Orange County Officials Outline Election Security and Misinformation Safeguards Ahead of Vote

Residents receive transparency on how their ballots are transported, verified, and counted, alongside local spending figures and protocols for addressing ballot discrepancies.

• •The county has invested about $4 million since 2023 to expand staff and improve ballot-counting services.
• •The state recently provided a $3.2 million grant to acquire new software for opening and counting ballots.
• •Drop boxes are bolted into concrete, and two-person teams with varying daily routes, GPS tracking, and walkie-talkies collect the ballots.
• •New signature-checking software flags differences in early voting signatures, requiring agreement from three employees before a ballot can be challenged and the voter given a chance to cure it.
• •Only about 1.8% of ballots are ultimately rejected due to significant signature differences or other issues.
• •Envelope opening machines were adjusted after the primary to prevent slicing unusually long 17-inch ballots.
• •Voting machines and counting computers are not connected to the internet to prevent online hacking.
• •Tallying rooms require key cards and codes for access by a half-dozen employees.
• •About 380,000 votes had been turned in as of Tuesday, running ahead of the 2022 mid-term pace.
• •Election officials stated that the law does not allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make arrests at polling places and would demand a judge-signed warrant for any seizure of ballots.
• •The election cannot be officially certified until November 25.