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New L.A. County Voting System Approved By Secretary Of State

On Friday, Secretary of State Alex Padilla approved Los Angeles County’s Voting Solutions for All People 2.0 Voting System, officials said.

The approval allows the County to move forward with its implementation plan for the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election.

“Los Angeles County seeks to transition from using 1960’s era technology to a modern, secure, publicly-owned system. The county, along with hundreds of experts, and thousands of public volunteers have created the first in the nation publicly-owned voting system,” said Secretary Padilla.

Operating within the conditions set forth by the Secretary of State, the VSAP 2.0 system was found to be compliant with all applicable California and federal laws.

“This is a significant advancement for Los Angeles County. I want to thank our design and manufacturing partners and all the stakeholders, usability experts and technical advisors who have worked over the past decade to modernize the voting experience with and for Los Angeles County voters,” said Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan.

As part of the testing and approval process, the system went through rigorous functional and security testing conducted by the Secretary of State’s testing consultants.

Additionally, the County subjected the system to independent, third-party security and penetration testing that exceeded state requirements.

“It is appropriate and expected that the VSAP system would undergo unprecedented review and testing. The responsibility for administering elections in the nation’s largest, most complex voting jurisdiction using a publicly-owned voting system warrants a high standard of achievement and security,” said Logan. “The County stands firm in its commitment to meet or exceed that standard.”

Others joined in acknowledging the approval milestone highlighting its relationship to a new direction in voting system development, accessibility for voters with disabilities and an open, transparent public process.

“This certification is the product of a nationally unique process with immense stakeholder outreach and an unusual devotion of time, patience, vision, and support from county officials,” said Justin Levitt, election expert at Loyola Law School and member of the County’s VSAP Advisory Committee. “LA voters should be proud that they’ll be using a system designed with the flexibility to meet the needs of the most populous and in many ways most diverse jurisdiction in the country, in 2020 and well beyond.”

“The Voting Systems for All People is an important advance — most importantly, that everyone of the ballot marking devices is fully accessible and includes every language the County supports, ending segregation of voters with disabilities, low literacy, or who need to vote in an alternative language,” added Whitney Quesenbery, Co-Director of the Center for Civic Design.

Launched in September 2009, VSAP was developed in response to growing voting system needs and the end of life of the County’s legacy InkaVote Plus system.

The project transitioned from a research and design project to full system development and implementation program.

Responding to voter preferences and changes in state and federal election laws, VSAP took an unprecedented and comprehensive approach to modernize the County’s voting system.

The vision of the project was to implement a voting system through a transparent process that considered the needs and expectations of current and future Los Angeles County voters.

“Since Los Angeles County’s VSAP design project began in 2009, Disability Rights California and other disability advocates have been involved to ensure the system’s overall accessibility for voters with disabilities,” recognized Fred Nisen, Supervising Attorney for Voting Rights with Disability Rights California. “Virtually every new prototype that the County rolled out had more accessibility features. We are pleased to see the system move forward.”

The new voting system is not the only change for voters in 2020. In-person voting has been expanded to 11 consecutive days beginning February 22 and voters can now go to any open Vote Center within the County to cast their vote.

To learn more about Los Angeles County’s new voting experience, please watch for informational materials in the mail and visit here.


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New L.A. County Voting System Approved By Secretary Of State

3 comments

  1. And nobody will be able to hack the non-hackable system, Not even the Russians. Polls open for 11 days just to give the hackers extra time to figure it all out….

  2. Oh, I really trust that guy. He is so crooked. Sounds like a guy in a car offering candy to an unsuspecting child. Here is some candy, it will be soooo good for you.

  3. This system will have its first hacking within the first 11 days. Out of curiosity, does this new system have a reader to check your ID? Oh wait…they don’t require ID any longer in the great state of California.

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About Louie Diaz

Louie was born and raised in Santa Clarita. At the age of two Louie lost his vision due to a brain tumor. However, Louie doesn't let blindness stop him from doing what ever it is he wants to accomplish. Growing up some of his favorite hobbies were wood working, fishing and riding bikes. Louie graduated from College of the Canyon in December of 2017, with a Broadcast Journalism degree. Growing up Louie has always wanted to be a fire fighter or a police officer, but because of his blindness Louie knew that wouldn't work. Louie has always loved listening to police and fire radio traffic, using a scanner, and he figured if he was going to listen to the scanner so much, he should do something with it.