County to Spend More on Election Security

23ABC News

Wednesday's Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting resulted in the approval of roughly $2.7 million to go toward installing security cameras and other equipment for use during election season.

Transcript

00:00 Brandon, thanks so much. Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors finalized the

00:04 county budget for the next fiscal year. It includes millions of dollars in

00:07 funding for upgraded election security. Here's 23 abc's Corio Leary with an

00:12 in depth look at the changes on the way. Camera shy. Well, if so, maybe

00:17 consider mailing in your ballot instead of dropping it off at a ballot box

00:21 because as part of the county's new budget security cameras are going to be

00:25 installed at ballot boxes just like this all around the county. Yeah,

00:30 there's cameras all over this room. There's always has to be two people, at

00:37 least two people back here whenever there's ballots back here. That's Amy

00:40 Espinosa, registrar of voters showing me the vote by mail room where ballots

00:45 are processed. She tells me elections in Kern County have always been secure,

00:49 but she advocated for new security measures after residents came forward

00:53 with concerns. So the 2.7 is really to increase transparency, improve

00:58 processes and then improve security. She's talking about the $2.7 million

01:03 in the newly approved budget that will go towards election security. We're

01:07 also doing the um cameras at drop boxes. We have 17 locations throughout

01:12 Kern County and we're looking to add a few more locations. We're that's still

01:16 in the works as far as where those will be located. The money isn't just going

01:20 to security cameras. So we have a new sorter which helps us with the actual

01:26 processing about by mail ballots. The election office is also using money to

01:29 hire public information officer, an accountant and an administrative

01:33 coordinator. Christian Romo, chair of the Kern County Democratic Party,

01:36 telling me there hasn't been evidence of widespread fraud in the past, but he

01:39 still supports the changes. I've never seen an election where we had these

01:43 issues where a ballot box was attacked or tampered with, but the community

01:47 members still had some concerns. They wanted those to be addressed. Amy

01:49 Espinosa, she made sure that this was a budget ask and now it's fulfilled and I

01:53 think that people can feel more secure with their voting process. Personally,

01:57 I deliver my ballot every year or every election. I go down to the elections

02:00 office and drop off my own ballot. Clayton Campbell, member of the

02:03 Republican Central Committee for current supports the county taking

02:06 measures so the public has confidence in the integrity of elections, but

02:09 points out that the cameras might prove that no one tampers with the boxes

02:12 themselves, but they don't address other worries about election security.

02:16 But it doesn't tell us anything about the integrity of the ballot was put in

02:19 the box or whether somebody stole somebody else's ballot or afford

02:24 somebody's signature. Campbell said he would prefer there be a larger focus on

02:27 in person voting, which he views is more secure. However, Espinosa says that

02:31 there are many protections in place to make sure they're only counting

02:34 legitimate votes. And I always encourage people to come straight to the office

02:38 to learn straight from the horse's mouth as to what security measures we do have

02:43 in place to secure the election. People knew how secure it really was and all

02:47 the steps we went through their confidence in my office would

02:51 definitely increase. The next major election will be the presidential

02:54 primary in March of 2024 in downtown Bakersfield. Corio Larry 23 ABC News

03:00 connecting you

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