Voters in Electronic Voting Counties Have the Right to Request a Paper Ballot at the Polls

Nine California counties will use paperless electronic voting machines at their polling places today:

Alameda
Merced
Napa
Orange
Plumas
Riverside
Santa Clara
Shasta
Tehama

Voters in these counties have the right to request a paper ballot at the polls. See CVF's voting technology map and county-by-county directory for more information about California voting systems.

And, for a little inspiration, as well as useful information, watch this "Paper or Plastic?" video from last November.

In some electronic voting counties, paper-ballot voters will be treated as provisional voters, which is unfortunate because it subjects these voters to unecessary concerns about their ballot secrecy and whether their ballot will be counted.

There has been some confusion about the number of counties that will use paperless e-voting machines. Please note that the voting system information on the Secretary of State's web site is not up to date. There are seven California counties using touchscreens with voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) printers in today's election, and this information is not fully reflected in the Secretary of State's chart. Those seven are:

Imperial
Inyo
Kings
Mariposa
Mono
Monterey
San Bernardino

San Bernardino converted from paperless touchscreens to touchscreens with VVPAT printers. Monterey is using one DRE per polling place. Current Secretary of State policies prohibit counties from purchasing paperless DRE systems. This was a directive that was issued by the previous Secretary of State, Kevin Shelley, and to the best of my knowledge still stands.