NewsClicks

August 22, 2016 - In our third partnership with the national organization, Rock the Vote, we will be hosting a special concert on the beach Saturday, September 17th at noon as a part of our "Surf the Vote" event. The concert features Orange County band Bristol to Memory, which has donated their time to get the message out about the upcoming November general election. The concert is free and will take place at Aliso Creek Beach, 31131 S.

August 21, 2016 - We are currently at 390 ballot types. What's a ballot type? These are the unique ballot "styles" that will be found throughout Orange County for the November 8th General Election. Depending on where you live will determine your ballot type - for instance you may have specific contests on your ballot (such as city council, school district, water district and special districts) while your friend in another city will have a ballot that looks completely different.

August 18, 2016 - For every election a random draw of letters is conducted, which is then used to determine the order that candidates will be listed on the ballot. Today a random draw was conducted by the Secretary of State - here's the order:

1. O, 2. K, 3. W, 4. Q, 5. V, 6. S, 7. D, 8. R, 9. N, 10. H, 11. U, 12. E, 13. X, 14. A, 15. P, 16. I, 17. Z, 18. C, 19. G, 20. L, 21. F, 22. Y, 23. T, 24. M, 25. B, 26. J

August 15, 2016 - Friday was the deadline for cities, school districts, special districts, and other jurisdictions to decide if they wanted to place a measure or item on the November 8th ballot.  We have a record number of measures for a general election (33 in fact - this does not include state propositions, which total 17). Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley assigns the letters (generally starting with the last letter used in the previous election) - in this case "I" was the last letter used in June, so we begin with "J".

June 27, 2016 – Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley has just certified the official results of the Presidential Primary Election held on June 7, 2016 (final ballot counting was complete Friday evening).

Total turnout from the election was 49.6% with 29.2% of voters casting their ballot by mail and 20.3% of voters voting in their polling place. In the 2012 Presidential Primary overall turnout was 26.5%, vote-by-mail voting was 17.5% and polling place voting was 9.0%.

June 18, 2016 - It's not widely known among the public that election officials in California have 30 days to complete ballot counting following Election Day. Why so long? Volume, volume, volume. Take for instance the journey of a single "ballot" - here's how it unfolds:

June 17, 2016 - This post focuses on just one aspect of the extreme level of detail required after every election. We are currently in the process of "pulling" rejected ballots. A rejected ballot occurs for a couple of reasons - for instance, during the scanning process the second page of a two-page ballot is missing (they can become separated during the ballot preparation process or voters may mail in the second page if they forgot to send it initially). We must search for every missing second page to ensure the entire ballot is counted.

June 14, 2016 - So it's true, we have the same questions every election - why do provisional ballots take so much time to process?  Let's walk through it - a provisional ballot is the "safety net" for voters to ensure if they are indeed eligible to vote that their vote will be counted. The top reasons voters vote provisionally?

June 11, 2016 - Last night we picked up the last of the remaining late eligible mail ballots for the June 7th Primary Election. New laws in California allow ballots to be counted if they were mailed on or before Election Day and are postmarked (or signed and dated) on or before Election Day. In the three days following June 7th we have received 13,828 in this category. Consider that in the past, prior to the new laws, we would receive about 6,000 ballots in a large election that would arrive after 8 p.m. on Election Night - meaning 6,000 votes would not be counted.

June 10, 2016 - Our new election mapping tool has the June 7th Primary Election data uploaded for full review. You can look at results and turnout throughout the County in many different ways. From small contests to the Presidential Primary contest - see where the votes were cast, who won what districts, precincts or cities - it's all included, color coded and easy-to-read. Plus you can click on turnout and see where voters turned out throughout Orange County, whether voting-by-mail or in-person. Loading the full data set can take up to a minute but it's worth it.