AP18:084
For Immediate Release
June 6, 2018
Contact:
SOS Press Office
(916) 653-6575
CA Secretary of State Requests Information Regarding LA County Voting Roster Printing Error
SACRAMENTO – California Secretary of State Alex Padilla sent the following letter to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan asking for information and action on the county's printing error that affected voting rosters at several Los Angeles County polling places.
Click here for a pdf of the letter
Mr. Dean Logan, Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk
County of Los Angeles
12400 Imperial Highway
Norwalk, CA 90605
Dear Mr. Logan
During yesterday’s Statewide Direct Primary, you publicly announced that 118,522 Los Angeles County voters’ names were omitted from the rosters at more than 1,000 precincts in Los Angeles County. Based on your statements, I understand that this was the result of a “print job” that created the printed rosters for Los Angeles County polling places and that the issue was unknown to you and your office prior to the election.
As you know, each Registrar of Voters/County Clerk in California is responsible for conducting elections in their respective county. While I applaud your efforts yesterday both to remind poll workers and voters of the provisional ballot option, as California’s Chief Elections Officer, I am gravely concerned by this incident and will take steps to ensure that it does not happen again. In the meantime, it is imperative that we provide Los Angeles County voters and the general public assurances that provisional ballots cast by impacted voters will be expeditiously processed and added to the election results.
Therefore, I hereby request that you:
(1) Immediately determine how many of those 118,522 voters voted provisionally, locate their provisional ballots and process those ballots no later than close of business on June 15, 2018.
(2) No later than close of business on June 15, 2018, notify in writing, each of the impacted voters that they are, in fact, registered to vote in California. In addition, for all of the impacted voters who voted provisionally, inform them of whether their provisional ballot was counted and, if not, why not. If any of those provisional ballots have a correctable issue, I ask that you inform the voter and offer guidance on how to correct the issue in a timeframe that will allow the provisional ballot to be counted.
(3) No later than June 19, 2018, provide to my office a comprehensive summary of those 118,522 voters, including:
a. Which precincts were affected;
b. How many were vote by mail voters;
c. How many were polling place voters;
d. How many voted provisionally;
e. Of those that voted provisionally, how many were counted; and
f. Of those that voted provisionally, how many were not counted and the reason why they were not counted.
(4) No later than June 22, 2018, provide my office with a detailed report as to the root cause of this error, along with the steps you will take to ensure this type of error is not repeated in any future elections. I particularly urge you to utilize an independent third-party expert with the relevant election administration and election technology expertise to make the necessary determinations and recommendations.
My office remains available to assist in any way possible with the review and resolution of this issue.
Sincerely,
ALEX PADILLA
California Secretary of State
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