DEPARTMENT OF REGISTRAR-RECORDER/COUNTY CLERK REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR ELECTRONIC POLLBOOKS December 1, 2014 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Prepared By County of Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk- Contracts Section 12400 Imperial Highway Norwalk, CA 90650 www.lavote.net
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ELECTRONIC POLLBOOKS Disclaimer: This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Proposals (RFP), Invitation for Bid (IFB) or an obligation on the part of the County to acquire any services. Responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the County to form a binding contract. The County reserves the right to determine how it should proceed as a result of this notice. Furthermore, those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regard to its submission. The County will not pay any cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the County. 1.0
PURPOSE A. The County of Los Angeles Department of Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) is requesting information from vendors regarding electronic pollbook software (and/or hardware, if applicable) to be used by election staff to check in registered voters at polling places during elections. The electronic pollbooks would provide election workers with real-time access to voter information and voter registration status so that they can issue the appropriate ballot. B. The information obtained through this RFI will help RR/CC staff gain an understanding of existing electronic pollbook technology in the marketplace. C. The overall goals are to: 1) replace the paper-based rosters currently used to check in voters with an electronic solution; 2) enable voters to check- in at any voting location in Los Angeles County to cast their vote; 3) expedite the check-in process for voters; and 4) simplify processes for pollworkers responsible for checking in voters. D. Please respond to this RFI by submitting your response on or before 5:00 P.M. Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Friday, January 16, 2015. Letters of interest must be submitted via e-mail (in PDF or Microsoft Word format) to Cecille Asuncion at
[email protected] and Stephanie Babb at
[email protected].
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RFI TIMETABLE Release Date of RFI Response Deadline
RFI | Page 1 of 7
Monday, December 1, 2014 Friday, January 16, 2015 5:00 P.M. (PST)
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BACKGROUND A. Los Angeles County is the largest and most complex election jurisdiction in the nation. The RR/CC is responsible for registering voters and maintaining voter files and conducting federal, State, local, and special elections. There are 4,880,868 registered voters within Los Angeles County and approximately 5,000 voting locations (also referred to as polling places and precincts). Thirty percent of registered voters in Los Angeles County are Permanent Vote By Mail (VBM) voters, with the remaining voters anticipated to vote at the polls on Election Day. For more information, visit http://www.lavote.net. B. In 2009, Los Angeles County began an effort to replace and modernize its current voting systems, the InkaVote Plus voting system and the Microcomputer Tally System (MTS), by launching the Voting Systems Assessment Project (VSAP), a multi-faceted public process designed to better serve the needs of Los Angeles County voters. Since the launch of the VSAP, Los Angeles County has compiled field data and established an ongoing and collaborative stakeholder input process and has identified fundamental values and needs informing the ultimate design of a new voting experience. Those values are enshrined in a set of General Voting Systems Principles (VSAP Principles) adopted in collaboration with the VSAP Advisory Committee to guide all aspects of the VSAP (Attachment A). C. In keeping with the VSAP Principles, Los Angeles County seeks to enhance the current processes used to conduct elections. These enhancements will include streamlining operations at voting locations and/or expanding early voting options by increasing the number of early voting centers throughout Los Angeles County. D. We seek information on current or planned electronic pollbook solutions which are feasible in the current operating environment but offer flexibility to adapt to future operating environments as a result of the VSAP.
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CURRENT OPERATING ENVIRONMENT A. The RR/CC currently uses pre-printed paper rosters (Rosters of Voters) to check voters’ assignment to a specific polling place. B. Rosters of Voters (Attachment B) are generated from the Data Information Management System (DIMS) 21 days before the election, (E-21 in the election cycle) and packed into the black supply tubs at the RR/CC elections Operation Center two weeks before the election. The process of sorting and distributing the Rosters can take up to a week for approximately 5,000 voting locations needed during large elections and involves approximately 30 fulltime employees and up to 75 temporary employees.
C. Updates to the Rosters of Voters are distributed to Election Inspectors via mail on a Blue Supplemental Roster. The Blue Supplemental Rosters list all voters who registered to vote between the time the Roster of Voters was printed through the last day of voter registration. D. During periods of heavy registration, it is sometimes necessary to send a 2nd update to the Blue Supplemental Roster via express mail. E. On Election Day, a voter checks in with the pollworker and the pollworker will locate the voter’s name on the Roster of Voters. If the voter is not located on the Roster of Voters, the pollworker references the Blue Supplemental Roster. Once found on the Blue Supplemental Roster, the voter verifies/updates the address information and signs the roster. The voter then receives a blank ballot and instructions on how to mark and cast his/her ballot. F. If the voter is not found on the Rosters of Voters or Blue Supplemental Roster, the voter must cast provisional ballot if voter would like to vote at that polling place. G. During the canvass period, elections officials must: a) confirm each provisional voter's registration status; b) verify each voter's signature on the provisional envelope, and c) ensure each person did not vote elsewhere in the same election. Processing provisional ballots requires additional staffing and man-hours for authentication and adjudication, which increases the costs for conducting elections. H. The total number of provisional ballots processed during recent elections range from several thousand for a minor election to as much as 700,000 during a major election. 6.0
GOALS OF ELECTRONIC POLLBOOK SOLUTION The RR/CC is seeking to implement an electronic pollbook solution to replace the paper pollbooks at polling places. Ideally the electronic pollbook solution will incorporate as many of the VSAP Principles (Attachment A) as technically possible. In addition, the electronic pollbook solution should be capable of the following: 1. Interfacing with a cached copy of the DIMS Election Management System (EMS). The DIMS EMS stores the registered voter rolls for Los Angeles County. The solution should provide a method for updating the DIMS EMS after the election.
2. Allowing voters to vote at any voting location in Los Angeles County. The electronic pollbook solution should send/receive updates in real time to a cached copy of the DIMS EMS once a voter has voted at a voting location. 3. Streamlining a check-in process for voters when they arrive at a voting location, enhancing the experience for voters and pollworkers by providing improvements over the current paper-based manual process used to check-in voters. 4. Supporting a process for activating the correct ballot style on an electronic ballot marking device after a voter has completed the check-in process 5. Delivering street index updates in real-time on an electronic monitor posted outside of the voting location (Attachment C). 6. Providing a solution for capturing the voter’s signature once he/she completes the check-in process. 7. Offering a process for the managed disclosure of source code for auditing purposes in keeping with VSAP Principle 1 (Transparency). 8. Providing sufficient memory and processing capacity to handle transactions to a cached copy of a database of 8 million records (which includes 4,880,868 active voter registration records and 3,142,465 inactive voter registration records) simultaneously throughout approximately 5,000 voting locations in Los Angeles County (Attachment D). 9. Easy for pollworkers to set-up, use and monitor in keeping with VSAP Principle 9 (Ease of use). 10. The electronic pollbook should be hardware independent, capable of running on any hardware platform in keeping with VSAP Principle 3 (Flexibility). If the electronic pollbook solution bundles hardware and application software, describe whether or not the software and hardware can be unbundled. 7.0
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS A. Submit your response by e-mail (in Microsoft Word or PDF format); B. Responses should be less than fifteen (15) pages in length and contain the following information: 1. Cover Page; 2. Executive Summary;
3. Business name, mailing address, and name, title and contact information
(telephone number and e-mail address) of the representative; 4. Brief overview of the company; 5. Description of how your electronic pollbook product meets the needs of
the County of Los Angeles which also addresses the following; i. It is anticipated that voting regulations adopted in the future may
require Los Angeles County to implement same-day voter registration. Please describe how the electronic pollbook solution can implement same-day voter registration. If the electronic pollbook solution is currently implemented in other jurisdictions, describe how the product has implemented same-day voter registration in those jurisdictions. ii. Include a solution for processing VBM ballots surrendered at the
voting location and for processing provisional voters. iii. Describe in detail any analytics, dashboards or administrator
capabilities associated with your electronic pollbook solution. 6. Description of features, technical requirements, interfacing requirements
and other relevant information including, installed hardware, operating systems software and related support programs, and all runtime environments necessary to run the electronic pollbook solution; 7. Any trademarked product features should include a short explanation of
how this feature is used in a typical election and how the trademarked feature could be used in the Los Angeles County operating environment; 8. Accessibility features included in the electronic pollbook solution, the
accessibility standards used in any testing in compliance with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA); 9. Product support and maintenance information, including minimum system
requirements and product data sheets; 10. Information about a trial, or live demonstration, if available; 11. A detailed, line-item cost estimate of the product; per-unit cost and any
additional costs for consulting, implementation, maintenance and support of the product;
12. Brochures/literature/website links;
13. Provide references of companies/government agencies that have successfully implemented your electronic product. Please include a contact name, company name and or government agency, phone number, and e-mail address for these companies and government agencies. 8.0
OTHER INFORMATION A. This RFI is issued solely to gather information for planning purposes and shall not in any way obligate the County of Los Angeles to issue a solicitation, negotiate a contract, hire additional employees or in any way obtain the specified services from any firm. B. If enough interest is generated, the County may consider releasing a formally advertised solicitation, or take no further action. Timely respondents will be placed on a list of interested firms, organizations, and government agencies. Such respondents will be notified of the County’s intent to issue a formally advertised solicitation and where to obtain that information. C. The County shall not in any way be liable or responsible for any and all costs incurred in responding to this RFI. D. Respondents are admonished that all information received in response to this RFI shall become the exclusive property of the County of Los Angeles, shall become a matter of public record, and shall be disclosed to the extent required by law, including, but not limited to, the California Public Records Act (California Government Code Section 6250, et seq.). E. Respondents are advised to clearly, unambiguously and specifically identify all aspects of their response to this RFI, which are secret, confidential or proprietary by labeling such confidential material with the appropriate label: "trade secret," "confidential," "proprietary," etc. The County shall not in any way be liable or responsible for the disclosure of any such records or any portion thereof if: 1) any response is not clearly, unambiguously and specifically identified in the aforementioned manner; or 2) if the disclosure is required by law whether or not the documents are clearly marked.
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QUESTIONS Please submit all questions related to this RFI via e-mail to Cecille Asuncion at
[email protected] and Stephanie Babb at
[email protected].
ATTACHMENT A Page 1 of 2 VSAP GENERAL VOTING SYSTEM PRINCIPLES 1.
The voting system must provide for transparency. The processes and transactions associated with how the system is set up, run, and stored should be easy for the public to understand and verify. This should include making hardware components available for inspection, and source code to the extent that the manner of doing so would not jeopardize system security or availability.
2.
The voting system must be scalable. The system must provide sufficient technical and physical capacity to accommodate large and complex ballot styles, growing language needs, extremely large numbers of precincts and consolidation of elections with local districts and municipalities.
3.
The voting system must be flexible. It must provide the ability to adapt to different election types, environments, and changing regulatory requirements, without the need to replace the entire system or to undertake costly system modifications that potentially compromise security.
4.
The voting system must instill public trust by having the ability to produce a physical and tangible record of a voter’s ballot to verify the ballot was marked as intended before it is cast and to ensure auditability of the system. It must demonstrate to voters, candidates, and the general public that all votes are counted as cast.
5.
The voting system must have integrity and be accountable to voters and follow existing regulations. System features must protect against fraud and tampering. It should also be easy to audit and produce useful, accessible data to verify vote counts and monitor system performance.
6.
The voting system must offer a variety of options to cast a vote to ensure that a single/fixed method of voting does not prove to be a barrier and source of disenfranchisement for any group of voters. The system should allow for variety in the location, time, and equipment used to cast a ballot.
7.
The voting system must guarantee a private and independent voting experience for all voters, including voters with a full range of types of disabilities and voters with limited English proficiency. Voting system features must allow the voter to select the language, adjust display features, alternate ballot formats (e.g., Audio Ballot), and method of controlling the marking tool, allowing voters to cast a ballot independently.
8.
The voting system must be easy for all voters to use, in particular, for voters with a full range of types of disabilities and voters with limited English proficiency. The system must support plain language and be intuitive, userfriendly, and accessible to all, in order to minimize and easily identify voter
ATTACHMENT A Page 2 of 2 errors. It should also provide all voters the ability to easily correct any errors that appear on their ballot prior to casting their ballot. 9.
The voting system should be easy and reliable for election workers to use, set-up, breakdown, and explain.
10. The voting system must be portable. It should be lightweight and compact enough for transportation, set up, and efficient storage. A portable system could include features such as hand grips, handles, straps, and wheels that make transporting and maneuvering the voting system easy. 11. The voting system must include features for safe and secure storage. It should include features such as locks and security seals to protect the integrity of the machine while in the custody of election workers or in storage with election officials. 12. The voting system must have minimal and/or flexible power and connectivity requirements. It should not require such an extensive amount of power and connectivity that it limits locations where the voting system can be deployed. 13. The voting system must have minimal requirements for system boot/programming at polling sites and/or vote centers. It must also provide intuitive and quick fix troubleshooting solutions to empower election workers on Election Day. It should be easy to set up for operation by election workers at polling sites and/or vote centers. 14. The voting system must be cost-effective. Costs considered should include procurement, operating, and maintenance costs as well as consideration of expected system/equipment lifespan.
ATTACHMENT B SAMPLE ROSTER OF VOTERS Disclaimer: The names/addresses listed below were created and are not actual registered voters.
ATTACHMENT C SAMPLE STREET INDEX Disclaimer: The names/addresses listed below were created and are not actual registered voters.
ATTACHMENT D PRECINCT VOTERS PROCESSED DURING ELECTIONS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY JUNE 3, 2014 - STATEWIDE DIRECT PRIMARY ELECTION
423,376
NOVEMBER 6, 2012 - GENERAL ELECTION
2,260,876
JUNE 5, 2012 - PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION
541,463
NOVEMBER 2, 2010 - GENERAL ELECTION
1,698,454
JUNE 8, 2010 - STATEWIDE DIRECT PRIMARY ELECTION
651,949
MAY 19, 2009 STATEWIDE SPECIAL ELECTION
494, 237
NOVEMBER 5, 2008 GENERAL ELECTION
2,557,835
JUNE, 3 2008 STATEWIDE DIRECT PRIMARY ELECTION
496,172
FEBRUARY 5, 2008 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION
1,701,077
