Election security top of mind for Southern California election officials ahead of June primary

As we approach the upcoming June and November elections, the political rhetoric, lawsuits and legislation around how we vote have reached a boiling point.

“The cheating is rampant in our elections. No more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel,” said President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address in February.

The president and some congressional Republicans are pushing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, aka the SAVE Act, which would require all U.S. voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register, and a photo ID to vote. The president has also raised questions about mail-in voting, saying without evidence that it leads to fraud. Even the Supreme Court is poised to rule on whether mail-in ballots can be counted if they’re postmarked by, and then received within five business days of Election Day.

“What’s happening here is the political discourse is spilling into: ‘How can we change the rules?’ And right now, that’s happening through legislative proposals at the federal level through executive orders that are being litigated, and just kind of ongoing disinformation about the process. It really is about dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the outcome of the elections. And so for us as election administrators, we have to focus on: ‘What does the law say?’ Which, in California, is very inclusive. It’s about ensuring that every eligible voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot, either in person or by mail, has multiple safeguards built into it,” said L.A. County Registrar Dean Logan.

SEE ALSO: CA Senator Alex Padilla denounces Trump’s SAVE America Act, warns of voter suppression

Those safeguards include having to be a U.S. citizen and resident of California in order to vote, showing a valid ID to register, which is checked against the state DMV, or social security number, and signing your ballot after you vote, which is matched with the signature the state has on file.

California Senator Alex Padilla says the SAVE Act would disenfranchise millions of eligible American citizens from making their voices heard.

“Your own driver’s license wouldn’t be sufficient to be able to cast your ballot. We’re talking passports or original birth certificates. If you’re a woman who changed her name when she got married, good luck trying to meet the documentary requirements to be able exercise your right to vote,” Padilla said.

Padilla says he fears we could see ICE raids at polling places, even though that type of voter intimidation is against the law, which is why election workers like those in Orange County have to go through hours of training, including de-escalation.

“We just tell them to remain calm. And that’s the most important part with any of these scenarios. And even if that voter comes upset with those types of questions as well: ‘Why aren’t you doing x, y, and z? Why aren’t you doing this? Why aren’t you checking for this, like a certain document?’ And then we just tell our poll workers, our election workers, you know, try to process that voter as any other voter, right? But just to remain positive, to remain calm,” said Orange County election trainer Andrew Calloway.

“Any voter in Orange County, I want them to know that voting in Orange County is safe and secure,” said Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page.

Although the registrar of voters in Riverside County says the same, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is also running for California governor, took the unprecedented action one month ago of seizing more than 500,000 ballots from the 2025 Prop 50 special election.

“Our investigation will determine the validity of that alleged discrepancy, and if found true, we will determine the cause. We will do that by physically counting the ballots,” Bianco said.

Bianco paused the investigation after it faced numerous legal challenges and ethical concerns. Election officials say they have to be prepared for anything.

“What we’re seeing play out in Riverside County, what we see playing out in Fulton County, Georgia, is unprecedented; we haven’t seen this before. The message we want to send to voters is that we have a history of well-run elections in California and in Los Angeles County, and we are heads down focused on making sure that we provide voters with an accessible, secure voting process in June and in November, despite all of this noise,” Logan said.

Election officials say that although voters who vote by mail have a month to send in their ballots, many wait until Election Day to make a decision, which is why the Supreme Court ruling on mail-in voting, which could come this summer, may impact the November election.