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Neal Kelley

Neal Kelley is the Former Registrar of Voters for Orange County, California, the fifth largest voting jurisdiction in the United States, serving more than 1.8 million registered voters. Kelley has served as the Registrar of Voters since 2005 and has led the office through the largest cycle of elections since Orange County was founded in 1889. In his role as the County’s chief election official, he leads an organization responsible for conducting elections, verifying petitions, and maintaining voter records. He has been the recipient of numerous state and national awards for election administration and is a past recipient of the “Public Official of the Year” award by the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks (iGO). Kelley was named as one of “OC’s Most 100 Influential” individuals by the Orange County Register in 2016, 2019 and 2020. He is the past president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) and is the past president for the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks (iGO).  Kelley earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business and management from the University of Redlands and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California.

“They’re citizens. They’re professionals. They’re our neighbors. If we start to view our fellow citizens as our enemies, we’re lost.”
— David Becker (Republican push to recruit election deniers as poll workers causes alarm | June 30, 2022 – The Guardian)
“Election officials never get praised if elections go right and the wrath comes down on them if they do them wrong. When we saw election officials being prosecuted for just doing their jobs... we formed [EOLDN] and we do provide pro bono legal services to any election officials who need it.”
— Ben Ginsberg (Trump’s pressure on Pence more ‘unprecedented’ than ‘what we saw in Watergate’ | June 17, 2022 – MSNBC)
“Those who are threatening … these officials, whether they're full-time, whether they're volunteers, whether they're in positions of the most senior responsibility or they're simply on the staff — those who threaten them need to know they cannot act with impunity. There will be a defense and it will be a robust defense."
— Bob Bauer (Helping election officials who are threatened | March 14, 2022 – 60 Minutes Overtime, CBS News)
"What we are seeing developing now is a huge step backwards from a focus on professionalized election administration to a heavy level of political interference in the work of trained election professionals. Our hope now is to provide [election officials] with a resource I wish they didn't have to have, but one I think they have desperately needed."
— Bob Bauer (Election Workers Are Under Attack. A Group Of Lawyers Plans To Defend Them | September 8, 2021 – National Public Radio)
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