Orange County, California, Can Save Millions of Dollars by getting out of the Voters Choice Act.
Guest Contributor
Orange County in 2020 elected to join an optional method of conducting elections called the Voters Choice Act (VCA). The reasons given were to increase participation, aging election equipment and faster results. The county data analysis looked at the records over the past 5 years to see how this is working.
Participation Study – VCA showed significant drop of 16% in voter participation.
- In person voting locations were reduced from 1100 neighborhood sites on election day down to 66 centralized vote centers for this year’s Prop 50 special election.
Aging Electronic Equipment Study – VCA County election budget increased over 77%.
- Administrative costs to conduct general election increased over $5 million.
- New equipment contracts with Hart InterCivic cost $15.3 million.
- Annual maintenance costs of $948 thousand dollars for Hart InterCivic and DMT Solutions (dba Blue Crest): scanners, machines, tablets for electronic poll books, tabulators, machines to open mail in ballots and review signatures.
- In person votes extended voting – changed from 1 day staff of volunteer workers on election day to paid workers costing $2 million.
- Drop boxes open for 29 days require truck rentals and daily personal to retrieve ballots.
Faster Results Study – VCA Certification 30 days after election day vs one week.
- VCA allows ballots to be cast in other counties which must be sorted & returned between counties after Election Day.
- Mail in ballots counted for 7 days past election day.
- Ballots can be cured for 28 days after the election.
- Chain of custody is questionable at best and totally non existent at worst.
Will the five supervisors from different political parties do what is best for the taxpayers and voters in their districts? They have the authority to direct the Registrar, Mr. Bob Page, to not renew the voters choice model of voting which the data proves decreases participation, wastes millions of dollars and decreases flexibility for voting. Time is limited as this decision must be finalized before December of this year.