Any person is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of § 1170 of the Penal Code for two, three, or four years who, before or during an election:

(a) Tampers with, interferes with, or attempts to interfere with, the correct operation of, or willfully damages in order to prevent the use of, any voting machine, voting device, voting system, vote tabulating device, or ballot tally software program source codes.

Terms Used In California Elections Code 18564

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Election: means any election including a primary that is provided for under this code. See California Elections Code 318
  • Software: includes all programs, voting devices, cards, ballot cards or papers, operating manuals or instructions, test procedures, printouts, and other nonmechanical or nonelectrical items necessary to the operation of a voting system. See California Elections Code 355
  • Vote tabulating device: means any piece of equipment, other than a voting machine, that compiles a total of votes cast by means of ballot card sorting, ballot card reading, paper ballot scanning, electronic data processing, or a combination of that type of equipment. See California Elections Code 358
  • Voting device: means any device used in conjunction with a ballot card or cards to indicate the choice of the voter by marking, punching, or slotting the ballot card. See California Elections Code 360
  • Voting machine: means any electronic device, including, but not limited to, a precinct optical scanner and a direct recording voting system, into which a voter may enter his or her votes, and which, by means of electronic tabulation and generation of printouts or other tangible, human-readable records, furnishes a total of the number of votes cast for each candidate and for or against each measure. See California Elections Code 361
  • Voting system: means a mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic system and its software, or any combination of these used for casting a ballot, tabulating votes, or both. See California Elections Code 362

(b) Interferes or attempts to interfere with the secrecy of voting or ballot tally software program source codes.

(c) Knowingly, and without authorization, makes or has in his or her possession a key to a voting machine that has been adopted and will be used in elections in this state.

(d) Willfully substitutes or attempts to substitute forged or counterfeit ballot tally software program source codes.

(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 82. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68.)

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