With just about a month to go until Election Day, Orange County election officials are expecting vote counting speeds to continue improving despite the long ballots voters will find in their mailboxes next week.
Ballots for Orange County voters — of which there are more than 1.9 million — will be picked up by the U.S. Postal Service on Saturday morning, Oct. 3, from the registrar of voters’ Santa Ana office, Registrar Bob Page said during a media briefing Wednesday. A livestream of the pickup will be available on the election office’s website, Page said.
That means ballots will begin to be delivered on Monday, Page said.
This year, voters will be receiving one of 549 “unique ballot styles” that have been printed. While most will receive a 17-inch-long, two-sheet ballot, some voters will receive a three-sheet ballot, depending on local races and a voter’s preferred languages, Page said.
Related: Life of a ballot: How Orange County’s votes are counted, verified and stored
Overall, Orange County voters will get to decide on a total of 430 candidates in 169 local, state and federal races. Additionally, 14 statewide propositions, 13 city-specific measures and two school district bond measures will appear on ballots, Page said.
Vote-counting speeds have improved after each election cycle dating back to 2018 — and the expectation is for that trend to continue this November, Page said.
This is in part because of the upgrades to facilities and equipment that were made over the past month, thanks to a $3.2 million allotment of state funds the county election office received in late August, Page said.
As part of the $350 billion budget deal inked in late June, California lawmakers earmarked $40 million to speed up vote counting this election.
Of the $3.2 million his office received, Page said most of that money — more than $2.75 million — was spent expanding the office’s ballot processing space, buying new equipment and hiring additional temporary staff ahead of the election.
The remaining amount, a little over $477,000, was used to conduct voter education and outreach, Page said.
Following this past primary election in June, results from about 96.6% of accepted ballots were counted within a week after Election Day. By comparison, during the 2018 primary election, results of at least 95% of accepted ballots were not published until the two-week mark post-Election Day.
“That’s the proof in the pudding,” Page said. “We’ve cut the time in half of how long it takes to get at least 95% of the ballots in the count.”
This year — as in years past — voters have four options to cast their ballots.
Once received in the mail, voters can fill out their ballot and return it by mail, place it in any one of the 128 drop boxes stationed across Orange County, drop off the completed ballot at any one of the 192 vote centers that will open in late October, or vote in person at a vote center.
For those who wish to vote in person, Page said voters can bring their ballot with them to any one of the county’s vote centers to cast it. Voters can also check in with election staff, who can issue a replacement ballot to those who need one and haven’t already voted.
Drop boxes will open on Oct. 2. Page touted their security and integrity, as the large boxes are made of steel and bolted into the concrete. Each one is individually keyed, Page said, meaning there is no master key that could open all of them or one key that could open multiple boxes.
Furthermore, Page said, two election workers are required to be present every time a drop box is opened, and its ballots are transferred.
Of the 192 vote centers that will be available to Orange County voters come Election Day, 39 of them will open Oct. 24, 11 days ahead of Nov. 3, while the remaining 152 will open on Oct. 31. One vote center will open on Election Day itself, at UC Irvine’s Verano Place Community Center, Page said.
Vote centers will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Oct. 24 through Nov. 2, but hours will extend from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. Additionally, election workers will hold five pop-up voting events across the county in the week leading up to Election Day, he said.
Visit ocvote.gov/voting to find more information about ways to cast a ballot.