent vote-by-mail ballot voters and mail ballot precinct voters, are being loaded onto three large trucks for delivery.

These ballots will begin to arrive tomorrow and voters will have until 8 p.m. November 2nd to have them in our office. Our advice is to mail them before Saturday, October 30th to ensure arrival (or drop them off at their poll site). Post marks do not count (they must be physically in our office).

Phone Volume Picks Up

October 5, 2010 - Our incoming call volume is picking up as we continue to move closer to the November election. Yesterday our public phone bank fielded 566 phone calls from the public. Many of their questions revolves around making sure they are registered to vote, or asking about information they are reading in their sample ballot. In addition, some are calling to request a vote-by-mail ballot or to ask where their poll site is located.

In addition to answering their questions we also let voters know that all of this information is located on our website - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Official Start to Voting

October 4, 2010 - Although our planning for the 2010 November General Election began nearly a year ago, the official start of casting a ballot began today for Orange County voters. Vote-by-mail voting started today across California and our lobby opened for those voters wishing to obtain (or vote) a vote-by-mail ballot. So how many voted today? 31 individuals were issued ballots over the counter. Does not seem like a lot in a County of 1.6 million voters but this is 25 more than in June at the start of voting.

As for the 550,000 vote-by-mail ballots we have ready to mail? They will be in the mail later this week once we have confirmed delivery of the majority of sample ballots.

Sample Ballots Begin Arriving Today

September 29, 2010 - Voters will begin to see sample ballots in their mail boxes this afternoon. We have been mailing hundreds of thousands across the County in the last 24 hours. This mailing process will continue for the next three or four days. Voters who are on file as a permanent vote-by-mail voter will see a message on the back of their sample ballot letting them know that their vote-by-mail ballot will be arriving shortly. Those who are not will have the option to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot or visit their poll site on Election Day.

Heat Effects on Ballot Preparation

September 27, 2010 - As is the case across Southern California we have had to cope with extreme heat as we prepare for the election. Specifically the insertion and preparation of vote-by-mail ballots. As the temperature rises the internal heat in our equipment also climbs. One of our outbound ballot sorting machines operates in our warehouse, which is in an uncooled portion of our building.

This equipment can operate under high temperature tolerances and is designed to work in hot environments. However, because we use high temperature quartz lamps to capture digital images of outbound vote-by-mail ballot envelopes, we must provide extra cooling during heat waves. This can slow down our sorting process as we prepare our mailings for the lowest cost postage.

Despite these challenges we are still well ahead of schedule and will begin mailing these ballots during the week of October 4th

Military Voter Uses New Portal

September 27, 2010 - Within hours of the launch of our military portal a member of the armed forces and his spouse were able to access and use our new web tool. Concerned their ballot would not arrive due to an address change our Overseas and Military Program staff member was able to direct this voter to our new site. He was able to verify his military voter registration and then downloaded and voted his ballot - with just a few simple clicks.

His first ballot issued is automatically voided once he casts his new ballot. This new service is the first of its kind at the local elections level and we are proud to offer this new service for our overseas and military voters, which nearly passes 6,000 total voters.

For details on this new service click here or visit ocvote.com/overseas.

New Record Set For Ballot Production

September 25, 2010 - Yesterday we hit another milestone in our Department. Our vote-by-mail production crew inserted an all-time record number of ballots in a single day:101,795.

This is an incredible achievement given that when we first began this process in 2004 a "good day" was 20,000. Then when we added a second inserter a few years ago a "great day" was 50,000.

Now we have doubled that production. The process includes insertion of a precinct specific ballot, voter instructions, return envelope and outer envelope with voter address applied. These are then packaged, shrink wrapped and pallatized - essentially "mail ready". We will begin mailing over 600,000 ballots the week of October 4th.

New Help For Our Military and Overseas Voters

September 25, 2010 - Last night we launched the newest addition to our website - a web portal for military and overseas voters. After months of design, programming and development, we proudly launched the only full-service military and overseas voter assistance center at the local level.

In 2008 national news reported across the country that men and women of the armed forces did not receive their ballots in time. As a result, Congress passed the Move Act, an amendment to the existing federal laws that govern military and overseas voting.

We have incorporated full compliance with the Move Act and more. Now these voters can check their registration, register to vote (using simple wizards to guide them through the process), and provide a secure email address for ballot delivery.

But the best part of this new website is that these voters can now go online and download their specific precinct ballot, print it out, vote it and return it using our ballot creation wizard and return envelope template.

You can view these pages by clicking here or visiting ocvote.com/overseas.

November Election Phone Bank Opens

September 20, 2010 - Tomorrow we will switch our incoming calls to our phone bank operations for the November General Election. We have two dozen agents that recently started with us trained to handle incoming voter calls. These agents will be handling upwards of thousands of calls per day as the election approaches. Common questions include poll site location inquiries, checking to see if a voter is registered and the location of a vote-by-mail ballot.

The unique thing about all of these questions is that in the past few years we have built functionality into our website that will allow voters to find the answers to all of these questions. If voters need to call our office for help the telephone number is 714-567-7600 (press option "0" to speak to a live agent). The hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Poll SIte Lock Down

September 19, 2010 - Tomorrow we will lock down the final poll sites for the November General Election. While the majority of poll sites will be the same from the June Primary Election, we are adding additional poll sites in certain areas of the County. These additional sites require detailed attention from our Election Services staff, who are working hard to find suitable sites. Once we finalize these sites we will then begin preparing the voter files, which will be used to address the sample ballots. We will have approximately 1,250 sites throughout the County on November 2nd.

June Survey Results Released

September 17, 2010 - Today we released the results of our extensive survey data from the 2010 June Primary Election. We use detailed data in order to improve our operations from election to election. We began using research broadly beginning with the May 2009 Special Election. We comb through all of the responses (over 3,000 in total) in order to fine tune our operations and make adjustments where needed. These surveys are obtained from voters and poll workers.

The complete details, including links to the report and press kit, can be found by clicking here or visiting ocvote.com/stayconnected.

Military and Overseas Ballots Mailed

September 17, 2010 - We met all required deadlines by mailing out military and overseas ballots. Federal law requires that ballots are mailed prior to 45 days before an election. In addition to military voters serving overseas and domestically, these ballots include civilians living permanently or temporarily overseas.

Included in the ballots we sent is an insert informing these voters of our new military and overseas web portal. This voting assistance center will be the first of its kind in the State. It will allow these voters to download their ballot (specific to their precinct), print a return envelope template, provide a secure email for communication, check registration, submit federal registration documents and more.

We have had this portal in development for several months and we are proud to be going live next Friday, September 24th. The site will be located at www.ocvote.com/overseas.

Registrar of Voters Wins Savvy Award

September 17, 2010 - Our office was just awarded the Award of Excellence in the 2010 Savvy Awards. We received the award for our Poll Worker Training Video, which we produced for the 2010 June Primary Election. This DVD is provided to all poll workers as an enhancement to training and is also available online. We will use the same video for our 2010 November General Election training.

Each year the City / County Communications and Marketing Association Savvy Awards honor government agencies for excellence in communication programs for citizens. The program reflects the growing quality of government communications, as more and more local governments and agencies embrace and employ the concepts of enhanced marketing and communication efforts.

Advisory Group Meets

September 16, 2010 - Today our diverse election advisory group met at our offices. This group, known as the Orange County Registrar of Voters Community Election Working Group (CEW), is made up of advocates from across Orange County who are interested in elections. Our members represent groups advocating on behalf of language assistance, disabled voting access, military and veteran affairs, education, city government and more. We focused on numerous details surrounding the upcoming November election. Full details can be found at ocvote.com/cew or by clicking here.

Identifying November Election

September 9, 2010 - Since 2005 we have been producing custom designed logos, which provide an easy way to identify each election. We do this for a couple of reasons. This provides a unified communication tool for our poll workers, which is applied to all of our poll worker election materials (such as training materials, supply boxes, etc.). In addition, we produce lapel pins, which have become collector items for poll workers and is worn as a source of pride as a volunteer for the election. We also apply these logos to sample ballots. Our logo for the November election includes an image of the State Capitol combined with an orange tree.

New Twists On Election Training

September 8, 2010 - More poll workers prefer online training - which makes sense as the use of technology consumes many aspects of our daily lives. Despite this there are still a large number of poll workers who prefer in-person training. We now offer both as an option (online training was only available to experienced poll workers in June) to all Clerks. Inspectors, those in charge of a poll site, must still attend hands-on training.

In preparation for our in-class training we have been training our instructors. This training began Friday and will continue through October 1st. Our poll worker classes begin October 4th and will operate through Monday, November 1st.

Whether you prefer in-class or online training volunteering is easy and we are ready to assist you - click here to volunteer to work on November 2nd!

New Poll Worker Webinars

September 7, 2010 - We have expanded our unique free election webinars. These interactive webinars, featuring instructors in a live broadcast, provide detailed information on Orange County elections. Now these webinars include a broad offering for our hard working, volunteer poll workers.

Our new line-up of webinars include such topics as "Election Morning", "Early Poll Site Set Up", "How to be a Poll Site Inspector" and more. In an effort to provide opportunities for all poll workers we offer these webinars at different times - including morning, noon and evening sessions.

Technical requirements are few and can generally be viewed on any office or home computer. Visitors will have the opportunity to type or ask questions during the sessions. To sign up, check dates and times, or simply get additional information - click here.

Why The Numbers Change

September 7, 2010 - We post our current registration figures every Monday. Followers of this data will notice changes in the numbers of registered voters from week to week as new voters are added. Sometimes the numbers will move lower - this is due to efforts employed to keep the voter lists as up-to-date as possible. 90 days before any election we begin the process of sending a National Change of Address card, which is used to verify the address of voters who have not voted recently (or for mail we receive as undeliverable).

This week we posted a number of changes to our voter database which includes the following:

* 6,893 voters were made inactive (meaning they have not responded to our notifications to verify their address)

* 10,000 postcards were printed and mailed to verify change of addresses

* 640 voters were cancelled (mostly due to verified movement out of Orange County)

* 2,240 new voters were added

This type of activity will increase as the November election approaches.

Proofing A 500 Page Novel

August 24, 2010 - Imagine this - proofing a 500 page novel in less than five weeks. Your goal is to look for every misplaced word, errant comma, incorrect spellings, names and more. That is what we are faced with as we prepare to print our sample ballots.

We have over 2,000 documents to proof (adding up to about 500 novel sized pages), which include candidate statements, filler pages and covers. These documents must be proofed and then translated and proofed again. As we have noted in previous newsfeeds, our procedure has changed over the last few years - from a simple proofing method to a complex, multi-layered and detailed process - designed to reduce errors.

When your sample ballot arrives in the mail in about a month you can be assured it has been through a rigorous process designed to make the pamphlet as accurate as possible

Keeping Our Voter Lists Up-to-Date

August 22, 2010 - It is known in elections that we must "chase voters" because they don´t chase us. What we mean by this is that when voters move they don´t immediately think of notifying our office. It makes sense that they focus on making sure their bank statements, bills, critical documents, etc. are sent to their new address.

In recent years we have implemented many new improvements designed to keep our voter rolls as clean as possible. This includes increasing the frequency of sending a National Change of Address Card (known as NCOA) to voters who have not been active. Required by statute, this is designed to make sure we have an accurate address on file.

We have processed our files in preparation for the November General Election and we have a total of 31,618 changes - 21,810 are within Orange County and 9,808 are outside of the County (indicating these individuals have moved out of Orange County).

Record Candidates Plus Record Statements

August 20, 2010 - November is quickly shaping up to be a record for a number of reasons. We will be hitting a near record number of candidates running for offices across Orange County. Most of these candidates have filed candidate statements, which requires an enormously complex proofing and tracking process. The number of candidate statements adds up to this: For elected offices filed with us (such as school districts, special districts, Countywide offices, etc.) we have processed 183 candidate statements. The cities have accepted 203 statements for a total of 386. How does this compare with 2008? It is up by 89 statements.

Draws Done Today - Candidate Order Set

August 12, 2010 - The Secretary of State conducted their random draw of letters today, which determines the order of names on the ballot. We also conducted our own random draw today for those candidates in contests in Orange County as well as neighboring counties. Those contests are the 38th State Senate District and the 56th, 60th, 71st and 73rd State Assembly Districts.

Many people think the order of candidates on the ballot never changes. This is true, once set, for local candidates (such as city council contests). However, candidate names rotate on the ballot based on their location and if they are in Countywide contests (or cross Assembly District boundaries).

We will have more posts in the future on how rotation works and what voters can expect to see on their ballots.

In the meantime, you can access the random draw conducted by the Secretary of State or our County random draw by clicking here.

Extended Filing Period Ends

August 11, 2010 - This evening the extended filing period ended for those contests where the incumbent did not file for re-election. It happens every election - there are elected officials who retire or simply choose not to run for re-election. Why does the filing extend? To give members of the public an opportunity to run for an office that they may not have otherwise considered if the incumbent chose to run again.

Our office was busy this afternoon while many individuals took advantage of the opportunity to run for an elected position. Up next is the public review period for these extended offices, which is an opportunity for the public to review the candidate statements and ballot designations.

You can view our complete candidate log by clicking here or visiting ocvote.com and click "Election Info".

Letters Set for November Ballot

August 9, 2010 - Late this afternoon Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, assigned the letters that will be used by cities and schools for their November ballot measures. This process allows proponents and opponents of the measures to campaign using the letters as identifiers. In addition, it gives voters an easy way to identify the items once they see them in their sample ballots and official ballots.

We sent a press release out on the assigned letters but we thought it would also be helpful to send a newsfeed out to those who do not subscribe to our press release feed. The assigned letters are listed below:

Schools

G Anaheim City School District Bond Measure

H Capistrano Unified School District Trustee Area Measure

I Magnolia School District Measure

Cities

J Anaheim Design-Build Measure

K Anaheim Red Light Camera Measure

L Costa Mesa Transient Occupancy Tax Measure

M Fullerton Term Limits Measure

N Huntington Beach Charter Amendments Measure

O Huntington Beach Charter Amendment 617 Measure

P Huntington Beach Utility User´s Tax Measure

Q Huntington Beach Wireless Communications Measure

R Irvine School Support Initiative

S Irvine Sustainability Community Initiative

T Laguna Hills Term Limits Measure

U La Palma Utility Users Tax Amendment Measure

V Newport Beach Charter Amendments Measure

W Placentia User´s Tax Measure

X Tustin Appointive City Clerk Measure

Y Yorba Linda Ethics Measure

Z Yorba Linda Affordable Housing Measure

AA Westminster Fireworks Measure

Public Review Underway

August 8, 2010 - Now that candidate filing has ended the public review period has begun. So what is the public review period? This is an opportunity for the public to review the documents that have been filed for items that will be on the ballot in November. This includes candidate statements, ballot designations, Countywide measure text, measure arguments, etc. This period runs from August 7, 2010 through August 16, 2010. If a challenge were to be raised against any of these documents by a member of the public it must be done so during the public review period.

You can find all of these documents (for those contests where our office is the filing officer) on our website at ocvote.com and click "Election Info" or click here. If you are looking for documents associated with contests filed with your local city check your city´s website.

Green Light For November Election

August 6, 2010 - Today at 5:00 p.m. candidate filing closed for the November 2nd General Election. This included the close of candidate filing for local cities as well as school districts, countywide, state and federal contests. In addition today was the deadline for ballot measures to be placed on the ballot. There will be 21 local measures and 10 state propositions (Proposition 18 through 27) on the ballot.

We filed and processed a total of 255 candidates, which include 160 school district and 95 special district candidates. The majority of these candidates filed candidate statements, which can be viewed on our website (visit ocvote.com and click on "Election Info"). We will complete the review and final qualification of these candidates tomorrow.