In June 2016 the Voting Solutions for All People had just reached its most significant milestone in completing the Research and Design Phase of the new Ballot Marking Device. Three years since reaching that feat our Department now has in its possession the first 15 production-grade Ballot Marking Devices. These units are the first of 31,000 that will be arriving later this year in preparation for the full implementation to the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election.

On Monday, June 17 both the VSAP Executive Steering Committee and Smartmatic project teams assembled at the Election Operations Center to unveil the new devices. After recognizing this accomplishment our teams immediately went to work examining the devices and setting up the infrastructure to begin testing.

While these Ballot Marking Devices are predominately intended for testing purposes our office will offer community based-organizations the opportunity to receive live demonstrations at our Norwalk Headquarters or at a specified event - with notice. If your organization would like more information, please contact outreach@rrcc.lacounty.gov.

Nearly 10 years after the Registrar-Recorder kicked off our efforts to modernize Los Angeles County's voting system, Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan and his team were presented this week with ballot marking devices (BMD) developed by Smartmatic. This delivery of completed devices coincides with the end of the Engineering Validation (EVT) Testing phase of Smartmatic's system development effort.

The Registrar's team visited the Santa Monica offices of Smartmatic, the County's chosen contractor in charge of the design completion, engineering, and manufacturing of system components. The system was designed by and for Los Angeles County during prior phases of the Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP) initiative that focuses on transparency, accessibility, usability, and security.

On March 4, 2019, Smartmatic staff provided the Registrar with a demonstration of how each BMD will function inside a secure election environment that included a simulated warehouse and vote center. The next phase will focus on completion of the design and delivering machines to the California Secretary of State for testing and certification before Los Angeles voters use them to mark their ballots in future elections.

The new system will make it easier for voters with disabilities, and voters with limited English proficiency, to cast ballots. The system is unique in that it was designed by Los Angeles County and will be publicly owned and operated by the County. Smartmatic was chosen to manufacture the devices after an extensive vetting process in accordance with Los Angeles County's competitive procurement policies. Smartmatic has extensive experience in manufacturing secure and customized election technology all over the world.

The new voting system is slated to be in place in time for the March 2020 California Presidential Primary election—with plenty of testing and pilots beforehand.

In less than a year, voters in Los Angeles County will be preparing for the next Presidential Primary election. One notable difference that voters will experience is the introduction of vote centers. Los Angeles County will transition from a polling place model to vote center model that will provide greater convenience and accessibility to the voters of LA County.

In the last few months, our Department has been working to identify suitable locations for these vote centers by gathering community input. In November 2018, our office kicked off the first round of community engagement meetings to engage the public on this process. Within a three-month period, our office worked collaboratively with 18 community-based organizations to facilitate 33 community meetings all over the County. In these meetings attendees learned about the new 2020 voting experience and were asked to suggest potential locations for vote centers.

The meetings featured a presentation, multiple information stations and a question and answer session. Community members were also asked to share the information with their neighbors, friends, family and peers.

Nearly 1,000 individuals attended the vote center meetings and of those attendees 265 provided suggestions for a potential vote center. If a member of the public missed the in-person meetings they were still able to suggest potential sites through our online vote center portal. To date, our office has received 1,407 location suggestions through the portal. Although the online portal is no longer open, our Department is still accepting location suggestions via email vsap@rrcc.lacounty.gov.

In the next two months, our office will analyze all the data that has been received via the meetings and portal. In April 2019, we will kick off our second round of community meetings. This round of meetings will focus on the list of potential vote centers within that community. We will still offer a thorough overview of the future voting experience and vote center model for those attendees who did not attend the first round of meetings. . Follow us on social media @lacountyrrcc to stay updated on future community meetings and any new updates on the 2020 election.

by Whitney Quesenbery

Making voting universal (and secure)

Picture this: It's Election Day, 2020, and some states are reporting massively long lines of voters waiting to get a ballot, mark it, verify it, and cast it. Others have no lines at all. A few are celebrating higher turnout but shorter lines.

What's different in these places?

Or perhaps on that Election Day some voters can mark their ballot with no problems, while others use antiquated systems that take a long time to use. Still other voters have to ask someone to help them because there are no accessibility features to help them mark their ballot on their own.

Which voter would you rather be?

A voting system for everyone

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was passed in 2002 to improve voting for everyone. It said that every polling place has to have a way for voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently, as other voters do.

A voting system is more than just a way to mark a ballot. The way we vote should reflect basic principles for trustworthy elections:

• Everyone can use the same voting system
• Everyone can mark their ballot without errors
• There are paper ballots to provide a way to audit or recount the election
• Ballots can be counted quickly and accurately
• Everyone can have confidence in the election results

Maybe you are thinking, “How hard can it be to fill in a few circles on a paper ballot?” There is a lot of evidence from real elections that it's harder than you might think, especially if the paper ballot is not designed well. Having a way to verify how your ballot will be counted makes a big difference to whether your vote counts.

In the 2016 California Senate primary, there were 34 candidates—enough to force the display of the contest across 2 columns on paper ballots. Where that happened, the number of people who voted for more than one candidate was a high 1.4% for districts where the ballots were checked and counted in the polling place. Where ballots are counted at a central office, the overvote rate was a shocking 4.9%, showing how important error checking is in helping voters verify their ballot. Compare that to still-high-but-more-reasonable a 0.7-0.9% rate for a single column display.

Ballot marking devices

For jurisdictions that use paper ballots, that usually means there is a ballot marking device. That's a computer that acts like a pen, but is fully accessible. Voters make their selections through a digital interface and when they're done, the machine prints a human-readable, human-countable ballot that is cast with all the other ballots.

Ballot marking devices can help many voters, and they are more usable and more accessible than they have ever been. By displaying and marking the ballot on a screen, voters can adjust the text size if they need it a little larger because they don't see well (or may have left their glasses at home). Ballot marking devices can be an efficient way to provide ballots in alternative languages. Reading the ballot aloud (through headphones) helps voters who don't read well and those who cannot see the screen. Every ballot marking device interface can be personalized, so no one has to request a special voting machine to use accessibility features. Every voter at a polling place or vote center can use the same voting system.

But the most important benefit is that ballot marking devices include features that help ensure that they capture a voter's intent and record it in a consistent way. These features include preventing overvotes, warning about undervotes, and a review screen that lets the voter confirms their selections in each contest before printing a ballot.

In other words, ballot marking devices combine an electronic interface and a printed paper ballot in a way that helps everyone. In addition to creating a consistent experience for voters, they can also improve elections in general by reducing the number of ballots that are challenged (or that can't be counted) because they have ambiguous marks.

Two concepts seem especially promising for making ballot marking devices the universal voting system: printed ballots with voter selections and the use of QR or bar codes.

Voter-selections ballots

Most paper ballots look like a standardized test with lists of options and circles, squares, or ovals to fill in to select your answer. On a ballot, a voter verifies their selections visually, by the relationship between the candidate name and the location of the mark. The optical scanners that count these ballots look for marks at specific locations on the ballot. The scanners are programmed to connect those locations to the candidate.

Ballot marking devices have an alternative. They can print a list of all of the contests on the ballot and the voter's selections (or if they haven't made one for that contest). It's like a conversation:

1. The voter marks and reviews their choices on-screen
2. The voting system replies by showing the list of selections
3. The voter checks that list to verify that the ballot reflects their intent
4. And then casts their ballot

Voters not only review how they have marked their ballot, but also get a confirmation of how the system interprets their marks.

There are a lot of benefits to a voter-selections ballot:

• Better verification. Voters just read the list instead of relying on their assumptions about how their ballot will be counted.
• More accessible. Voter who need help reading printed material can use a magnifier or a personal device that converts printed text to electronic text.
• Easier for people with low literacy. The words on the ballot focus on the candidates who have been selected. Fewer words, easier to read.

We also believe that more people will verify their vote when it's on the actual ballot to be counted, not a “receipt.” Security experts tell us that only a relatively small number of voters need to verify ballots on each voting system, but obviously, the more who do, the better.

We'd love to see more research on how people—especially new or infrequent voters—interact with voter-selections ballots. There has already been robust design research and usability testing in Los Angeles County as part of the work to develop a new voting system. All their reports are online at https://vsap.lavote.gov/

But more general research could build confidence in these ballots and help develop good design guidelines. (Hint to funders!)

QR codes

QR codes—those little squares of squiggles—are the second part of making voter-selections ballots work.

Ideally, the ballots would be counted by reading the names printed on the ballot, but character recognition (OCR) is not yet fast enough or accurate enough to use in an election. The Los Angeles project reviewed current systems, and we believe their conclusion. Of course, technology is always getting better, so the day when a voting system can read the printed text may not be far off.

Scanners can read QR or bar codes very accurately, so the solution is to put all of the selections into a code. There is a potential problem: what if the system encodes something different than the selections printed on the paper? There have to be rules to make sure this can be checked easily. There are three simple rules:

• The code and the list must be on the same piece of paper, so it's easy to audit.
• The code must be a public specification. That includes both the encoding method and how the information in the code is read.
• The ballot information on the code and paper must be the same.

This combination of a selections-only ballot and a QR or bar code is already in use in some voting systems. Oregon has used it for their accessible vote-by-mail ballot for many years. Military and overseas voters have an option to use a similar system that sends a digital ballot marking program, so they can mark, print, and return their ballots within the deadlines. The codes are also useful as a backup if a ballot is too damaged to run through the high-speed scanners.

Running elections

Let's go back to those scenarios at the beginning of this article.

Can ballot marking devices help with long lines? Maybe.

They are certainly a good alternative to computer voting equipment that records votes electronically with no audit trail at all. Jurisdictions currently using these “direct recording electronic” (DRE) systems already know how many they need to keep their lines under control and can replace them with ballot marking devices and a ballot scanner.

They are more streamlined than a ballot-on-demand printer because every voter is handed a blank ballot paper to be printed with their selections.

They are fully accessible, so there is no special accessible voting system that poll workers have to learn to set up and operate.

There are innovations that can make using a ballot marking device even faster. Los Angeles County has tested the idea of an interactive sample ballot that would let voters make their choices at home. Then, at the polling place the voter can quickly transfer those choices to the ballot marking device, make any changes, and then proceed to review, print, verify and cast the ballot. This idea was tested in an academic research project that showed it could speed up voting and reduce lines.

We've already talked about how ballot marking devices help many voters—with disabilities, overseas voters, voters who don't read well, or who use an alternative language.

Voter-selections ballots are also easy to audit. They don't even have to use the codes for the audits or recounts. Those second-checks could use the printed names, since most voters will have used that list to verify their vote.

Summing up

Let's review.

Digital ballots help people vote independently and privately, with accessibility options.

Ballot marking devices produce the printed ballot that is critical for audits and recounts.

A printed ballot that's easier to read means more voters verify their ballot, adding to confidence in the election.

QR codes make it possible to count the ballots as quickly and accurately as we expect in today's elections, no matter what size paper they are printed on or what font is used.

The QR codes can also be audited for accuracy as part of strong election integrity procedures.

What's not to like?

This article is also available on medium.com/civicdesigning

Resources

Field Guide Vol. 1: Designing usable ballots

Los Angeles County Voting System for All People

Anywhere Ballot

Principles for remote ballot marking systems (PDF)

On June 13, 2018, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan officially signed the contract with Smartmatic USA making them the Voting Solutions for All People's (VSAP) Prime Contractor and Systems Integrator. Smartmatic USA will assist the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) in manufacturing and implementing components of a new voting experience for Los Angeles County scheduled for introduction in the March 2020 California Presidential Primary election.

Following an extensive 9-month bidding and evaluation process, Smartmatic USA was selected after being scored by technical, legal and financial evaluators in accordance with Los Angeles County's competitive procurement policies. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the contract during on June 12, 2018.

Smartmatic USA and its team will be responsible for systems integration, engineering and manufacturing of the system components that were designed by and for Los Angeles County voters with a focus on security, accessibility and usability.

The revolutionary new voting experience will make it easier for all Los Angeles County voters, including voters with disabilities and multilingual voters.

Meet Ruth. She is an LA County voter and 103 years old! She went through the voting demo on the VSAP Ballot Marking Device prototype with ease and interacted with the touchscreen naturally. Ruth is just one of hundreds of seniors who have interacted and tested with our Ballot Marking Device prototype and one of 15 attendees at Pacific Post Acute Nursing Facility in Santa Monica where our VSAP team gave a VSAP presentation on June 15, 2018.

The 20th class of the Administrative Intern Program visited the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) on April 17, 2018 for a Departmental tour. They were provided an overview of the various election services and records management operations at the RR/CC.

An exciting element of the tour was a visit to the VSAP Lab, where they were guided through a simulation of the new Vote Center Model by members of the VSAP team. They learned about how Vote Centers will function in the future in conjunction with the various components of the new voting experience including ePollbooks, the Interactive Sample Ballot (ISB) and the Ballot Marking Device (BMD). As the class interacted with the BMD, they were impressed by its accessibility features and how it will provide an independent voting experience for all LA County voters.

The VSAP Team also had an opportunity to show them the new and intuitive Vote by Mail ballot design, as well as talk about the highlights of the Vote Center Placement Project.

The Admin Interns had excellent questions about how the RR/CC plans to implement VSAP, while maintaining secure and transparent elections with potential cost savings to the County for the future.

Our VSAP and Outreach Teams attended the Older Adult Summit held at the Pasadena Convention Center on April 5, 2018. This event provided an opportunity for the attendees ages 55 and up to interact with the Ballot Marking Device and gain information about the new voting experience. We registered new voters and distributed materials for this year's statewide elections. We connected with other City and County Departments who are interested in conducting voter education and registration in their respective communities.

This is the second annual summit organized by the Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services (WDACS). This summit is intended to provide resources and practical tools for older adults through workshops and information booths from various County Departments and private agencies in the older adult care and services field. For more information about the Older Adult Summit and WDACS, please visit https://wdacs.lacounty.gov/.

On March 16, 2018, the VSAP team held a VSAP Summit at the Liberty Community Plaza in Whittier, Calif. The theme of the Summit was “The Future is in Good Hands”.

In preparation of the implementation of the new voting experience, the VSAP Summit helped to refocus the VSAP program members through various group activities.

Each project and workstream team gave a current update and reflected on the project's milestones and recent achievements. They also participated in assembling a group puzzle and created a vision board for the future of the department.

The attendees included the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Dean Logan, the Assistant Registrar Recorders, along with the VSAP Project and Workstream teams and the newly appointed VSAP ambassadors from the Emerging Leaders latest cohort.

On March 27, 2018, Disability Rights California invited members of the VSAP and the RR/CC's Outreach Teams to participate in a Peer Self-Advocacy Skills event at Easterseals, an adult day care center for adults with developmental disabilities in Norwalk, CA.

The event was focused on how to navigate the voting process in Los Angeles County. The VSAP Team provided an overview of the changes to the new future voting experience, which included a demonstration of the Ballot Marking Device (BMD), while the Outreach Team was on hand to offer participants an opportunity to register to vote.

Overall, there were 25 participants in attendance and 7 volunteers interacted with the device, each with their own customized simulated voting experience. One volunteer voted using the Spanish language interface, while another volunteer was able to increase the font size on the screen. The last volunteer, who had limited use of her hands, successfully completed the entire voting experience using her just foot on the touchscreen!

This experience served as a reminder of why we are committed to designing and implementing a modern voting system that is easy and accessible for all people across Los Angeles County.

On January 31, 2018, the Media and Communications section of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk unveiled this year's South Lobby display entitled the “Evolution of Voting in Los Angeles County.” The new display provides a visual of Los Angeles County's voting experiences of the past, present and future. Members of the public can view the complete transformation of elections starting with one of the LA County's first versions of the punch card voting system, the current InkaVote Plus system and through to the future with the modern components of Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP), including the Ballot Marking Device (BMD, Interactive Sample Ballot (ISB) and ePollbooks. It offers the public an opportunity to learn about the upcoming changes of the VSAP implementation with the ability to take information about the California Voter's Choice Act with them as they look at the display.

As we move into the future, it is important to learn from the voting systems of the past while highlighting the imperative need to modernize LA County's voting experience. The South Lobby display located at our Norwalk Headquarters is available for public viewing throughout 2018.

On January 8^th, members of the VSAP visited the King County Elections office in Renton, Washington. With over 1.2 million registered voters, King County is the largest election jurisdiction in the US that conducts their elections by mail. Our team was provided with a tour of the King County Elections facility and an overview of their operations.

From left to right: Brian Ikenaga, Elio Salazar, Nate Valderas (King County), Jerelyn Hampton (King County), Paul Tran, Tanya Ramirez, Tim McNamara, Adrian Avelar

This visit was a great learning opportunity for our Vote by Mail, Facilities and Tally teams. We took away a lot of good information and best practices that we will incorporate into our future operations. The elections facility was quite impressive and had many great features for both efficiency and transparency. It is a great example of how real investment into the elections process yields many immediate benefits for election administrators and most importantly the public.

We are proud to announce that Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) Dean Logan was named the winner of the prestigious 2017 Electoral Ergonomy Award from the International Center for Parliamentary Studies. The award was presented at the International Electoral Awards on December 5, 2017 at the Dead Sea, Jordan.

Electoral Ergonomy recognizes election officials who have tailored electoral procedures to the psychology of the voters and the specific characteristics of their electorate.

The International Electoral Awards are established exclusively for electoral stakeholders by the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies. The awards acknowledge election officials and their significant contribution to the democratic process beyond the community of electoral professionals, practitioners and experts.

On Tuesday, November 14 Dean C. Logan and Matt Adams of IDEO were special guests at A/D/O in Brooklyn. A/D/O is a 23,000 square foot former warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn's Industrial Business Zone. It has been converted into a space for creative exchange and designers. The presentation entitled “A Better Ballot Box” was moderated by Rachel Abrams of Arup and focused on examining the intersection of design and current events and the impact of design on local government. The event drew local design enthusiasts who had the opportunity to demo the ballot marking device on site. The hour-long discussion included remarks by both Dean Logan and Matt Adams that focused on the manufacturing phase of the new ballot marking device and the importance of human-centered design in the public sector. The audience response was overwhelmingly positive and many expressed excitement to see the full implementation in the years to come.

On October 25, 2017, the VSAP provided a demonstration of the Ballot Marking Device (BMD) at the Universal Day Program, an adult activity center that offers services for adults with developmental disabilities located in Burbank, CA. The focus of the demonstration was to inform participants about the new voting experience and to give them an opportunity to interact with the new BMD. There were 35 participants in attendance and 10 excited volunteers interacted with the device. The overall response was very positive among the participants, and we received positive feedback on the touch screen experience. It is touchpoints like these that remind us of the sigificance of the work we are doing and its importance to communities across Los Angeles County.

The VSAP team made its way Westside of Los Angeles County for Santa Monica City Hall's National Voter Registration Day event on September 26, 2017. Our very own Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan gave a presentation about the new voting experience during Santa Monica's City Council meeting. City Hall staff and members of the public were also treated to an interactive experience with the Ballot Marking Device.

Our two Advisory Committees visited our Headquarters in Norwalk last week to receive an update on the work that has been done and provide feedback on our BMD Unit plans. In addition, they provided feedback on the most recently released RFP, which focuses on identifying vendors for implementation and support services. Advisory Committee members also began to discuss the strategy for assessing vote center placement. The Advisory Committee meeting was held on Monday, September 18, 2017 and the Technical Advisory Committee meeting took place on Wednesday, September 20, 2017.

On May 17, 2017, Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan and VSAP Administrative Project Manager Monica Flores traveled to Massachusetts to present to the Innovations in American Government Awards National Selection Committee at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Dean and Monica delivered a short presentation on the project and responded to questions from the selections committee. This was the final step in the comprehensive evaluation process, which included an extensive application and a site visit. The award winner will be announced in the next few weeks.

View the entire presentation here: VSAP - The Innovations in American Government Finalist

Pictures from our time at Harvard...

The VSAP team is thrilled to announce that we have been named as a finalist for Harvard's 2017 Roy and Lila Ash Award for Public Engagement in Government. We are one of four finalists competing for a $100,000 grand prize. The Roy and Lila Ash Award for Public Engagement in Government recognizes government programs, policies, and initiatives committed to supporting public participation in making government decisions.

Our very own Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan and VSAP Project Administrative Manager Monica Flores will be presenting on May 17th in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The presentation will be livestreamed on the Ash Center website: http://ash.harvard.edu

Determined to revolutionize its voting system, Los Angeles County unveiled a high-tech and user-friendly prototype to replace the aging InkaVote Plus, as well as a host of other proposed innovations and reforms to better serve the nation's largest electorate.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas said this reimagining of the voting system, tentatively slated for a full rollout in 2020, could have a profound effect on the democratic process. He said, "Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy, and these improvements will make elections more accessible, secure, transparent and trustworthy."

Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan added that efforts to modernize and streamline the voting system go beyond upgrading technology. “We envision a systemic and holistic improvement in the way we provide election services, providing more accessible and flexible voting options,” he said. “The new system will allow us to meet voters where they are, and give them the ability to have choices and customize their experience in a manner that instills trust, confidence and possibly even excitement in the experience of casting a vote.”

The County's five million registered voters currently cast ballots using the InkaVote Plus, which relies on components developed in 1968. To ensure greater citizen participation in designing the next generation of voting machines, the County kicked off the Voting Systems Assessment Project in 2009. Consultations with elections, security and technology experts, as well as different kinds of voters, concluded that none of the existing off-the-shelf voting machines could satisfy the County's complex needs. IDEO, an award-winning global design firm credited with helping design Apple's first computer mouse, among other innovations, was then brought in to develop a prototype.

The vision for the new voting system includes a Ballot Marking Device that lets voters click on a touch screen, press buttons on a tactile handheld device, or make voice commands to cast ballots. It would also be able to “read” Interactive Sample Ballots on smartphones.

Another novel idea is to create a 10-day early voting period and allow voters to go to any conveniently located Vote Center to cast their ballot, instead of limiting them to a specific polling place on Election Day. Also being rolled out are an Electronic Pollbook that would replace paper rosters for checking in voters, and Vote-by-Mail ballots that are easier to understand.

The County purposely made the engineering specifications, intellectual property and functional prototypes to be nonproprietary and remain in the public domain, so that other jurisdictions can take advantage of the data for upgrading their own voting systems.

LA County RR/CC Dean Logan and Matt Adams of IDEO speak at the 2015 SxSW Eco on VSAP, the process in developing a new voting system and why it's critical to update LA's aging voting system.

Public officials and members of the public that attended the meeting at Pasadena City Hall (2/16/17) had the opportunity to try out the new prototype voting system. The VSAP team received a lot of good feedback and is excited for the next phase of the project where manufacturing and certification are to take place.

You may find a copy of the agenda for the meeting here: https://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/councilagendas/2017%20Agendas/Feb_16_17/Special%20Joint.asp

Following the Los Angeles County Commission on Disabilities meeting last week (2/15/17), the VSAP team did voting system demonstrations for those that attended. Attendees were given the chance to interact with the prototype and learn about the various features that were developed with input from partners that advocate on behalf of people living with disabilities.

You may find a copy of the agenda for the meeting here: https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/commissionpublications/agenda/1003141_Agenda.pdf

For more information on the Los Angeles County Commission on Disabilities, visit: http://laccod.lacounty.gov/

We are proud to announce that the Voting Systems Assessment Project had been chosen to advance to the next round of competition for the “Innovations in American Government” and the “Roy and Lila Ash Award for Public Engagement in Government”. Since 1986, the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation has recognized the most creative and effective government programs in the nation that uses an innovative approach to address important issues of public concern. The Top 25 finalists will be announced in February 2017. The winner will receive extensive press coverage and a monetary grant.

Click here for the official press release:

https://www.lavote.gov/docs/rrcc/news-releases/Harvard-Innovations-Award-Semifinalist.pdf

Musical legend Stevie Wonder came into our headquarters in Norwalk to vote early and while he was here, he was given an impromptu demonstration of the prototype. Wonder interacted with the device using the audio feature and the tactile keypad. He independently listened to instructions, initiated the device, inserted the demonstration ballot, marked the ballot and cast the ballot. His response was very positive and he expressed his support of the project and enthusiasm to seeing it unfold in the near future.

The VSAP team gave a prototype demonstration to the members of Communities Actively Living Independent & Free (Calif) on Tuesday, October 19, 2016. We had a lively discussion of the different components of the new voting experience in Los Angeles County. The members were interested in the various accessibility features of the prototype such as the audio user interface and the interactive sample ballot. The members interacted with the device and experienced a simulated voting experience.

The VSAP team was in full support of the National Voter Registration Day today, September 27^th, at the Norwalk Headquarters. Different organizations, RR/CC staff, and the general public had the opportunity to interact with the voting system prototypes and hear more information about the different components of the future voting experience.

Remember to register to vote and make your mark this coming November election. The last day to register is on October 24^th. Visit www.lavote.gov to register to vote online: https://www.lavote.net/home/voting-elections/voter-registration/register-to-vote/register.

On August 30, 2016, Government Technology Magazine granted the Voting Systems Assessment Project the “Outstanding IT Project Award.” The award recognizes the VSAP's innovative approach to technology design and innovation in the public sector. The award was granted at the Digital Government Summit which took place in Los Angeles, CA.

The VSAP team conducted a voting system demonstration at the United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles (UCPLA) in Culver City last August 5, 2016. The clients at UCPLA interacted with the prototype and were introduced the future voting experience in Los Angeles County. We received significant feedback from the organization, and for this, we are grateful to the staff and administrators who made this event possible.

UCPLA has been an active partner and supporter of the project by providing a venue and participants for various research activities. Click here to view UCPLA's Press Release regarding the event: https://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/08/prweb13600825.htm

By Jared Marcotte

I started working in election technology in 2010 and, since then, I've noticed that the landscape doesn't change dramatically. There's the occasional major upgrade or migration from one voting system to another, but the news largely consists of updates and tweaks due to policy changes, and regular maintenance. For a while, I wasn't sure if anything would change. In 2013, Dean Logan asked me to serve on the Voting Systems Assessment Project (VSAP) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The more I read about what Los Angeles was doing, I finally saw something new in the landscape: how they were engaging the community, how they'd tapped IDEO and Digital Foundry to work with them, who they'd selected to serve on the committees, how the entire process was centered on the voter. VSAP envisioned the voting process with the voter at the center of the equation and using technology as a means of easing the path to casting a ballot. In fact, VSAP is the culmination of years of hope I've had for the elections community to own their own intellectual property, embrace open source, and focus on well-defined data standards.

Owning Your Own Intellectual Property

Government agencies of all sizes should own their intellectual property. There is an added liability and cost in doing so, but ownership allows election administrators the ability to modify a system to suit voters' needs. VSAP allows Los Angeles to keep their knowledge base in-house and with the people who know more about the voters, election laws, and system than any outside entity. Los Angeles County will soon join the ranks of only a handful of jurisdictions that have directly developed the systems they use to run elections.

Embracing Open Source

In the public sector, open source software is still viewed with some skepticism. The private sector realized over the years that some of the issues they were trying to solve—internet security, for example—were problems that were necessary to solve in a collective, crowdsourced fashion. Though open source has been a building block for companies like Amazon Web Services, Netflix, Google, and countless others, open source has taken much longer to gain traction in the public sector. VSAP is looking at these technologies as a core part of the new system, which is a win for Los Angeles residents as these solutions make use of the best engineering of the private sector with no initial development cost to the taxpayer.

Well-Defined Data Standards

In addition to leveraging open source development, VSAP also gives back to the open source and election communities. There is so much unsung work being done on VSAP, largely because it exists on the periphery of the public consciousness. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under the direction of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), started working groups to help establish standards for the various types of elections data and processes. While VSAP will rightfully focus on the needs of the voters, it has and will continue to participate in these standards efforts as collaboration benefits the entire elections community. One of the most impressive artifacts that Los Angeles County has contributed to the standards effort is a collection of models of all the processes for which election administrators are responsible. These processes are activities such as handling absentee ballots, registering voters, and publishing election results, to name a few. It could be argued that this model should be the core of any standard, as it's impossible to standardize what you have yet to fully understand.

Transition

As VSAP enters the final stage of the project, there are still challenges that lie ahead, but VSAP—embodied by the infinitely talented team at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, the TAC, and the teams at IDEO and Digital Foundry—is more than capable to take on any obstacle. My hope is other states and jurisdictions see these three facets of the VSAP project at tenets to adopt.

It's been humbling and an honor to serve as a member of the TAC. I'm excited to see where the journey leads and how it positively impacts the elections community.

Jared Marcotte is a member of the VSAP Technical Advisory Committee.

The latest voting system prototype was on display in major events held last July. Election administrators, county officials across the state, various organizations and the general public got a firsthand look at the final system design and experienced the new voting experience in Los Angeles County. These events are a great opportunity for the public to interact with the prototype, learn more about the project and most importantly share their thoughts and recommendations.

The VSAP team gave prototype demonstrations at the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) Annual Conference in Redondo Beach on July 13 & 14, 2016. Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer Sachi Hamai also dropped by to experience a simulated voting process.

The VSAP team introduced the new voting experience to the members of the Los Angeles Votes Committee, followed by a prototype demonstration on July 21, 2016.

Dean Logan, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, shared the collaborative and participative process of designing the new voting system at the 2016 NACo Annual Conference and Exposition in Long Beach on July 22, 2016. Attendees interacted with the prototype and received more information about the project.

The VSAP team presented a status update to the members of the Quality & Productivity Commission of Los Angeles County on July 27, 2016. The Commission has supported and provided valuable input to the project since its early phases.

Stay tuned for developments, events and on-going activities in the project. We encourage your continued engagement in the process. Please email us if you have questions or concerns at vsap@rrcc.lacounty.gov.

July 30 marked the end of the system design phase and the transition to system manufacturing of the new voting machines. The VSAP team celebrated the milestone with a media event and a special reception with various stakeholders.

Various media outlets previewed the completed prototype and were able to see the future voting experience that many Los Angeles County residents will have. The completed prototype of the new voting machines was the product of dozens of earlier prototypes and feedback from more than 3,500 voters.

The hope is that the new ballot marking device will provide voters with an easier, customizable and more accessible way to mark their paper ballot. Voters of all abilities will enjoy the same improved, private, and independent experience.

As the team wraps up the current milestone, it will now prepare a strategy to launch an open competitive bid process for the manufacturing of the device.

Welcome to our newly designed website for LA County's Voting Systems Assessment Project. Since 2009 we have been on an exciting journey. Our goal has been focused on addressing an aging voting system for a large and complex electorate. There have been countless hours spent on assessing the challenges of our current system and the improvements needed for the nearly 5 million registered voters in LA County. You can read all about it on this site. One of our top principles for this project has been transparency - from the processes to the reports generated at every meeting. We hope you will find this new site not only educational, but also inviting. Thanks for joining us on this journey as we embark on the exciting future of voting in Los Angeles.

Dean Logan, Los Angeles County Registrar

Recent media has highlighted the need for improved voting equipment in the country. This LA Times editorial was recently published asking for Silicon Valley to weigh in.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-silicon-valley-california-voting-election-primary-20160608-snap-20160608-snap-story.html

IDEO handed off the next iteration of Ballot Marking Device prototypes! These prototypes are also referred to as Design Validation Units (DVUs), as their purpose is to validate that the system functions as designed.

Monica Flores, VSAP Project Manager

As a fairly new member to the VSAP team experiencing my election with the County, I realized a few things during this Presidential Primary Election. One important thing I learned is that voters lack confidence in the current system. Due to misinformation or lack of information of an already confusing Presidential Primary process along with a lack of modern and flexible technology, this past election saw many voters voting provisionally. A process for which there is a large amount of misinformation and has many voters questioning if their vote is going to be counted. For me, the Voting Systems Assessment Project represents a restoration in voter confidence. The project will result in a system which will not only facilitate the voting process but increase voter confidence by providing an accessible and simple to use voting machine and provide a wider range of options to cast a ballot. This system will minimize the need to vote provisionally and, with the voting center model, will ease the stress of having to vote in only one location. With increase of voter confidence, I believe an increase in voter turnout will follow.

Oscar Olmos, VSAP Project Assistant, RR/CC