LA'S VOTING SYSTEM Up for certification

The CA Secretary of State Alex Padilla will be deciding whether to certify the Los Angeles "Voting Solutions for All People" (VSAP) system. It received a conditional certification previously so that it could be used in the March 2020 primary. 

That primary was an "Epic Fail" with 4 hour lines, jammed printers, epollbooks that malfunctioned and many many voters unable to vote. 

There is a public comment period now until September 15th 2020 at 5pm PST. Email your comments to: 

• votingsystems@sos.ca.gov 
• or by mail to: California Secretary of State, OVSTA 1500 11th Street, 6th floor Sacramento, California 95814

The machines have now been tested by a different lab called SLI Compliance. Testing labs are called "independent" but they are paid by vendors and counties, so it is in their interest to tell those clients what they want to hear, rather than to report on the details of security problems. Even so, at the 8/31/20 public hearing the SLI representative admitted they found problems with "error checking" "functional security issues" and "encryption".

The new tests on the voting system are publicly available. 

At the 3 hour hearing there was not a single speaker who spoke entirely favorably of the voting system. A few people said that it was well-intentioned, and had helped some voters with disabilities vote. But speaker after speaker detailed the security and functionality flaws, saying they were "angry" that this poorly designed system was being pushed on voters and "scared" about what would happen if it continues to be used. 

Here is a Twitter thread about the hearing. Please read and retweet. We are using the hashtags #VSAP #LAVotes & #SecurityFail

SMART Elections Executive Director Lulu Friesdat also spoke with Brad Friedman on his radio show The BradCast about the problems with the LA voting system. The show is very informative. Long time advocate Robin Gibson was also a guest. 

SMART Elections signed onto, and helped to finalize a letter organized by the California Clean Money Campaign asking for 4 improvements prior to certification of the VSAP voting system.

1. Use ordinary ballot boxes for all ballots so that no ballot ever passes under the print head after being reviewed by the voter.
2. Don't count votes with QR codes - voters cannot verify that their vote has been cast correctly when it is encoded in a QR code or a barcode. CO has banned the use of barcodes to count votes. 
3. Make hand-marked paper ballots available to all voters who would like to use them. Mandate that poll workers be required to offer the option to use hand-marked paper ballots to voters. 
4. Disclose the source code as required so that the system is truly "open source."

If your organization is doing pro-democracy work and wants to sign the coalition letter asking for improvements to the system, please email us at contact@SMARTelections.us with "Want to Sign the Coalition Letter" in the subject line. Please include your group name, leader name and logo.

Here is the letter: 

1/20/20

SMART Elections, a non-partisan project dedicated to “Elevating Election Reform to an Urgent National Priority,” is submitting the following public comments to the California Secretary of State.

Dear Secretary of State Alex Padilla, 

We do not understand how the SOS office can state that the Los Angeles County Voting Solutions for All People System has met "all applicable California and federal laws" when the system violates so many of California's security and secrecy requirements. 

Below are screenshots of some of the concerns that were listed in LA County's own Functional Test Report.