The Brief

A stretch of Highway 1 in Big Sur is closed indefinitely after the southbound lane eroded during last weekend's rainstorm, bringing uncertainty to the communities that rely on the road for transportation.

As Caltrans works to repair the road, which is closed from Limekiln State Park to Palo Colorado in Monterey County, the agency is coordinating convoys for residents and essential workers to enter and exit the area for food and supplies. The state is now working on a temporary fix that would allow residents and visitors to pass using the structurally stable northbound lane of traffic.

It's one of several closures along this stretch of Highway 1 in recent years, as slides during the rainy season wash rocks down.

That's because the area's mountainous terrain and steep cliffs — the very thing that makes the area a world-famous road trip destination — are what makes the road so prone to rapid erosion, or slip-outs.

How geology explains the slip-outs

It might not have crossed your mind when you're driving on that part of Highway 1, but the road was built on highly unstable ground, full of faults and fractures in the ground that leave the area prone to rockslides, especially after heavy rainfall.

In short, the Big Sur coastline is "a road builder's nightmare," said Dick Norris, marine geologist at University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The Big Sur coast.

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According to Norris, much of Highway 1 was built downhill from the location of previous rockslides — and once a slide has happened, it's more likely to recur.

"I think that probably many of the current slides are old slides that are being reactivated," Norris said. "Then of course, the material that the roadbed is built on is oftentimes an old slide deposit."

As we've seen in the last several years, this unstable soil can lead to intensive, and often costly, repairs.

"The ideal thing I suppose would be to have the road far inland from where it is: instead of on the cliff, farther up, in towards the interior," Norris said. "As we know, the whole point about why Big Sur is so beautiful is that it's so bloody steep. And the steepness reflects both the active erosion that is going on there all the time, and then, of course, a lot of that erosion is happening through these big slides."

The composition of these rocks is similar to much of the California coast — though Norris, who's done field work in Big Sur, said the region is especially affected by slides since closing the often-unstable Highway 1 can strand residents.

This unstable terrain across the region leads to something like a long-term game of Whac-A-Mole — once one segment of Highway 1 is fixed, another section inevitably erodes before long.

A section of California's famed Highway 1 collapsed into the ocean following heavy rains over the weekend.

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What workers do after a collapse

The first step for engineers after any slip-out or slide occurs: assessing the damage.

Caltrans workers first went out to survey the collapsed highway on March 31, the day after the slip-out, and determined that the site was stable enough to run convoys along the stretch twice a day, according to Caltrans District 5 spokesperson Jim Shivers — though Caltrans is still exercising caution.

"While stable, it is expected to see some further recession as the slope comes to a state of equilibrium," Shivers wrote in an email to LAist.

Next, engineers will stabilize the edge of the road, drilling into parts of the rock that is known to be competent, i.e. stable enough to support pillars. Then, they will insert dowels into the rock and reinforce the area with shotcrete, or concrete that is projected pneumatically.

"Once this work is completed, a traffic signal can be put in place and utilized to allow unlimited access to the traveling public," Shivers wrote, noting that the edge stabilization work needs to take place before Caltrans' planned temporary solution.

This traffic signal would allow for more regular traffic to pass on the stable northbound lane without the assistance of workers. Currently, the only public access allowed on the eroded part of Highway 1 — the only way for Big Sur residents to leave for supplies or goods — takes place on twice-daily convoys.

Caltrans engineers are still determining how best to repair the stretch of road after the temporary traffic signal is installed. Possible solutions include building a bridge, wall or viaduct, according to the agency.

There is some precedent for this repair: When a similar failure took place just south of this location in 2011, engineers ended up fixing the stretch of road by constructing a viaduct.

A hole is visible where a section of southbound Highway 1 broke off and fell in the ocean at Rocky Creek Bridge on April 02, 2024 near Big Sur, California.

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When to expect Hwy 1's full reopening

Shivers wrote that Caltrans currently can't say when this stretch of Highway 1 will reopen with a temporary traffic signal — though they anticipate more information will soon become available.

"The goal is to have a tentative schedule within the week," Shivers wrote.

As for the permanent fix, Shivers wrote that it may still be months before Caltrans will know how long the repairs and construction will take, as its method and design still need to be finalized.

That's typical for projects like this one, which often use pillars, bridges or retaining walls to keep the road stable and keep landslides at bay, said Norris.

"I don't envy [Caltrans] at all, but they are obviously getting to be experts at it since they've been building repairs for decades," Norris said.

Caltrans is also working on repairing a separate stretch of Highway 1 at Paul's Slide that eroded in January 2023. That fix is projected to be finished by late this spring.

On a tour of Orange County’s voting headquarters on Wednesday, Registrar Bob Page demonstrated the careful, multi-step process through which voters’ ballots are validated and counted.

As the federal government raises the specter of unsubstantiated voter fraud, Page’s message was clear: “ I want voters to know that we're doing everything we can to make sure they can vote safely and securely."

More than 380,000 Orange County ballots have been returned as of Oct. 27, Page said. That’s about 80,000 more ballots than was received around the same time in 2022, the last mid-term elections.

Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page addresses the media and other members of the public in attendance as part of a tour of the voting operations on Wednesday, less than one week before Election Day.

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The journey of a ballot in Orange County

Collecting, and counting, all those ballots takes time. Page explained that two-person teams are dispatched to collect dropped-off ballots every day during election season.

The ballot drop-off boxes in Orange County are made of steel, weigh more than 1,000 pounds and are bolted to the concrete, Page said.

The ballot retrieval duos are required to follow a strict process to ensure the chain of custody remains secure, including taking photos showing they’ve picked up the ballots, properly locked the retrieval door and that the internal fire suppression canister is intact.

The locations of the two-person teams are GPS-tracked by separate teams, which also review the photo evidence before giving the ballot retrieval duos the green light to go to their next stops.

An overhead camera shows the process that occurs after the signatures on a ballot have been verified and the ballot is then ready to be counted.

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Signature verification

Once a ballot reaches the Registrar of Voters’ office, the next step is ensuring the signature on the envelope matches the voter's signatures in their registration file.

“If we do challenge [a signature], we’re required under state law to send a first-class letter notice to that voter,” Page said, adding that state statute affords voters until the day before Thanksgiving this year to correct errant signatures.

Page said three election workers must agree that enough of a discrepancy exists before the decision to challenge a signature is made.

Around 1.9% of the nearly 718,000 vote-by-mail ballots returned in the June primary election in Orange County were rejected, largely due to signature mismatch or because they weren’t received in time, according to the California Secretary of State.

Verified ballots are then separated from their envelopes and sorted before they’re prepared to be scanned and, finally, counted. The equipment used to tally votes isn’t connected to the internet, and access to the room the equipment is housed in is limited, according to Page.

Threats from the federal government

On Wednesday evening, a federal judge denied an emergency request from the Department of Justice to segregate 20,000 ballots across California that the federal government said were sent to “likely” noncitizens.

More than 1,750 of those people identified were in Orange County, according to a letter Bill Essayli, top federal prosecutor for the Central District of California, delivered to the county registrar’s office Monday.

The Department of Justice said it will appeal the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge David Carter, who, in his decision, said the federal government’s attempted move could “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway.”

California Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta called the ruling an “important victory,” but warned “the fight is not over.”

On Wednesday, before the ruling came down, Bonta released resources about election integrity in the state, including guidance for local election officials if law enforcement attempts to “access election sites where ballots are cast, processed, or counted.”

Page said he’s fielded more questions from the public this year about the potential for law enforcement to interfere in the election. He said he will have open lines of communication with partners with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and  Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center should the threat arise.

What’s on your ballot?

Our LAist Voter Game Plan is here to help guide you through the Nov. 3 election with guides to races across Los Angeles and Orange counties — and that long list of state propositions — to help you cast a ballot that’s in line with your own personal beliefs and values.

But the one thing we don’t do? We don’t tell you how to vote. That part is left up to you.

You can find it all at LAist.com/Vote.

The U.S. Justice Department has issued subpoenas to California officials in an escalation of its scrutiny of local election administration.

The Associated Press obtained copies of three subpoenas sent Oct. 21 to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, ordering them to appear in court on Nov. 4, the day after the election. The documents request any records, documents and communications related to letters sent in July and October by federal officials to state election officials outlining allegations of noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. The subpoenas also seek information relating to the office’s “methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens” and anything about efforts to prevent noncitizen votes from being counted.

The subpoenas were being issued by all four U.S. attorneys in California, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar, said, “threats and intimidated have no place in elections.”

Subpoenas come amid ongoing court battle

The Trump administration has sued to force California to set aside up to 20,000 ballots it suspects went to noncitizens and not count them until citizenship can be verified. A district court judge on Tuesday rejected that request, then on Thursday appointed a special master to evaluate the administration’s claims.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter did not specify the exact scope of special master Daniel B. Garrie’s responsibilities, but said he would be tasked with “developing the factual record” for the court.

In a Tuesday court hearing, Carter said he wanted to vet the federal government’s list of over 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters since there has been extensive debate over its reliability and both sides have agreed that it includes an unspecified number of citizens.

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Carter also said at the hearing that a special master could investigate California’s claims that it cannot logistically separate the ballots in time for the county election certification deadline on Dec. 3. The federal government has contested that assertion.

It is not clear what would happen if a special master did find a substantial number of noncitizen voters on the federal government’s list or whether it would affect the certification of California’s election results. The 20,000 people on the DOJ’s list constitute only a small fraction of California’s 23 million voters.

Trump administration appeals to higher court

Meanwhile, the Trump administration asked a federal appeals court to quickly weigh in.

The Justice Department said in a late Wednesday filing that it’s essential the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issue a ruling as soon as possible due to “irreversible ballot processing occurring on an ongoing basis.”

Carter’s decision was the latest legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to expand federal control over state-run elections in the midterms that will decide control of Congress for the rest of his term. The Justice Department has made similar demands in other states, including Washington. Noncitizen voting has been a central focus of Trump’s political messaging for years, although available data indicates it is exceedingly rare.

Trump blasted Carter’s ruling against the federal government on Thursday morning before heading to a campaign rally in South Carolina.

“California is very corrupt. The elections are extremely corrupt. The judge should not have done that but we’ll appeal that, of course,” he told reporters. Trump added without evidence that there are “hundreds of thousands” and then amended it to “millions, in my opinion” of “bad ballots” in California.

Carter, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, argued that the Justice Department’s demands were a clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits changes to voter rolls or election procedure within 90 days of an election.

A number of US citizens were included in the Justice Department’s list of names

Both sides agree that an unspecified number of citizens were inadvertently included. Carter argued that separating the ballots at this point would risk disenfranchising citizens and “wreak havoc” on the election certification process.

Over 500,000 votes have already been processed in Los Angeles County alone, according to court filings. The system also protects voter privacy: Once a vote is processed, it cannot be traced back to the person who cast it.

Carter is to rule on the government’s renewed request for a preliminary injunction, which would bar the state from counting the ballots until the litigation is resolved. He said he will do so after a Nov. 13 evidentiary hearing with input from the special master.

He said that if the federal government suspected noncitizens were voting, it could continue to prosecute those cases criminally. Federal authorities have charged over two dozen foreign nationals in California as part of a statewide sweep targeting people officials allege have illegally registered or voted in U.S. elections.

Appeals panel judges have said they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots this close to midterms

The appeal will be the second time that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the case.

The first time was just last week when the Justice Department argued before an appeals court panel that a fast ruling on its request was needed to stop any counting of the ballots.

Although the panel ruled it was premature for an appeals court to get involved before a lower-court ruling, two of the three judges wrote separate concurrences making it clear they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots at this late date. They questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s list of alleged noncitizen voters and argued that to set aside votes risks disenfranchising citizens.

One judge dissented, arguing that federal law bars noncitizens from voting and requires California to vet the potentially illegal ballots before counting them. The failure to do so, he wrote, would cause irreparable harm to the election.