Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 8:50 pm:

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BILL NUMBER: AB 2097 INTRODUCED

BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Goldberg

FEBRUARY 17, 2006

An act to add Section 19213.5 to the Elections Code, relating to
voting systems, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately.



LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2097, as introduced, Goldberg Voting system certification:
vendors.
(1) Existing law prohibits the Secretary of State from approving
any voting system or part of a voting system, unless it fulfills
specified state law requirements and regulations. Existing law also
requires the Secretary of State to study and adopt regulations
governing the use of voting machines, voting devices, vote tabulating
devices, and any software used for each.
This bill would prohibit the Secretary of State, as of June 30,
2007, from approving a voting system for use in an election until its
operation and specifications are publicly disclosed.
The bill would also require a vendor applying for voting system
certification, as of June 30, 2007, to comply with specified
conditions and also require the Secretary of State to place specified
information on his or her Web site by that date.
(2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Current state law requires that the vote counting process be
publicly observable. However, with the advent of computerized vote
counting processes, the ability of the public to meaningfully observe
tabulation is limited since details of these systems are secret.
Public scrutiny is lacking. The people of California declare that
every voter has the right to know that votes are accurately recorded
and counted.
(b) Vendors should be required to disclose all technical details
when applying for state certification for a voting system. The
Secretary of State should manage a process whereby citizens can
obtain technical information free of charge, including computer
source code, relevant to voting systems under review for
certification as well as systems that have obtained state
certification.
SEC. 2. Section 19213.5 is added to the Elections Code, to read:
19213.5. (a) By June 30, 2007, the Secretary of State shall not
approve a voting system for use in any election until all details of
its operating system and specifications are publicly disclosed.
(b) By June 30, 2007, an application for voting system
certification in this state shall be subject to both of the
following:
(1) The voter's right to inspect and test the voting system, to
retain test materials, test results, and to freely publish the same
openly.
(2) A promise to refrain from exerting any copyright, trade
secret, or other rights that it may have to hinder any voter of the
state from exercising the rights under paragraph (1) of this
subdivision.
(c) The Secretary of State shall require reasonable notice of
public testing and that the tests be performed in a manner that does
not burden the vendor with significant costs beyond those of making
the voting system available.
(d) The materials to be made freely available to the voting public
include all of the following:
(1) All voting system specific source code.
(2) Detailed instructions for building the software, including
compiler used, compilation scripts, and checksums.
(3) Voting specific hardware, complete specifications, drawings
and schematics.
(4) General purpose COTS components described in detail, including
versions and dates of manufacture.
(e) By June 30, 2007, the Secretary of State shall establish and
maintain a Web page on the Internet to provide all of the following:

(1) Free download of materials pertaining to each voting system
certified or under consideration for certification.
(2) A system for acquiring and processing input from the voting
public.
(3) A reporting system to inform the public on findings, problems
reported, problem resolution, and comments from the Secretary of
State, the public, and vendors.
(4) Standards used by the Secretary of State for evaluating voting
systems, including test plans and specific test cases employed.
(f) A public review process should be in place by June 30, 2007.
In the event that a vendor of a system certified before June 30,
2007, refuses to comply with the disclosure requirements, his or her
system shall be decertified. The Secretary of State shall ensure that
a suitable replacement be available.
(g) The Secretary of State shall utilize funds made available from
the Voting Modernization Fund. The Secretary of State may not expend
General Fund moneys for this purpose.
(h) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(1) "COTS" means a common off-the-shelf component that is
manufactured in large quantities and is widely available.
(2) "General purpose COTS devices" means a COTS component intended
for use in a variety of nonvoting systems.
(3) "Voting specific" means hardware or software means a component
manufactured specifically for use in a voting system.
(4) "Vendor" means any person, partnership, corporation, or other
entity that offers a voting system, whether for money or not, to the
state, to any county, or city of the state, or to any governmental
agency.
(5) "Voting system" means any computerized machinery used in a
public election to present one or more contests to voters, to obtain
voter choices, to verify voter choices, to store voter choices, to
communicate voter choices, to tabulate voter choices, or to present
partial or full results of one or more contests.
(6) "Source code" means computer instructions written by
programmers.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to put in place a publicly disclosed voting system
approval process by the next statewide general election, it is
necessary that the bill go into immediate effect.

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