Questions are continuing to swirl around how Newport Beach leaders plan on hosting their own election for the first time in nearly half a century, with plans to send out the first ballots today despite questions on if city staff has what they need to actually count the votes. 

City officials didn’t respond to multiple questions about the election this week, but the situation is so fluid they are hosting a meeting tonight to discuss the issues.

The rush comes after OC Superior Court Judge Julianne Bancroft ordered city leaders to move forward with an election for three ballot initiatives the city challenged in court, arguing they were improperly filed, with Bancroft claiming their opposition to the initiatives bordered on obstruction. 

[Read: Judge Orders Newport Beach to Move Forward with Ballot Initiatives]

Now, Bancroft has overruled all the city’s complaints on the initiatives and denied multiple requests from city lawyers to delay an election for those initiatives after the county election chief informed city leaders he would not assist them in hosting a last minute election. 

“Several critical election deadlines are expiring or near expiration, further constraining the ability of the Registrar to administer any City-requested services,” wrote OC Registrar Bob Page in a letter to city leaders last week. 

“Requiring the County to develop and provide services in support of a stand-alone City election on the same date as the statewide general election would interfere with the Registrar’s ability to conduct the General Election and pose unacceptable risks.” 

Read: Newport Beach’s Phantom Election

While city leaders have appealed Bancroft’s decision to the California Supreme Court, there’s no word yet on if the state’s top legal authority will take up the case, and the California Secretary of State declined to comment on the election when asked by Voice of OC. 

What is the City Doing to Prepare for Election Day? 

Most of the city’s elections are still happening on the general election ballot sent out to voters, including city council seats and a ballot initiative aimed at shrinking the total amount of approved housing in the city. 

[Read: Who’s Behind the Push for Less Housing in Newport Beach?]

But three initiatives will be on a separate, city ballot, aimed at increasing transparency at city hall, instituting stricter term limits and shifting city council seats to district elections. 

For the special ballot, there will be no in person vote centers, with the entirety of the election conducted via mail according to city officials. 

The first ballots for military and overseas voters are expected to be mailed out by Friday according to city spokesperson Georgia Rios, noting that the city was waiting on a business reply permit from the US Postal Service as of Tuesday. 

The authorization for that permit can take up to a week to process according to the postal service’s website. 

It also remains unclear on how city staff plan to count ballots once they come in, with Page telling county supervisors on Tuesday that the city’s consultants were still looking. 

“The consultant is now looking for a certified system,” Page said. “There’s too many voters in Newport Beach to qualify for a hand counting process.” 

Newport Beach City Council members hired the Stellara Group, a consulting firm run by Jessica Blair, a former city clerk and former president of the California Municipal Clerks Association, to help run the city’s election. 

Blair did not respond to requests for comment.

What Does the City Lack to Host an Election? 

One of the largest obstacles facing the city is Page’s decision not to assist them with the election, a process he described as disruptive in letters to the city and in a briefing to the county board of supervisors on Tuesday morning.

City leaders asked for “a current Newport Beach voter-registration file and continuing updates

to identify eligible voters, determine registration status, issue ballots, contact voters, and

reconcile election records,” along with several other records requests. 

“The requested information includes available residence and mailing addresses, precinct identifiers, registration and address changes, cancellations, and other relevant voter-

status changes,” reads the city staff report on the requested data.

“These requests are necessary because the City’s election will be administered separately

while the County remains responsible for maintaining the underlying voter-registration

Records.” 

But Page noted they don’t have the ability to share that kind of information and continually update it while also hosting the general election, adding that there were additional concerns over voters mixing up where to send ballots or which envelopes to put them in. 

“There’s a risk there we’ll have a Newport Beach ballot but we don’t know who voted it,” Page told supervisors. “Really, our main concern is the disruption to the election … all the things the city is asking us to do would take away from what we’re trying to do.” 


City leaders repeatedly stated last week that without Page’s support they can’t host an election, but haven’t spoken publicly on the issue since he denied their request. 

“It’s such a compressed window we have to take action soon in order to attempt to meet the deadlines,” said City Attorney Aaron Harp, declaring it would be “impossible,” to succeed without the county’s aid at a special meeting last Friday. 

The City Council has not met to discuss the ballots since then, and multiple requests to view sample ballots or get a timeline of the city’s rollout of the election went unreturned as of Thursday afternoon.

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.