Supervisors consider short-term ES&S election-services extension amid source-code disclosure debate

The Budget and Finance Committee examined a proposed extension to the Department of Elections contract with ES&S to provide maintenance and support for the city's voting equipment and heard public calls for greater disclosure of voting-system source code.

Department staff explained the proposed amendment would extend ES&S services through near-term elections and that a performance bond is now required as part of the contract language. Budget Analyst Deborah Newman told the committee the Sequoia contract that had previously been proposed was continued and negotiations with Sequoia are ongoing; because the Sequoia procurement remained unresolved, the ES&S extension was being considered to ensure continuity for upcoming elections. Newman emphasized the proposed ES&S extension does not include open-source disclosure for the public and advised the committee to treat the matter as a policy issue.

Members of the public urged greater transparency. Greg Turner of the San Francisco Election Integrity League said the committee should press for disclosure language borrowed from the Open Voting Consortium. Sasha Almarini said that if the current machines remain functional, buying new proprietary machines would be like "buying a disposable machine" and urged extension with disclosure conditions.

Committee members asked whether ES&S would provide source code; the Department reported ES&S said it could not provide the source code now without consulting other jurisdictions that use the system. The committee adopted amendments proposed to require a performance bond and proceeded with a continuation process to allow further work and public input before a final Board action.