Mission Viejo Recount Cancelled

February 9, 2010 - Late this afternoon our office received a request to cancel the original request for a recount of the ballots cast in the City of Mission Viejo Special Recall Election. We were scheduled to begin the recount tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Rights are not preserved to request a second recount and the time has passed for any additional recount requests (which is 5 calendar days from the date of the election certification). The election results were certified and delivered to the City of Mission Viejo on Wednesday, February 3rd.

The original certified results stand and can be viewed by clicking here.

Full Details Regarding Recount Online

February 8, 2010 - Full details regarding the Mission Viejo Recall Election recount are now available online. Visitors will be able to see real-time updates to the total number of ballots counted (not vote tallies) and the specific precincts that have been recounted. In addition, we will be offering a live video feed of the actual recount room (this will go live Wednesday, February 10th). You can see all of the details by visiting www.ocvote.com/recount or by clicking here.

Public Notice of City of Mission Viejo Recount

Pursuant to California Elections Code section 15628 the Orange County Registrar of Voters will be conducting a recount of the ballots cast in the City of Mission Viejo Special Recall Election. The election was conducted on February 2, 2010 and was certified on February 3, 2010. The recount will commence at the Registrar of Voters office, 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 beginning at 9 a.m.

Introducing Elections On the Go!

Now you can follow elections in Orange County on the go. Whether you need a quick update on election results, want to view a video blog, or read a press release - the Orange County Registrar of Voters has the options most convenient to you. Staying connected to elections is now something you can do anytime, anywhere you have mobile access. Our clean, intuitive application is simple and gives you access to a large amount of information.

It´s easy-to-use. There is no fee or sign-up required, but message and data rates may apply from your wireless provider. All you need is a mobile phone/PDA and you are ready to go. For more information (and to get started) visit ocvote.com/onthego or click here.

Saturday Distribution of Election Supplies

January 29, 2010 - Tomorrow Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley will be working distributing supplies to poll workers in Mission Viejo. The distribution site, located at Saddleback College District Offices, will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Poll site Inspectors, who will be working one of 36 sites throughout Mission Viejo on Tuesday, will pick up a box of supplies that includes paper ballots, voter rosters, and signs. All of this is designed to turn a school, fire station, church or residence into a fully functioning poll site on February 2nd. The Special Recall Election will begin on Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. and will conclude later that evening when we have finished counting the majority of the ballots cast.

Public Notice of Random Draw

January 29, 2010 - Pursuant to California Election Code 15360 (d) this serves as public notice that we will be conducting a random draw of 1% of our precincts to be used in a manual tally of votes cast. This manual tally is used to verify the electronic tally of our voting system and the vote-by-mail tally system. The random draw will occur on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. The manual tallies will follow the random draw and will take place until complete. Both processes are open to the public. Our office is located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, California.

Mission Viejo Election Countdown

January 29, 2010 - With the Mission Viejo election set for next Tuesday many voters may wonder if they can still vote-by-mail. The answer is no, but there is a provision for those who might be out of town.

Vote-By-Mail Ballots issued in the last 6 days prior to an election and on Election Day are called Emergency Vote-By-Mail Ballots. These ballots cannot be issued by mail.

To obtain an Emergency Vote-By-Mail Ballot for the Mission Viejo election, you (or your authorized representative) must provide a written request for the ballot to our office directly. Our office is located at:

1300-C South Grand Avenue in Santa Ana (we are open tomorrow from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Monday and Election Day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

If you have a regular vote-by-mail ballot and have not returned it yet it is recommended that you mail it no later than Saturday or return it to your local poll site on Election Day.

Registration Deadline for Mission Viejo Election

January 13, 2010 - The deadline to register to vote for the February 2, 2010 City of Mission Viejo Special Recall Election is Tuesday, January 19, 2010. Our office will be open on that date from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Santa Ana. To check the status of your voter registration and to make sure you are registered click here.

Don´t forget about your option to vote-by-mail in this election. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot for this election is Tuesday, January 26, 2010. Vote-by-mail votes received prior to Election Day are processed prior to Election Day and are the first results reported on Election Night. You can apply online for one by visiting www.ocvote.com/mail.

138 Down 6 to Go

January 9, 2010 - Yesterday supply pick-ups of Election Day supplies was steady throughout the day. We offered three locations for Inspectors in AD72 (St. Bonafice Church, Grace Lutheran and Fullerton Community College) in addition to our Santa Ana office. These are all drive up locations, allowing Inspectors to remain in their vehicle for the quick experience of checking paperwork and loading their cars with the supplies. Typically we have offered many locations on the weekend before an election, limiting choices for the poll workers to pick up during the week. For the June election we will be offering our first mega pick up location on the Thursday before the election. All Inspectors will have the option of picking up their supplies at the Orange County Fairgrounds. More on this event to come.

Election Night Newsletter Set For Tuesday

January 8, 2010 - A new addition to our communication tools will appear with our new Election Night newsletter. The newsletter will recap the day´s events, including inside information from poll sites and our Election Night operations. The newsletter will be published immediately following our last results posting (scheduled for approximately 10:30 a.m.). This will provide last-minute information to those monitoring the election late, or will be ready for you in your inbox the following morning. If you don´t already subscribe to our newsletters you can sign up by clicking here.

Early Start On Saturday

January 8, 2010 - With the AD72 General Election just three days away final checklists and preparations are taking place. First up on Saturday will be putting into place the final plans for poll site supply distribution. Members of the Department will begin to arrive at 5:30 a.m. to double check that we are ready for poll site Inspectors to pick up their supplies. Collection Center training will also be taking place on Saturday. Our Collection Centers are drop-off locations, which will be located throughout the AD72 on Tuesday. Poll workers will drop off voted ballots and supplies, which will then be transported by the Orange County Sheriff´s Department to our Santa Ana facility.

Public Notice of Random Draw

January 7, 2010 - Pursuant to California Election Code 15360 (d) this serves as public notice that we will be conducting a random draw of 1% of our precincts to be used in a manual tally of votes cast. This manual tally is used to verify the electronic tally of our voting system and the vote-by-mail tally system. The random draw will occur on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. The manual tallies will follow the random draw and will take place until complete. Both processes are open to the public. Our office is located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, California.

AD72 Ballot Scanning Nearly Complete

January 5, 2010 - The AD72 General Election is now one week away, January 12th. Today we received 1,552 ballots mailed from voters in the District. With the exception of Christmas Eve and New Year´s Eve, there has been a fairly steady flow of ballots (averaging about 1,500 per day). We have scanned all but about 8,000 ballots to date, which will take about a day to complete. All of this preparation is leading up to our tally of these vote-by-mail votes on Election Day (so far totaling a little less than 23,000).

Some Numbers for Your Consideration

January 4, 2010 - At the first allowable moment under California law we began to open ballots received from voters in the AD72 election. To date we have received 20,667 (which includes ballots received today). We had a good start today on processing these ballots - opening 13,545. This leaves a small amount for tomorrow and Wednesday. We plan to have all vote-by-mail ballots received via the mail (by 5 p.m. on the 12th) processed and included in Tuesday´s first results report. We will continue to open ballots through Election Night received after 5 p.m. and at the poll sites.

Mission Viejo Ballots Mailed Today

January 4, 2010 - With the New Year comes ballots for the Mission Viejo Special Recall election. Just a few moments ago we mailed 23,804 vote-by-mail ballots to voters in the City of Mission Viejo. During the holidays voters received their sample ballots, which included detailed information on the upcoming election. The ballots we mailed today include permanent vote-by-mail voters and those requesting language assistance. Voters have until 8 p.m. on February 2, 2010 to return their ballots (either via mail or in person at any Mission Viejo poll site on Election Day).

Mission Viejo Sample Ballots Online

December 28, 2009 - On February 2, 2010 we will be conducting the Mission Viejo Special Recall Election. On December 24th we mailed sample ballots to all registered voters in the City of Mission Viejo. This sample ballot contains voter instructions, the actual sample ballot, the Statement of Reasons for the Proposed Recall, the Answer to the Statement of Reasons for the Proposed Recall and the candidate statements for the two candidates. Voters can also access their sample ballot online in one of two formats: A standard PDF version and our new flip book version. You can view your sample ballot by clicking here.

E-File For Campaign Finance Documents Set to Begin

December 24, 2009 - The Orange County Board of Supervisors recently adopted a change to the Orange County Campaign Reform Ordinance, adding section 1-6-32. The change in the ordinance requires county officers, candidates, or committees to file campaign disclosure documents electronically. The first required use of this new system will be for the filings due January 31, 2010 for the period July 1, 2009 – December 31, 2009.

The electronic requirement is meant to streamline the campaign filing process while making the filings more accessible to the public. While this ordinance only requires elected county officers, candidates or committees to comply it will be available to anyone required to file campaign disclosure documents with our office.

E-filing will be available by directly accessing our website after December 31st. You will have the ability to enter your data as you go or collectively at one time. If you already are required to file with the state and do so electronically, not to worry - you will be able to export your file and upload directly into our system - avoiding costly and unnecessary dual entries. And there is no cost for filers to access our e-file program.

We will be conducting a free hands-on training program for anyone interested in learning how to use the new system, which will take place on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The training will take place at our office located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C in Santa Ana.

Seating is limited so please R.S.V.P. by visiting ocvote.com/efile or by phone at 714-954-1901.

Poll Worker Recruiting Complete

December 22, 2009 - As we noted in our election newsletter last week the holidays are a difficult time to recruit poll workers. Our Election Services team finished recruiting poll workers for the upcoming AD72 General Election, despite the obstacle of the holidays. We will field 144 Inspectors (supervising poll workers) and about 450 Clerks (poll workers). Our Inspectors (and those who did not work in November) will use online training. Clerks who worked in November have been excused from additional training.

New Poll Worker PASS Progam to Save Money

December 22, 2009 - We have been working for nearly a year now on redesigning the way we track and manage poll workers. Our new Poll Worker PASS will consolidate all of the documents we send to poll workers into one easy-to-read piece. In addition, each poll worker will be issued a card that they will use to access training, pick up supplies and even sign in to receive their stipend. Plus, this new system will allow poll workers to sign in online to view real time updates to their poll site, a roster of their co-volunteers, training times and locations, and more. This new program will save on postage and printing. We will begin a pilot test program in March with a full implementation in June 2010.

Audio Cards Contain Ballot Text

December 20, 2009 - Before we can finalize the final preparations for our voting booths we must record the audio for each contest. This includes recording a read-back of the ballot instructions and text of the contest itself. We do this for sight disabled voters so that they can vote on the booth in a poll site unassisted. We record not only in English but also in Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean (Federal law requires that we support all of these languages). Our disabled access voting booths (lower than regular voting booths to allow voters in wheel chairs easy access) are equipped with headphones so that voters can hear these audio playbacks. We will be installing these audio cards Monday for the AD72 election and the Mission Viejo recall election.

What Is On Tap for Coming Week

December 20, 2009 - In the past few days we have received 6,558 ballots from voters in the AD72 election. At the same time we are preparing to mail the sample ballot to voters in the Mission Viejo recall election. These sample ballots will be coming off of the presses early this week. We have already prepared the voter file for mailing (which includes entering any new last minute voter registration cards). Voters can expect to see a lavender cover on the Mission Viejo sample ballot, which we will mail on December 24th.

How Mission Viejo Recall Election Works

December 19, 2009 - On February 2nd Voters in Mission Viejo will have two questions on their special recall election ballot. The first is: Should your councilman be recalled? - and the second is: If the councilman is recalled, who should replace him? There are two candidates to choose from on the ballot. It is important to remember that these two questions stand alone. Voters may vote on one or both questions. Either way their vote will count. If a majority of the voters vote to remove the officer sought to be recalled, then the candidate receiving the highest number of votes for the office shall be elected for the unexpired term.

Intersection of Two Elections

December 16, 2009 - On December 14th we mailed 70,000 vote-by-mail ballots to voters in the 72nd Assembly District. We will continue to mail daily (one-time) requests to voters in the District through 7 days prior to the election, which is taking place on January 12, 2010. During this same time period we will begin to mail sample ballots to voters in the City of Mission Viejo for the February 2, 2010 Special Recall Election. We will start mailing sample ballots on December 24th and vote-by-mail ballots on January 4, 2010. During a brief period we will receive ballots in the mail for both elections. We have printed return envelopes for the AD72 election in white and for the Mission Viejo election in yellow.

New Election Night Newsletter

December 13, 2009 - We are pleased to announce another tool in our communication suite - a new Election Night newsletter. This newsletter will summarize Election Day´s events as well as the details of Election Night. This will include topics of interest from poll sites and election return information. The AD72 General Election will be taking place on January 12, 2010. If you are a subscriber of our regular election newsletters you will automatically receive our Election Night edition. If not, you can sign up quickly by clicking here, entering your email and choosing "Newsletters" from the list of subscription topics.

Vote-by-Mail Ballot Inserting Complete

December 11, 2009 - Yesterday we finished inserting 69,174 ballots for permanent vote-by-mail voters in the 72nd Assembly District. We cannot begin mailing these until December 14th but we are ahead of schedule and standing by to make sure all sample ballots have arrived in the District. Following this initial mailing we will continue to insert daily ballot requests as they come into our office. Voters can apply for a one-time vote-by-mail ballot online by visiting www.ocvote.com/mail. The election is taking place on January 12, 2010.

AD72 Sample Ballots Arriving

December 11, 2009 - We mailed out 225,000 sample ballots this week to voters in the 72nd Assembly District. This included English and translated sample ballots. We have been monitoring delivery reports throughout the district and most appear to have arrived overnight. We included information in the sample ballot for voters to explain that the Primary, which took place on November 17th, did not produce a candidate with 50% +1 or more of the vote, which is why the General Election is required. You can view your sample ballot on our website by clicking here.

Portion of Sample Ballot on the Press

December 2, 2009 - Printing presses began to run at high speed this morning at 6:00 a.m. as we began the printing process for the AD72 General Election. This process will take just a day or so to print 250,000 covers. Our next step, which will follow by a day, will be to print the internal portion of the sample ballot (which includes instructions, the actual sample ballot and candidate statements). Finally we will begin the stitching process, which will bind the sample ballots together.

While this process is continuing we are finalizing preparations for the voter file, which will be ink jetted on each sample ballot.

Legal Notice for AD72 General Election

November 30, 2009 - Notice is hereby given that a Special General Election will be held in Orange County for the office of Member of the State Assembly, 72 nd District, on January 12, 2010.

Notice is further given that the polls for said election will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. All ballots cast in said election will be counted centrally at the Orange County Registrar of Voters office, 1300-C South Grand Avenue, Santa Ana, California.

Notice is further given that vote-by-mail ballot processing will begin on December 14, 2009 and will continue Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. until the election is certified on or about January 22, 2010. The vote-by-mail process is open to the public at the Orange County Registrar of Voters office, 1300-C South Grand Avenue, Santa Ana, California.

Notice is further given that the manual tally of specific precincts will begin on January 13, 2010, at the Orange County Registrar of Voters office, 1300-C South Grand Avenue, Santa Ana, California.

Notice is further given that a report on the results of the 1 percent manual tally will be included in the certification of the official canvass of the vote.

Dated this 24th day of November, 2009.

Neal Kelley

Registrar of Voters

County of Orange

Back in Business

November 24, 2009 - Despite Thanksgiving being a day away our planning efforts for the January 12th 72nd Assembly runoff are in full swing. We have our ballot paper in stock, covers and filler pages for the sample ballot ready to print, and the ballot design nearly done. Today we received notice from the Secretary of State that we must print the ballot header in lavender using the California flag as a watermark. We will begin printing the ballots soon, which will contain three candidates for voters to choose from on January 12th. Our Stay Connected page will be reset with all January 12th content early next week.

Tally = To Count Up or Computate

November 15, 2009 - The tally of the votes cast in the 72nd Assembly District will be taking place at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. In preparation for this we perform a number of redundant checks on our tally software and computers. This software and equipment is certified by the United States Election Assistance Commission and the California Secretary of State. We are required to meet rigorous guidelines and we are subject to oversight by the state. We test our system multiple times by producing and processing test ballots in all languages (also called a Logic and Accuracy test). Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley will oversee and direct the tally of the votes on Election Night.

Our results page offers an exclusive countdown clock so visitors know exactly when results will be posted. Check out our other unique LIVE election results pages by visiting our home page (www.ocvote.com) and clicking Election Results.

Election A Little Over 24 Hours Away

November 15, 2009 - Yesterday and today poll site Inspectors in the 72nd Assembly District election picked up their sealed supplies for Tuesday´s election. We will operate 144 poll sites in the 72nd District, which will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the 17th. Only a handful of poll workers had not been trained for the election as of this afternoon. Last minute classes will be held Monday if necessary in order to make sure all poll workers are trained. We will be working in partnership with the Orange County Sheriff´s Department to transport ballots to our Santa Ana central count facility. Our first posting will take place at 8:05 p.m. (which will be all vote-by-mail ballots processed to date) followed by Election Day ballots cast at 9 p.m. and until finished (we are anticipating we will finish at 10:30 p.m.).

Public Notice of Random Draw

November 13, 2009 - Pursuant to California Election Code 15360 (d) this serves as public notice that we will be conducting a random draw of 1% of our precincts to be used in a manual tally of votes cast. This manual tally is used to verify the electronic tally of our voting system and the vote-by-mail tally system. The random draw will occur on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. The manual tallies will follow the random draw and will take place until complete. Both processes are open to the public. Our office is located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, California.

Just A Handful of Ballots Left to Scan

November 10, 2009 - It has been our goal every election to continue our process of improvement. The AD72 election is no exception and we have been working to increase our ballot processing efficiency. By using every available day prior to an election to process our vote-by-mail ballots we are able to report the majority of ballots cast on Election Night, which gives voters and candidates timely results. As of today we have opened all of our ballots on hand and scanned 20,808. This leaves just a little over 5,000 left to scan (in addition to our daily returns between now and Election Day).

Supplies Headed for Pack Out on Thursday

November 10, 2009 - Our last weekend prior to the AD72 election is this weekend. This is the weekend that poll site Inspectors will be picking up their supplies to be used on Election Day. Today we were placing the final precinct specific items into the boxes (such as name rosters, street indexes (this is what we use to cross off your name after you vote) and paper ballots). We will proof all of these precinct specific items three times (a new process we have put in place in just the past few years) Thursday morning. Once complete we will place the lids on the boxes and seal each box. The final step will be proofing to make sure it is going to the right supply distribution site, shrink wrapping them onto pallets and placing them onto trucks. Inspectors will pick up these supplies on Saturday.

Two More Trucks Today

November 10, 2009 - This morning we will be loading two semi-trucks with voting booths that will be transported to the 72nd Assembly District. We began delivery of these booths on Saturday with a single truck. Each truck carries approximately 10-15 poll sites worth of equipment. We will be operating 144 poll sites in the District on Election Day. All of this equipment will be delivered and in place for poll workers by next Monday, November 16th. We encourage all poll workers to set up their equipment the night before but if they cannot they will set up Election Morning.

Ballots Opened And Scanning Underway

November 9, 2009 - Today we opened all of the vote-by-mail ballots we currently have received in the AD72 election. The total opened was 24,682 (which includes the ballots we received as of this morning). We are using eight individuals from the community to remove the ballots from their envelopes (these people are registered voters and are similar to poll workers - volunteers who receive a daily stipend). Once the ballots are removed they are flattened and prepared for scanning. We also separate ballots marked with pencil versus pen so that they are scanned in batches at the same time.

Today we scanned 6,605 ballots (we started at 2 p.m. after the ballots were opened). Tomorrow we will have a higher production number since we will begin in the morning.

Supplemental Sample Ballots in Mail Tomorrow

November 4, 2009 - We begin sending sample ballots to voters 40 days prior to an election. This includes all voters who are registered at the 40th day. But registration does not close for an election until 15 days prior to an election. For the 72nd Assembly District the close of registration was Monday of this week. So we have to mail sample ballots to any voter who registered, or changed their registration, from 40 days to 15 days before an election. For the 72nd Assembly District there were 1,606 voters who fell into this category. Of those 715 were new registrations and the remaining were made up of change of addresses.

Do Not Forget The Second Most Important Part

November 4, 2009 - Your signature, next to your vote, is the second most important part of your overall ballot package. After you vote your vote-by-mail ballot, our easy-to-read instructions inform voters to sign the return envelope before mailing to our office. Understandably, however, many voters are very busy and sometimes forget this important step.

We cannot accept the ballot as valid without a signature. This is because we must make sure that the voter who was issued the ballot is the same person voting the ballot. The signature comparison is made against your original voter registration.

So far in the 72nd Assembly District election we have 90 ballots returned without signatures. Not to worry though - we contact these voters and give them an opportunity to come to our office and sign their return envelope - making it valid.

Preparations in Place to Begin Opening Ballots

November 4, 2009 - We now have nearly 21,000 ballots returned from voters in the 72nd Assembly District election. We have completed the signature checking process and sorting on all of these ballots. They are sequestered, locked, secured and under 24=hour surveillance. Our next step will be to slice these open starting on Monday, November 9th. We will use eight volunteers from the public who will work to pull the ballots out of the envelopes and prepare them for scanning. While we will prepare the ballots for the actual tally of the votes we will not (per California law) tally these votes until 8 p.m. on Election Night.

72nd Assembly District Results Page Ready

November 4, 2009 - We go through extensive testing before we post the blank results page for any election. The 72nd Assembly District is no exception - we have completed our proofing and testing and the page is posted, ready to import results from the election. We will post our first results at 8:05 p.m. on November 17th (which will include vote-by-mail ballots). Following this our first precinct results will post at 9:00 p.m. and every 30 minutes thereafter until we are finished.

You can check out our results page for the 72nd, which includes our one-of-a-kind countdown timer, plus our reporting schedule, by clicking here.

First Community Election Working Group Meeting Set

October 28, 2009 - The Community Election Working Group is an advisory committee that will be made up of volunteers from the community. We are currently in the recruitment and selection process for these members. The first meeting of this new group will be on Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. The meeting will take place at our office (located at 1300 South Grand Avenue, Building C, Santa Ana, California).

This advisory committee will provide input to the Registrar of Voters on minority voting, access of the disabled population to the elections process and the elections process in general. The advisory group will also provide a forum for the Registrar of Voters to update the community as a whole on elections issues and promote community involvement.

If you are interested in additional information on our new CEW group click here.

Why An Audio Card is Important

October 28, 2009 - Our voting booths assigned for the 72nd Assembly District will be going through final preparations tomorrow. There are hundreds of steps we must complete before we are ready for the final process (inserting the printers and installing the disabled access audio cards). But this process is especially important because these cards contain the audio text of the ballot, which are used by sight disabled voters in the poll sites. If a sight disabled voter uses the voting booth they can vote unassisted by using headphones to hear the ballot being read back to them. We must record this audio in multiple languages so that all languages are covered. Once the audio portion is proofed and locked down we burn all of the cards that will be used in the election.

We will insert the cards into the booths tomorrow, followed by the printers and then apply the final seals. Following this they will be ready for shipment to the poll sites (which will start on November 7th).

Language Ballots in the Mail

October 21, 2009 - Right on the heels of our first 72nd Assembly District rounds of ballot mailings we are dropping additional ballots today. We are mailing approximately 4,300 vote-by-mail ballots in languages that we cover here in Orange County. We are required under federal law (Voting Rights Act, Section 203) to support minority language voters in Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean. These are United States citizens who fall into the language provisions of the Act.

The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Johnson in August of 1965. A jurisdiction is covered under Section 203 where the number of United States citizens of voting age is a single language group within the jurisdiction: (1) is more than 10,000; or (2) is more than five percent of all voting age citizens; or (3) on an Indian reservation, exceeds five percent of all reservation residents; and (4) the illiteracy rate of the group is higher than the national illiteracy rate.

The United States House and Senate passed the reauthorization of the law in July 2006 and President Bush signed the reauthorization on July 27, 2006.

All 72nd Assembly District vote-by-mail voters have until 8 p.m. on November 17, 2009 to return their ballots. Portions of Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Orange and La Habra and all of Brea, Fullerton and Placentia are in the 72nd Assembly District.

Second Round of Ballots Mailed

October 20, 2009 - Yesterday we mailed the first (and largest) group of vote-by-mail ballots to voters in the 72nd Assembly District. Today we followed up that mailing with a second, albeit much smaller, mailing. This included approximately 2,700 ballots, which were initially damaged in our first production run (these ballots are destroyed by shredding). This is due to jams in our equipment, torn paper or bad barcodes. Reprinting these ballots assures our quality control is tight and guarantees that voters receive a ballot in excellent condition.

In addition to the reprinted ballots we mailed approximately 2,900 ballots to voters who are required to vote-by-mail in every election. This is because there are fewer than 250 voters in their precincts (which does not require a poll site). The majority of these voters have been voting this way for years.

Tracking of Ballots Begins Today

October 19, 2009 - As one of the most advanced elections office in the state we take pride in providing a wide array of services to our stakeholders. One of our most popular features during each election is our ballot tracking system. Today was the first day we mailed vote-by-mail ballots in the 72nd Assembly District. We announce approximate figures in our newsfeeds and video blogs but for the exact figures you can visit our tracking system by clicking here.

This will tell you how many ballots we have mailed each day and how many were returned each day. You can even track your own ballot or view live streaming video of our mailing production process (when in operation). Track day-by-day as we close to within just under a month until Election Day.

Vote-by-Mail Ballots in the Mail

October 19, 2009 - Vote-by-mail voting officially opened today in the 72nd Assembly District election. This afternoon we mailed nearly 68,000 ballots to voters in the district. Tomorrow we will mail the additional mail ballot only district voters along with language ballots. This will make up the 77,000 total ballots in our first mailing. Following this initial batch we will begin mailing daily requests (requests for ballots made by voters from their sample ballots or online). Voters should start receiving these ballots in their mail boxes tomorrow and have until 8 p.m. on November 17th to return them to our office.

72nd Assembly District Sample Ballots in the Mail

October 15, 2009 - Right on schedule numerous trucks are enroute to the Post Office with over 225,000 sample ballots. These sample ballots are headed to registered voters in the 72nd Assembly District. The only contest on the ballot is the Assembly District race. Voters should begin to see these in their mail boxes beginning Saturday and Monday. Stay tuned to this newsfeed for up-to-the-minute information on when we are enroute to the Post Office with ballots next week.

Extra Effort for Military Voters in 72nd AD

October 14, 2009 - There are approximately 160 active duty military voters living in the 72nd Assembly District. A large majority of these individuals are serving overseas (we do not release these numbers due to national security restrictions). A majority of those serving overseas do not have email addresses on file with our office. We made contact with the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) today in an effort to reach these military personnel. FVAP is a federal agency, which administers the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) on behalf of the Secretary of Defense.

Citizens covered under UOCAVA include U.S. citizens who are active members of the Uniformed Services, the Merchant Marine, the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, their family members, and U.S. citizens residing outside the United States. We provide ballots to all of these individuals for every election.

Our concern centered around the very short schedule surrounding this election. FVAP will be working with our office to provide the military email addresses of the soldiers living in the 72nd Assembly District so that we can email them their ballot. This will give these military personnel an opportunity to cast their ballot on time - making sure their voice is heard.

Online Chat Help Now Available

October 13, 2009 - Today we launched a new online service for our poll workers. Real time online chat services will connect poll workers with our customer service team. These agents are in place to assist poll workers in the entire election process. They answer questions on a variety of topics, including training questions, how and where to volunteer, where to pick up supplies, what can be expected on Election Day and more. These agents supplement and assist our Field Representatives and Community Program Specialists, who are responsible for the recruitment of poll workers.

To access our live chat feature visit our home page and click on "Volunteer" then click the chat link on the right. We are testing this service for this election and may expand its use for the June 2010 Primary election.

Sample Ballot Mailing to Begin Soon

October 13, 2009 - Voters who live in the 72nd Assembly District will begin to see their sample ballots in the mail in just a few days. The sample ballot has a maroon cover and contains 4 pages (printed on the front and back). The first page contains an introductory letter for voters letting them know how to contact us, where to vote, how to vote, etc. The second page contains a promotional piece looking for volunteers to work elections. The third page contains detailed instructions for voters on how to use the sample ballot and voting options. The fourth page contains instructions to voters on how to vote at the polls (using an electronic ballot or paper ballot). The fifth page contains the actual "sample" official ballot (with the candidate names - just as the ballot will appear to voters when they vote). The sixth page contains information on the candidate´s statements and identifies those candidates who voluntarily limit their campaign contributions in accordance with Proposition 34. The seventh page contains the candidate statements (in this election four of the five candidates have submitted statements). The eighth page provides additional contact information and what to do if a voter has moved.

An important question some may wonder about is why are there so many pages in the sample ballot? Several of the pages are required by law and rather than leave pages blank (which may be the reverse side of a required page) we provide additional information for voters to make their voting experience as easy as possible.

Interesting Call Volume Versus Web Use

October 6, 2009 - As we continue to ramp up and prepare for the November 17th 72nd Assembly election we thought we would share an interesting trend. On Election Day in 2004 (General Election) we fielded 16,266 calls from voters, the public, etc. On Election Day in 2008 we fielded 6,814 calls. This is a substantial drop in call volume.

Although we do not have web statistics from 2004 during the General Election in 2006 we had 211,487 web views (these include one time visits and refreshed web pages). On Election Day in 2008 our web traffic rose to 312,435 web views.

Of course it stands to reason that increased use of our web site would translate to reduced call volume. What is encouraging is that when we re-designed our website in 2006 our web usage spiked and has risen ever since. We continue to provide more information and services on our website, increasing access for voters and the general public.

Detailed information can be found on our website for the upcoming 72nd Assembly election, which includes how to volunteer, precinct information, maps, communication tools and more.

With Candidate Filing Closed New Tasks On Deck

October 5, 2009 - Now that candidate filing has closed two critical tasks must take place (in addition to many others) before we can build and finalize the ballot. On Tuesday the Secretary of State will conduct a random draw to determine the order that candidates will appear on the ballot. Once the draw is complete we will re-arrange the order of the candidates on our log to match the draw (currently they are in the order that they completed their filing).

Equally as important we must now wait for the Secretary of State to certify the list of candidates that we have forwarded to her office for review. The Secretary has until October 12th (or anytime before) to send us the certified list of candidates. Because this is a state office the Secretary of State is the filing officer and certifies the list.

Sample Ballot Covers Set to Print

October 4, 2009 - A busy week is ahead for us as candidate filing for the 72nd Assembly closes tomorrow. We are ahead of our schedule, however, and we will begin printing the sample ballot covers tomorrow. We signed off on the final "blue line" proof (what will come off of the press). The cover is printed in one piece (front, inside front, inside back, and back). On the back cover we will use our newly revised design (which we used for the May 2009 election). This design highlights the poll site location so voters can easily find their poll site location. In addition, we will ink jet over the signature line for a vote-by-mail ballot application. This ink jet will advise voters who are permanent vote-by-mail voters to not sign or complete the application (not required for permanent vote-by-mail voters, who will automatically receive a vote-by-mail ballot).

Poll Site Deadline Approaches

October 2, 2009 - With just 46 days to go until the November 17th election we have secured 124 poll sites for use in the 72nd Assembly District. We will be using 144 sites and we will meet our deadline of October 8th to secure the last remaining sites. Some sites are residential locations and the homeowners will be out of town, so our Election Services team is working to secure other locations. For the most part the same poll sites used in the May 2009 election will be used for this election to reduce voter confusion. We will begin working with the voter files next week to begin building the files necessary to create sample ballots. Because we print the location of a voter´s poll site on their sample ballot we must have the sites locked down before we begin the file building process.

Map File of 72nd Assembly District Available

October 2, 2009 - We receive numerous requests each election for maps of particular districts. The 72nd Assembly District is no exception. The public, consultants, elected officials, students and candidates are just some of the types of individuals we receive requests from weekly. We have produced a detailed map of the district, which includes streets, district boundaries and precincts. The map is sized at 20" wide by 24" high, but can be resized easily using Adobe software. Or, if you choose not to print the map you can use the zoom tool in Adobe PDF readers to zoom in on specific detail within the map.

You can access the map by clicking here.

Update on Poll Site Status

September 28, 2009 - As of this evening we have 95 of the 144 poll sites we need for the 72nd Assembly District special election. We should have these locked down in the near future, which must be done before we send out sample ballots to voters (which includes the voters' poll site locations). As noted in a previous newsfeed these confirmations (some verbal at this point) include signed agreements if necessary, insurance requirements, instructions, etc. As you can imagine, sometimes making connection is a matter of patience, as we work to finalize our use of a site. This requires a full day and partial night commitment for Election Day from the poll site owners and operators. We will post another newsfeed once we lock down all sites for the election.

Aggressive Ballot Inserting Schedule Ahead

September 28, 2009 - Normally candidate filing for an election ends 88 days before a scheduled election. However, with the compressed schedule for the 72nd Assembly election we will be moving quickly to produce and insert ballots. Because there are no consolidations (additional items on the ballot) and few required translations we can meet this requirement. But it should be noted that physically producing nearly 100,000 ballots (for our initial run), translating, proofing and inserting takes time. Plus we need to produce the sample ballot and send this to voters before ballots are mailed.

Here is our tentative schedule (which can change depending on unanticipated delays):

* October 5 (candidate filing closes)

* October 12 (ballot production underway - assuming no challenges and translations and proofing complete - after certified list of candidates received)

* October 13 (pre-production - equipment preparation)

* October 14 (ballot inserting production underway)

* October 19 (permanent voter vote-by-mail ballots drop in mail, approximately 90,000)

* October 20 (daily requests continue - mailing continues daily)

Poll Site Confirmation Moving Forward

September 30, 2009 - With less than 60 days to go until the 72nd AD election we have already confirmed 50 of the 144 poll sites we need. Poll site selection/confirmation takes time, coordination and patience. We need to make sure the site is ADA compliant and that they will be available for the entire day. In addition, our Election Services staff work to make sure we have agreements in place and that the site can accommodate the number of voting booths we need to deploy to a particular site. While we always work to use public buildings sometimes we need to use private residences if there are no other choices in the precinct. To make this election as smooth as possible for voters we are working to use the same poll sites we used in the most recent (May 2009) election.

Check Out Our Candidate Filing Log

September 22, 2009 - With candidate filing now open for the 72nd Assembly District special primary election you can keep track of all candidate filings. We have two ways for you to do this - our HTML version or a printable PDF version. This log is updated daily with current filing status. In addition our election information page is complete for this election and can be accessed from our home page by clicking "Election Info" at the top of the page. Click here if you would like to access our candidate log.

144 and 1100 = Poll Sites and Voting Booths

September 21, 2009 - The deadline for the Governor to issue the proclamation calling the special election is Wednesday, but our planning has been underway for sometime. In order to stay ahead of a known compressed schedule we have been in pre-planning mode since September 10th. This includes the sorting and identification of 144 storage containers (or caddies, each holding 8-12 eSlate voting booths). We are required to send the same voting booths to the same precinct for every election. These booths, used in the May 2009 election, will be serviced and prepared in the coming weeks for the upcoming special primary election.

Maroon Sample Ballots to be Used

September 19, 2009 - As we await word from the Governor´s office on a final date for the 72nd Assembly election, we already have several designs and draft documents prepared. We have designed the sample ballot cover for this election using a maroon color, which should help it to stand out from other sample ballots voters have seen in the past. Because the election will be at an unusual time it is important for us to make sure voters notice their election materials. As soon as the election date is set and the proclamation is issued by the Governor we will release samples of these documents in our newsletters for voters, the media and general public to view.

72nd Assembly District Information

September 19, 2009 - When the resignation in the 72nd Assembly District took place (September 9th) our office moved quickly to begin preparations for an impending election. Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, has worked closely with the Secretary of State´s office in planning for what will be a condensed schedule.

Although information and details have moved quickly we have been preparing in earnest with the latest information. Specifics change as possible dates have been considered. Under California law the Governor must call an election within 14 days of the resignation. But our office has been planning (we have to in order to stay ahead of schedule) before an official proclamation is issued.

We are well positioned and prepared for ballot production, vote-by-mail mailing, sample ballot assembly and equipment deployment. Our redesigned processes over the past several years keeps us "election ready" at all times.

Check in with our Stay Connected page for up-to-the-minute information as it becomes available.