Election Integrity/Voter Confidence Subcommittee

Registrar of Voters
Election Integrity/Voter Confidence Subcommittee Meeting
Thursday, December 18, 2009, 2:30 p.m.
Registrar of Voters’ Office, Room 121 Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Election Integrity/Voter Confidence Subcommittee was held on Thursday, September 10, at 2:30 p.m. at the Registrar of Voter’s Office. Present were: Anne Layzer and Bob Richard. Also present were Elaine Ginnold and Melvin Briones from the Registrar of Voters Office.

Security cameras

Melvin Briones reported that the Registrar of Voters had installed security cameras in the following areas of the election office: Ballot storage room, where the unvoted VBM ballots are stored, the vote count room, vault where voted ballots are stored, and three cameras in the Logistics area where the voting equipment is kept and where ballots are checked and packed for transport to the Inspectors. The cameras film whenever there is movement in the area; the film is stored for 30 days and can be viewed remotely from three desktops in the office.

Citizen auditing of election results

The committee discussed the idea of citizen auditing of election results, which had been added to the Goal and Objectives for 208-09. Ms. Ginnold reported that reports of the number of ballots ordered; and the post election audit reports could be made available to anyone upon request. Committee decided to discuss this issue again when Linda Bagneschi Dorrance can attend a meeting.

Public Logic and Accuracy test

The public Logic and Accuracy test is scheduled for Thursday, October 23. Ms. Ginnold reported that observers can also view the pre-election testing of the voting equipment beginning on approximately October 13th. Bob Richard expressed interest in doing this and Ms. Ginnold will notify him if the date changes. Mr. Richard suggested that the department prepare a list of observer opportunities for this election and Ms. Ginnold agreed to prepare this for the next meeting of the Election Advisory Committee.

Post election manual tally

The random selection of precincts and the post election manual tally is scheduled for Thursday, November 13th at 9:00 a.m. The ROV will be working again with Professor Phillip Stark from UC Berkeley on another audit test. Professor Stark is working on developing a formula that counties can use to audit to a predetermined level of confidence that the results of the election are supported by the hand count.

Other business

Subcommittee members briefly discussed the ballot study that was conducted on Marin County’s November 6th ballot by the Brennan Center. Feedback from the study was positive.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m.