CA SOS to create an "Office of Voting System Technology Assessment"

Earlier this morning Rick Hasen pointed on Election Law to a story in the Sacramento Bee (registration required for content) regarding plans by California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to set up a new Office of Voting System Technology Assessment. McPherson’s office has also put out a press release talking briefly about this initiative. The new office is described as “a permanent, professional and fully staffed voting system technology and testing unit and will serve as a one-stop-shop for voting system certification.”

As best as I can tell, in addition to providing some hints about the creation of this new office, the one new tidbit released yesterday is that Secretary McPherson “will not consider voting systems unless the vendors or products have … (point 10) Agreed to volume testing to simulate Election Day use.” Apparently Secretary McPherson is planning on continuing the type of testing done recently in San Joaquin County, and apparently also conduced last week in San Diego County (I’ve not received any information on how the San Diego County test was conducted, nor what the results were — if anyone has any information on this, please pass it along!).