VoteCal Reaches Key Milestone

California’s largest county successfully deploys new voter registration database

SACRAMENTO — Thirty-eight California counties, home to 68% of California’s total population, have now successfully deployed VoteCal, the voter registration database that will ultimately serve the entire state. Los Angeles, Glenn, Fresno, Kern, and Napa counties all deployed VoteCal December 14.

VoteCal will replace the existing 58 county voter registration databases throughout the state.

Gail Pellerin, Santa Cruz County Clerk said, “I think it is a good system. We go live (online in Santa Cruz County) in February (2016). Los Angeles is definitely the big test!”

Secretary of State Alex Padilla said, “We have reached another milestone, and we are hitting the home stretch, as VoteCal has been deployed in over two-thirds of the state. Deploying VoteCal in Los Angeles County, home to over 4.9 million registered voters, is a monumental step in connecting all of California to a modernized, uniform voter registration database.”

“VoteCal is crucial to improving the election experience for California voters, allowing citizens to easily check the status of their voter registration and the status of their ballot. VoteCal will help county officials across the state efficiently and accurately maintain voter rolls,” Padilla added.

“We have reached a significant milestone in Los Angeles County and in California,” Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan said. “Moving our voter registration records onto a modern, robust and interactive statewide database aligns the county with the vision of the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress over ten years ago. This is a critical step forward in enabling other reforms to enhance the voting experience in California and to better ensure the integrity of our voter registration data.”

VoteCal will improve service to the voters of California by:

• Providing a publicly available website which will allow voters to register online, check the status of their ballot, and find their polling place.
• Connecting all 58 county elections offices to the Secretary of State’s database to improve the voter registration process.
• Giving voters the ability to see if their vote-by-mail or provisional ballot was counted by their county elections official and, if it was not, why not.
• Providing a single, official statewide database of voter registration information.

The remaining 20 counties have been grouped into a series of “waves” to begin adopting VoteCal. After VoteCal is deployed in all counties and the Secretary of State has validated that VoteCal is working properly, VoteCal will be declared the official system of record for voter registration in California. This is expected to occur in June 2016.

Click Here for more information about the VoteCal Project.