[EL] paper backups for epollbooks

Thu Jun 18 12:39:34 PDT 2020

It wasn’t just LA that had e-pollbook data problems in CA on Super Tuesday. AP reported 15 counties had similar issues.

https://apnews.com/b65bf1de9a65db62ec35882fa05ec3bc <https://apnews.com/b65bf1de9a65db62ec35882fa05ec3bc> 

> On Jun 18, 2020, at 12:34 PM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:
> 
> I’ve changed the subject line of this thread for anyone else who wishes to weigh in.
>  
> From: Justin Riemer <jjustinriemer at gmail.com <mailto:jjustinriemer at gmail.com>>
> Date: Thursday, June 18, 2020 at 12:33 PM
> To: Douglas Johnson <djohnson at ndcresearch.com <mailto:djohnson at ndcresearch.com>>
> Cc: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu <mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>>, Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu <mailto:law-election at uci.edu>>
> Subject: Re: [EL] Fwd: ELB News and Commentary 6/17/20
>  
> States do prepare ballots for those who are only eligible to vote for federal races, per NVRA requirements. There are also circumstances where a voter may be eligible to vote solely for President and Vice President but I believe this would most likely be for absentee voting. See 52 U.S.C. § 10502. 
>  
> Every election has stories about how poll workers are unable to get the electronic pollbooks operating properly by the time polls open. This is a serious line causer. I think having back up paper pollbooks is sound policy, even if those voters would still be required to vote a provisional ballot.
> 
> J Justin Riemer
> 772-559-1567
> JJustinRiemer at gmail.com <mailto:JJustinRiemer at gmail.com>
>  
>  
> On Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 12:36 PM Douglas Johnson <djohnson at ndcresearch.com <mailto:djohnson at ndcresearch.com>> wrote:
>> Thank you, as your question triggered a realization of a mistake in my earlier message: vote centers cannot give voters provisional ballots if the e-registration system stalls. To give a provisional ballot, the vote center needs to know what precinct the voter lives in (so the provisional ballot has the correct election contests on it). Which means the vote center mustlook up the voter in the e-registration books.
>>  
>> So provisional ballots would not be a backup. The only option for voting when the e-registration books fail would be what I call  a "universal" ballot (which I believe is currently only used for some military members), which lists only national, state and countywide offices. Voters using that ballot would lose the ability to vote for state legislative, county supervisorial, and all local offices.
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> On Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 6:56 AM Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu <mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>> wrote:
>>> Can the fallback be an emergency or provisional ballot, which the state later checks against voter registration records to insure that the voter voted the correct ballot?
>>>  
>>> From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu>> on behalf of Douglas Johnson <djohnson at ndcresearch.com <mailto:djohnson at ndcresearch.com>>
>>> Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 9:16 PM
>>> To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu <mailto:law-election at uci.edu>>
>>> Subject: [EL] Fwd: ELB News and Commentary 6/17/20
>>>  
>>> It sounds nice, but I believe "paper copies of e-registration books" are not a real solution in counties (like Los Angeles) that have implemented 'open voting' (where voters are not restricted to only voting in their 'home' precinct). E-Registration books are needed in jurisdictions (such as Los Angeles County) where voters can go to any polling place (voters are not limited to only voting in their assigned precinct). It's simply impossible for every polling place to have a printout listing the County's more than 4 million registered voters (especially if we allow voters to register right up to election day).
>>>  
>>> E-Registration books work, or the whole thing falls apart.  (And my own personal experience in the March primary -- when I was the only voter in the precinct voting more than a week before election day, yet it still took nearly 10 minutes to find me in the registration books, testify to how early the problems with LA's system were evident.)
>>>  
>>> The only fallback I can imagine would be to send away all voters who are not in their "home" precinct (or give them all provisional ballots), and then have paper copies of the registration book for that "home" precinct. But that's a really poor fallback.
>>>  
>>> - Doug
>>> 
>>> Douglas Johnson
>>> National Demographics Corporation
>>> djohnson at NDCresearch.com <mailto:djohnson at NDCresearch.com>
>>> phone 310-200-2058
>>> fax 818-254-1221 
>>>  
>>>>  
>>>> So It May Be Those ePollBooks (at Least Partially) to Blame for Long Lines in Los Angeles and Parts of Georgia (and Why We Need Paper Backups of Registration Records, as Recommended in “Fair Elections During a Crisis” Report) <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112333>
>>>> Posted on June 17, 2020 7:56 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=112333> by Rick Hasen <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>>>> Kim Zetter <https://news.yahoo.com/la-county-report-blames-voter-083006015.html>:
>>>> The hourslong wait times that snarled the March 3 primary in Los Angeles County stemmed from malfunctions in the electronic tablets used to check in voters at the polls, according to an unpublicized county report that adds to questions about the nation’s readiness for November.
>>>> 
>>>> The report concludes that these devices — known as electronic poll books — and not the county’s new $300 million voting machines were the source of those delays. Although the voting machines also had problems, the report faults inadequate planning, testing and programming of the poll books that workers used to check in voters and verify that they’re registered — technology that has also been implicated in this month’s meltdown at the polls in Georgia’s primary <https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/10/jon-ossoff-georgia-election-chaos-310429>.
>>>> Electronic poll books store a copy of the county’s voter registration list and automatically update that list as each voter checks in. Because Los Angeles County did not have backup paper copies of the voter list, poll workers were not able to check in voters when the devices failed, leading to long lines.
>>>> 
>>>> The findings about the March primary, which Los Angeles County quietly posted to its website recently <https://lavote.net/docs/rrcc/board-correspondence/VSAP-Board-Report.pdf?v=2>, have not previously been reported.
>>>> See Recommendation 12 from our Fair Elections During a Crisis <https://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/2020ElectionReport.pdf> report:
>>>> Recommendation 12: Election administrators should create a resilient election infrastructure to deal with the unexpected, including complications related to COVID-19. Resiliency measures include having enough ballots on hand to accommodate high voter turnout, redundant election machinery, and paper copies of e-pollbook voter registration records.
>>>>  
>>>> 
>>> 
>>>  
>> 
>> 
>>  
>> -- 
>> - Doug
>> 
>> Douglas Johnson
>> National Demographics Corporation
>> djohnson at NDCresearch.com <mailto:djohnson at NDCresearch.com>
>> phone 310-200-2058
>> fax 818-254-1221
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