Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Elections topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County registrar briefs Mission Viejo council on ballot mailings, drop boxes and vote‑center hours ahead of primary
Summary
Orange County Registrar Bob Page told the council the county will mail ballots to all active voters next week, deploy 128 drop boxes and 191 vote centers, and is changing early vote‑center hours for the next four years to 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; he outlined security, signature‑cure, and certification timelines.
Bob Page, Orange County registrar of voters, briefed the Mission Viejo City Council on April 28 about election administration for the upcoming primary. He said the county will mail roughly 1.9 million ballots to active voters, and reminded residents of the four ways to return a ballot: mail (postage paid by the county, must be postmarked by Election Day), secure drop boxes, voting at vote centers, or returning in person at a vote center.
Page said the county will have 128 drop boxes this election, each bolted to concrete and individually keyed to prevent a single person from opening all boxes. He said the county will operate 191 vote centers and for the next four years vote‑center hours for early voting will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with statutory hours on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. He also noted that mail ballots are processed on paper and that the county’s systems provide a paper trail for every vote cast.
On certification and signature cures, Page said the earliest the county can certify results is 24 days after the election under recent legislative changes; voters will have until 5 p.m. 22 days after the election to cure a signature challenge. He described voter‑file maintenance and the county’s efforts to reduce undeliverable ballot rates, and encouraged first‑time voters to register by the May 18 deadline for the primary or to use same‑day registration at vote centers.
Councilmembers asked how many drop boxes are located in Mission Viejo; Page pointed to the county’s online map (ocvote.gov) with city‑level listings and said the county allocates boxes based on a ratio (about one per 15,000 voters) and that the countywide total meets that requirement. Mayor Bucknam noted the city’s early‑voting center at City Hall and a newly authorized box at Saddleback College.
Page also stressed security measures — electronic voter rosters to prevent double voting and partnerships with law‑enforcement for on‑site safety — and invited follow‑up questions. The registrar said presentation slides are available to the city clerk and, presumably, on the city’s agenda documents.
