Orange County voters may be among the first anywhere to be able to track their mail ballot literally every step of the way, thanks in part to the same technology that helps doctors track medical specimens.

Starting with the June election, a voter who’s filled out their ballot can take it to one of a handful of select drop boxes, where they’ll scan the bar code on the mailing envelope before putting it in the slot. Right away, they’ll get a text message that confirms where and when they dropped the ballot off.

That instantaneous record closes a gap between when the ballot goes in the drop box and when election workers empty the box to take its contents back to the Registrar’s office for tallying. OC election officials also hope the added technology will further chip away at allegations of election fraud that former President Donald Trump and others have levied in recent years, without any substantive evidence. Courts have dismissed more than 60 lawsuits challenging the 2020 presidential election.

OC Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley on Wednesday announced a pilot project to put the new scanners on nine of the most heavily used drop boxes (there are more than 100 official boxes around the county) in time for the statewide primary.

After the November 2020 election, Kelley said he heard from some voters, “I don’t want to use the drop box because I don’t know when I put it in there if it’s safe.”

“This is just one extra tool to give that voter a boost of confidence as soon as they drop it in,” he said.

The new weather-proof scanners are adapted from machines that track tissue samples patients leave for their doctor, Kelley said. His office says it’s the first in the industry to use the technology at drop boxes.

Ballot box fraud concerns are nothing new, nor are Kelley’s efforts to improve integrity, transparency and confidence in Orange County elections.

His office performs two kinds of audits of election results (most elections officials carry out just one – a hand recount of 1% of precinct results). The office was recently certified as meeting international standards used by businesses for quality control, which Kelley described as “the same standard that Ford Motor Company uses to build cars.”

Kelley has invited scientists from Caltech to scrutinize OC voter registration data and report on their findings (spoiler: no fraud or major issues were found), and he recently helped write a Columbia University report recommending higher education institutions work with elections officials as impartial monitors to find and fix problems and build public trust in the voting system.

Kelley – who is set to retire in March – is widely respected in his field by Republicans and Democrats, but even that hasn’t entirely staved off concerns among voters who believe that voting by mail in general is ripe for mistakes and corruption.

Orange County began sending every registered voter a mail ballot in early 2020; the practice spread to the rest of California in November that year, thanks to pandemic concerns about in-person voting.

In the last election cycle, Trump “repeatedly cast doubts about the integrity of voting by mail, and in particular about the use of drop boxes,” despite having “no reliable evidence” that anyone used the boxes to commit fraud, UC Irvine election law professor Rick Hasen said.

Hasen, who helps run UC Irvine’s Fair Elections and Free Speech Center, said he thinks as long as the former president continues to make such claims, some people will have doubts about voting by mail.

But others say additional layers of protection – and assurance – may help.

In an email, Garrett Fahy, O.C. chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association, called OC’s new drop box scanners “a promising development for voters, elections officials, elected officials, candidates, and those of us who practice election law, as it should encourage lawful participation, increase voter confidence and transparency in the process, all of which give greater trust in our elections.”

Although Kelley’s got more ideas – like an encrypted key that would let a voter make sure the vote they cast for John Doe was counted for John Doe – he said implementing or expanding election integrity measures will be up to his successor, San Bernardino County Registrar Bob Page, who was hired earlier this month and will take over in about two weeks.

While some people’s belief in widespread fraud in the U.S. election system may not be changed by any amount of innovation, Kelley said, “That’s at least a legacy I want to leave: ‘Hey, let’s try and fight this thing.’”

Related links

OC looks to San Bernardino County for new registrar of voters
OC elections chief Neal Kelley caps long, widely respected career
New group raises false specter of election fraud in Orange County
Election fraud claims pose dilemma for Orange County GOP