Elections department seeks two‑year Dominion extension while scoping open‑source voting system

The Department of Elections asked the committee to approve a two‑year extension to its contract with Dominion Voting Systems so the city can continue to operate ranked‑choice elections while a separate project scopes development of an open‑source voting system. John Ernst, Director of Elections, said the current system is the only certified option to run the city’s ranked‑choice tabulation and that the city has allocated $300,000 in FY 2016‑17 to scope and hire a consultant to evaluate an open‑source alternative.

Supervisors questioned the department about progress on the open‑source effort and security safeguards. Ernst said the city has begun scoping a consultant and that the consultant will outline cost and timeline; he also stressed that the current system is air‑gapped (not connected to the Internet) and noted vendor support limitations for the aging system. The Budget Analyst reported the contract extension will raise per‑election service costs from about $497,000 to $662,000 and recommended two amendments: an annual report back on the open‑source project and a technical clarification to the resolution.

Public comment included Brent Turner of the California Association of Voting Officials, who pushed for a faster open‑source timeline and suggested the county collaboration could produce a system in about a year and at lower cost. After discussion the committee approved the amendment requiring annual status reports on the open‑source development and forwarded the extension to the full Board with a positive recommendation.

Next steps: the department will proceed with a consultant to scope the open‑source project, report annually to the Board on development progress, and the Dominion extension will need Board approval and budget adjustments.