 |
Countdown to Voting – Vote-By-Mail Mailing
Voting for the November 3, 2026 General Election will open in four days. The U.S. Postal Service will pick up about 1.9 million ballots on Sat., Oct. 3. Voters could receive their ballots as soon as Mon., Oct. 5. As a state-certified ballot printer, Registrar of Voters (ROV) started to print the ballots on Mon., Sept. 7 and our team has been inserting ballots and instructions into envelopes since Tues., Sept. 8. Any voter who does not want to wait for a ballot to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service can visit ROV in Santa Ana on Oct. 5 to receive and vote a ballot. Our office is at 1300 S. Grand Ave., Building C, at the corner of Grand Avenue & McFadden Avenue. Make sure to check your registration status and visit ocvote.gov/registration to make any necessary updates before Mon., Oct. 19. Bob Page Registrar of Voters |
| Current Tweet During High School Voter Education Weeks, ROVs Community Engagement Team reached out to more than 100 local high schools... |
|
 |
|
| Ballot Drop Boxes Open On Friday, Oct. 2, two-person teams of ROV staff will inspect and unlock 128 Ballot Drop Boxes throughout Orange County for use in the November 3, 2026 General Election. New State law requires ROV to unlock the Ballot Drop Boxes at least one day before the Mon., Oct. 5 deadline to start mailing ballots. Previous law required the Ballot Drop Boxes to be opened the day after ballot mailing started. The Ballot Drop Boxes are one of four safe and secure ways Orange County voters can cast their ballot. They:
Only teams of two election workers can collect the voted ballots from the drop boxes, following strict chain of custody procedures. ROV tracks the GPS location of ballot collection teams always and stays in radio contact with them while they are completing their routes. Find a Ballot Drop Box near you by visiting ocvote.gov/dropbox. |
 |
|
| Ballot Sort for Mailing – Ensuring Voters Receive One Ballot A team of Orange County ROV staff feeds every ballot for the November 3, 2026 General Election through high-speed mail sorting equipment utilizing a secure database to confirm that only one Vote-By-Mail ballot will be mailed to each registered voter. About 1.9 million ballots are being prepared to mail to voters starting Mon., Oct. 5. The mail sorters scan the barcode on each ballot envelope to verify that a ballot has not already been issued to the voter. A sorter can scan up to 750 envelopes per minute. There is nothing on the ballot envelope that indicates the political party preference of the voter. The barcodes on the envelope simply identify each voter’s issued ballot and contain United States Postal Service mailing data. If a voter requests a replacement Vote-By-Mail ballot or requests an in-person ballot at a Vote Center after the original ballot is mailed, ROV will only count the first voted ballot received from the voter. If you receive a ballot for someone who no longer lives at your address, please write “Not at this address” on the envelope and give it back to the USPS. When ROV receives an undeliverable ballot back from the USPS, we inactivate the voter’s registration. Your awareness and action help protect the integrity of our election. |
 |
|
| FAQ - Ballot Barcodes Explained We know voters have questions about elections and voting, and ROV is committed to providing clear, accurate information every time. Today, we’re sharing answers to questions around barcodes on ballots – There are several barcodes on Orange County's ballots that help ROV process ballots quickly and accurately. The barcodes identify the ballot page number, print sequence number, and language, as well as the voter's precinct. All of this information is critical for the efficient preparation of 1.9 million ballots for mailing, remaking damaged or mismarked ballots, and tabulation of votes. A ballot tabulator reads the marks made by the voter filling in the voting targets with black ink in each contest. The barcodes ensure the tabulator knows which precinct ballot it is scanning so the votes are tallied for the right candidate. But the barcodes do not contain the voting choices of the voters. In the 2026 General Election, Orange County has 2,377 precincts and 549 ballot styles the tabulators must identify. Each ballot style has a unique set of contests located in the same place on the ballot card. To review a diagram that explains each barcode on Orange County's ballots, visit ocvote.gov/ballot-barcodes. To find answers to other Frequently Asked Questions, visit ocvote.gov/faqs. |
 |
|
| Open House is Next Week ROV’s Open House is next Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 4 to 7 p.m. at our headquarters, 1300 S. Grand Ave., Building C in Santa Ana. The Open House is your opportunity to see the steps we take when processing ballots. Members of the ROV team will demonstrate ballot collection and chain-of-custody processes, mail ballot signature comparison, scanning of ballots and the testing and auditing of election equipment and software, and will answer your questions. If you are unable to attend, you still have many opportunities to observe election operations before, during and after Election Day. Visit ocvote.gov/observe for a complete list of activities, an Observation Schedule and an Observer Guidelines Handbook for the November 3, 2026 General Election. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| F O L L O W U S | ||||
 |
 |
|||
| S H A R E N E W S L E T T E R | ||||
1,909,870
 |