AD HOC COMMITTEE Edward O.Ahumada Chairman Robert D. Coogle Thomas H. Hardy Harold G. Mott
KERN COUNTY ELECTIONS DEPARTMENT PURPOSE OF INQUIRY: The Ad Hoc Committee of the 2002-2003 Kern County Grand Jury initiated a review of the election process pursuant to Penal Code Section 925 and 933. The review was conducted through interviews with various staff within the Elections Department, District Attorney s Office, and private citizens. Also, applicable laws and regulations were researched. The Ad Hoc Committee observed the election work at Election Central and was present during the verification of the provisional and fail safe ballots. BACKGROUND: The Secretary of State is the Chief Elections Officer of the state. The Secretary of State with the approval of the legislative body may hold a meeting to discuss matters affecting the administration of the election laws and to promote uniformity of procedures in those matters. The law dictates that statewide general elections shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November in each even numbered year. Special elections shall be held on one of the established election dates set by this division or on the date of any statewide special election except as provided by law. Absentee voter means any voter casting a ballot in any way other than at the polling place. A special absentee voter can be any member of the armed forces, their spouses and dependents, any United States citizen living outside the territorial limits of the United States or any person serving on a United States documented merchant vessel. A permanent absentee voter is a registered voter who has requested their county election official send them an absentee ballot for every election. An absentee voter can vote in a polling booth by surrendering the unused absentee ballot to the precinct inspector. Any absentee voter who is unable to surrender his or her absentee voter s ballot shall be issued a provisional ballot. Persons not planning to vote absentee but find themselves physically incapable of reaching the polls on Election Day may have an absentee ballot delivered by an elections official. Every United States citizen at least 18 years of age at the time of the election and a resident of the County is eligible to vote if registered. One must register 15 days prior to any election. AH - 3
A registered voter who has moved from one address to another within the same county and who has not registered to vote at the new address may, at his or her option, and upon showing proof of current residence, vote on the day of the election at the polling place at which he or she is entitled to vote based on his or her current residence address, or at the office of the county elections official or other central location designated by the elections official. The voter shall reregister at the current address for voting in future elections. Voters casting ballots under this section shall be required to vote by provisional ballot. A piece of mail returned undelivered by the post office shall not be accepted or used as evidence upon which to initiate a challenge as to residency by any member of the precinct board unless other evidence or testimony is presented. The right to vote is protected by law. Any doubt in the interpretation of the law shall be resolved in favor of the challenged voter. The precinct staff will issue a provisional or fail safe ballot where there is conflict involving the voter roster. TOUCH SCREEN VOTING The County has been awarded $3,401,866.46 from the Voting Modernization Board to purchase modern voting equipment system hardware, including the software in accordance with the Voting Modernization Bond Act of 2002. The county is required to match these funds at a ratio of one dollar of county monies for every three dollars of fund monies. Kern County will have an annual saving of approximately $345,000 by not printing election ballots and an additional $36,000 by reducing the number of pages in the sample ballots. The total annual cost of the Touch Screen Voting system will be $343,000 per year. This includes financing cost of $256,000 for a period of seven years. The Elections Department in conjunction with the vendor has developed a comprehensive implementation plan that is constantly updated. This plan is to ensure that the transitions will occur without incident. Implementation is scheduled to be completed July 2, 2003. Extensive training on the new system has been scheduled for the election staff and poll workers. The touch screen voting machine is user friendly and bilingual. They operate in a similar manner as the Automated Teller Machines (ATM s). The vendor for the touch screen is also a major vendor for ATM s in this state, country, and world. AH - 4
The touch screen voting machine is designed to assist most handicapped individuals. Some of these features are: 1. Voice terminal with a head set and a key pad like existing telephones. 2. Large Print. 3. The lap top portion can be hand carried to individuals incapable of walking into the polling place. 4. Quadriplegic individuals will be able to use a mouthpiece to vote. Touch screen voting will allow early voting in outlying areas up to 29 days before election such as Ridgecrest, Taft, Delano, and Mojave. Public awareness will be accomplished by the Elections Department outreach to the various communities. They are looking at installing sample machines in libraries and other public buildings. ELECTIONS CODE PENAL PROVISIONS The following is a summary of the elections code penal provisions: 1. Payment for Voting Offering valuable consideration for voting in a particular manner. 2. Electioneering at or Near Polls Circulating an initiative, soliciting voters or placing a sign relating to voting within 100 feet of the polling place. 3. Corruption of the Voting Process Interfering with the process of holding an election. 4. Corruption of Voters - Refrain an individual from voting. 5. Intimidation of Voters Threatens a voter in any manner. 6. Corruption of Voting An individual not entitled to vote. 7. Corruption of Absentee Voting Interfering or not qualified to vote absentee. 8. The crime of voter fraud is punishable by imprisonment in any jail or prison. If no fine is herein prescribed, the court may impose a fine not exceeding $1,000 in cases of misdemeanors or $10,000 in cases of felonies, in addition to imprisonment. AH - 5
FINDINGS: The demographics of the county are: Elections General Primary Election March 5, 2002 General Election November 5, 2002 Total Number of Precincts 480 657 Reporting Number of Voting (Polling Place) Precincts 342 343 Number of Mail Ballot 138 314 Precincts Registered Voters: 248,637 259,786 Republicans 48.1% 47.9% Democrats 37.0% 37.9% American Independent 2.7% 2.5% Green 0.3% 0.2% Libertarian 0.6% 0.5% Natural Law 0.1% 0.1% Reform 0.4% 0.3% Non-Partisan 10.7% 10.6% The Department of Motor Vehicles when issuing a drivers license shall give the individual an opportunity to register to vote. They do require proof of legal presence, which does not necessary mean proof of citizenship. This could include Resident Alien Card, Foreign Passport, or Mexican Border Crossing Card. Election Central Precinct officers return ballot boxes from various polling places throughout Kern County to Election Central. Ballot boxes in outlying areas are returned by County Clerk personnel or by Kern County Sheriff s Office. The election results are tabulated in Ridgecrest for the Indian Wells Valley area. Those results are transmitted on election night via computer link-up to Election Central in Bakersfield. The elections official supervises the central counting center operations to ensure that the various control points within the center have adequate written instructions and are staffed with the proper personnel. AH - 6
No one except authorized personnel will be permitted in any area immediately adjacent to the ballot counting equipment or in any area adjacent to an elections station or personnel engaged in the handling of ballots. There are no less than two individuals staffing every elections station. All personnel authorized within any secured area wear badges at all times. During the verification of Absentee, Provisional, and Failsafe ballots the elections staff will cross-reference all of the information (date of birth, former and current address, phone number, and signature) that is supplied on the envelope to insure an eligible ballot. Once this is completed election staff will exchange his/her work with another worker to verify accuracy. Once this is complete the ballots that are verified are allowed to stand. Cost for the election is $1.3 million. Cost for recounts is based on the number of five member teams to accomplish the task. It is normally $923.00 per day/per team. The Division Chief of Elections has the opportunity to attend monthly meetings with other county directors and elections officials. Along with networking with others they lobby the legislature on concerns of the voting public. Due to budget constraints the Chief is unable to attend all the scheduled meetings. The election staff receives extensive training on signature identification provided by county staff, District Attorney s Office, Department of Justice, and outside consultants. Poll workers are minimally trained and furnished a procedures manual. There is also a command post set up at election central to address any questions and/or problems. There are troubleshooters hired to roam the precincts to ensure that everything is proceeding satisfactorily. The printing of the ballots is the primary cost for an election. The printing firm has special paper and ink which is controlled by the state. This control is necessary to ensure conformity within the counties. By law, ballots for at least 75% of the registered voters must be printed. Election ballots are stored for 22 months even though the elections have been certified. This includes ballots not used. Shredding eventually destroys the stored ballots. The Bakersfield Association of Retarded Citizens (BARC) does the shredding. Arvin Recall Election In early 2002, a recall petition was initiated to unseat the Mayor as a member of the Arvin City Council. The petition was successful. However the resulting election was unsuccessful as verified by the Elections Department of Kern County. AH - 7
The four precincts in Arvin were combined into two polling sites. This election was monitored closely due to allegations of voter fraud in previous elections. 1. In December of 2002 the Elections Department received a letter from a recognized city official in authority alleging voter threats and intimidation. This letter was forwarded to the District Attorney s office. 2. The elections department also received complaints from various sources. The District Attorney s Office has no standards for investigating voter fraud. They developed procedures specifically for this recall. The District Attorney s Office, working in conjunction with the Elections Department, developed a list of nineteen individuals who possibly were not eligible to vote. Investigators and deputies were sent to the voter s residence for investigation. They were not in uniform, however, they were armed as required by policy. In October of 2002 the District Attorney s office filed charges against four individuals for voter fraud. Two pleaded no contest and received three years probation after serving ten days in custody and performing 120 hours of community service. The individuals were required to pay a $100 fine plus $180 in court fees. Another rejected a plea bargain and faces up to a one year in jail. The fourth individual is facing charges. The Mayor charged that the investigators, during their investigation, were wearing firearms and intimidating the citizens. The Committee did look into this and were informed that by policy investigators carry holstered firearms. The City of Arvin was billed $23,711.43 from the Kern County Elections Office for the cost of the August 13, 2002, mayoral recall election. The City is eligible to be reimbursed from the state about $3,000.00 for the cost of mailing absentee ballots. 30 th District Assemblyman Election The Elections Department reviewed 280 Provisional Ballots and rejected 151 along with reviewing 4,840 Absentee Ballots rejecting 281. The County Counsel advised the Elections Department to re-verify ballots still on hand, which were 371, consisting of 280 Provisional Ballots and 91 Absentee. The re-verification revealed no adjustments needed. The Republican Party observers watched as the provisional and fail-safe Ballots were verified. They challenged 53 votes out of 500 but all were found to be valid. The Republican Party hired a research firm after the general election to investigate the integrity of voters. AH - 8
The voter registration of the 30 th District Assembly is as follows: Total American County Democratic Republican Registered Independent Green Other Fresno 14,965 5,509 7,414 332 32 1,678 Kern 50,315 31,579 13,075 982 72 4,607 Kings 45,872 19,016 20,851 942 87 4,976 Tulare 9,657 4,548 3,818 205 14 1,072 Total 120,809 60,652 45,158 2,461 205 12,333 Percent 50.20% 37.38% 2.04%.17% 10.21% Three months prior to the election approximately 15,000 voters were registered in the 30 th District. Of this, 10,000 were in Kern County with the remainder in other counties. This amount also includes reregisters. Normally the county has a 60% Republican and 40% Democratic voter turn out. During the current general election the turn out was 60% Republican and 35% Democrat. Even though the percentage is lower for the Democratic Party the additional 10,000 registered votes influenced the election. It was observed that individuals were electioneering within 100 feet of the polling place. These individuals were requested to stop electioneering by polling officials, however, they returned once the officials left. Individuals who solicit registration at various locations are compensated for each new registration. The solicitors are not required to receive training or follow any guidelines. COMMENTS: The Elections Division is performing an exceptional job. They perform their tasks in compliance within government laws and regulations with limited resources. RECOMMENDATIONS: The Elections Department should develop a written critique after each election depicting what went right and what went wrong with the election process. This could be used to improve the functions of future elections. A comprehensive training plan with specific objectives should be designed and developed specifically for the task to be performed. The trainee should be given an entrance exam and an exit exam to determine the effectiveness of that training. AH - 9
Both the District Attorney s Office and the Elections Office should jointly develop formal standards to investigate election fraud. Any violation of election law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of law. The following recommendations will require amendments to the elections code but are deemed worthy of a legislative effort: 1. Individuals who deliver absentee ballots to a precinct should show identification. 2. Individuals should show a recognized Identification when signing in to vote such as drivers license or California identification. The precinct worker should verify address and signature. 3. Individuals who solicit registration at various locations should not be compensated for each new registration. They should receive adequate training to deal with the public and given a competency test. 4. Individuals registering to vote either at the Department of Motor Vehicles or other locations shall provide proof of citizenship. RESPONSE REQUIRED: RESPOND WITHIN 90 DAYS TO PRESIDING JUDGE KERN COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT 1415 TRUXTUN AVENUE BAKERSFIELD, CA 93301 AH - 10
August 4, 2003 The Honorable Stephen P. Gildner Presiding Judge Kern County Superior Court SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO GRAND JURY REPORT ON ELECTIONS Dear Judge Gildner: We wish to thank the Grand Jury for their interest in and analysis of the election process in Kern County. The implementation of the new touch screen voting system is an ideal time to implement Recommendations 1 and 2. Response to Recommendations: 1. Written critique of each election is an excellent suggestion. Currently, all comments by both poll workers and trouble shooters are compiled and reviewed by elections staff and management. Separate post election meetings are held with election trouble shooters and staff, but there is no written synopsis of these meetings. This procedure will be implemented at the upcoming major election. 2. A comprehensive training plan has been developed and will be implemented for the next election. 3. It is the responsibility of the Registrar of Voters to report possible election fraud to the District Attorney. Investigation and prosecution of election fraud is the responsibility of the District Attorney. 4. The input regarding possible amendments to the Elections Code is appreciated. Again, we would like to thank the Grand Jury for their interest and suggestions.