California Code of Regulations
Title 2 - Administration
Division 7 - Secretary of State
Chapter 2 - Risk Limiting Audits
Section 20117 - Ballot Manifest and Ballot Handling
Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 12, March 22, 2024
(a) The elections official shall maintain an accurate ballot manifest, created without reliance on the voting system. The ballot manifest shall uniquely identify the storage container in which each validly cast ballot card is stored after tabulation.
(b) The ballot manifest shall be in the format required by the RLA software tool in the California Post-Election Risk-Limiting Audit Ballot Manifest Format document dated October 15, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference, and which the Secretary of State shall post on its website.
(c) If the audit commences after all validly cast ballot(s) have been tabulated, the elections official shall create only one ballot manifest.
(d) If the audit commences before all validly cast ballot(s) have been tabulated, the elections official shall create two ballot manifests, one before each phase of the audit: an initial ballot manifest that includes all ballot cards that have been tabulated before the first phase of the audit starts, followed by the final ballot manifest including all tabulated ballot cards.
(e) The content of the initial ballot manifest shall not be changed in the final manifest; accordingly, no ballot cards shall be added to the containers included in the initial manifest. Instead, the tabulated ballot cards that are not included in the initial ballot manifest shall be stored in new containers, and the final ballot manifest shall include all the rows in the initial ballot manifest plus a row for each new container.
Example: 1,000,000 ballot cards were cast in the county, of which 900,000 had been tabulated when the elections official decided to start the first phase of a two-phase audit. The initial ballot manifest includes those 900,000 ballot cards. Ultimately, 97,000 of the remaining 100,000 ballot cards are determined to be validly cast. These ballot cards are tabulated and are stored in new containers. The final ballot manifest consists of the initial ballot manifest plus additional rows that describe the new containers in which these 97,000 ballot cards are stored, for a total count of 997,000 ballot cards in the ballot manifest for the second audit phase.
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).
Note: Authority cited: Section 12172.5, Government Code; and Section 15367, Elections Code. Reference: Section 15367, Elections Code.
