Orange County’s elections office received a bomb threat Friday afternoon, prompting an evacuation of the building where ballots were being counted, according to Registrar Bob Page.
At around 6:45 p.m., both staff and members of the public observing the ballot tallying process were evacuated from the Santa Ana office. Page confirmed that everyone is safe.
Bomb detection dogs were brought in to search the building, and no explosives were found. The threat had been sent via email to one of the registrar’s general inboxes. A significant number of deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department were already present, as is standard during ballot processing.
Deputies reviewed the threat and coordinated an evacuation plan, with poll observers being evacuated first, followed by staff.
The evacuation took place only 15 minutes before the office was scheduled to stop ballot processing for the night, meaning the ballots remained where they were at the time of the evacuation, according to Page.
“The Orange County Registrar of Voters is committed to ensuring equal access to the election process, protecting the integrity of votes, and maintaining a transparent, accurate, and fair election system,” said Page. “We are working diligently to address this incident and keep all staff and members of the public who visit our office safe.”
