Election NewsClicks
Behind the Scenes
of Orange County Elections
May 18, 2016 - When you vote your vote-by-mail ballot you should avoid writing anything on your ballot that could identify you, such as your phone number, initials, name, etc. Why is this important? First, we should clarify that your ballot will still count - regardless of the marks you make on your ballot, we will still count your vote.
However, when you do this we have to manually duplicate your ballot, which means that your ballot is set aside so that it can be manually transferred to another ballot. This is required so that the ballot can scan properly - when this happens your vote could be tied to you as an individual - and we stress that it's always important to maintain your right to a secret ballot. So remember, when you mark your ballot only mark the boxes for the candidates of your choice!