On Thursday, Assembly Member Frank Bigelow (R-Madera) and Mono County Supervisor Stacy Corless, who serves as First Vice Chair of RCRC, requested the CPUC take a number of actions to ensure that PSPS events do not adversely impact future elections. Noting that the loss of electricity could have a debilitating impact on the ability to conduct elections and tabulate results, the authors urged the CPUC to direct electrical corporations to:
- Meet and coordinate with county elections officials for counties that are at risk of losing electricity during a de-energization event at least three months prior to any election and develop a contingency plan for conducting an election concurrently with a de-energization event.
- Provide backup generators to local elections officials when necessary during a de-energization event.
- Work to pre-wire facilities for backup generation if not already pre-wired or equipped with backup generation.
- Notify a county’s elections official of a potential de-energization event at the same time it provides advanced notifications to critical facilities and public safety partners.
A copy of the letter sent by Assembly Member Bigelow and Supervisor Corless can be found here.