Section 19234.

(a) The committee may create a debt or debts, liability or liabilities, of the State of California, in the aggregate amount of not more than two hundred million dollars ($200,000,000), exclusive of refunding bonds, in the manner provided herein for the purpose of creating a fund to assist counties in the purchase of updated voting systems.

(b) The proceeds of bonds issued and sold pursuant to this article shall be deposited in the Voting Modernization Fund, which is hereby established.

(c) A county is eligible to apply to the board for fund money if it meets all of the following requirements:

(1) The county has purchased a new voting system after January 1, 1999, and is continuing to make payments on that system on the date that this article becomes effective.

(2) The county matches fund moneys at a ratio of one dollar ($1) of county moneys for every three dollars ($3) of fund moneys.

(3) The county has not previously requested fund money for the purchase of a new voting system. Applications for expansion of an existing system or components related to a previously approved application shall be accepted.

(d) Fund moneys shall only be used to purchase systems certified by the Secretary of State, pursuant to Division 19 (commencing with Section 19001), and in no event shall fund moneys be used to purchase a voting system that utilizes prescored punch card ballots.

(e) Any voting system purchased using bond funds that does not require a voter to directly mark on the ballot must produce, at the time the voter votes his or her ballot or at the time the polls are closed, a paper version or representation of the voted ballot or of all the ballots cast on a unit of the voting system. The paper version shall not be provided to the voter but shall be retained by elections officials for use during the 1 percent manual recount or other recount or contest.

(Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 902, Sec. 1. Approved March 5, 2002, by adoption of Proposition 41.)