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Residents urge Kern County to investigate ERIC use, report voting-system incidents
Summary
Public speakers at the May 20 Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting urged the board to examine use of the Electronic Registration Information Center and to report election-technology incidents under California rules.
Several residents asked the Kern County Board of Supervisors on May 20 to investigate how voter registration data are shared and to ensure the county is reporting voting-system incidents under state rules.
Charles Shinn, a retired Marine and concerned citizen, said he fears privacy and accuracy problems from states' participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, and asked the board to "please research this matter and respond to us." Shinn cited mismatches between vote totals on the secretary of state's website and downloaded voter rolls and said Kern's 2020 figures appeared to omit about 10,500 voters from publicly available rolls.
The request came during the public-presentations portion of the Kern County Board of Supervisors' regular 9 a.m. meeting at the County Administrative Center in Bakersfield. Shinn referenced reporting requirements in California law and asked that the county provide explanations after examining ERIC and related data-sharing practices.
Dennis McLean, another speaker, referenced a notice from the State of California Office of Administrative Law and warned that recent changes to registration affidavits would increase the number of incomplete registrations. "We find these changes to our voter registration process unacceptable and urge your board to oppose the state to control our local voter rolls," McLean said.
Shinn and McLean also pointed to provisions in state election rules requiring jurisdictions to notify state authorities of voting-system defects, e-poll-book breaches, and ballot-printing flaws within specified time windows. Shinn cited an incident in March when poll books in Kern County reportedly prevented voting for several hours before correcting; he asked whether that and other incidents were reported under the California framework.
County staff did not make a substantive commitment to a formal investigation during the public-comment exchange. The speakers asked the board to review the county's reporting practices and supply a public response.
The board did not take formal action on the requests during the meeting; the items were raised as public comment and will be available as part of the meeting record.
