The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors has decided to continue using surveillance cameras at its ballot drop boxes for the upcoming November election.
“Voting is one of the most important things that you can do as a citizen of this country, and it should be secure,” Supervisor Robert Rickman said at Tuesday’s meeting.
For the last four elections, the county Registrar of Voters has deployed 24-hour surveillance cameras at all of the county’s 27 ballot drop box locations. The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office can monitor live feeds and recordings, while members of the public are able to view livestreams from the cameras.
The purpose of the cameras, according to the Registrar of Voters, is to boost election security by deterring or capturing possible criminal activities, including vandalism or theft, as well as enhancing public transparency of elections.
The cameras are operated by EarthCam, an organization that provides webcam technology and services globally. The cost of the cameras is around $240,000 per election, which has led some county officials to consider whether the program is worth continuing.
While some of the cost can be recovered through the county’s election billing process, most of it comes directly out of the county’s pocket.
“It’s a quarter-million dollars that I believe, in my humble opinion, we could spend in a different way,” Supervisor Steven Ding said.
In April, the county’s Election Advisory Committee recommended discontinuing the program, noting the cost and how the county already has several other methods of improving election security. The committee, which consists of one supervisor, members of the public and appointees, provides recommendations to the board and Registrar of Voters on ways to boost public trust and engagement in the election process.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Registrar of Voters Olivia Hale said that the cameras have not played a significant role in aiding criminal investigations.
“To my knowledge, there has not been any investigation that was a result of being able to utilize the camera footage,” Hale said.
There were some instances of graffiti sprayed on boxes, with a camera capturing the face of a suspect. However, the video was not enough to continue an investigation, according to Hale.
But some supervisors said that even though there have been no examples of cameras helping further investigations into criminal activity at ballot drop boxes, the cameras may help deter potential misconduct.
“It’s a deterrence,” Rickman said. “Just because something doesn’t happen, doesn’t mean we remove it.”
The supervisors discussed potentially reducing costs by getting rid of some of the ballot drop boxes, since there are numerous other ways to cast a ballot, including dropping them off in postal mailboxes. The county is required to have a minimum of 16 boxes and currently has 27.
They also discussed reducing costs by possibly placing boxes at fire and police stations, where there are already cameras.
Some public speakers agreed that the number of boxes should be cut down to 16 while also keeping the surveillance cameras.
“You’re going to put the boxes out there, so we need to have the eyes on the boxes,” resident Molly Watkins said. “We don’t need that many boxes. Let’s do 16 boxes. Let’s put them someplace where somebody else can look at them.”
While the board showed interest in further discussing whether to decrease the number of boxes, Hale recommended that the conversation continue at a later date given that the November election is a few months away.
“We are very close to the November election, and being between a primary and a general election, we do our best to try not to make any changes, if possible,” Hale said.
The board voted unanimously to continue using the surveillance cameras for the November election. The Registrar of Voters may come back to the Board of Supervisors after the election to discuss modifying the amount of ballot drop boxes and their locations.
“I think the value of keeping our elections secure is valuable,” Supervisor Mario Gardea said. “It’s a cost of doing business.”