November 6, 2016 - We have been talking about all of the options to vote early in advance of Election Day - and we hope you're considering voting today or tomorrow if you want to avoid Election Day rushes. But if you do plan to vote on Election Day here's something to keep in mind. If you're running short on time remember that all polling places are open until 8:00 p.m. So this means that if you are in line, even if that means you're just jumping in line at 7:59 p.m., you will be guaranteed to vote - regardless of the length of the line.
Voting
November 5, 2016 - With Election Day rapidly approaching we are encouraging voters to mail their ballot as soon as possible. The good news is that recent changes to California law allow voters to mail their ballots on (or before) Election Day. As long as the ballot is post-marked on or before November 8th your ballot will count. Prefer to drop off at a polling place?
November 4, 2016 - Our Vote Centers, in operation at six locations throughout Orange County, have been very busy. We have processed over 10,000 voters at these early in-person locations. How does the voting breakdown by age? Younger voters are not turning out early in-person - in fact only 717 have voted at our Vote Centers to date. Here is the complete breakdown:
18-25: 717
26-35: 1,111
36-45: 1,215
46-55: 1,777
56-65: 2,255
66+: 1,981
November 3, 2016 - As of today vote-by-mail returns stand at 384,675 - that is 8.6% ahead of the same period in 2012. How do the returns compare by party? In 2012, the final vote-by-mail ballot returns were made up of 284,647 Republicans, 186,462 Democrat, and 112,438 No Party Preference. As of today the party breakdown by parties is 169,520 Republican, 137,325 Democrat and 74,978 No Party Preference. In 2012 Republicans returned vote-by-mail ballots at an increased rate of 52.6% over Democrats.
November 3, 2016 - We've done extensive time studies on the November ballot - and here's what we've found out. The November 8th ballot will take the prepared voter (choices known before entering the voting booth) 8 1/2 minutes to vote. How does this compare to the June Primary? The average time it took to vote the June ballot was just under 4 minutes.
October 28, 2016 - We feel that it's important to remind voters to only include their voted ballot in the ballot return envelope (not additional ballots). Occasionally we receive two ballots in one return envelope - and it almost always is the ballot of the spouse, significant other, child, etc. When two are included it's impossible to determine which ballot should be applied to the voter in the household.
October 26, 2016 - What if you still haven't received your ballot? There are a couple of clear options for you, but first an important point: If you changed your address after October 10th, and you normally receive your ballot every election, your ballot would have been sent to your old address. Why? When we mail the bulk of our ballots we must capture the data on a single day so that we can address the ballots.
October 25, 2016 - Ballot returns are flooding into our office ahead of Election Day. As of this morning, we have received 163,010 a 5.8% increase over 2012 for the same period. Out of these ballots 668 voters forgot to sign their ballot envelope. We have sent each of these voters an important letter - urging them to cure the lack of a signature. Fortunately, the vast majority of voters have signed their ballot envelope.
October 23, 2016 - California's Top Two Primary Act changed the way we vote in California. The top two vote-getters at the primary election advance to the general election for voter-nominated offices, even if both candidates have specified the same party preference designation. What are voter nominated offices? U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, State Senate and State Assembly.
October 22, 2016 - With California's lengthy ballot your ballot could take two first-class stamps to mail. Depending on where you live your ballot may be longer than your cross-county neighbor. Some communities have more contests on the ballot. Take for instance, there are 17 state propositions on everyone's ballot - some cities will also have local council races and measures (one city has 8 additional measures).