I know everyone is worried about voting this year, but if you live in Orange County, CA I have great news for you - our registrar of voters, @OCRegistrar, is one of the most respected Registrars in the country. (thread)

Going into the 2018 election I knew NOTHING about counting ballots and all that goes into it, but on election night, when we didn’t know the outcome of Katie Porter’s race, I started reading more.

Everything our registrar does is transparent. Despite being a registered republican, Neal Kelley is all about making sure every voter gets a voice and that every vote is counted. Even before Covid, during this years primaries every registered voter got a ballot in the mail.

If you don’t want to mail your ballot that’s ok - there are ballot drop boxes all over the county. They are totally secure and are emptied by authorized staff on a daily basis.

Want to vote in person? Cool, there are vote centers all over he county. And if Election Day doesn’t fit into your schedule, some of those voting centers open several days early.

After the votes are received, they are meticulously processed. Signatures are verified against the original voter registration form. If one doesn’t exist, an operator can check other government forms like DMV registrations.

If there is any question about a match, it gets escalated to someone with more experience. Anyone can observe this process and challenge signature matches without knowing anything about who submitted the ballot.

Tensions are running high and while it is always important to have a plan to vote, if you are voting in OC you don’t have anything to worry about.

/thread