On Sunday, June 5, two friends and I witnessed the absurdity of the California election process at the Orange County Registrar of Voters (ROV) facility in Santa Ana. As public observers, which anyone can do, we watched the ludicrous process that basically empowers temporary workers to become what can best be called “signature experts.” These workers have immense authority in determining which ballots are valid and which might be fraudulent.

Third-world countries would probably reject the way ballot signatures are verified in Orange County.

The (mostly temp) ROV workers sit at computers comparing primary ballot signatures to registration signatures. About ten feet behind each worker, observers watch what they are doing on large monitors.

What my friends and I observed were ROV “signature experts” quickly reviewing eight signatures in approximately five seconds: four primary ballot signatures and four registration signatures.

Could you continually review eight signatures every five seconds?

When observers see a discrepancy between a ballot signature and a registration signature, they can do nothing! They cannot ask the ROV temp workers to re-examine the signature they had just verified. They cannot write down the voter’s name for an ROV staff member to later review.

The only thing observers can do is stand like statues i.e., quietly observing the process. (Observing the fraud?)

In our short time observing, most signatures were easily matched. However, there were still too many questionable signatures that, in our opinion, required a secondary assessment to determine if the person who signed the primary ballot is the same person who signed the voter registration form.

The ROV supervisor didn’t appear to care that we saw numerous questionable signatures. After all, this is California and election integrity makes as much sense in the Golden State as Joe Biden talking to Corn Pop.

Speaking through her N-95 mask, the supervisor stressed that our role was solely to observe the process. (Observe the fraud?) Handing us small index card-size forms, we were told to detail what we had observed.

Image: Election Observer Guidelines Handbook by Robin M. Itzler.

After noting her observations Shelley H. of Westminster claimed:

Four to five seconds is not sufficient time to view the signatures and many irregularities were missed. On one ballot, the letter ‘L’ was completely different as compared to the registration signature and still the primary ballot signature was verified.

Susan S. of Rancho Santa Margarita wrote down her observations and later shared:

Our election systems are outdated. There are too many vulnerabilities with mail-in ballots as the signature matching process at the ROV showed many suspect ballots. With all the technology now, we should have developed a new way to secure our vote.

One wonders if all the cards outlining issues observers witnessed at the Orange County ROV were tossed in a box for shredding.

Deborah Pauly, J.D., president of Conservative Patriots of Orange County (CPOC), said,

Elections in Orange County are ripe for fraud and the points of entry are myriad: dirty voter rolls, hackable and manipulable voting machines, lack of adequate signature verification, official drop boxes placed in dark secluded and unmonitored locations, ballot harvesting by coercion, ballots lost in the mail or mailed in from who knows where since there is no way to track custody through the U.S. Postal Service.

CPOC, which I am active in, is committed to improving the election process in the county. Pauly added,

Local officials say there is no problem here, but Orange County is not immune to election fraud. In fact, the more we have been talking about this, the more people we have coming forward with their own stories.

James Peters, CLU, ChFC, who has a successful financial planning firm in Irvine, knows the importance of accuracy. As CPOC’s election integrity committee chairman, he has been an Orange County ROV observer on numerous occasions. Peters stressed that onsite problems start with supervisors who are not watching workers but are busy handling their own tasks.

Based on what we have seen, the Orange County ROV primary goal is to quickly count ballots. Signature accuracy is not as important. Our observers have seen signature verifiers missing scores of invalid signatures. The same happens at replication tables, which has ballots that were rejected by the scanner. When observers have objected to signatures, ROV does not go back to check.

Peters goes on to explain the foolishness of having observers observe potential fraud in real-time and then have Orange County ROV supervisors ignore the complaints.

Ballots are separated from envelopes. Since the ROV worker is the only one who can challenge a bad signature and assume they do so, how do they pull that ballot when it has been separated from the envelope? It is a perfect crime.

Peters has no confidence in the Orange County ROV.

There is 100% certainty in my mind that they are not catching the ballot traffickers who are faking signatures and the people who did a poor job of filling out their ballots are not having their intention to vote carried out.

Added Pauly,

We have to wonder why those with the fiduciary duty to oversee that elections are fair and free of fraudulent activity are not taking the complaints as serious threats to the integrity of process worthy of investigation. CPOC will stay on top of this issue until we are satisfied the election integrity has been restored in our backyard.

Mentioning my own experience to a friend who has observed past elections at the Orange County ROV, Mollie L. of Laguna Niguel (soon to be of Texas) said,

I did ballot observation at the Orange County Registrar of Voters in 2016, 2018 and 2020, and saw more obvious fraud and mismanagement than I could ever report.

Arguably, this entire issue related to verifying signatures could be remedied by voting in person and requiring voter identification to receive the ballot (with exceptions for the military and a few other situations). Then there would be no need to hire temp workers to act as unreliable “signature experts.”

Californians who believe in the sanctity of America’s one person/one vote election system are angered at the state’s Democrat leadership and liberal citizenry embrace of mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting, unsecured lockboxes, and top two open primaries. Together it makes a mockery of the election process.

Once high on the list of states envied throughout the nation, California is now low on both water and election integrity.

Robin Itzler can be reached at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com.