Hello, First a little background. I am an absentee voter in San Diego County and was previously a poll worker for several elections in the Diebold voting machine era. I have been associated with the Open Voting Consortium. Note that there is a Secretary of State that has general supervision over elections. In the 50 counties in California, there is a County Registrar of voter who has local control. Within certain limits each Registrar calls their own shots for their County usually subject to their elected County Board of Supervisors.
I fully expect some of our respected Republican friends may claim fraud and will otherwise work the refs in response to the results of the coming election 11/8 2016. The election was rigged! We was robbed!. Kill the ump etc.
Today, almost all elections are conducted using one more preprinted, bates numbered, stiff paper ballots. After they are used, they ran through power feed optical scanners in each polling place. As the ballots are scanned, they drop into a sealed cardboard box. The scanner keeps an internal count within the system which can be compared to a hand count if required. A considerable amount of book keeping goes on during the day to establish the number of ballots used for a reconciliation at the end of the day.
If you are a disabled person, each polling place has a n electronic voting machine which can read the ballot out loud over headphones for the voter. This voting is done via a touch screen systems. Non english speaking voters can have paper ballots typically In Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Also, the voting machines can talk in these languages usually. There are other accommodations for the diabled. These electronic voting machines generate an internal paper tape which is available for audits.
At the end of the day, voters have to leave. The the poll workers break the seals and then go through a complex set of protocols to process the votes. A report is generated, sworn to and the ballots,’ equipment, supplies and the report are packed up, sealed and driven to the registrar of voter by two workers. A summary report is handwritten to a special postcard and that is taken to the nearest post office by yet another poll workers. Note that poll workers have to swear an oath at the beginning of the day.
It really is pretty easy to register to vote in California, with information provided at the Dmv, in the ballot instructions pamphlet mailed to all voters and available at most public libraries. Still having problems with the poll books?, you can vote provisonally.. That ballot is segregated from from the other ballots. If the results are quite close, the provisional ballot are reviewed, evaluated and counted that night. Otherwise those votes are counted later and included in certified totals.
When you vote you are handed a tear off strip from your ballot which has the same number as your cast ballot. This can taken to your registrar of voters and they can produce your original ballot (for a while). If you put any extraneous mark on your ballot, it either will not scan or be discarded later. Ballots must be anonymous. I have had people claim that they will be able to use these marks to demonstrate fraud somehow. Do not try this as you vote is unlikely to be counted. Consider usng your cell phone to take pictures of your ballots before running it through the scanner. Can a case for fraud be made using your photos? I would not want to try it but it is better than not having your vote counted.
Are there ways to game this system? Perhaps, but I doubt it. Elections are a poor way to make collective decisions but they are what we have to work with.
ERK