Because our whole system of voting in Orange County will change in 2020, the OC Registrar of Voters will hold a public hearing on its new draft Election Administration Plan on Thursday, Aug. 29.
“Starting with the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election, every registered voter in Orange County will receive a vote-by-mail ballot and will have the option to vote in person at any Vote Center in the County across a 11-day period, including Election Day,” states an Aug. 27 news release from the Registrar of Voters. “The Orange County Registrar of Voters scheduled 28 vote center workshops throughout the County in June and July 2019 for members of the public to share their feedback on operations, outreach, and potential locations.”
The draft plan is 101 pages, and covers pretty much everything you need to know about how the county will adhere to the Voter’s Choice Act, which passed in 2016 with the goal of modernizing how elections take place in California. For instance, there will no longer be election precincts–instead, each of Orange County’s 1.6 million registered voters will get a vote-by-mail ballot. In turn, voters can mail in their ballot, or take it to any of the county’s new 188 Vote Centers or 110 ballot drop boxes.
Thirty-eight of these new vote centers will be open for 11 days prior to and including Election Day. All 188 of the Vote Centers will be open for four days, including Election Day.
“The public is invited to review the draft Election Administration Plan and attend the public hearing,” said Neal Kelley, Registrar of Voters, in the news release. “The Orange County Registrar of Voters values input from the community and looks forward to successfully administering elections in the vote center model.”
The public hearing will start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29 and take place at OC Dept. of Education Board Meeting Room (200 Kalmus Dr., Costa Mesa). If you want to attend but can’t, the meeting will be live-streamed at ocvote.com.
Click here to read the Registrar’s draft Election Plan.
Anthony Pignataro has been a journalist since 1996. He spent a dozen years as Editor of MauiTime, the last alt weekly in Hawaii. He also wrote three trashy novels about Maui, which were published by Event Horizon Press. But he got his start at OC Weekly, and returned to the paper in 2019 as a Staff Writer.