A new funding source is trickling down to San Luis Obispo County to improve election security in the coming years.
County Assessor Tom Bordonaro was the first wheelchair user in California to be elected to the legislative body, serving in the California State Assembly. For someone who was limited in their ability to fill-out a ballot, he says the process of voting at the polls used to be intrusive.
“I used to actually have to have somebody help me punch my ballot, a stranger that I had no idea who they were," Bordonaro said. "It was kind of uncomfortable because there was zero privacy.”
But in the last round of funding from the Have America Vote Act (HAVA), which provides federal grants to support election and voting systems throughout different states, the SLO County Clerk Recorder's Office was awarded more than $22,000 in the 2023-2024 fiscal year for polling place accessibility.
“Nowadays, things have improved quite a bit," Bordanaro said. "I feel that polling places are much more accessible than they used to be and then the actual act of voting is made a lot, a lot easier.”
Now, a new round of HAVA funding is looking to address a different portion of the voting and election processes.
“The HAVA agreement that we just got approved for is for the elections security," Deputy Director Clerk-Recorder Melanie Foster stated. "It covers not only cybersecurity, that physical security."
With a near $25,000 allocation from HAVA, according to Foster, the election security improvements can be used for cybersecurity, physical security, security and privacy awareness training and incident response.
“It's always for a specific purpose and it is certainly reacts to what is going on not only at the state level but at a national level,” she said.
This latest round of federal HAVA funding provided nearly $1.4 million to help counties across the state enhance technology and make security improvements.
According to Foster, the next round of HAVA funding has to be used by June 30, 2026.
