With universal mail voting in place for the primary elections this week, ballots are still being processed as the Orange County Registrar of Voters receives them.

Nearly 1.9 million ballots were sent to registered voters in Orange County ahead of the June 7 election.

As of Friday, 497,788 ballots had been returned.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters still has 219,130 ballots left to process, which includes nearly 31,000 mail ballots received on or before Election Day. And as long as they are postmarked by Tuesday, ballots still coming in can continue to be counted.

So far, there are an estimated 24,491 eligible ballots received after Election Day that still need to be processed.

The Registrar of Voters began its post-election audit process this week — a dual process that meets state requirements and adds an additional measure of election security, the county elections office said.

On Thursday, it randomly selected 1% of precincts in Orange County with ballots to be hand-counted on July 17.

The risk-limiting audit — which is not required by state law — began Friday morning. It uses an audit software as well as a 10-sided die to randomly select ballots to be manually counted. This counting will also begin on July 17.

“The Registrar of Voters team is committed to ensuring all elections in Orange County are fair and accurate,” said Registrar of Voters Bob Page. “We go beyond what is required in statute and conduct additional audits and testing to ensure every piece of our voting system is secure and recording votes as voters intended.”

A pre-election logic and accuracy test, required by law, was completed from May 6-17.

“These three audits and tests are key components of our comprehensive election integrity program,” Page said.

With more ballots counted this week, GOP incumbent Congresswoman Young Kim still appears poised to hold off her Republican challenger Greg Raths in the race for CA-40. Democrat Asif Mahmood remained comfortably in the lead, setting the stage for a November contest between Mahmood and Kim.

And in CA-46, Republicans Christopher Gonzales and Mike Nguyen are battling for second place as Democratic Rep. Lou Correa sits with a solid lead.

In the 68th Assembly District, Anaheim City Councilman Avelino Valencia, a Democrat, has held onto his lead with Republican Mike Tardif, a small business owner endorsed by the state GOP, following.

In the 70th Assembly District, Garden Grove Councilwoman Diedre Nguyen, a Democrat, still holds a lead with Westminster Mayor Tri Ta in second place.

For school elections, incumbents have maintained their lead. That includes Al Mijares for county superintendent of schools as well as Trustees Mari Barke and Lisa Sparks.

Full coverage of Orange County election results can be found at: https://www.ocregister.com/tag/2022-elections/

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