{"id":222661,"date":"2026-03-16T21:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/222661\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T21:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:36:09","slug":"the-great-american-write-in-is-back-in-santa-ana-for-38th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/222661\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great American Write-In is Back in Santa Ana For 38th Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tustin resident Alvita Hayes and countless others like her from across the county gathered this weekend to write in to their elected officials and raise awareness to the issues that are important to the people of Orange County.<\/p>\n

Hayes, who is a member of the \u201c100 Black Women of Orange County<\/a>\u201d spent the day writing about Black mental health, voter suppression, gun violence and human trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like all of the political parties that are representing the community need to be aware of what is important to the community,\u201d said Hayes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tustin resident, Alvita Hayes, 56 writing at the Great American Write-In at the Delhi Center in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 14. 2026. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

The Great American Write-In, originally created in 1986 by Women For: Orange County<\/a>, has run every year except skipping a few during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year, the event welcomed around 60 participating organizations with the help of their new sponsor, the Orange County affiliate of the National Organization of Women<\/a>: OC Now<\/a><\/p>\n

An array of organizations put up booths bringing awareness to issues that are important to them and citizens from all across the county came to learn about public policy and write in on issues important to them.<\/p>\n

\"\"San Clemente resident Patti Vaitaitis sits behind the sign in table at the entrance of the Great American Write-In on Saturday, March 14. 2026. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Costa Mesa resident, Patty Turrell, 63, who attended the event with the Women\u2019s Journey Foundation<\/a> was there to advocate for women\u2019s equality, highlighting the importance of directed speech by saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everything, and I think it actually motivates politicians to get behind certain things,\u201d said Turrell. \u201cWe put them there and they should be doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Costa Mesa resident, Patty Turrell, 63 holding up a sign in front of her booth for the Women\u2019s Journey Foundation at the Great American Write-In on Saturday, March 14. 2026. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

The event is non-partisan, with organizers welcoming any organization with the exclusion of racist, sexist and anti-choice groups.<\/p>\n

When asked about the importance of passing on the tradition of holding elected officials accountable, event organizer Felicity Figueroa said, \u201cIt\u2019s really important. That\u2019s why we have a student table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Event organizer Felicity Figueroa stands at the entrance of the Great American Write-In at the Delhi Center in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 14. 2026. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Figueroa added that the group offers incentives to local teachers through the form of extra credit for students and an award a $100 check to the teacher who sends the most students in order to make sure local students have the opportunity to get involved.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tustin resident Alvita Hayes and countless others like her from across the county gathered this weekend to write…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-222661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}