Title
An Ordinance of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, directing that the Allegheny County Board of Elections conduct a random sample audit of software installed on the County's voting machines and generate a written report of the results of such audit no later than October 21, 2008, and directing that similar audits be performed in future election years.
Body
WHEREAS, the Help America Vote act mandated the replacement of Allegheny County's lever voting machines in time for the May 2006 Primary Election; and
WHEREAS, Allegheny County ultimately replaced its lever voting machines with iVotronic touch screen machines, in compliance with the requirements of the Help America Vote Act; and
WHEREAS, in order to be legal for use in Pennsylvania, however, electronic voting machines must run software that has been approved by the Pennsylvania Department of State for use within the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, because voting machine software can be changed and/or updated to a different version with relative ease, it is the judgment of Council that it would be desirable to conduct a random sample audit on the voting machines in use within Allegheny County in order to ensure that only approved software versions are in use; and
WHEREAS, because it is possible that software could be changed once it is verified; and
WHEREAS, it is the judgment of Council that the Allegheny County Board of Elections must undertake such audits both immediately and on a continuing basis to ensure the integrity of the County's election results; and
WHEREAS, it is further the judgment of Council that the Allegheny County Board of Elections must take all available steps to seek the prosecution and punishment of any individual, corporation, or other entity that is responsible for tampering with the County's voting machines to the limit of applicable law;
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby enacts as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Allegheny County Board of Elections is hereby directed to:
A. Immediately perform a random sample audit of the County's voting machines and generate a written report of the results of such audit, with copies forwarded to the County Council, County Executive, and County Manager, no later than October 21, 2008. The random sample audit conducted under the terms of this Subsection shall be performed solely to verify that the software installed on the audited machines is certified for use in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by the Department of State.
B. In all future years, perform a random sample audit of no less than 10% of the voting machines to be used by the County and generate a written report of the results of such audit, with copies forwarded to the County Council, County Executive, and County Manager, no later than March 1 of any year. The random sample audit conducted under the terms of this Subsection shall be performed solely to verify that the software installed on the audited machines is certified for use in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by the Department of State.
C. Establish a uniform policy to seek prosecution and punishment of any individual, corporation, or other entity that is found to be responsible for tampering with the County's voting machines, whether as a result of the audits required under the terms of this Ordinance, or otherwise, to the limit of applicable law.
SECTION 2. Severability. If any provision of this Ordinance shall be determined to be unlawful, invalid, void or unenforceable, then that provision shall be considered severable from the remaining provisions of this Ordinance which shall be in full force and effect.
SECTION 3. Effective Date. The provisions of this Ordinance shall become effective on the date of final approval.