Protecting Your Vote
Transparency – Security – Accountability: These are the compasses that drive our actions. I and my staff take pride in the work we perform as public servants to ensure our elections are transparent, secure, and accountable.
— Danielle Sexton, Clerk-Recorder, Registrar of Voters
We regularly hear a lot of information and misinformation nationally about election integrity. We understand there is so much information about Elections right now that it is hard to separate reality from conspiracy. Our biggest fear is that a lack of voter trust will lead to lack of participation. Please don’t let that happen!
As a department, we have always been dedicated to ensuring transparent elections to ensure the highest integrity, protect voter rights and promote voter participation. Our doors are always open, and we work hard every day for the voters in our communities. Examples of our on-going dedication to the integrity of our Election process are as follows:
- Signature verification training performed by a forensic handwriting expert through our state organization.
- Address and location reviews to ensure data accuracy.
- Keeping our voter registration roll clean by daily updates of information, and voter outreach mailings.
- Additional voter notifications to share news and information.
- Pre and Post Election Audits.
- Closed network security & system surveillance.
Our Election Ballot Process
Our office uses Dominion election systems to tabulate ballot results. In a basic explanation, ballots are scanned by ICC Ballot Tabulator units. The results are stored on a local server that is directly connected to these units. The election results reports are printed from a computer also directly connected to this server. This, in the most basic sense, is our use of Dominion for election results. The results are then manually provided to the State. None of the equipment, including the server, is connected to the Internet or any other system. The equipment is incapable of being accessed remotely or connected the internet as their modems have been removed and/or disabled. The physical server is kept in a locked rack.
The ADA and RAVBM Dominion systems are voter accessible ways for paper ballots to be cast. No electronic voting information is saved or stored in relation to these systems. For more information visit our Accessible Voting site: https://elections.inyocounty.us/voting/accessible-voting/
Click Here to read more about Facts about Mailed Ballots.
EC 18560 – Every person is guilty of a crime punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months or two or three years, or in a county jail not exceeding one year, who: (a) Not being entitled to vote at an election, fraudulently votes or fraudulently attempts to vote at that election. (b) Being entitled to vote at an election, votes more than once, attempts to vote more than once, or knowingly hands in two or more ballots folded together at that election. (c) Impersonates or attempts to impersonate a voter at an election.
EC 18578 – Any person who applies for, or who votes or attempts to vote, a vote by mail ballot by fraudulently signing the name of a fictitious person, or of a regularly qualified voter, or of a person who is not qualified to vote, is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months or two or three years, by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment.
Our office will report any found or suspected attempts of voting fraud to law enforcement for prosecution.
Transparency – Security – Accountability
Visit our Election Results page to learn about our audit processes, and to view the results of the audits which were performed on prior elections. A simple explanation of our audits is: random ballots are manually hand counted by the public. The hand count results are compared to the election results reports printed from our Dominion tabulation units. The results of our past audits have confirmed there are no discrepancies in the elections results. https://elections.inyocounty.us/post-election-audits/
The Election Observer Panel is open to the public. This panel invited to observe all procedures of the election process, including Logic and Accuracy testing, vote by mail ballot processing, election clerk training, Election Day activities, Election night counting, and canvassing procedures. (Press Release 4/18/22)
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have questions? We have answers! Please email us your questions at elections@inyocounty.us
- Question: I don’t trust using machines in elections. How do we know they are working correctly?
Answer: After tabulation, the Dominion system prints a report of the Elections Results. The results in that report are proven to be 100% accurate by a public audit that includes hand tallying physical ballots. Members of our community hand tally thousands of ballots. The hand tally results are compared to the Dominion report. The results of this audit prove there are zero discrepancies. This unequivocally proves that the tabulators, source code, and software are reporting the data from the ballots with 100% unaltered accuracy.
_ - Question: Can someone access the system and change the election results?
Answer: No. Many securities are put in place that make this impossible. While there is no way to connect to the equipment remotely, we also have security in place so that no one can physically connect to the units with a USB or other device. Separately from this, is the Audit. The Audit proves that the data in the system was never changed.
_ - Question: Doesn’t the state have an obligation to oversee what system each county is using?
Answer: Yes. The State of California complies with oversight on validating our elections equipment is secure and has safeguards in place to prevent any election interference. California Elections Code section 19202 specifies that no voting system may be purchased or used in a California election unless the Secretary of State approves that system. The systems our office uses are included in the SOS’s approval process which have been thoroughly investigated to meet the necessary requirements of protection and accuracy.
_ - Question: There are national threats against voting machines. Shouldn’t this mean we shouldn’t use them?
Answer: This has been found untrue by multiple government sources including U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. They have thoroughly investigated all accusations and confirmed there no evidence of voting machine manipulation in 2020 or 2022. Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) statement agency has “seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised in any race in the country.”
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Additional Resources
- Secretary of State – Office of Voting Systems Technology Assessment
- UPDATE: 04/19/23: Independent: Dominion wins $787m from Fox News as election lies lawsuit settled: ‘Lies have consequences’
- UPDATE: 5/28/22: Washington Post: No evidence of exploitation of Dominion voting machine flaws, CISA finds
- Inyo County Elections Department is committed to full transparency to uphold the integrity of elections. In Inyo County, all ballots are subject to a post-election audit in each election. These audits are conducted in public and open to observation. Visit our Inyo Elections website to learn more about our audit processes and the results of audits from prior elections: https://elections.inyocounty.us/post-election-audits/
- Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) statement
- Visit our Inyo Elections website for News and Press Releases as they are issued: https://elections.inyocounty.us/news/
- Visit California Secretary of State web page for information on California Elections Rumor Control: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/election-cybersecurity/rumor-control
- Visit our Inyo Elections website for prior Election Results: https://elections.inyocounty.us/results/
- Visit Dominion web page for information on Election Disinformation and Facts about Dominion and its voting system: https://www.dominionvoting.com/ .
- Dominion featured on “60 Minutes” broadcast airing 10/23/2022 on CBS and Paramount+ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dominion-voting-systems-conspiracy-theories-60-minutes-2022-10-21/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7d&linkId=186518837