Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 2, § 20125 - Certification of Contest Results and Reporting of Audit Results

NOTE: See Executive Order N-34-20 (2019 CA EO 34-20), issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which extends certain deadlines relating to the presidential primary and special general elections.

(a) The elections official conducting an RLA shall report the results of the audit in the certification of the official canvass of the vote specified by Section 15372 of the Elections Code. The report shall contain the following:

(1) The type of RLA conducted (e.g. ballot comparison, ballot polling, batch comparison, or hybrid);

(2) The date and time the RLA commenced and finished, and the number of rounds of sampling;

(3) A list of contests audited, with final reported results for those contests and the final measured risk for each contest;

(4) A link to the website where the ballot manifest can be found;

(5) The random seed(s) the elections official generated for use with the RLA software tool, and when and how the random seed(s) was generated;

(6) Any inconsistencies between the number of ballot cards and the number of cast vote records, or inconsistencies in the data reported by RLA software tool, and -when possible -the reason(s) for those inconsistencies.

(7) The number of ballot card(s) examined for each contest under audit, noting whether a full manual tally was conducted. If the audit was conducted in stages or continued beyond the first sample, a description of how the sample was drawn and the number of ballot card(s) selected at each stage.

(8) Notes regarding any ballot card(s) for which the audit board could not determine the voter's intent, as described in subdivision (c) of section 20123;

(9) A link to the website where the list of the particular ballot card(s) examined can be found;

(10) For ballot-level comparison audits:

(A) The number of discrepancies between ballot card(s) and the cast vote record, and a description of each discrepancy; and

(B) A link to the website where the cast vote record file only for the ballot card(s) examined in the audit can be found;

(11) For batch comparison audits, discrepancies between batches and batch totals, and a description of each discrepancy;

(12) For opportunistic reviews of contests not subject to audit, as described in Section 20114, a list of contests reviewed and the result of the reviews.

(13) The person-hours required to prepare for the audit, and number of people involved;

(14) The person-hours required to conduct the audit, and number of people involved;

(15) The number of members of the public who observed the audit;

(16) Notes on anything unusual or problematic, or that would be useful to improve the process, or that might be of value to the Secretary of State or other elections officials; and

(17) An attestation from the elections official that the RLA was conducted in accordance with Title 2, Division 7, Chapter 2 of the California Code of Regulations.

(b) The certification of the official canvass of the vote shall be conducted in accordance with Section 15372 of the Elections Code.

(c) The Secretary of State shall publish any report under this section received from an elections official on its website no later than five days after the date it publishes the certification of the official canvass of the vote in accordance with Section 15372 of the Elections Code. This subdivision shall not prohibit the elections official from publishing the same report on its website.

Notes

Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 2, § 20125

Note: Authority cited: Section 12172.5, Government Code; and Section 15367, Elections Code. Reference: Section 15367, Elections Code.

1. New section filed 3-5-2020; operative 3/5/2020 pursuant to Government Code section 11343.4(b)(3) (Register 2020, No. 10).
2. Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-34-20 (2019 CA EO 34-20), dated March 20, 2020, which extended certain deadlines relating to the presidential primary and special general elections, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Amendment of section and Note filed 12-9-2021; operative 12/9/2021 pursuant to Government Code section 11343.4(b)(3) (Register 2021, No. 50).