This election season, the voting process itself takes the spotlight.

Last November, some 11.5 million California voters showed up to vote in a special election on redistricting. Prop. 50 was the Democratic State Legislature’s answer to a GOP-friendly redistricting process in Texas. In California, 64 percent of voters offered a resounding yes to a left-leaning gerrymandering equivalent.

In Monterey County, 108,443 voters cast ballots in the special election, 69 percent of them voting yes. In much larger Riverside County, 56 percent of voters said yes to Prop. 50.

Most of the 656,500-plus ballots cast there were seized in March by Sheriff Chad Bianco – also a gubernatorial candidate at the time – who claimed that election observers reported a discrepancy of more than 30,000 ballots.

Four voters whose ballots were seized, and the California Attorney General, sued Bianco and Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco.

“The proceedings in this case raise critical issues regarding our democracy and election integrity,” according to the voters’ suit. “California law prescribes strict procedures as to who is permitted to handle ballots, the process for recounts and auditing of election results, the chain of custody of ballots, and who is legally authorized to count ballots.”

The case went to the California Supreme Court on Aug. 24 for oral arguments. The case was accompanied by a friend-of-the-court brief filed by Monterey and Santa Clara counties, plus five county election officials elsewhere in California. They argued that allowing Bianco’s criminal intervention to stand would set a dangerous precedent for other counties.

“We actually reach out to our voters and work with them.”

“Rather than bolster confidence in the results of the 2025 election, a recount conducted by untrained sheriff’s deputies could sow further distrust in the electoral process,” the brief states. “Conducting any sort of recount of ballots requires expertise in election administration. [Election officials] are approved, trained, and sworn for a reason: they have the sole responsibility of maintaining the ballot chain of custody.”

I was curious about the chain of custody – not just because of this case, in which the County of Monterey is a participant, but because it’s part of a trend. The latest antics nationally involve new rules from the Trump administration to make the Postal Service’s role in moving ballots far more hands-on. (The Supreme Court struck down that plan in a Sept. 14 ruling.)

Monterey County Registrar of Voters Gina Martinez prizes transparency, and agreed to show me around. A public observation area of glass panels (with mesh up top to allow sound through) invites anyone to watch any part of the process at the Salinas office of the County Elections Department.

It’s transparent, but ballots are secret and the process is designed to manage both. “There are so many layers of security,” Martinez says.

That starts with printed markings on envelopes that are unique to each voter. “If you call me and say, ‘I never got it,’ or ‘my dog ate it,’ I reissue you a ballot. It has your voter ID and an envelope ID that is different than the original.” The idea is to ensure just one ballot is counted for this dog-ate-my-ballot voter.

The first step for accepting returned ballots is verifying signatures (this does not reveal the votes inside – and you can go hang out behind that glass partition to watch). Every signature is reviewed and validated by a human. If it doesn’t appear to match what’s on file, more humans look. If it’s still not matching, they call you.

“A good security measure we have in place is we actually reach out to our voters and work with them,” Martinez says.

By the time ballots are ready to be scanned, no names are attached. Tabulation can then begin after the polls close on Election Day.

Any questions are reviewed by a team of two humans (also visible through glass) to interpret what a voter meant if, for instance, there’s a cross-out.

Ballots from 219,000 registered voters move through this system, tracked and marked so election officials know which tabulator counted each one. “We have to keep it incredibly well organized,” Martinez says.

This is the system Martinez and her team aim to show the public openly, so that voters believe their ballot has been counted – even in the face of various attempts to undermine that trust.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com.