By Mary O’KEEFE

On Tuesday the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) Dean C. Logan and LA County Sheriff Robert Luna held a press conference focused on election security and how the RR/CC and LA County Sheriff’s Dept. (LASD) will be working to keep elections – voters and poll workers – safe.

Both Luna and Logan said that although people may not see deputies at the polls or at the ballot drop boxes they will be close by.

“We are one week out of the 2024 Presidential general election. There is a lot of activity going on and we want to take this opportunity to brief you on just some of the basics of what’s happening with the election and then specifically to talk about what we are doing collaboratively here in LA County to ensure we have safe and secure elections in the days and weeks ahead,” Logan said.

Logan stated that as of Tuesday over 900,000 vote-by-mail ballots had been received and expects that number will rise to 1 million in the next few days. RR/CC also had 47,000 in-person ballots cast at its 122 locations. As of Saturday, Nov. 2, there will be an additional 526 open polling places open, totaling the in-person vote centers to 648 throughout Los Angeles County.

Voters can go to any of the locations to vote in person. The in-person voting locations will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Nov. 4, then on Election Day (Nov. 5) the polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Logan shared the security process of vote-by-mail ballots that come from the U.S. Postal Service or the ballot drop boxes.

“The first part of the process is to have the [LASD] K9 units scan [the boxes the ballots are transported in] to identify if there is any piece of mail with suspicious products or substances in it,” Logan said. “That enables us to, if that were to happen, isolate that [specific ballot/ballots] and go into an investigative process; but it also protects our environment so that we don’t have to shut down operations and we can continue to provide the service that we need to have the ballots processed and counted.”

The RR/CC partnered with the LASD and other local law enforcement agencies regarding security.

The ballots go from the in-person voting locations to 79 check-in centers throughout the county and then they are transported either by sheriff patrol cars or sheriff helicopter back to the Norwalk RR/CC office.

“Part of our parking lot actually becomes a helipad and it’s quite a scene here on election night, the way that we efficiently get those ballots back [to Norwalk]. Securely getting those ballots back here is through a partnership with the sheriff’s office. There are also a number of security provisions here in the building,” Logan said.

There are several surveillance cameras throughout the area that monitor the facility 24/7.

“We take the security of the voting process very seriously, but we also take transparency very seriously,” he added. “So this building is available for observers to come and watch the process.”

“We as the County of Los Angeles take security … extremely seriously. In a region as diverse as Los Angeles County, public confidence in a fair and transparent election process is essential,” Luna said. “I am aware that some of our residents, based on community input, have some concerns about safety as it relates to voting. Election safety is a top priority for us in Los Angeles County, specifically with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept., and we are committed to a fair process free of intimidation and free of interference.”

Luna pointed out that as of Monday the department had not received any credible threats to polling locations or toward poll workers in LA County.

“But we’re continuing to monitor the situation,” he added.

He added that LASD is working with partners nationally, statewide and locally. In fact, last week Luna was in Boston, Massachusetts at a city chiefs conference where one of the top topics was election security around the nation.

“So just please know that although there are no credible threats [at this time], we will always be prepared to respond swiftly to any incidents or threats that may be occurring,” he added.