The failed Jessie Lopez recall election has been certified by the O.C. Voter Registrar

SANTA ANA, CA – November 29, 2023 – Registrar of Voters Bob Page today certified the results of the November 14, 2023 City of Santa Ana Special Recall Election. 

On the sole question of whether Jessie Lopez, Santa Ana Councilmember for Ward 3, should be recalled, the No votes totaled 3,867 and the Yes votes totaled 2,993.

The Registrar of Voters will provide the certified results to the Santa Ana City Clerk to present to the City Council, which must officially declare the results of the votes on the recall no later than December 8, pursuant to Elections Code section 10263. 

Total voter turnout for the election was 25.6 percent. Of those ballots counted, 96.7 percent were vote-by-mail ballots and 3.3 percent were in-person ballots cast at Vote Centers.  

Prior to certification, a one percent audit was completed to verify the results of the election. The legally required one percent manual tally of precincts examined and manually tallied 28 ballots from one precinct chosen at random. The hand count results were then compared with the election results that were produced by the County’s voting system.  

The audit confirmed that the results of the election were correct. Details on the audit can be found at ocvote.gov/audit. 

A post-election logic and accuracy testing of Orange County’s voting system equipment and software was also conducted last week. Test ballots were fed through all ballot scanning devices used in the election, and all the votes on the test ballots were accurately counted. 

Finally, the Registrar of Voters confirmed that the state-certified voting system software had not been modified during the election. 

The Orange County Registrar of Voters produces detailed reports focusing on overall turnout, turnout by precinct, turnout by districts, turnout by cities, and more. These detailed reports can be found by visiting ocvote.gov/detailed-results.