Andrew Hamilton

1What can this job do?

The elected Auditor-Controller is the county's chief accountant. This office writes the county's checks, runs payroll for county employees, distributes property-tax money to the schools, cities, and districts entitled to it, and audits county finances to guard against waste and fraud. It is the financial control room behind the scenes.

✗It does NOT decide the county budget or set spending priorities (the Board of Supervisors does), and it does not set or assess your taxes.

2What has this person done with it?

We don't yet track a record of this official's actions here. The public record for county offices lives in the Board of Supervisors' agendas and recorded votes, the office's own reports, and campaign-finance filings with the county. Those are the primary sources — we'd rather point you to them than summarize selectively.

We only log matters of public record, in the same format for every official — never opinion or news coverage.

3How does this affect you?

Every resident shares this one Auditor-Controller, even though most people never deal with the office directly. It is the county's bookkeeper and financial watchdog — it tracks how county money is spent, issues the checks, and audits county departments. There's one for the whole county, so the same office keeps the books on every tax dollar the county handles.

4How do you change it?

This is an elected seat with a four-year term, chosen countywide — every voter in Orange County votes for this one official, so your vote is one of well over a million. These races are on the regular June or November ballot. Registration, polling place, and mail ballots run through the Orange County Registrar of Voters (ocvote.gov). Countywide administrative offices like this draw little attention; a reminder near the election helps.

We haven't verified when this seat is next on the ballot — rather than guess, we say so.