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Vote Early. It’s Easy and Secure.
Voters don’t have to wait until November 4 to vote in the 2025 Statewide Special Election. Fourteen more days of voting are available! During the first two weeks of early voting, the Registrar of Voters has signature verified and accepted for counting XXX,XXX Vote-By-Mail ballots. Voters returned their ballots through one of these available options:
All of these ballots will be included in the first election results report posted at 8:05 p.m. on November 4. Starting October 25, voters can begin to visit one of 32 Vote Centers throughout the county to drop off the Vote-By-Mail ballot they marked at home or to request an in-person ballot they can mark in a voting booth. Neal Kelley Registrar of Voters |
| Current Tweet This week, nine temporary election workers assigned to our ballot scanning team |
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| Is a Voting Mark on a Ballot Secret if It Is Returned in a Vote-By-Mail Envelope? Claims have circulated across social media during this election that how a voter votes on Proposition 50 can be seen either through a hole on the ballot return envelope or by shining a flashlight through the envelope in alignment with the voting targets. The Orange County Registrar of Voters does not use ballot return envelopes with holes. We tested the flashlight claim and found that a voting mark can be seen if a flashlight is positioned just right. The Registrar of Voters team wants our voters to know that the secrecy of every voter's ballot is extremely important to us. We do not try to determine how an individual voter marked their ballot, which would violate the voter's state constitutional right to vote a secret ballot. And the California Elections Code provides that anyone who is not on our staff who examines another voter’s ballot to determine how that person voted could be fined up to $10,000 and imprisoned for up to three years. Our ballot processing is entirely transparent. Voters can visit our office to see for themselves that we do not individually review each ballot envelope by hand to detect how a voter marked their ballot and do not throw away any voted ballots. We didn’t change the ballot return envelope paper stock, security features or design for this election. The envelope paper thickness has been consistent for so long that no one on our team can remember the last time it was changed. The last envelope change of any kind was 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic when we switched to “peel and seal” envelopes from ones that had to be licked to seal. Voters have several secure options to choose from to return their ballot – mail their ballot, place it in a Ballot Drop Box, hand deliver it to our office or a Vote Center, or visit a Vote Center to vote an in-person ballot. We encourage voters to sign up for ballot tracking to confirm when we have received and counted your ballot by going to our website at ocvote.gov/track.
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| Life of a Vote-By-Mail Ballot The Orange County Registrar of Voters maintains the integrity of your Vote-By-Mail ballot throughout the election process. The life of a Vote-By-Mail ballot starts when we print, prepare and mail the ballots. We have a high-speed printer onsite that produces the Vote-By-Mail ballots and two mail inserting machines that trim and fold the ballots before they are inserted into an envelope with voting instructions, a return envelope and an “I Voted” sticker. Each ballot envelope has a barcode that matches it to a specific registered voter, which helps us to make sure each voter is only mailed one ballot. Voted ballots are collected from the U.S. Postal Service, our Ballot Drop Boxes and Vote Centers by two-person teams, using strict tracking and chain of custody procedures. Ballots 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. If the voter has signed up for OC Ballot Express, the voter will be notified that their ballot was received. 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. Once a ballot is removed from the envelope, the vote is now anonymous. There is no personal voter information on the ballot itself. Another team then unfolds, flattens and inspects ballots for damage or marking by the voter in a way that would prevent the ballot from being scanned. Ballots are scanned and then audited to ensure accuracy before the tabulations are sent to the Tally Room where the votes in each contest are added up to produce results reports after voting closes at 8 p.m. on November 4. 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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| Electioneering and Voting Do Not Mix Electioneering inside a Vote Center and within 100 feet of the entrance to a building containing a Vote Center, a Ballot Drop Box, drive-thru ballot drop off or curbside voting location is strictly prohibited. Violations can lead to fines and/or imprisonment. Electioneering includes wearing clothing that displays a message to vote Yes or No on Proposition 50 and asking a person to vote for or against a ballot measure if the voter is within 100 feet of any voting location or standing in line to vote if the line extends more than 100 feet. Petitions also cannot be circulated in the electioneering-free zone. Blocking access to a voting location is prohibited as well. For a full list of prohibited electioneering activities, visit our website at ocvote.gov/electioneering. To report electioneering, call our Voter Assistance Hotline at 714-567-7600 or 888-OCVOTES (888- 628-6837). |
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| Conditional Voter Registration Even if you missed the regular voter-registration deadline at 11:59 p.m. last night, you can still vote in the 2025 Statewide Special Election. California permits same-day registration and voting, also known as Conditional Voter Registration. New voters can fill out a conditional voter registration form in-person starting today at the Registrar of Voters (1300 S. Grand Avenue, Bldg. C, Santa Ana, 92705) or starting Saturday, October 25 at any Vote Center. After completing the conditional voter registration form, you will be issued a provisional ballot. Before going to a Vote Center or our office to request a ballot, we encourage new voters who missed the registration deadline to register online because it should help expedite the voting process when they arrive. Register to vote at ocvote.gov/registration. If you have any questions on conditional voter registration and voting provisionally, visit our website at ocvote.gov/cvr or call our Voter Assistance Hotline at 714-567-7600 or 888-OCVOTES.
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