California Elections Code § 17600

For purposes of this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings: (a) “Ballot image” means an electronically captured or generated image of a ballot that is created on a voting device or machine, which contains a list of contests on the ballot, may contain the voter selections for those contests, and complies with the ballot layout requirements. (b) “Certified voting technology” means any certified voting technologies certified by the Secretary of State, including voting systems, ballot on demand printing systems, electronic poll book systems, or adjudication systems, and the hardware, firmware, software, proprietary intellectual property they contain, any components, and any products they generate, including ballots, ballot images, reports, logs, cast vote records, or electronic data. (c) “Chain of custody” means a process used to track the movement and control of certified voting technology, as defined in subdivision (b), through its lifecycle by documenting each person and organization who handles certified voting technology, the date and time it was collected or transferred, and the purpose of the transfer. A break in the chain of custody refers to a period during which control of the certified voting technology is uncertain and during which actions taken on the certified voting technology are unaccounted for or unconfirmed. (d) “Electronic data” includes voting technology software, operating systems, databases, firmware, drivers, and logs. (e) “End of lifecycle” means the secure clearing or wiping of the certified voting technology so that no software, firmware, or data remains on the equipment and the equipment becomes a nonfunctioning piece of hardware. (f) “HASH” means a mathematical algorithm used to create a digital fingerprint of a software program, which is used to validate software as identical to the original. (g) “Lifecycle” of certified voting technology means the entire lifecycle of the certified voting technology from the time of certification and trusted build creation through the end of lifecycle of the certified voting technology.

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