Episode
Santa Barbara Upgrades Ballot Processing
- Published
- Jun 15, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 142
- Processing state
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Summary
Santa Barbara County’s Elections Office just approved a fast-track purchase of a new BlueCrest ballot sorting machine to handle the surge in mail-in ballots—now over 80% of all votes. Bypassing competitive bidding drew scrutiny from Supervisor Bob Nelson, but staff justified it with urgency: grant deadlines, outdated 12-year-old equipment, and only a few certified vendors in this niche market. The machine will not only speed up processing by sorting ballots by district and flagging issues like torn envelopes or missing signatures, but also unlock more printing flexibility—a critical upgrade as ballot volume explodes. Supervisors ultimately backed the move, citing proven reliability in other counties and the Agilis machine’s current bottleneck status. With the June primary ballots already rolling in and certification due by July 2nd, this tech upgrade is poised to make a major difference—and prepare the county for even bigger mail-in turnout ahead. Support the show: Get a discount at https://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN: [email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting. Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates: https://sources.thednn.ai/37a086cd41e37205