Speaking to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan, the county’s top elections official, pronounced the new system a “success” and earned praise from the same panel that grilled him in March about the problems during the primary.
Logan told the supervisors that his office had worked diligently to fix problems since conducting a review of the technology breakdowns in the primary. He said voter behavior also helped, with many voters opting to vote by mail or vote early at the polls, which relieved the strain on new electronic poll books that caused major delays in March.
“Our long-term investment and hard work in L.A. County was worth it,” he said. “The execution of this election was successful.”
Voters in L.A. County heeded warnings about in-person voting complications and delays that they experienced in March, and they decided to cast the majority of their ballots by mail — a first for Los Angeles County.
(Techwire interviewed the Registrar-Recorder’s chief information officer and assistant registrar/county clerk, Aman Bhullar, over the summer about his department’s preparations and its focus on election security.)
While ballots are still trickling in and the tallying continues, about 3.4 million voters in Los Angeles County — roughly 80 percent — cast vote-by-mail ballots through the U.S. Postal Service or drop boxes. That’s more than double the rate of the 2016 presidential election.
Supervisor Janice Hahn — who was a vocal critic in March, and who urged Logan to review issues that sparked long lines and anger from voters — said she agreed with his assessment. She said voters had a “good experience” this time.
The pandemic was a major factor in changing voter behavior this year. It prompted officials to mail ballots to all the state’s registered voters, not just those who requested them.
Election experts said the county’s voting system in Los Angeles appears to have met its high expectations, even while changing long-held routines and habits developed around election night.
“The big thing is, you don’t really know how a new electoral system is going to play until you test in practice,” said Kevin Wallsten, professor of political science at Cal State Long Beach. “It seems like L.A. County, in particular, performed pretty well.”
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