Riverside County Registrar of Voters

NEW VOTING EQUIPMENT

Frequently Asked Questions

WHEN WILL THE NEW VOTING MACHINES BE IN USE?

The new machines will be used in the Nov. 5 election for three separate contests in the City of Riverside, City of Palm Springs
and the Banning Unified School District. These three contests are open to approximately 107,000 registered voters. The first time
the new machines will be used in a countywide election will be the March 3 Presidential Primary Election. There are 1.1 million
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
registered voters in Riverside County.

HOW WILL VOTING BE DIFFERENT FOR VOTERS WHO CAST

BALLOTS IN-PERSON ON ELECTION DAY?
Registered voters who arrive at a polling site on Election Day will have the choice to either use the new ICX touch-screen tablet
or fill out a paper ballot. The touch-screen tablet allows voters to select their language of choice and then make selections for
multiple contests. After making all selections, an attached printer will print out the marked ballot. The voter will then hand deliver
their marked ballot into the ballot box.

The new paper ballot is different from the former ballot, as it requires selections to be made by filling in ovals. The former paper
ballot required voters to connect lines to arrows for all selections.

HOW WILL VOTING BE DIFFERENT FOR VOTERS FILLING OUT

VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOTS?
Like the new in-person ballot, the new vote-by-mail ballot requires selections to be made by filling in ovals. The former paper
ballot required voters to connect lines to arrows for all selections.

HOW MANY OF THE NEW TOUCH-SCREEN TABLETS WILL BE AT

EACH POLLING PLACE?
The County of Riverside leased 700 of the touch-screen tablets, which will provide one tablet and printer for each polling site.
Having one touch-screen tablet at each polling site ensures that all registered voters requiring accessibility accommodations,
have access to an ADA-compliant tablet to mark their ballot. As a result of time constraints issued by the California Secretary of
State in procuring the new equipment, as well as fiscal constraints, 700 machines were leased.

WHAT NEW EQUIPMENT DID THE COUNTY RECEIVE?

The county leased 700 ICX touch-screen tablets and 700 printers. There will be one touch-screen tablet and one printer at each
polling place throughout Riverside County to ensure that voters requiring accessibility accommodations, have an ADA-compliant
tablet to mark their ballot.

The county also purchased one new Vantage signature verification machine that will be used in combination with the existing
signature verification machine that was purchased in 2012. These two machines together will quickly open and verify signatures
for all vote-by-mail ballots.
 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - NEW VOTING EQUIPMENT

HOW MUCH DID THE NEW MACHINES COST?

The County of Riverside leased this equipment for eight years at a total of cost of $9 million. Approximately $6 million of the total
figure will be reimbursed by the State of California. The County of Riverside will pay approximately $3 million total.

WHY IS THE COUNTY LEASING NEW EQUIPMENT?

The California Secretary of State decertified the election equipment Riverside County previously used, along with the election
equipment of many other counties. The deadline to have new equipment in use is March 3, 2020. Our goal is to have all
preliminary election results counted no later than 3 a.m. on election night. This is a significant improvement over our previous
system of all paper ballots that required days, or sometimes weeks, to count all results.

HOW WILL THIS NEW EQUIPMENT IMPROVE OUR ELECTIONS?

The new equipment will scan signatures and produce results at a significantly faster pace. For example, the county’s former
signature verification equipment could only open and verify approximately 20,000 vote-by-mail ballots a day. The new signature
verification machine will add an additional 60,000 verifications a day, bringing the operational count of vote by mail ballots to
80,000 per day.

The in-person ballots collected at polling sites can now be counted at a speed of up to 90,000 ballots an hour. Previously, counting
in-person ballots was labor intensive and took several days or weeks to complete.

WHAT ELSE DO VOTERS NEED TO KNOW?

The vote-by-mail and in-person ballots will look different. It’s preferred for voters to use dark pen or markers when filling in their
paper ballots. This will ensure scanners can pick up the selected marks and not send the ballot to an adjudication team for an in-
person review.

ICX Touch screen tablet Vantage machine HiPro Scanner

Frequently Asked Questions

Riverside County Registrar of Voters

NEW VOTING EQUIPMENT