The county will lease almost two dozen new voting machines as part of a statewide effort to improve election administration and enhance accessibility for voters. Last week the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with Dominion Voting Services, sole certified provider of voting machines compliant with both federal and state regulations. The new electronic devices will be more accessible to the vision- and hearing-impaired, said county clerk-recorder Alissia Northrup. They will also tally votes in real time, meaning results will come in much sooner after polls close on a given election day. The agreement lasts through 2021 at more than $110,000 per year. By leasing rather than purchasing, the county will have an easier time complying with any yet-upcoming technology requirements in six years hence. It’s not too hard to imagine those standards changing in short time, since the state is currently processing a small flurry of voting-related legislation.
The New Motor Voter Act (Assembly Bill 1461), which was approved early October and becomes law Jan. 1, will automatically register California voters when they obtain or renew a driver’s license. The DMV has implementation details to sort through before the law takes effect, meaning AB 1461 will not be realized in time for the June 2016 primary.
Yet at least one new measure targeting voter-fraud is likely to stand up in the next six months. VoteCal will “provide a single, uniform, centralized voter registration database,” according to the project website from the Secretary of State. Every county in the state will eventually be registered with the VoteCal, with the hope being to eliminate the chance of someone registering in multiple jurisdictions.
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