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Bill - And good morning, Bill Smith live in Orange County, where the Registrar of Voters
goes high tech, NASA space-age style, to get those votes counted as quickly and as computerized
and as fast, and as space-age as possible. We will show you live, from Orange County
this morning.
Michaela - Well Orange County is going to be trying out a new election tally system
that uses NASA technology. Here to explain all things NASA-technology related is Bill
"The Science" Smith to break it all down for us. Hi Bill.
Bill - Yes uh, hi, good morning from the Orange County Registrar's. We're in the basement,
the subterranean control center, sort of a NASA Mission Control. Neal Kelley, first time
in the state, high-tech?
Neal - Absolutely. High-tech in Orange County, Bill. We're ready to start tracking poll sites
using satellite technology.
Bill - Now, as we go around the room and show here, this is really a control center here,
and you got all these people sort of doing a dry run this morning, but uh, what happens,
what flows through here?
Neal - It is. Tomorrow we'll be tracking teams that'll be out in the field, in the county,
with election equipment as back up. And you can see from these computers and the screens,
we can track all of the poll sites, eight-hundred of them, using satellites.
Bill - In fact, as we go up to the big screen over here you, now you can see on the big
screen, I see all of the triangles on the big screen. so wh- what, those are poll sites?
Neal - Yes we have eight hundred throughout the county, and if we have a problem at a
poll site, we can deploy these Rapid Deployment Teams, which you can see represented by a
green dot up there, that's one of the teams out there right now.
Bill - So the problem is to get it all counted, uh, while it's still, uh, not history (Laughs),
bef... while it's still news. How quickly can you count with all of this high-tech stuff?
Neal - Well we'll be ready at 8:05 to post our first results, and election management
has changed so much in California that we've gone high-tech to track all of this.
Bill - What could go wrong? I mean, I, you know I, I still can't control the VCR and
get the settings right for pre-record and all of that. What could go wrong that could
uh, turn us into Florida of uh, of six years ago?
Neal - Oh no, but Orange County's ready, Bill. We're ready for you in Orange County, but
uh, some things that could happen. You could have a power problem on E-Slate, for example,
but that's why we have the backup. We're in place to respond.
Bill - Now the high-tech stuff here is, is all, not for counting the ballots, that's
done separately. This is just for, bringing in the ballots, gettin 'em all in here so
you can count 'em.
Neal - That's correct. This is managing the field on election day, and that's what's so
critical.
Bill - Alright, well we'll be back next hour and we'll hear a little bit more about how
this is going to work. uh... and then we'll be back Tuesday morning to see if you did
it right or if you screwed it up...
Neal - No, we're gonna do it right, Bill (Laughs)
Bill - (Laughs) Alright, okay. Live from Orange County, Bill Smith. Back to you in Hollywood.
Michaela - That's what U was about to say, we'll be back Tuesday morning to see how they
did. Alright, thanks very much, Bill.