Orange County’s voting system was put to the test this week — and all seems to be working well as the county’s election workers gear up for the counting of more than 1.8 million ballots on Tuesday, March 5, now less than a month away.
With the primaries officially underway, election workers put the first batch of test ballots through Orange County’s voting system on Thursday, Feb. 8. Inside the spacious and drafty warehouse at the Orange County Registrar of Voters headquarters in Santa Ana, around 10 workers, each with multiple stacks of test ballots, fed them one by one through the ballot scanning devices.
Related: Orange County Register’s March 5, 2024 Primary Election Voter Guide
By the end of the day on Friday, the 40 machines that had been tested this week were deemed to be working properly, according to the Registrar’s Office.
“We’ve never had any discrepancies in the vote count,” said Registrar of Voters Bob Page.
Thursday officially kicked off the testing of all ballot scanning devices that will be used in the primary election. It is called, according to the Secretary of State, the “logic and accuracy test,” mandated by the state to “ensure that every device used to tabulate ballots accurately records each vote.”
Accuracy testing of Orange County’s voting system started with the preparation of test ballots and will continue until all devices have been included in the test, said Page. The Registrar’s Office wants to ensure every device accurately counts ballots before they are put into use, he said.
If a device, during testing, is found to be counting ballots inaccurately, it won’t be put to use, Page said.
As in years past, voters have several ways to vote, Page said. Ballots can be mailed through the U.S. Postal Service, dropped off at a ballot box or delivered in person at a vote center. Voters can also vote in person at any vote center.
The 406 test ballots used in the “logic and accuracy test” this week…
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