In the 2005 special election in California, Orange County (California) implemented a number of new tools that allow folks to monitor the election administration process remotely (over the Internet). Orange County is having an election on April 11, 2006 (the 35th Senate District primary), and in addition to the same remote adminstration viewing tools they let the public use last fall, they are adding some new functionality to their website for this primary election. You can go to to the following link for the same basic tracking and viewing tools that were available in the 2005 special election.

But they have added the ability to view the number of absentee ballots mailed, and returned, on a daily basis. Unfortunately it is a bit difficult to navigate to these two sites, but here is the link for the daily report on absentee ballots mailed, and here is the link for the daily report on the number of absentee ballots counted. This is great functionality for election administrators to add to their public reporting of election administration, especially in states like California where early and absentee voting is quickly becoming one of the primary modes of participation for voters.