Voting is underway in California for the March 5 primary election.
“California has one of the best systems of voting in terms of transparency up and down the state,” said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber during a media tour of the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ office on Monday, Feb. 26. “There has been more interest in (the elections system) in the last five, six years.”
Out of the more than 1.86 million ballots sent out on Feb. 5 to all registered voters in Orange County (including military and overseas ballots), a little over 152,000 have already been returned, according to the most recent data available on the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ website.
Related: Orange County Register’s March 5, 2024 Primary Election Voter Guide
But what happens to a ballot — whether it was mailed through the U.S. Postal Service, dropped off at a large yellow drop box or delivered in person at a center — once it’s out of the voters’ hands?
Here’s a brief rundown of a ballot’s journey through the election process.
1. Ballots that are dropped off at a ballot box are collected by two-person teams and stored in a secure location when they arrive at the Registrar of Voters.
The 122 ballot boxes dispersed across Orange County each weigh more than 1,000 pounds and are bolted into the concrete at every location they’re at, said Registrar of Voters Bob Page.
Ballots submitted this way are collected daily by teams of two election workers, with a GPS tracker monitoring their location. Once the ballots arrive at the Registrar of Voters’ office, 1300 South Grand Ave., Building C in Santa Ana, they’re taken to a warehouse at the back of the building that’s accessible only to staff and visitors who go through security.
Inside the warehouse, the ballots, separated by the ballot drop boxes and vote centers they came from, are kept in a caged-off location limited to staff.
Ballots cast at a vote center are placed in a sealed bag and…
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