The 2020 election in Sacramento County revealed warning signs that predated the arrival of COVID-19 and the CTCL grant. A closer look at the county's election system before the grant highlights the need for a deeper investigation.
As an early adopter of the Voter's Choice Act, Sacramento County had already transitioned to mailed ballots, vote centers, and centralized processing. By 2020, the county was proving the effectiveness of this new model. However, before the CTCL grant was approved, the county had documented warning signs.
On March 20, 2020, questions were raised regarding precinct-level results that showed impossible turnout numbers. Precinct 0011397 reported 175% turnout, while Precinct 0011267 showed 126.81% turnout. Sacramento County Registrar Courtney Bailey-Kanelos explained that the issue was due to Conditional Voter Registration distorting turnout reporting and poll-worker ballot-selection errors.
The Registrar stated that these issues were not isolated and had been present in the 2018 primary election. She emphasized that while these issues were not ideal, they were not uncommon. However, the Registrar also acknowledged that the system was not designed to handle these problems effectively.
The voter-file side raised additional concerns, with the Registrar reporting 177 voter calls, emails, and complaints between December 2019 and March 2020. Of these, 152 voters had been registered with a qualified political party, but their registration changed to No Party Preference after a DMV Field Office transaction.
The Registrar clarified that Dominion, the voting system vendor, did not touch voter files and that the voter files and voting systems were separate systems. However, the issue at hand is not just one machine but a larger system that includes voter-file accuracy, DMV registration changes, ballot-style selection, and tabulation equipment.
The Sacramento County Grand Jury issued a report on election security on March 24, 2020, raising concerns about security practices and requesting a report on the results of a CyberDefenses review and a U.S. Department of Homeland Security audit by September 30, 2020.
The voting-system timeline also matters, with Dominion staff installing software updates in July and August 2020. The Registrar disclosed that Dominion staff had been present for a software upgrade in 2019 and that county staff supervised all work done by Dominion staff.
The record shows that Sacramento County had questions about the election system before the CTCL grant was awarded. The county had documented weaknesses in the election model, including voter-file complaints, misleading turnout reporting, poll-worker ballot-selection errors, and security concerns.
The question now is not whether people had questions after the election but whether the public was aware of these issues before the grant. The Department of Justice should subpoena the full March 2020 turnout correspondence and other relevant records to shed light on the situation.
The investigation should focus on the system as a whole, rather than individual machines or vendors. If the system was secure, accurate, and properly controlled, the records should prove it. If not, the public deserves to know the truth before the same model becomes untouchable.
