Ballot processing underway in Los Angeles County

Christina Gonzalez. She is live from the City of Industry. For those folks watching in the Bay Area, this is where the ballots are processed in the City of Industry at the processing center there. And she joins us now live from inside. Christina Gonzalez, what a process it is. Oh, wow. We're in ground zero. This is really it. And I got to tell you, we are next to, and it sounds really fancy, this is the extraction center. Let me get out of the way and tell you what's going on. You see all these people here and by the way most of these people are volunteers and many of them have been volunteering here for years and their children also volunteer so a good shout out to them and their civic duty but here is where if the ballot has come in and the machine has not detected a problem with a signature or it's ripped they bring it here ready for extraction and you see these gloved people they actually open up the ballot and they separate the actual envelope from the ballot itself. Later you'll see the people People walking around in front of them, one person will pick up the envelopes and only the envelopes and then somebody else will pick up the ballots and only the ballots. They're very, very serious about security and order here and they will take them to be counted. They have always been careful, and I've been covering this for many, many years, but Dean Logan is explaining that this year, with all the questions from the federal government, all the issues that have been happening, they are being even more cautious than they ever wanted to be. And we ask them because we know the Department of Justice observers have been out here, a few of them this morning. We expect more this afternoon. I don't see any right now, but I'll point out because any person can come out here and be an observer. But back to Dean Logan. We asked them because, you know, remember yesterday the Supreme Court decided that they were not going to hear the Department of Justice request to stop California from counting or putting aside 20,000 plus ballots. They said they were not from actual citizens, and that was denied. So we talked to Dean Logan about that and about what has been difficult on this process today. Listen to that. We were pleased with the decision of the Supreme Court yesterday. We think it reflects a couple of things. One, it reflects a recognition that we are operating within the framework of state and federal law with regard to voter eligibility and conducting an election. It also recognizes that the Congress and the courts have repeatedly said that it's inappropriate to disrupt the election literally days before the election or on election day. The hardest part... You know, honestly, for me, it's discouraging to see things that might discourage people from voting, to sow mistrust in a process that is so fundamental to our representative form of government. There's a place to work those issues out through the legislative process, through the judicial process. But in the middle of an election, what's most important is for voters to know that they have access to voting, that we're going to facilitate that process, and that they don't They don't have to fear anything in that process. I think largely we've achieved that, but I think that there were certainly some concerns going into this election that people could have been impacted that way. You know, we've had no issues so far. We usually get the reports from people that they saw ballots dropped off in the wrong place. Nothing like that has come in with 32 percent of the vote coming in. And by the way, that's already higher than back in 2022. The general election overall was 28 percent. So we're already doing better. And this is mostly mail-by-vote ballots. But you still have time to vote. You have till eight o'clock. And if you're in line at eight o'clock, by the way, you know, you they will keep you in line until you get. to vote. And I know everybody is overwhelmed with the ballot. If you're still filling in those judges, you don't have to. You don't have to fill in every single election. They will still count your ballot. You should know one. And here is a hack from your Fox Local people. If you don't know anything about the judges, here's where you want to go. Go to the L.A. County Bar Association. The L.A. County Bar Association has done something They won't tell you who to vote for, but they rate the judges. So there's five stars, four stars, three stars. It doesn't tell you who, you know, what they, but it gives you a sense of what the bar has on them. And that might help you make a decision. But if you don't fill out those judges, don't feel bad. The Melville-sized, you know, Moby Dick-sized ballot is there. You don't have to fill everything. They will still count, even if you only fill in the governor and the mayor's race. So now we've helped you out for today. I'm Cristina Gonzalez. We'll keep you updated. This is going to get really crazy. After 8 o'clock, 8:30 tonight, and we'll all be here giving you the latest. Absolutely, and I can appreciate that, Christina. I'm holding up my official sample ballot because it is thick and it took a long time to fill out. And I appreciate you helping our viewers out in case they have not yet voted. It's very important. Polls close in three hours and 55 minutes, so you still have some time to get there. You can also drop it off at the Postal Service. I know at this point there is more concern about that. You can take it to a ballot box, another way to do it. There has been a lot of talk about election security, and where you are is open to the public, right? Where you can go and you can observe this process take place. Can you talk more about that? And I'm going to give the overhead shot, too, because I think that's important to show off. Yeah, let me see if we see any of the—OK, so here. Yes, this is open to the public. As a matter of fact, if you're the public and you become an observer, you actually get in there a lot closer than I am right now. But as we show you around, let me tell you, because it's not that easy. It is like going into a concert for someone really, really special. You have to go through security. Do not bring a big bag with stuff. They're going to go through the machine because, you know, it's an issue of security. Also, they will walk you, somebody with a little observer jacket, let's see, do we see any observers? James, take a look around, let's see if we see any. If not, it's better than my face, let's show them what's going on out here. But if, I think, do you see an observer over there? No. But somebody with an observer jacket will actually walk you through the whole building. They will show you even the parts that we can't show you live on camera. Because believe it or not, there's areas where they're actually doing the voting, Those ballots are going to go into the machine. And if we were going to put a camera live on that, you could actually see the votes going through. So they don't even let us show you that live. But, and what you're looking at right now is some of the volunteers who are coming in and they are getting prepped. But, you know, if we see an observer, more observers come early in the morning and they come late in the afternoon. But if you decide you want to come by, bring an identification, show up here, and they will literally... Put an observer person with you, and they'll walk you through the whole process. They have always done that, even before, ever since this place opened up in 20, about four or five years ago. Before this, when it was Norwalk, they always were serious about doing that. You also see the security man walking by. There's a ton of security all over the place. So they are, they're seen and unseen. To answer your question in the very long-winded Cuban way that I tend to answer things sometimes, yes, it is open to the public, but you can't just waltz in here and say, hey, here I am, you have to be escorted. I have to be escorted to go to the bathroom right now. So they mean it. They mean it with us, they mean it with everybody, and they've always done that. I want to emphasize that even before all this craziness. But they are expected, Department of Justice people, observers, to be here. A couple this morning, usually they come in later in the afternoon. It's nothing new. They've come in here before. Okay, because that announcement came earlier in L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. She put out a statement ultimately condemning the action by the DOJ. And Dean Logan was asked about that as well earlier today. Can you speak to that? Can you hear that? Yes, he actually, you know, he said that they had not seen them here, that they've seen them more out in the ballot where people are voting, out in some of the locations. But that they, like I said, they had a couple here this morning. They tend to come in here later because what happens is as the polling place is closed, then you begin to see the rush of those ballots coming in here. And that is when the observers believe that it's better to be here because that's when they see the process really speed up. Remember, they have some time to get all those votes counted. Now, just because they haven't counted doesn't mean they're certified. They have until the end of November to certify. But, you know, right now what you're looking at is the mail-ins. But observers, you're going to see a lot more of that at this location, I believe, tonight. At least that has been the process in the past, and I don't think that will change. All right, very good. Kicking things off in the 4 o'clock hour, Christina Gonzalez, I appreciate you so much. And who are you with today? With James, who's doing an amazing job. Oh, that's right, James Wolfe. How could I forget? Yeah, he's doing a double shift. We appreciate you. Thank you to our guys who are doing double shifts. Thank you, guys. Absolutely. Okay. We will keep you all updated. Okay, and we're glad that you will. Christina, thank you.