At 7:00 pm on February 5, 2008, 155 people formed as the Ballot Transportation Team in support of the Registrar of Voters (ROV) office for the Presidential Primary Election.
A total of 1118 precincts brought electronic ballots to 23 collection centers located throughout Orange County. Forty three (43) vehicles driven by members of our team were dispatched to the various collection centers and transported over 4750 boxes and bags of Judges Booth Controllers (JBCs containing the electronic ballots), precinct supplies, and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) printers from those sites back to the Vote Talley Center (VTC) in Santa Ana within a seven-hour period.
SUPPORTING PERSONNEL: Employees from several County of Orange agencies: RDMD (Transportation, Facilities Operations, P&DSD), Sheriff-Coroner Department (Control One, Communications, Emergency Management, Transportation, Reserves, Financial, Research & Development), OCRACES, Hospital Disaster Support Communications System (HDSCS) and various city RACES organizations composed the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary Election Ballot Transportation Team.
DRIVERS: We had to do some aggressive recruiting to find enough drivers for this election and 23 of them had to be willing and capable of driving large box trucks. Here are some driver facts:
24 drivers from OCSD/Communications
19 drivers from other OCSD Divisions and County Departments.
7 were first time drivers for this event
8 alternate/extra drivers in case someone didn’t make it on election night
20 drove standard vans
12 drove 24-foot box trucks
11 drove 16-foot box trucks
TRANSPORTATION: Forty-three (43) vehicles were used to transport ballots. The fleet was comprised of eleven (11) 16-foot box trucks, twelve (12) 24-foot box trucks and twenty (20) full-size cargo vans. Two additional cargo vans were also available as replacements if one of our drivers had trouble with their assigned vehicle. Joey Hernandez and Todd Eggers of RDMD/Transportation, coordinated the rental and preparation of these vehicles. Due to changes in our transportation plan, we had two staging locations for the trucks on election night. Twenty (20) of the box trucks were staged at the VTC to facilitate pre-loading them with pallets and boxes. The remaining 23 vehicles were staged at the Civic Center Garage as in past elections. This required additional work on the part of Joey’s staff and we appreciate his willingness to be flexible.
SECURITY: OCSD/Reserves provided security for our drivers and for the VTC. Lieutenant Roger Neumeister and Office Supervisor Karen Waters, along with their staff, continue to meet our request for assistance. They arranged for the requested number of Deputies and pre-assigned the Deputies to Collection Centers to expedite the process of pairing up our drivers with the Deputies after our briefing on election night. I appreciate Lt. Neumeister’s efforts to comply with our request to have the Deputies split into two briefing locations. We had the briefing for van drivers at the Civic Center Garage and needed 23 Driver/Deputy teams at that location for a briefing specific to their duties. The remaining 20 Driver/Deputy teams were assigned to the larger trucks and met at the ROV facility to conduct a briefing specific to their duties. Preparing the vehicles for deployment is a project in itself and requires a great deal of coordination between RDMD/Transportation and the ROV. Due to the logistics involved, having the trucks stage at the ROV is necessary. I know Lt. Neumeister had concerns about having multiple briefing locations but his clear directions to the Reserve Deputies ensured they arrived at their proper location. The ROV provided all authorized personnel with appropriate color-coded ID badges, which allowed the Deputies to quickly determine whether or not to allow personnel access to certain areas of the VTC. This color-coded information was provided to the OCSD/Reserve Deputies. Overall, it made identification much easier for the Reserve Deputies and enhanced security within the VTC. We also had Deputies posted at the VTC unloading area entry and exit points. In all, there were 59 Reserve Deputies supporting our operation representing a cost value of over $28,000.
VTC LOGISTICS: The Samantha II Communications Vehicle was used as the Command Post for our VTC operations. This vehicle worked out very nicely once again by affording us plenty of room in the Command Post with computers and radio console equipment for our driver dispatcher, RACES Net Control operators, and our Precinct Verification operators. We requested the Samantha II vehicle to arrive at the VTC by 10:00 a.m. to allow us more time for the set-up process. OCSD/Senior Communications Technician Sam Maynard and Communications Technician I Oscar Bocanegra assisted OCSD/Transportation Deputies Terry Stepp and Dan Meyers in setting up Samantha II. Sam also provided technical support throughout the evening and helped secure the Samantha trailer when our operation was complete at 2:00 a.m. The ROV placed a large temporary building along the fence next to the unloading area to provide office space for their expanded staff on election day. This created a barrier between the Public Guardian lot and the unloading area which would negatively impact our operation. As a result, we placed the Samantha trailer directly across from the unloading area instead of in the Public Guardian lot. This allowed us to see the unloading area but it had a significant impact on the space available for the vans and trucks to maneuver in the unloading area. We added extra traffic control staff and maintained a one-way flow of traffic for the vans and trucks. The vehicles entered from the South at the Century High School traffic signal on Grand Ave and exited to the North onto McFadden Ave. We did have some POVs parked along the south fence in the unloading areas that interfered with the unloading area. We were told that these vehicles belonged to Reserve Deputies and we were not successful in finding the owners to have them moved until those personnel were finished for the night. We really need to stress to all personnel that parking in the unloading area is prohibited.
TIMELINES:
10:00 am Samantha II arrives at ROV and begins setting up.
7:00 pm Drivers & Deputies meet for final briefing at Civic Center garage and ROV.
7:45 pm Vans depart from the garage en route to Collection Centers.
8:34 pm First box arrives at a Collection Center (Westminster)
9:05 pm Santa Ana van 5A with 5 precincts is the first van to arrive at the VTC.
10:49 pm Tustin is the first Collection Center finished for the evening.
12:59 am Anaheim truck 1B was the last truck to arrive and unload at VTC.
2:30 am All ballot transportation and precinct verification completed.
OCSD/Transportation & Sr. Comm. Tech Sam Maynard securing Samantha II.
FINAL THOUGHTS: The personnel from OCSD, RDMD, OCRACES, and City RACES groups, once again worked as a cohesive team. Thanks to the patience, diligence and flexibility demonstrated by all personnel involved, we were able to safely transport over 4750 boxes and bags of JBC ballots, supplies and VVPATs from 23 Collection Centers throughout the County to the VTC in Santa Ana. Our mission was successfully completed with every Orange County precinct accounted for at the VTC by 2:30 am. Many thanks to all who were involved in making this another successful election night.