Cal. Elec. Code § 19210
Procedures for Certification of Voting Systems
Redline — January 1, 2011 → current.View current text →
Current — January 1, 2013
As of January 1, 2011
The governing board may adopt for use at elections any kind of voting system, any combination of voting systems, any combination of a voting system and paper ballots, provided that the use of the voting system or systems involved has been approved by the Secretary of State or specifically authorized by law. The voting system or systems may be used at any or all elections held in any county, city, or any of their political subdivisions for voting, registering, and counting votes cast. When more than one voting system is used to count ballots, the names of candidates shall, insofar as possible, be placed upon the primary voting system. When more than one voting system or a combination of a voting system and paper ballots is used to count ballots, a single ballot measure or the candidates for a single office may not be split between voting systems or between a voting system and paper ballots.
(a) A person, corporation, or public agency owning or having an interest in the sale or acquisition of a voting system or a part of a voting system may apply to the Secretary of State for certification that includes testing and examination of the applicant’s system by a state-approved testing agency or expert technicians and a report on the findings, which shall include the accuracy and efficiency of the voting system. As part of its application, the applicant shall notify the Secretary of State in writing of any known defect, fault, or failure of the version of the hardware, software, or firmware of the voting system or a part of the voting system submitted. The Secretary of State shall not begin his or her certification process until he or she receives a completed application. The applicant shall also notify the Secretary of State in writing of any defect, fault, or failure of the version of the hardware, software, or firmware of the voting system or a part of the voting system submitted that is discovered after the application is submitted and before the Secretary of State submits the report required by Section 19213. The Secretary of State shall complete his or her certification process without undue delay.
(b) The Secretary of State shall publish and make publicly available on his or her Internet Web site a quarterly report of regulatory activities related to voting systems.
(c) As used in this article:
(1) “Defect” means any flaw in the hardware or documentation of a voting system that could result in a state of unfitness for use or nonconformance to the manufacturer’s specifications or applicable law.
(2) “Failure” means a discrepancy between the external results of the operation of any software or firmware in a voting system and the manufacturer’s product requirements for that software or firmware or applicable law.
(3) “Fault” means a step, process, or data definition in any software or firmware in a voting system that is incorrect under the manufacturer’s program specification or applicable law.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.