Orange County witnesses highest voter turnout, begins election audit

Orange County reflected higher-than-average voter turnout in the 2020 general election, a trend visible across the nation. Graphic by HARRY LADA, Art Director

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a partisan divide reaching an all-time high under President Donald Trump’s administration, the 2020 general election saw uncharacteristically high voter turnout in comparison to the nation’s past performance. Both candidates broke former President Barack Obama’s 2008 record of most votes cast for a presidential candidate.

Orange County’s voter turnout is also trending higher than usual at 87%, with Biden receiving 53.5% of the vote compared to Trump’s 44.4%. This marks a considerable increase from the 80.7% voter turnout in the 2016 presidential general election. Jackie Wu, the community outreach manager for the Orange County Registrar of Voters, told The Panther that the average turnout in the county for general presidential elections typically ranges between 70% to 80%. 

“We’re at the highest turnout for any election in Orange County, especially for a major presidential general election like this one,” Wu said. “We installed 110 ballot drop-boxes for the March election, and we increased that number to 116 in the November election … Based on November, there seems to be a lot of interest in voting.”

As a result of the pandemic, vote-by-mail ballots gained prominence this year, with early votes for the 2020 election making up 73% of the 2016 election’s turnout. In Orange County, over 1.2 million mail ballots have been counted for the 2020 general election, compared to 695,050 in 2016.

Despite Trump’s popular votes exceeding 73.1 million, the president expressed doubts in regard to election integrity – particularly addressing the mail-in ballots, which favored Biden. Orange County began conducting a risk-limiting audit of the election results Nov. 13 to determine whether ballot tampering was involved in the county. 

“Conducting a risk-limiting audit is an excellent way to audit elections and provide an important check on the integrity of the election process,” said Neal Kelley, Orange County registrar of voters, in a press statement. “This is a valuable opportunity to utilize the enhanced auditing capability of Orange County's voting system, while at the same time ensuring that the outcomes are true and correct.”

Some speculate that since President-elect Joe Biden received over 5 million more votes than President Trump, the country saw a higher voter turnout because of Biden alone. However, Trump significantly outperformed his own 2016 popular votes, gaining an additional 10.1 million votes in 2020. 

High turnout among BIPOC communities – particularly in Georgia, a key contested state – overwhelmingly favored Biden. The youth vote from adults under 30 years old was likely also a factor in increased voter turnout. Gen Z and Millennials are responsible for over 25 million ballots cast in the 2020 general election, with voter turnout projected to reach a total of 53%, surpassing the previous highest turnout record from 2008, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

According to The Washington Post, current data shows 64.7% of voters cast their ballots this election, the highest turnout since the 1908 general election’s 65.7%. Polling projections for the final count estimate turnout could reach as much as 66.7%, based on The Washington Post’s modeling – an increase from the 60.1% turnout in the 2016 general election. 

The question remains whether this level of voter engagement will remain consistent in years to come. Justin Koppelman, Chapman University’s associate director of Student Engagement, has played a prominent role in encouraging students to be active voters. 

“I’m excited as a citizen and as a member of the Chapman community to see signs of the turnout increasing pretty significantly,” Koppelman said. “I hope that (increased voter turnout) continues and that this isn’t a peak that we see for the 2020 election.”