LA County officials work to keep votes, voters safe in 2024

How LA County keeps your vote safe

Los Angeles County election officials are working hard to secure this year's election.

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said he wants people to "feel secure that they can go to any voting location and not be intimidated or fearful that anything may happen."

For that reason, the Sheriff has been involved in all kinds of meetings for months, planning how security should be implemented in what he calls "a contentious election".

"We have to be concerned," Luna said. "If you look at the rhetoric, the back and forth. We always tell people it's okay to disagree, but you can't go [to] fisticuffs, and you can't act on your desires for violence."

As of now, the Sheriff said there are no credible threats to polling places or polling workers in the county. And he and LA County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan intend to keep it that way.

"We take the security of the voting process very seriously, but we also take security very seriously," Logan said.

Logan and the Sheriff have seen the burning neighborhood ballot boxes in Washington and Oregon. Nothing like that has happened here. And, Logan said, "The boxes that we use in LA County are all designed to ensure the safety of the ballots, so if something was to happen the flames could be extinguished quickly."

The Sheriff said, "We are being briefed on that investigation and everything and anything to do with that incident."

The Sheriff's K9's are on the job too to prevent any toxic materials from being sent in with ballots that could affect the workers and the counting. Logan said the dogs help "so we don't have to shut down the operation and to continue to provide the services that we need too to have the ballot process and counting."

Luna said the goal is simple: "Election safety is a top priority for us in Los Angeles County, and we are committed to a fair process free of intimidation or free of interference."

And, deputies work the whole process along with the people in the county vote center. They escort your ballots from LA County's 648 voting centers, "... to 79 check-in centers throughout the county and, then they are transported either by sheriff's patrol cars or sheriff's helicopter back to this facility for counting."

Sheriff Luna said that on election day "if you see something, say something."