New Voting Systems; Old Law. Brittany Westfall West Virginia Secretary of State s Office

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1 New Voting Systems; Old Law Brittany Westfall West Virginia Secretary of State s Office

2 West Virginia June 16, 2017 Legislature agreed on a budget County budgets hit hard due to coal crisis southern counties hit the hardest 47 out of 55 counties lost population between 2015 and our of 10 of the counties that lost the most population were in southern West Virginia New Secretary of State and Director of Elections 13 new County Clerks One voting system vendor

3 New Voting Systems 11 counties have purchased electronic poll books 7 counties have purchased ExpressVote systems

4 Aging Voting Systems 33 counties ivotronics (direct recording electronic voting machines) 15 counties optical or digital scan with either ivotronic or AutoMark (ballot marking voting machine)

5 Election Systems Online Voter Registration Improvements to the current Statewide Voter Registration System Communication List Maintenance Usability Election Night Reporting: in-house or vendor solution?

6 Loss of Electronic Ballot Delivery No contract No EASE grant How will we fund? In-house or vendor? Who will it serve?

7 Voting System Law 2007 SB electronic voting systems must be certified by the federal agency responsible for certifying voting systems Written for direct-recording electronic voting machines and optical scan systems

8 Electronic Poll Books WV Code 3-4A-2 defines an electronic poll book as an electronic device containing voter registration information for the purpose of facilitating voting at the precinct No certification process No responsibility at the state level but very interested

9 State Voting System Certification: The Vendor s Role Must show they are certified by the federal agency responsible for certifying voting systems Must meet state voting systems requirements as provided in article 4A, Chapter 3 of West Virginia Code Must apply to the State Election Commission (SEC) for certification; the application is to be submitted to the Secretary of State or staff in charge of receiving filings

10 State Voting System Certification: The Secretary of State s Role Upon receiving application from vendor, schedules a meeting of the SEC to consider the application Mails notice of the hearing to each member of the SEC by certified mail

11 State Voting System Certification: The State Election Commission s Role Meets at the day and time scheduled by the Secretary of State to approve or disapprove consideration of the vendor s application; if application is approved, determines compensation for computer experts Appoints two qualified computer experts who are not members of the same political party to examine the system and prepare a report If the computer experts report in the affirmative that the system meets state requirements and may be safely used by voters, SEC may approve and adopt the system for use in elections

12 State Voting System Certification: The Computer Experts Role Examine system and submit full report to SEC within ninety days from the date the SEC approved the application Past reports include the details of the system and version being examined, list of documents provided by vendor, and the conclusion of the examination; this is not specified in code

13 Changing the Law Can we afford to eliminate the federal certification requirement? Should the Secretary of State s Office have a bigger role? What requirements do we need for new voting systems?

14 Changing the Law Develop a working group Counties Secretary of State IT Specialists Legislators Public Consider the long-term impact

15 State Plan Remaining HAVA funds Rewriting state plan from loan program to grant program if possible How will we spend the money? Electronic poll books vs new voting systems Need-based vs population based

16 Implementing New Law and New Systems Communication County County County State Education

17 Election Integrity Balance Cannot leave any group out Must give all election systems equal focus