California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 877

Introduced by Assembly Member Bocanegra

February 22, 2013

An act to amend Section 19251 of the Elections Code, relating to voting systems.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 877, as introduced, Bocanegra. Direct recording electronic voting systems.

Existing law prohibits the Secretary of State from approving, and prohibits a city or county from contracting for or purchasing, a direct recording electronic voting system, defined as a voting system that records a vote electronically and does not require or permit the voter to record his or her vote directly onto a tangible ballot. Existing law defines the term “voter verified paper audit trail” as a component of a direct recording electronic voting system that prints a contemporaneous paper record copy of each electronic ballot and allows each voter to confirm his or her selections before the voter casts his or her ballot.

This bill would revise the definition of “voter verified paper audit trail” to instead mean a component of a direct recording electronic voting system that prints a synchronous paper record facsimile of each electronic ballot and allows each voter to confirm his or her selections before the voter casts his or her ballot.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 19251 of the Elections Code is amended
to read:

19251.  

For purposes of this article, the following terms begin delete shall end delete
have the following meanings:

(a) “Accessible” means that the information provided on the
paper record copy from the voter verified paper audit trail
mechanism is provided or conveyed to voters via both a visual and
a nonvisual method, such as through an audio component.

(b) “Direct recording electronic voting system” means a voting
system that records a vote electronically and does not require or
permit the voter to record his or her vote directly onto a tangible
ballot.

(c) “Voter verified paper audit trail” means a component of a
direct recording electronic voting system that prints a
begin delete contemporaneous end delete begin insert synchronous end insert paper record begin delete copy end delete begin insert facsimile end insert of each
electronic ballot and allows each voter to confirm his or her
selections before the voter casts his or her ballot.

(d) “Federal qualification” means the system has been certified,
if applicable, by means of qualification testing by a Nationally
Recognized Test Laboratory and has met or exceeded the minimum
requirements set forth in the Performance and Text Standards for
Punch Card, Mark Sense, and Direct Recording Electronic Voting
Systems, or in any successor voluntary standard document,
developed and promulgated by the Federal Election Commission,
the Election Assistance Commission, or the National Institute of
Standards and Technology.

(e) “Paper record copy” means an auditable document printed
by a voter verified paper audit trail component that corresponds
to the voter’s electronic vote and lists the contests on the ballot
and the voter’s selections for those contests. A paper record copy
is not a ballot.

(f) “Parallel monitoring” means the testing of a randomly
selected sampling of voting equipment on election day designed
to simulate actual election conditions to confirm that the system
is registering votes accurately.