Updated Statement Regarding November 8, 2024 Security Camera Video Footage of an Orange County Registrar of Voters Employee Scanning a Batch of Ballots Three Times – January 17, 2025 at 3 p.m.
This updated statement includes links to evidentiary documents that were not immediately available remotely to Registrar of Voters Bob Page on the prior night.
A video posted by JoeHoft.com1 and subsequently shared by others online shows an Orange County election worker scanning a batch of ballots three times during the 2024 Presidential General Election. However, the employee only saved the batch of ballots once. Therefore, the votes were only included in the results once.
The employee scanned the batch of ballots twice and then cleaned the scanner before scanning the batch of ballots a third time because during the first two scans some of the ballots were rejected by the scanner. Given the large number of vote-by-mail ballots we scan during an election, Registrar of Voters employees must regularly clean the scanners.2
At the 1:25 mark of the video Mr. Hoft posted following the employee’s third scan of the batch of ballots, a batch report is printed from the printer at the end of the table. The employee then attached the batch report to the top of the batch of ballots. The employee did not print the batch report the first two times the employee scanned the batch of ballots, indicating she did not save those scans.
Copies of the batch reports3 produced at this workstation during the time shown in this video demonstrate that each batch included a different set of precincts. If the batch of ballots this employee scanned three times had been saved three times, these batch reports would show ballots from the same precincts scanned in the same order. The audit log for this workstation shows that the first two scans of the ballots were discarded (not saved).4
Orange County Registrar of Voters Integrity Measures
The Orange County Registrar of Voters completes quality checks and audits to ensure ballots are only counted once and accurately, including:
- Other Orange County election workers later quality checked the batch of ballots in this video two additional times, making sure the ballots in the batch matched the information printed on the report. We do not upload any batch of ballots into the tally until these two reviews are completed.5
- Before Registrar of Voters Bob Page certified the results of the 2024 Presidential General Election, the Registrar of Voters team audited the results of each of the 171 contests on the ballot. The audit was conducted by randomly selecting one percent of the precincts in the county (23) and then selecting additional precincts (62) until every contest was included. Then four-person audit teams hand counted every ballot in those selected precincts. The audit teams hand counted approximately 40,000 ballots for this election. These hand-counted results were compared to the voting system tally, finding that the results of each contest were correct.6
Links to Documents Cited in Updated Statement
- The video posted on JoeHoft.com.
- To review the scan room procedure and checklist, click the following links:
- To review the copies of the batch reports from this scan room workstation during the time of the video footage, click the following links:
Batch Summary Report for 11/8/2024
Batch Report – 11/8/2024 5:08:11 PM
Batch Report – 11/8/2024 6:07:19 PM
Batch Report – 11/8/2024 6:18:41 PM
Precinct Key (To see the city or community for each precinct)
The timestamps of the batch reports and the timestamps on the security camera video footage will not align exactly as the ballot scanners are not connected to the internet or any other network so the clocks on the scanners are not synchronized with the security camera system.
The Orange County Registrar of Voters cannot produce the original batch report and batch of ballots from the security camera video footage as California Elections Code section 17301 mandates that these ballots be preserved, unopened and unaltered, for 22 months. The ballots can only be accessed with a court order as part of a criminal prosecution or an election contest litigation.
- To review a copy of the audit log report for this scan room workstation covering the period of the three ballot batches above, click here to view the audit log.
Rows 2838 and 3212 show that the first two scans of the ballots were discarded (not saved).
In order to protect the safety of the employee shown in the video, the employee’s username has been redacted from the audit log report.
The identity of this election worker is exempt from disclosure pursuant to Government Code sections 7922.000, 7927.705, and Article I, Section 1 of the California Constitution. Election workers are at a heightened risk of harassment, threats, and acts of violence, as evidenced by the statutory protections afforded to election workers. See Elec. Code §§ 2166.8, 18502; Gov’t. Code § 6215.
Also, the election ID, device serial number, and event details have been redacted at the direction of the California Secretary of State, which certifies the voting system equipment and how it is used. That direction is:
Because the logs contain proprietary software details and sensitive voter/user information, disclosure of this information presents unacceptable security risks, and they are protected under privileges and exemptions and are exempt from release. (See California Constitution, Article II, Section 7; Gov. Code §§ 7922.000, 7927.705, 7929.210, and 7930.205; Elec. Code §§ 2300, 17600(b, 19214; Evid. Code § 1060).)
- To review the Registrar of Voters forms used to quality check these scanned ballot batches, click the following link:
- To review information about these audits on the Registrar of Voters website, click on the following link – ocvote.gov/audit.
Initial Response Provided to The Gateway Pundit and JoeHoft.com on January 16, 2025 at 9:45 p.m.
This was provided in response to an email from The Gateway Pundit sent to the media support email account of the Orange County Registrar of Voters after the close of business on January 16, 2025 at 6:20 p.m. and is based solely on Registrar of Voters Bob Page’s remote review of the security camera video posted by Joe Hoft.
Thank you for forwarding the link to this video posted by Joe Hoft on his website and providing me an opportunity to share with you what the video shows.
In his post, Joe Hoft stated: "We don’t know if there is a legitimate reason for the worker’s actions."
The answer is "Yes." This video shows an Orange County election worker scanning a batch of ballots three times, but only saving the batch once.
This is shown at the 1:25 mark of the video Mr. Hoft posted when following her third scan of the batch of ballots, a batch report printed from the printer at the end of the table, which she then attached to the top of the batch of ballots. This batch report did not print the first two times she scanned the batch of ballots, meaning she did not save those scans.
She likely scanned the batch of ballots twice and then cleaned the scanner before scanning the batch of ballots a third time because during the first two scans some of the ballots were rejected by the scanner. Given the large number of vote-by-mail ballots we must scan during an election, we must regularly clean the scanners.
We complete quality checks and audits to ensure ballots are only counted once and accurately, including:
- Other Orange County election workers later quality checked the batch of ballots in this video two additional times, making sure the ballots in the batch matched the information printed on the report. We do not upload any batch of ballots into the tally until these two reviews are completed.
- Before I certified the results of the election, we audited the results of each of the 171 contests on the ballot. The audit was conducted by randomly selecting one percent of the precincts in the county (23) and then selecting additional precincts (62) until every contest was included. Then four-person audit teams hand counted every ballot in those selected precincts. Our audit teams hand counted about 40,000 ballots for this election. These hand-counted results were compared to the voting system tally, finding that the results of each contest was correct. You can review information about these audits on our website at ocvote.gov/audit.