Placer County has a fancy, new elections office. Step inside to see how your votes are counted

Last August, the Placer County Elections Office moved from its longtime Auburn stronghold to the ever-expanding city of Rocklin.

It was one of many changes for the office that oversees Placer County’s 284,933 registered voters. In addition to the move, the office also recently adopted the Voter’s Choice Act model of voting, meaning voters now cast their ballots at voting centers scattered across the county instead of at their previous designated polling locations. The Placer County Board of Supervisors voted last June to support the change.

Placer County has some of the best voter turnout in California, with registered voters across the political spectrum routinely showing up to vote at a higher number than most counties in the state.

For this reason, Clerk Recorder and Registrar of Voters Ryan Ronco is committed to transparency at every step of the voting process. In fact, all of the county’s programmable elections equipment is stored in an enormous warehouse behind the front office, but under the same roof as the staff.

“People are concerned oftentimes about elections and election integrity, understandably so,” Ronco said. The equipment is stored in its own secure, caged area with its own alarm system, he said, and it’s both “a blessing, and very rare in California” for the equipment to be in the same building as the office.

Ronco and the Elections Office staff encourage residents to visit the center anytime — especially during contentious election seasons.

“If any member of the public wants to come and watch us count ballots, we encourage that,” he said.

It’s not just members of the public who may want to see where the action happens.

“We get a lot of candidates that like to watch ballot counting, and we certainly understand and encourage that,” Ronco said, even if the candidates are butting heads.

“Sometimes candidates don’t get along with each other too well, so we actually decided to put a second set of windows into the building so that, if necessary and people aren’t playing in the sandbox together, we can have different camps of candidates in different sections so they can watch ballot counting in peace.”

It’s all part of the office’s commitment to election transparency, from the wall-less front office to the glass dividers in the ballot tabulation rooms.

“This talks transparency,” Ronco said, “without ever having to say ‘transparency.’”

This story was originally published August 17, 2024 at 6:00 AM.