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.