Election Security & Transparency in SacCounty

​​​The Nov. 5 General Election is just one week away, and we all know what that means: misinformation is spreading like wildfire. We wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the very important election security measuresthe Sacramento County Department of Voter Registration and Electionshas in place to protect your privacy and right to vote.

Ballot Security:

• Two people are required to be with the ballots, both voted and unvoted, at all times.
• All voted ballots are returned from the Vote Centers each night. No ballots or personal information is ever left at a Vote Center overnight.
• All voted ballots are stored in secure, locked cages under 24-hour surveillance.
• Signature verification between a voter's returned Vote by Mail ballot envelope and the voter's registration form is conducted to verify a match for every returned ballot.
• If a voter forgets to sign their return envelope, or their signature does not match, the voter is contacted to correct the issue prior to the certification of the election.

Election Equipment Security:

• State-mandated Logic and Accuracy Testing is done before and after each election to ensure the accuracy of the voting machines at the Vote Centers and our office.
• Sacramento County election personnel are certified to work on the voting equipment, and all programming of equipment is completed here in Sacramento County.
• Ballot printers and ballot paper must be secured with a tamper-evident seal each night.
• All voting equipment, by law, has closed connections. The Central Count tabulation machines at our office are not hooked up to anything that can be hacked, like the Internet.
• 1% Manual Tally: Under the California Election Code, one percent of all precincts in every California County, including Vote by Mail ballots, must be manually tallied to ensure the accuracy of the voting equipment. The public is free to watch this process after Election Day.
• Canvass: After each election, dozens of staff members go through all the voted ballots from every Vote Center to reconcile the number of voted ballots and unused ballots (blank ballot stock).

Voter File Security:

• Access to voter data, both in-office and at Vote Centers, is limited to authorized individuals over encrypted connections. Voter data remains on secured servers and is not stored locally on PCs or other devices.
• Authorized users accessing voter data are required to sign confidentiality agreements and security policies. All agreements and policies are strictly enforced.
• Authorized users must use strong passwords that meet the complexity requirements enforced by the County. Passwords are changed frequently to strengthen user credential security.
• Voter data is regularly backed up. At all times, servers storing voter data are monitored for intrusion detection and malicious behavior patterns.
• Servers storing voter data use current operating systems, and regular security patching is performed to mitigate vulnerabilities as they are discovered.

The Department of Voter Registration and Elections and all of the Departments' dedicated employees and volunteers work hard to ensure all elections held within our jurisdiction follow federal and state voting laws. It is of the utmost importance that all elections are conducted with integrity, accuracy and security.

To learn more about Sacramento County's plan to safeguard the integrity of elections, read our Election Integrity document. To learn more about what the state does to protect election integrity, read the Secretary of State's memo on voting technology security.

Want a behind-the-scenes peek at how we administer elections? We offer tours of our office every Wednesday and Thursday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. until the election is certified. We'd love to have you schedule a tour today! ​