California Code of Regulations
Title 2 - Administration
Division 7 - Secretary of State
Chapter 4.7 - One Percent Manual Tally
Section 20313 - Selection of Ballots for Manual Tally

(A) Using a random number generator configured to return only numbers represented on that sequential list. Use the random number generator to identify all required tally items. Example: There are 123 possible precincts to select from. The elections official uses the "randbetween()" function in Microsoft Excel to identify a random number between 1 and 123. The elections official relates this number to the precinct in the list. The elections official refreshes this function to identify another random number, and so on.

(B) Rolling one or more fair 10-sided dice to identify each digit of the sequential number, starting with the highest value (left-most) digit. For any die roll that returns a number higher than one available for that digit, the elections official shall re-roll the die for that digit before proceeding to the next digit. Repeat this process for any additional tally item. Example: There are 123 possible precincts to select from. The elections official first rolls a die for the hundreds place digit, rolling until they get the number 0 or 1. They proceed to roll for the tens place digit and then the ones place digit. When that process is complete, they begin new die rolls to identify a second precinct to tally, and so on.

(C) Identifying each digit of a sequential number by randomly drawing one numbered object such as a slip of paper for each digit, starting with the highest value (left-most) digit. Repeat this process for any additional tally item. Example: There are 123 possible precincts to select from. The elections official first identifies the hundreds place digit by drawing from two slips of paper labeled 0 and 1. They proceed to pull slips of paper for the tens place digit and then the ones place digit. When that process is complete, they start the process over to identify a second precinct to tally, and so on.

(D) Placing this list into computerized spreadsheet software; assigning a random number next to each item using a function in that spreadsheet tool; sorting those randomly assigned numbers in either ascending or descending order; and then selecting items starting at the top until the requisite number of items is identified. Example: A list of 123 precincts is added to Microsoft Excel by placing each precinct on in its own cell in sequential rows. The elections official uses Excel's randbetween() function to assign a random number greater than or equal to 0 and less than 1 next to each cell. The elections official converts these random numbers to static text so that they will not change when the list is sorted. The elections official sorts these now-static random numbers, along with the precincts in the neighboring cells, in descending order. The elections official selects the top two items in this sorted list.