Snooze Time at the Registrar’s

Some things just aren’t pretty in the making.

Like sausage. And election results.

For the curious -- or bored -- a webcam posted at the entrance to the Orange County registrar of voters warehouse in Santa Ana offered a voyeuristic tableau of Tuesday’s hurry-up-and-wait.

With turnout at just 24% of registered voters in the primary election, shipments of ballot boxes offered bursts of welcome percussion to the symphony of snooze.

The first results, from 175,000 absentee ballots mailed in and processed before Tuesday, were posted at 8:05 p.m.

So far, so good.

The first precinct ballots arrived at 9:35 p.m. -- 90 minutes later by the clock, but more like 90 hours for anxious campaign workers and political junkies with twitchy mouse fingers.

What the webcam captured was equally bleak.

11:42 p.m.: Security guards lean against the wall in what appears to be an empty room.

11:51 p.m.: Workers mill around while one appears to be making a paper airplane.

12:05 a.m.: A worker naps on the floor.

But at 12:16 a.m., Bonanza! The next raft of boxes with their distinctive Orange County logo churns across the conveyer belts as workers appear and hands fly.

And on it went until final unofficial results were posted at 3 a.m.

The webcam seemed to capture the extremes of ballot counting -- moments of intensity sandwiched by even longer moments of, well, spectacular nothingness.

The webcam also revealed scenes open to interpretation: Why was there so much paper on the floor, and was any of it important? Why did the packages on the conveyor belt look like Xboxes awaiting stacking at Circuit City?

Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said the “election cam” was just one of many geek-geared features of his office’s website, at www.oc.ca.gov/election.

“As hard as we work to commit democracy,” Kelley said, “we’re also here for your entertainment.”