Report 2017-107 Recommendation 5 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 #5 To: Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters

To make certain that its staff learn of election-related errors and identify trends in error types, and to allow Santa Clara to identify necessary modifications to processes that will reduce or eliminate such errors, Santa Clara should immediately formalize a policy requiring the continued use of a spreadsheet similar to the one it created to track election-related errors.

60-Day Agency Response

Originally responded 12.22.17. On December 15, 2017, we implemented "ROV Policy - Tracking Errors_Implemented 121517," which requires the Registrar of Voters administration to maintain an error log in spreadsheet format. The information the spreadsheet "ROV Error Tracking Log" will track include : a) Election Date, b) Election Type, c) Error Description, d) Approximate # of Voters Affected, e) # Ballot Types or CVIGs Affected, f) Notification Methods, g) ROV Error?, h) Other Error Source(s), i) Believed Root Cause, j) Steps Taken/Procedure Changes/Notes, and k) Deviations from ROV Decision Matrix. The ROV Error Tracking Log will be shared with managers and staff annually at a Leadership Team Meeting in January, and again after any election-related error necessitates an update to the log. Any deviations to the post-error actions spelled out in the ROV Decision Matrix (see 12.22.17 Response #9) will be documented in the ROV Error Tracking Log. While this policy was implemented on December 15, 2017, the ROV has yet to have the opportunity to put the policy into practice. The policy has been attached separately as Supporting Documentation.

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

All Recommendations in 2017-107

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.