This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters on Friday…

Ballot Counting Wrapping Up

Provisional Processing to Start Monday

Shown at right this afternoon we have been cleaning the padding gum off of paper ballots cast at polling places. Our update this evening will include the majority of vote-by-mail, paper ballots and duplicated ballots.

Neal Kelley
Registrar of Voters

Needles in a Haystack

We are in the process of locating printers from our voting booths so that we can conduct the random 1% manual tally required by law of precincts from the June 5th election.

Pulling Rejected Ballots

Shown at left are the stacks of ballots that contain small amounts of rejected ballots. These ballots did not scan due to unreadable barcode images. We must find each ballot and scan it so that it is included in the final tally.

Final Clean-Up Process

1% Manual Tally Next Up

Our teams that will be conducting the manual count of 1% of precincts can be seen above preparing. They will also manually tally any device that did not come back with a complete security seal.

Poll Workers 4,800  |  VBMs Mailed: 684,836  |  VBMs Returned: 277,348

Undeliverable Rate Going Down

Shown at left are the undeliverable vote-by-mail ballots for this election. We have instituted several new initiatives in an effort to update voter addresses before they notify us (many do not). Our undeliverable rate for the June 5th election was 3.37% and in June of 2010 it was 3.7%. We expect this number to reduce even further in November.

Current Voter Registration 1,612,508  |  REP: 679,991  |  DEM: 506,490  |  NPP: 354,929

Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters

| 1300 South Grand Avenue | Building C | Santa Ana CA 92705 | 714.567.7600

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This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters on Friday…

Ballot Opening Begins

Vote-by-Mail Ballot Opening and Scanning Underway

We have started the process of opening vote-by-mail ballots. As of this afternoon we have a little over 100,000 ballots in house (statewide returns are 10% below two years ago).

Neal Kelley
Registrar of Voters

Cardboard Voting Booths

One piece of our election supplies that goes out with our electronic voting booths are cardboard voting booths for paper ballot voting. Today we received 5,000 in preparation for Election Day.

Ballot Scanning

As shown at left today we began the process of scanning vote-by-mail ballots. We will have all ballots received by Monday, June 4th processed and ready to tally Election Night.

Ballot Preparation Prior to Scanning

Critical Step for Quality Assurance

As we have expanded automation of many ballot processes we have been able to reduce the number of individuals needed to prepare ballots. This step is critical and ensures ballots are scanned correctly.

Poll Workers: 4,369  |  VBMs Mailed: 680,851  |  VBMs Returned: 92,580

Statewide Ballot Returns

Statewide returns have been running (on average) 10% below returns from two years ago. Vote-by-mail ballots issued statewide is the same as it was two years ago (7.61 million). Voters who have changed their status to permanently receive a vote-by-mail ballot every election is up 5.5% – now 6.86 million statewide.

Current Voter Registration: 1,642,516  |  REP: 517,798  |  DEM: 695,292  |  NPP: 357,020

Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters

| 1300 South Grand Avenue | Building C | Santa Ana CA 92705 | 714.567.7600

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This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters’s office on Wednesday…

Difference Between Issued and Raw Ballots May 16, 2012 – We post a lot of information on voter registration and ballots issued and returned. One of the common questions we receive is related to the difference between ballots that are issued versus the raw count we post of those mailed. When a voter requests a ballot we “issue” it in our system, which is a single ballot for a single voter. There is a lag between the time it is issued and the time it is mailed (generally less than 24 hours). In addition, some ballots are damaged during the mail preparation process and must be reprinted. This is why there is always a difference between the actual ballots mailed and those issued in the system.

This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters’s office on Friday…

Voted Ballots Arriving

Voters Returning Vote-by-Mail Ballots Early

We have been receiving vote-by-mail ballots from voters for the June Primary Election. As of this afternoon we have received 238 ballots – we are expecting heavy returns to begin next week.

Neal Kelley
Registrar of Voters

OC Waste & Recycling

We have entered into a partnership with OC Waste & Recycling to insert poll worker volunteer information in waste hauler statements. These will go out this month.

Track Your Ballot

New info is available on our website, which will track your vote-by-mail ballot from mailing, to delivery, to return and final counting. This information is available 24-hours a day.

Cal State Fullerton Concert

Local OC Band Entertains Students

On Thursday, as shown above, our first “College Concert” kicked off at Cal State Fullerton with local OC band, Bristol to Memory. They donated their time and we recruited 74 students as poll workers for June.

Poll Workers 3,094  |  VBMs Mailed: 652,286  |  VBMs Returned: 283

Phone Volume Increasing

Our public phone bank volume is slowly rising although we are seeing fewer calls than two years ago. This is in part due to increased information on our new website. Our current call volume is averaging 380 per day. You can track our call volume in our new Data Central section under our Operations tab.

Current Voter Registration 1,607,941  |  REP: 678,643  |  DEM: 505,684  |  NPP: 352,691

Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters

| 1300 South Grand Avenue | Building C | Santa Ana CA 92705 | 714.567.7600

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Editors’ note: Normally we don’t run newsletter reprint in the middle of a Tuesday, but this one is particularly timely.  Biggest piece of news: absentee ballots have not gone out yet; the absolute earliest they could arrive is tomorrow, assuming they start mailing today.  In all likelihood, it will be even later.

This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters last night (key portion: “we will be mailing out 650,000 ballots shortly”)…

Six Marks the Spot May 7, 2012 – Voting opened today for the June 5th Primary Election. Although we will be mailing out 650,000 ballots shortly voters can vote in our office in Santa Ana, and six did so today. It may not sound like a large number, but we have had a small turnout on the first few days of voting, only to grow into larger turnouts later in an election. In addition to our six in-person voters we have had 224 military and overseas voters return their ballots to date

This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters’s office yesterday…

This came over the wire yesterday from the Registrar of Voters (Editors’ note: Campaigns, are you ready?):

Sample Ballots in the Mail

May 2, 2012 – We have begun the process of mailing sample ballots – voters should see these begin to arrive tomorrow. We have brought the process of addressing and mailing these sample ballots in-house. We are averaging 17,000 – 18,000 pieces prepared per hour – 400,000 are on their way to voters throughout the County. Vote-by-mail ballots will be mailed once all sample ballots have been sent to voters.

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STAY CONNECTED:    

This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters’ office on Friday…

Sample Ballot Mailing

Look For Your Sample Ballot Soon

Thousands of sample ballots are arriving at our warehouse daily. Our first two ballot styles contain nearly 150,000 sample ballots, which will be the first to be mailed. Our mailing will begin next week.

Neal Kelley
Registrar of Voters

Small Changes, Big Advantage

We have developed a new election supply box for polling places. This new box has an attached lid and will increase packing efficiencies. This will also assist poll workers as they unpack and pack critical election supplies.

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Online Training Grows

For the third election in a row our custom online poll worker training tool continues to be the choice for experienced poll workers. Online training will begin May 4th and contains new features, such as expanded video tutorials.

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Voter Registration Concert

Cal State Fullerton Concert

Our 2012 election outreach continues May 10th at 10:30 a.m. on the campus of Cal State Fullerton. We will be in the quad with local OC band, “Bristol to Memory” (shown above). We have partnered with local bands, who have donated their time, in order to reach out to a younger demographic for registration and volunteering.

 

Poll Workers 1,116  |  VBMs Mailed: 0  |  VBMs Returned: 0

 

Vote-by-Mail Ballot Processing Begins

Yesterday we began the process of inserting 600,000 permanent vote-by-mail ballots. These ballots will be delivered to voters beginning May 7th. Our first run (shown at left) contains 30,000 ballots. Each day we will insert nearly 50,000 as we move towards May 7th.

Current Voter Registration 1,603,604  |  REP: 677,690  |  DEM: 504,905  |  NPP: 350,355

Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters

| 1300 South Grand Avenue | Building C | Santa Ana CA 92705 | 714.567.7600

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