Finding Faith in Elections: “Audit Logs are the Light”
Recently, I interviewed Sierra Thread contributor Amy Young on the topic of the voting systems and practices that are used in Nevada County elections. In this discussion, Amy walked me through the life cycle of an election ballot as it goes through the elections office to be counted.
This step-by-step analysis gives a general overview of the various processing steps and the Hart Verity voting machines that are used in Nevada County. Amy discusses various election laws that pertain to the handling and storage of ballot data. According to the California Voting System Standards, ballot tabulators and counting machines must be completely auditable, including detailed reports of keystrokes, manual inputs, and any adjudications that are made to ballots. These safeguards were heralded as a way to offer maximum transparency and without having to handle the actual ballots. Unlike some other California counties, Nevada County Registrar of Voters Natalie Adona has denied Amy, and the citizens in general, access to these files.
As a person with a keen interest in elections, she has learned a great deal about how and where the data are stored and shares some tips and words of encouragement for other engaged citizens who likewise want to learn about the ballot counting process. As she explains, citizens should be able to use a Public Records Act request to get this information. She goes on to describe that the ballots should be anonymous once they are separated from the envelope if they have one. Specifically, because the California Election Code says that ballots that have personal identifying marks must be duplicated, and only those duplicated ballots are run through the tabulators, the ballot images contain no personally identifying information that could compromise the anonymity of the ballot. Her effort to champion transparency has been met with stonewalling from the election’s office. Without any other recourse, Amy has filed a petition for writ of mandate against the Nevada County Election’s office to produce images of the ballots and other logs that are stored on the voting system. The elections office contends that the ballot images and data could somehow identify the voter, one such argument was that “a clever person could possibly figure out who filled out the ballot by the way they fill in the bubbles.” This matter is currently under litigation and the next hearing is set for June 15, 2023, at the Nevada County Superior Court.
