1. What’s Coming In California’s Elections?
October 9, 2016
Take Back The Vote Conference

2. About Jim Author: CountedAsCast.org and CountedAsCast.com
Co-chair: Voting Rights Task Force
Member: San Francisco Voting Systems Task Force
Senior software consultant & mobile app developer

3. Outline New election systems SB 450 AB 1970 (regulations)
Lobbying in Sacramento
Possible new laws in California

4. countedascast.org/election-systems-2016/open-source-election-systems/
New Election Systems
Los Angeles (vsap.lavote.net) by 2018
San Francisco (seeking a project manager)
Star-Vote, Travis County, TX (Austin)
Galois.com
OSET Foundation.org
PrimeVotingSystem.org (Univ. of Florida)
countedascast.org/election-systems-2016/open-source-election-systems/

5. Ballot Printing Device (BPD)
You vote on a (touchscreen) computer.
It prints a list of contests, and who you voted for.

6. LA’s New Voting Station (2018)
Ballot Printing Device (BPD) with printer and QR Code reader

7. QR Code Scanner
The voter prepares their ballot on a mobile device at home, then shows the QR Code to the voting station, which displays the choices on the screen to the left. The voter may make any changes on the screen. They then print the ballot out for review and casting.

8. The QR Code will contain the votes read by the central scanner
LA Ballot (Prototype)
The QR Code will contain the votes read by the central scanner

9. 10 Minute Video “The New LA Voting System Prototype” by Mimi Kennedy

10. (but were afraid to ask…)
New California Laws
(but were afraid to ask…)

11. LegInfo.legislature.ca.gov

12. California Elections Code

13. California Testing SB 360 (Sen. Padilla, 2013)
California does its own testing of election systems, bypassing Election Assistance Commission (EAC) testing
California testing regulations include red-team (hack) testing, and
Has better provisions for the disabled

14. SB 450 (2016)
Senator Ben Allen

15. SB 450: County Opt-In Opt-in means not a mandate -> counties pay
2018: 14 counties: Calaveras, Inyo, Madera, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Shasta, Sierra, Sutter, and Tuolumne
2020: any county
LA has own rules for 2020 [§4007]

16. SB 450: Vote by Mail (VbM) IF they have:
VbM ballots can be sent to everybody
IF they have:
dropoff locations [§4005 (a)(1)]
1 location/15,000 registered voters (min. 2)
28 days before election
vote centers [4005 (a)(2,3)]

17. Vote Centers: Days -10 thru -4
1 vote center/50,000 registered voters 
minimum of two vote centers in jurisdiction

18. Vote Centers: Days -3 thru E-Day
1 center/10,000 registered voters 
minimum of two vote centers in jurisdiction

19. Same-Day Registration
§4005 (a)(2)(A)(ii) “Register to vote, update his or her voter registration, and vote pursuant to Section 2170”
See also: §4005 (a)(4)(E)(i), and §4005 (a)(7)(A)
Big issue: In-person ballot, including provisional, should override a VbM ballot.

20. Public Plans by COUNTY
§ 4005 (a)(10)(B): “The county elections official, when developing the draft plan for the administration of elections conducted pursuant to this section, considers, at a minimum, all of the following”: proximity to (low-income) communities, population centers, public transportation, traffic patterns, etc…
§ 4005 (a)(10)(C): “public comments on the draft plan for at least 14 days “
§ 4005 (a)(10)(D)(i) : public hearing
§ 4005 (a)(10)(E)(ii) : SoS approval

21. ESL & Disability Plans & Meetings
§005 (10) (A) The county elections official develops a draft plan for the administration of elections conducted pursuant to this section in consultation with the public, including both of the following:
(i) One meeting … language other than English
(ii) One meeting ... individuals with disabilities.

22. County Groups Take Note!
The plans are made by county, with hearings!
With SB 450, precinct-based polling places will disappear! HCPB in precincts will disappear. If that is an issue for you, you need to stop your county from opting-in.
No, I do not know yet how they will conduct the manual tally of 1% of precincts. I hope it will be something reasonable. Risk-limiting audits are a good alternative.

23. SB 450: VbM Notice
§4006:  an official shall make a reasonable effort to inform a voter of either:
(a) If the voter’s vote by mail ballot envelope is missing a signature.
(b) How the voter can correct the missing signature.
See also AB 2089: required notification within 30 days if VbM not counted. Vetoed!
This is not enough!!!

24. Primaries & Crossover Ballots
Division 6 of Elections Code – to be modified(?)

25. AB 1970 (Asm. Low, 2016)
§3026: The Secretary of State shall promulgate regulations establishing guidelines for county elections officials relating to the processing of vote by mail ballots
§14314: The Secretary of State shall promulgate regulations establishing guidelines for county elections officials relating to the processing of provisional ballots.

26. Padilla: Sept 15, 2016
Conclusion: Any interpretation of Section that requires inclusion of provisional ballots and the inclusion of all voted vote-by-mail ballots will very likely lead to a realization of the concerns raised by counties during the 2006 legislative process. In addition, Section 15360(d) requires at least a five-day public notice prior to the commencement of the one percent manual tally. As provisional ballots are typically processed at the end of the canvass process, if provisional ballots were required to be in the one percent manual tally, for some counties the five-day public notice could delay the canvass and the certification of election results beyond the deadlines set forth in the Elections Code. Therefore, the Secretary of State’s position is that neither provisional ballots nor all vote-by-mail ballots are required to be included in the one percent manual tally.

27. San Diego Trial (Lutz)
A court may decide that VbM and provisional ballots must be included in the 1% manual tally.

28. AB 1921 (VbM) Unlimited “ballot harvesting”.
Anybody can deliver truckloads of VbM ballots
no questions asked
no records kept
Our best allies were republicans.
Signed by governor Brown. 