Thank you for your email expressing your concerns regarding voting
machines in San Diego, California. I apologize for the delay in
responding.
Let me assure you that my top priority is ensuring the integrity and
security of every vote cast. I am confident that the system in place
will protect the integrity of the vote and will prevent or detect any
potential or actual tampering with voting systems. Let me share with
you some of what is involved before a voter will ever see a voting
system on Election Day.
Prior to any voting system being used in California, the machines must
undergo the most rigorous testing in the nation. California state
certification requires a three tiered testing process that occurs on the
federal, state and local levels. Voting systems must first be tested to
meet the requirements of the federal Independent Testing Authority (ITA)
and the federal 2002 Voting System Standards. Upon successful
completion of federal testing the voting system undergoes the state
certification process. This includes a review of the system's firmware,
hardware, and software. In addition, all systems must meet strict
standards including the nation's first volume test requirement. The
third and final tier is testing of the voting systems at the county
level. The county conducts acceptance testing, again testing the
system's hardware and software, in addition to logic and accuracy
testing.
Once a system is certified, I require strict pre-Election Day security
measures and use procedures. Prior to a county deploying a system to
the polling places, counties conduct logic and accuracy testing to
ensure that the systems are operating accurately and reliably, and are
correctly programmed for the election. The serialized memory cards are
then immediately inserted into the systems in the presence of two
election officials and a tamper evident seal with a serial number on it
is applied to the protective case covering the serialized memory card.
The tamper evident seals with serial numbers will indicate if the
system's internal mechanisms have been exposed. Only after these steps
have been completed and recorded will the system be placed under the
control of the poll inspector, who is instructed to keep machines in
secure and locked locations until needed on Election Day. Poll
inspectors go through specialized training and certification, sign
oaths, and are paid workers.
I have also implemented strict Election Day security measures to ensure
reliability and accuracy of systems. Prior to a system being used on
Election Day, a review of the system and the serialized tamper evident
seals is conducted by at least two election officials. Upon inspection,
if any of the serialized seals have been tampered with, the system must
be removed and a complete inspection of the system must be conducted.
Additionally, a report must be done on those and submitted to the
Secretary of State's office. Prior to the system being used on Election
Day, a report (commonly referred to as a "zero tape") must be run on
each voting machine to ensure that no activity had been recorded on the
system. The "zero tape" must be established prior to use. The
safeguards of the serialized tamper evident seals, the inspection, and
the zero tape would detect if tampering had occurred.
Then finally, I have established a rigorous set of post election checks
and balances. All electronic voting systems in California are required
to have a voter verified paper audit trail, by which the voter can
confirm their selections prior to finalizing their vote at the polling
place. California is among the first states to require this and many
other states are following suit. These paper records are used for the
mandatory 1% manual recount that occurs in every county and for every
election. This recount will ensure that the votes recorded on the
systems match with what is displayed on the paper trail record. In
addition, after each election, the county elections officials conduct
post election logic and accuracy testing to ensure once again that the
systems have operated accurately and reliably.
Tampering with a voting system is a felony. If and when we receive
credible evidence of tampering, we would immediately open an
investigation and work with law enforcement to gather facts and
prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Currently, there have been
no credible reports of anyone tampering with a voting system. The
voting systems are trusted in the custody of poll inspectors who are
charged with running the election in the polling place. These are the
same people who oversee the elections, open and close the polling places
and certify the accuracy of the results of that polling place.
Additionally, they go through specialized training and certification,
sign oaths, and are paid workers. The strict security measures that we
have in place are designed to prevent or detect any tampering that could
possibly occur in advance of the voting systems being used on Election
Day.
In accordance with California Elections Code Section 15620, which
states, "
ollowing completion of the official canvass, any voter may,
within five days thereafter, file with the elections official
responsible for conducting an election in the county wherein the recount
is sought a written request for a recount of the votes cast for
candidates for any office." For further information regarding
requesting a recount please refer to California Elections Code Section
15620 to Section 15634. You may access the California Elections Code in
its entirety at
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=elec&codebody=&
hits=20.
California has nearly 25,000 functioning polling places on Election Day
and each polling place requires multiple machines. The logistics of
getting the machines to each site (some schools, churches, gyms, private
homes, etc.) can be complicated and each county election official is
charged with determining the best course of action to complete this
task, while holding true to the strict security measures and use
procedures prescribed by the Secretary of State.
The continued reliability and trustworthiness of California elections
will always be one of my greatest priorities as Secretary of State.
California is a leader in this regard as we have a Voting Systems
Technical Advisory Board, conducted a national Voting Systems Summit,
and required additional security reviews on systems above and beyond
what was outlined above. Voting is the foundation of our democracy, and
that is why my staff and I, together with the dedicated election staff
of each county, will continue to explore all measures and technologies
that can make our election systems even more secure.
Sincerely,
BRUCE McPHERSON
Secretary of State
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