The Orange County Registrar of Voter is a nice guy. Neal Kelley breaks the mold of the chain smoking, old school government employee.
I have written about him before and praised his use of technology. Today I have to mention it again.
On Election Day I voted using a provisional ballot because I had moved and not re-registered. I could have just voted the absentee ballot that was sent to my office–I knew that my new house was in all the same political subdivisions all the way down to water district. But it was the “signing under the penalty of perjury” that I could not bring myself to do. Because it specifically states that you must LIVE in the precinct in which you are voting.
So I ended up going to my old polling place and voting provisionally. The nice poll workers gave me a card with a “provisional retrieval code” and a call-in number. They said to wait a few weeks and then call to see if my vote was counted.
I forgot about it until today when I came across the card. All I did was call the number 1-888-OCVOTES and press ‘4’ to check the stats of my provisional ballot, enter my code and it automatically told me it had been counted.
Maybe I am too easily impressed or maybe I have very low expectations of county government but the system worked. No hassle, less staff time, innovation. Way to go Neal!