Last year’s election in Orange County was free of any evidence of fraud, according to a grand jury report issued Tuesday.
Prompted by complaints from residents questioning the integrity of the voting, the grand jury investigated the election process from observing how votes were collected to how they were counted and how reviews of the tabulations were done.
The grand jury found “no evidence of fraud or election interference” in the 2024 general election in the county and that voting in the county “is fair, secure and transparent.”
The grand jury praised the Orange County Registrar of Voters for its various outreach programs to educate the public about voting. And, in a rare instance, the grand jury offered no recommendations.
“The entire (Registrar of Voters) staff is highly commended for their excellent performance in the coordination and management of the 2024 presidential election,” the grand jury reported. “Their commitment to best practices supporting voting integrity, meticulous planning and rigorous security measures ensured that the voting process was fair, secure and transparent. The ROV upheld the highest standards of electoral integrity, thereby reinforcing public trust in this critical institution and setting an example for all government entities to follow in performing their public duties.”
Multiple critics of the voting system in place in California have been regularly complaining for the past four years to Orange County supervisors about fraud. Many of the complaints revolve around debunked conspiracy theories about online vote switching and the length of time in which it takes to tabulate ballots.
The grand jury noted that under state law, voting results are not due until Dec. 5 and that it takes time to count the mailed-in ballots that come into the Registrar of Voters following Election Day. In several cases, candidates ahead on the night of the election can find themselves on the losing end weeks later as mailed-in ballots trickle in, prompting cries of fraud from supporters of the losing candidates.
“Orange County is the seventh-largest voting district in the nation and its population exceeds that of 21 states,” the grand jury reported. “As a result, there are a significant number of votes to count.”
Voters are given until Dec. 1 to fix a ballot that may be marked up in a way that is confusing to the Registrar of Voters. Also, mailed-in ballots postmarked on Election Day must be counted within seven days, and “thousands of ballots were received in this manner,” the grand jury reported.
“Every vote-by-mail ballot undergoes a signature verification process to ensure it matches the voter’s registration signature,” the grand jury reported. “This step is time intensive, but essential for election integrity.”
In many cases “ballots are submitted in which the intent of the voter is clear, but the ballot cannot be read by the machine,” so a duplicate must be made for the machine to read it correctly, the grand jury reported.
The Registrar of Voters must also handle provisional ballots, which are allowed to be cast on Election Day but must be verified to ensure the voter is eligible to participate, the grand jury noted.