SANTA ANA, Calif.—Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page and other officials reassured the public Tuesday that multiple steps have been taken to protect the security of votes ahead of next week’s election.
As Page has done before the last few elections, he led reporters on a tour of his office’s headquarters to explain everything being done to guard against potential cheating and sabotage. It comes as dozens of residents regularly attend Orange County Board of Supervisors meetings voicing concerns about election security.
One issue that has cropped up in this election is the fire-bombing of drop-off ballot boxes in Arizona and Washington. Page told reporters that Orange County’s 123 drop boxes contain a fire-suppression chemical that will douse any incendiary device even if a saboteur manages to slip it into a “very narrow” slot.
“We try to address every scenario,” he said.
If some ballots do get damaged, his office will do everything possible to reach out publicly to find the voters affected so they can cast their vote again correctly, Page said.
The registrar sends out post cards as well as an electronic newsletter to combat misinformation. This year, his office has partnered with others on social media videos explaining the voting and tabulating processes.
Most election fraud involves the circulating of nominating petitions, according to Assistant District Attorney Keith Bogardus. Page noted that there have been no prosecutions of anyone trying to vote multiple times or impersonating other voters since he took the job as registrar, and since 2018, audits of election results have confirmed those results, he added.
About 85 percent of the county’s voters will cast a ballot by mail, Page said. Because of the high and growing volume of vote-by-mail ballots, Page convinced the Orange County Board of Supervisors to spend about $4 million expanding his office’s ability to count and process the votes.
The office had two sorters in 2022 and now has four, Page said. The office also doubled the number of machines to extract votes from mail-ballots from eight to 16.
About 430,000 votes in Orange County have been cast so far in this election since early voting began Oct. 7, Page said.
The votes are downloaded onto thumb drives that are delivered back to the Registrar’s Office, and the only time the office goes online is to put the results on its web page, Page said.
“The results are always secure,” Page said.
A team of employees goes over signatures on vote-by-mail ballots to match them with public records and a team of three is responsible for deciding if a signature should be challenged. In those cases, the voter is contacted and asked to sign a new affidavit.
The office also offers an application so the signature verification can be done electronically, Page said.
The employees also go over each ballot to ensure they can go through machines that scan and count them. If someone spilled coffee on a ballot or used a pencil instead of a required black-ink pen, the ballot is duplicated so it can be run through the machine.
State Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), who represents portions of San Diego and south Orange counties and chairs the Elections and Constitutional Amendments committee, tagged along for the tour Tuesday and declared that it made her more confident.
“Seeing this great work today gives me confidence in our elections,” Blakespear said. “It gives me confidence as an individual and as a public official.”
She encouraged concerned residents to come down to the Registrar’s Office to see for themselves instead of relying on social media or other less-informed sources.
Bogardus assured the public that all allegations of elections fraud will be treated seriously and fully investigated.
“We take every allegation seriously,” Bogardus said.
An election fraud hotline was set up at 657-707-4048. Complaints may also be emailed to 2024.elections@ocdapa.org.
But Bogardus said voter fraud is not common.
“Voters can have confidence this election is secure and their voices will be heard,” he said.
By Paul Anderson
