BILL NUMBER: AB 683 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Low FEBRUARY 25, 2015 An act to amend Section 19271 of the Elections Code, relating to voting systems. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 683, as introduced, Low. Direct recording electronic voting systems. Existing law prohibits the Secretary of State from approving, and prohibits a city or county from contracting for or purchasing, a direct recording electronic voting system, defined as a voting system that records a vote electronically and does not require or permit the voter to record his or her vote directly onto a tangible ballot. Existing law defines the term "voter verified paper audit trail" as a component of a direct recording electronic voting system that prints a contemporaneous paper record copy of each electronic ballot and allows each voter to confirm his or her selections before the voter casts his or her ballot. This bill would revise the definition of "voter verified paper audit trail" to instead mean a component of a direct recording electronic voting system that prints a synchronous paper record facsimile of each electronic ballot and allows each voter to confirm his or her selections before the voter casts his or her ballot. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 19271 of the Elections Code is amended to read: 19271. As used in this article: (a) "Accessible" means that the information provided on the paper record copy from the voter verified paper audit trail mechanism is provided or conveyed to voters via both a visual and a nonvisual method, such as through an audio component. (b) "Direct recording electronic voting system" means a voting system that records a vote electronically and does not require or permit the voter to record his or her vote directly onto a tangible ballot. (c) "Voter verified paper audit trail" means a component of a direct recording electronic voting system that prints acontemporaneoussynchronous paper recordcopyfacsimile of each electronic ballot and allows each voter to confirm his or her selections before the voter casts his or her ballot. (d) "Federal qualification" means the system has been certified, if applicable, by means of qualification testing by a nationally recognized test laboratory and has met or exceeded the minimum requirements set forth in the Performance and Text Standards for Punch Card, Mark Sense, and Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems, or in any successor voluntary standard document, developed and promulgated by the Federal Election Commission, the Election Assistance Commission, or the National Institute of Standards and Technology. (e) "Paper record copy" means an auditable document printed by a voter verified paper audit trail component that corresponds to the voter's electronic vote and lists the contests on the ballot and the voter's selections for those contests. A paper record copy is not a ballot. (f) "Parallel monitoring" means the testing of a randomly selected sampling of voting equipment on election day designed to simulate actual election conditions to confirm that the system is registering votes accurately.