El Dorado County Board of Supervisors Response to the

The Elections Department is required to accept new voter registrations and voter roll updates provided by the Secretary of State’s office even though the Elections Department is aware that some of these County voters may not have the required driver's license or SSN and/or may not be citizens. The Elections Department places the registration in a pending status until identification details are provided whether the registration is online or mailed in, ensuring that an identifying number is recorded for every voter. The County relies on information provided by the voter to determine their citizenship status. The Board of Supervisors agrees with the finding.

The Elections Department is doing an excellent job staying current with deceased voters and incorporating information from Social Security records and other sources. This is not a significant problem for the County despite initial evidence to the contrary. The Board of Supervisors agrees with the finding.

There is inconsistency between Federal and State election codes regarding requirement for stating place of birth on a registration. State of California is not compliant with its own statutory requirement for a voter registration record to include the affiant’s place of birth, by making the place of birth optional in the online voter registration form. The County cannot determine this information independently, and it is left blank in a significant number of voter records. This conforms with Federal election mandates and requires no new action by the County. The Board of Supervisors disagrees wholly with the finding. Elections Code 2154(d) states, “The affiant’s failure to furnish his or her place of birth shall not preclude his or her affidavit of registration from being deemed complete.”

The Elections Department regularly checks and identifies voter registrations that incorrectly list a post office box location as an actual residence. These checks are sporadic, and they had not identified all instances at the time of our analysis. The Board of Supervisors disagrees partially with the finding. A mail drop box location may be used by voters to receive their mail, including their ballots, but a physical residential address is required for valid registration. Occasionally a voter incorrectly lists their mail drop box location as their physical address. If the mail drop box location is known by the Elections Department, the system identifies the location as an invalid residence address and will flag the registration for review. However, there is no automatic mechanism that notifies the Elections Department when a new mail drop location is established, so the Elections Department proactively seeks this information from the United States Postal Service to add these addresses to the system. This has been done periodically in the past, but the Elections Department has established a procedure to get this information from the Postal Service quarterly and add any new addresses to the system.

The Elections Department cannot update ex-patriated voter registrations even though they have not lived in the U.S. for many years. These voters have the right to participate in U.S. elections and use their last primary residence as a location to determine their ballot. This may allow voters to participate in local races for which they have no knowledge, interest or involvement. The Board of Supervisors agrees with the finding.

Outdoor ballot drop boxes are vulnerable to physical attacks such as inserting an incendiary device that would cause a large loss of ballots. Fire retardants and increased patrols and video surveillance could alleviate concerns but would require additional funding and may not completely eliminate potential problems. The Board of Supervisors agrees with the finding.