Report 2017-107 Recommendation 3 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 #3 To: Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters

To reduce errors and potentially its workload, Santa Clara should research by January 2018 its opportunities to integrate mapping software with its election management software, and Santa Clara should implement this integration of mapping software technology by June 2018.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019

Progress from the last report includes the project completion of the data conversion from street address range to single point addresses in the Election Information Management System (EIMS). The project was conducted by our Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapping Division and our vendor, DFM Associates. The single point address conversion was a necessary step to allow integration with mapping software. Now that it is complete the GIS Mapping division may utilize the importing functions of the EIMS program. The project consisted of several phases and took several months to complete. The success of this data conversion will now allow for GIS importing into EIMS. See extract reports attached as samples, both before and after the data conversion. GIS Mapping staff have worked very diligently to test the data for quality assurance purposes. This project also included several other operations of the Registrar of Voters Office, such as the County TSS (Technology Services & Solutions) Department, which oversees the County's websites in order to allow for a much larger data file for address lookup, and the ROV Administrative Services Division, for implementation of web hosting of the data, working with TSS for the scripting of the program, and building of a new ROV Website, as a whole. The GIS Mapping Division staff have continued to access the Assessor's data for verification of data in GIS and EIMS, as well as participate in the Enterprise GIS Committee and subcommittees monthly meetings for county department collaboration purposes. Supporting documentation has been uploaded separately. Status: Completed October 2019

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

Progress from the last report includes continued access to the Assessor's data for verification of data in GIS and EIMS; Enterprise GIS Committee and subcommittees continue to meet monthly. The scheduling of a WebEx with the EIMS vendor, DFM, and the Mapping Division has been completed. The WebEx is to facilitate to collection of additional address data sources from other county agencies. Due to the proximity of the election and the required blackout of the EIMS during the election process, the WebEx has been scheduled for January 3, 2019. Vendor has informed us that the process is estimated to take approximately 30-60 days for the data conversion into a single point address and for verification of the accuracy of the data. Once this process is complete, then the import functionality into the EIMS system will work. Evidence as supporting documentation has been uploaded separately.

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

6-Month Agency Response

The Santa Clara County ROV had conducted the recommended research within the timeframe, however discovered that we could not implement it due to the configuration of the data. To meet the demands of the Mapping Division requirements, we have hired additional staffing and have used all of 2018 as training to get its new staff familiar with the EIMS data system. Our vendor, DFM has agreed to assist our Mapping Division with the conversion of its data system so that the import options may be implemented. It was also determined that due to the time that the conversation of the data will take, the work must be done outside of an election cycle therefore is planned for 2019.

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

60-Day Agency Response

Originally responded 12.22.17. On several occasions in recent months we have reached out to our election management system vendor, DFM Associates, requesting a meeting to discuss options for enhancement of the Precinct/District Modules of the Election Information Management System (EIMS). A request was also sent out to all counties via the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials' (CACEO) ElecNet listserv requesting best practices and procedures, including those relating to import/export options for district boundary verification. The Mapping Division Manager has prepared a summary of the best practices received by other counties. He called Alameda County to request information relating to their import/export program, however was told that the import/export program is proprietary to the vendor (DIMS) of that county's system, therefore Alameda was not at liberty to share it with us. A follow-up to our inquiry with our vendor DFM was made on December 14, 2017, at which time DFM's representatives acknowledged receipt of our request and advised that they have not conducted any research into further options, offering that our staff work with theirs for use of existing reports for proofing purposes. The Summary of Best Practices in other counties, correspondence with other counties and DFM, and a memo regarding recent communications have been attached separately as Supporting Documentation. Further research will be conducted and an update to the status of this recommendation will be made at the next report back to the State Auditors.

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

All Recommendations in 2017-107

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.