Here's a look at LA County's new ballot processing center ahead of March 5 primary
Anyone will be able to watch the count in person or through video surveillance streamed online.
CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. (KABC) -- With the March primary less than two weeks away, Los Angeles County has opened a new facility in the City of Industry that aims to streamline the voting process.
The ballot-processing center will serve as a singular and secure location to tally the majority of the votes cast by the 5.6 million registered voters in the county.
"The people that have worked in vote-by-mail, quite frankly for the last two election cycles, have been moved from facility to facility because we just didn't have a facility that could contain them all," said L.A. County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan.
Consistent with the need to modernize, the 144,000-square-foot facility used to be a Fry's Electronics store. Logan said it cost about $10 million to build out and it has the capacity to have 600-800 workers on site at its peak.
Ballots arrive through a side door and are inspected by a sheriff's department K-9 before getting sorted and then brought to the tally room.
"They're being scanned and imaged," said Logan, looking into the tally room at work. "They're not being tabulated, they're just being processed so that we have the ability to quickly tabulate once the polls close at 8 o' clock."
The cybersecurity arm of the operation includes an air gap. In other words, computers in the tally room are isolated from outside networks.
The tally room is only open to credentialed workers, and each wall has floor-to-ceiling windows for public viewing.
"This process belongs to the voters of L.A. County and they have the right and the option to come and see that their ballots are being handled properly," said Logan.
Video surveillance means you people see the process online, too.
The goal being that anyone who has questions about how this all works can find answers.
"What you're seeing here, I hope, is our effort to be on the offensive and say we're gonna tell you in advance," said Logan. "We're showing you. We're being transparent so you can see."
