Report 2017-107 Recommendation 10 Responses

Report 2017-107: Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters: Insufficient Policies and Procedures Have Led to Errors That May Have Reduced Voters' Confidence in the Registrar's Office (Release Date: October 2017)

Recommendation #10 To: Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters

To maintain the public's confidence in it and its functions, Santa Clara should immediately include in its postelection reports descriptions of any election-related errors, accounts of why the errors occurred, and explanations of how it plans to prevent similar errors from occurring in the future.

1-Year Agency Response

Progress from the last report reflects that our office has prepared the Post-Election Report for the June 5, 2018 Primary Election and incorporated an Errata Chapter. As standard practice, this report is emailed out to all members of the Board of Supervisors and members of the Citizens Advisory Commission on Elections (CACE), as well as posted on our website. Evidence as supporting documentation has been uploaded separately. This recommendation is now deemed completed as of October 30, 2018.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

Since the last report of December 2017, our office has not conducted any elections nor prepared any Post Election Reports; therefore, we have not yet had an opportunity to include any descriptions of any election-related errors, accounts of why the errors occurred, and explanations of how we plan to prevent the errors from occurring in the future.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

Originally responded 12.22.17. On December 15, 2017, we implemented "ROV Policy - Decision Matrix_Implemented 121517," which incorporates the requirement to include information concerning an error in voting materials in the Post-Election Report published after each election. Information concerning the error will be based on specific details documented in the ROV Error Tracking Log. This information will include a description of the error, an account of the reason(s) for the error, and an explanation of how the department plans to prevent future errors (see 12.22.17 Responses #4, #5, and #9). While this policy was implemented on December 15, 2017, the ROV has yet to have the opportunity to put the policy into practice. ROV Policy - Decision Matrix_Implemented 121517 has been attached separately as Supporting Documentation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

Although Santa Clara established a policy which requires it to include information about errors in voting materials in its post-election reports, it has not yet demonstrated that it is following this policy. Until Santa Clara can demonstrate that it is following this policy, we will continue to report the status of this recommendation as partially implemented.

All Recommendations in 2017-107

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.