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Election Results Update
The Registrar of Voters posted the results from 987,667 ballots – about 98 percent of all in-person, Vote-By-Mail, and provisional ballots cast in the 2025 Statewide Special Election – by 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8. The estimated 21,000 ballots still being processed when the last results report was posted were:
Amongst the remaining Vote-By-Mail ballots were ballots:
The U.S. Postal Service will likely deliver more Vote-By-Mail ballots with an eligible postmark by the Wednesday, Nov. 12 deadline and other counties could also forward Orange County ballots. The Registrar of Voters team expects to process any additional ballots and get signature verified ones into the results by the following day. Voters notified that their Vote-By-Mail ballot envelope was missing a signature or that the signature on the envelope was significantly different than the signatures in their registration file will have until 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 30 to deliver a cure statement to the Registrar of Voters. Senate Bill 280 set this cure deadline and prohibited the Registrar of Voters from certifying Orange County’s election results before Tuesday, Dec. 2. All ballot processing is observable by the public. A daily calendar of canvass activities is posted on the Registrar of Voters’ website at ocvote.gov/observe. The unofficial results of the 2025 Statewide Special Election are updated at 5 p.m. on weekdays and can be found at ocvote.gov/results. After updated results are posted, a What’s Left to Process report is updated as well at ocvote.gov/left. Note: The Registrar of Voters will be closed on Tuesday, Nov. 11 in observance of Veterans Day. Bob Page Registrar of Voters |
| Current Tweet After Vote-By-Mail ballots are extracted from their return envelopes |
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| Verifying Vote-By-Mail Ballot Postmarks The Orange County Registrar of Voters maintains the integrity of your Vote-By-Mail ballot throughout the election process. After additional voted 2025 Statewide Special Election ballots are collected from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) each day after Election Day up until Nov. 12, our team carefully reviews each ballot envelope to confirm it was postmarked by Nov. 4. For this election, the statutory ballot delivery deadline of seven days after Election Day rolls to the next day because Nov. 11 is a State holiday. Ballots received from USPS after Nov. 12 will automatically be rejected. Ballots initially identified as having a postmark after Nov. 4 are stamped “Received Too Late” and then undergo an additional verification process to ensure accuracy and confirm that they did not meet the required postmark date. Too Late ballot envelopes remain sealed with the ballots inside so they cannot be counted. Ballots with an eligible postmark are loaded into a mail sorter that captures an image of the voter’s signature and scans a barcode on the outside of the envelope to record that the voter cast a ballot. To learn more about ballot processing, review the Life of a Vote-By-Mail Ballot fact sheet on our website. Visit ocvote.gov/voting and then scroll down near the bottom of the page to click on the Life of a Vote-By-Mail Ballot “Learn More” button. |
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| Verifying Ballot Signatures Trained Registrar of Voters staff carefully compare the signature on each Vote-By-Mail and provisional ballot envelope to the voter’s signatures contained in the voter registration file. State law requires staff to look for similar characteristics when comparing signatures, not to make an exact match. Similar characteristics may include:
Staff must also consider explanations for discrepancies in signatures, such as:
If our trained staff find the signature on the envelope compares with the voter’s signatures in the registration file, the ballot is extracted from the envelope. If a voter forgot to sign their ballot return envelope or if three Registrar of Voters’ staff members find the signature on their ballot envelope significantly differs from all signatures in their voter registration file, we will send the voter a notice by first-class mail giving them an opportunity to cure the signature issue. If the voter provided a phone number or email address with their voter registration, we will also call or email the voter. |
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| Auditing and Testing for Accuracy Before certifying Orange County’s results of the 2025 Statewide Special Election results on Dec. 2, the Registrar of Voters will audit the vote count and test voting system equipment and software to ensure the accuracy of the results. 1% Manual Tally One percent of all precincts in the county were randomly selected using 10-side dice on Nov. 6. A video of the random selection can be watched by visiting the Registrar of Voters website at ocvote.gov/observe. All ballots within the randomly selected precincts will be manually tallied by four-person teams and compared to the voting system results. It is expected that the hand counting of all ballots will start by Friday, Nov. 14. We estimate these precincts contain a total of 11,000 ballots. Audit progress will be posted at ocvote.gov/audit. Logic & Accuracy Test Each of the about 200 ballot scanners used to tabulate ballots in this election will be tested. Test ballots are fed through each of the scanners to confirm they still count the votes accurately. This post-election Logic & Accuracy test will start at 8 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 14. The Logic & Accuracy test was also completed before the scanners were used in the election. Additionally, we confirm that the voting system software has not been modified before we load it onto all voting system equipment before the election and again after Election Day before the election results are certified. This includes confirming that the hash code for the software used in the election matches the hash code for the original software image hand-delivered to the Registrar of Voters by the Secretary of State. The public can observe the 1% Manual Tally audit and post-election Logic & Accuracy test by visiting our office at 1300 S. Grand Ave., Bldg. C, Santa Ana, or by viewing livestreamed video at ocvote.gov/observe. |
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| Use Your Voice for Voter’s Choice Until Nov. 13, Orange County voters have one more chance to provide input on how their elections are conducted for the next four years. On Thursday, Oct. 30, the Registrar of Voters posted an Amended Election Administration Plan (EAP) 2026-2029 for public review and comment at ocvote.gov/EAP – click on the Resources menu tab. The plan is informed by public comment and feedback gathered since June 2025 as well as federal and state law, election data collected since 2020, best practices in election administration, and the County budget. The areas covered in the EAP include:
The EAP addresses voter education and outreach, Vote Center and ballot drop box operations, accessibility and language services, election security, and contingency planning. The Amended EAP 2026-2029 is available in English and in translated versions in Chinese, Farsi (Persian), Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, in accordance with federal and state law. Comments on the EAP may be submitted until Nov. 13 by:
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