EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Conny B. McCormack
Organization : | County of Los Angeles
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
General Comments
Comment : | In California, certification of voting systems falls under the purview of the Secretary of State. Currently, there is a lack of available voting systems that have been certified by the California Secretary of State even as the January 1, 2006 HAY A deadline looms ominously near. While federal qualification and testing prior to State certification is not required by California law with regard to paper-based voting systems, it is expected that California's Secretary of State will adopt the VVSG into regulation after it is released as is also anticipated in the vast majority of States. Following that EAC Standards Board meeting, Los Angeles County began examining the feasibility of instituting telephone voting as a new component of our multip1e phase-in approach of implementing voting technology. The key reason for this new approach is the insufficient time remaining to purchase and implement more complex voting technology following State certification compared with executing a short-term services contract for much less complex telephone voting as an interim solution to HAVA disability access requirements. After weeks of concentrated, thorough testing using actual ballot data from Los Ange}es County's November 2, 2004 election, including 818 separate ballot combinations and seven languages, our County's technical teanl determined that IVS software has the technical capability to meet our needs.