Committee recommends 17‑month extension with ES&S as activists press for open‑source voting

The Budget & Finance Committee on April 1 voted to send a proposed 17‑month extension to the Department of Elections’ contract with Election Systems & Software (ES&S) to the full San Francisco Board of Supervisors, while members and public advocates pressed for stronger public‑disclosure requirements and for the city to pursue open‑source alternatives.

An elections staffer described the extension as approximately $3.3 million in additional funding, bringing the contract total to about $12 million and covering the four elections through November 2008. Staff said negotiations with Sequoia (the vendor that won the RFP) are ongoing and that the Secretary of State had issued draft guidelines to review currently used systems, including source‑code and security testing criteria.

Supervisor Tom Ammiano and others raised the effect of the Secretary of State’s guidelines and the possibility that touchscreen/DRE systems could face decertification or strict review. Staff confirmed the state intends to apply the new testing criteria both to new and currently deployed systems and described a planned security 'red team' review to probe vulnerabilities.

Public speakers urged the committee to require public disclosure of software code and to prioritize open‑source systems. Brent Turner (public commenter) said San Francisco should not purchase systems with proprietary code if vendors refuse to disclose their software; several representatives from advocacy groups including Democracy Action and the Open Voting Consortium asked the board to start an RFP process for disclosed/open systems and suggested hand counting as a fallback.

After discussion the committee moved the resolution to the full board with a recommendation (motion seconded and adopted without objection). Staff will continue procurement negotiations and the city’s elections director will monitor the Secretary of State process and report back.