California Secretary of State Official Email Communications

March CARS Stakeholder Bulletin

California Secretary of State sent this bulletin at 03/10/2025 07:46 AM PDT

March 2025

Updates from Our Leadership Team

Meet Harjit Basi, our CARS Project Director.  Harjit oversees the Secretary of State (SOS) Project Management Office ensuring systems are planned, developed, and implemented successfully.  With over 20 years of experience in information technology, she has worked on very large and complex projects such as the Statewide Automated Welfare Systems, California Healthcare Eligibility, Enrollment, and Retention System Project, Statewide Voter Registration Database (VoteCal) and California Child Support Automation System. Outside of work she enjoys traveling and maintaining an active lifestyle. She believes that technology should make work easier, not harder.

On the Horizon: Upcoming Project Milestones and Activities

PRD Quarterly Update Meeting: On March 19, 2025, join the Political Reform Division’s quarterly update on their day-to-day business operations. Agenda items include an overview of new legislation effective with CARS, and an update on the 2025-2026 Lobbying Directory. The 45-minute meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. If you have any questions, send an email to prdtrainingandoutreach@sos.ca.gov.

CARS Monthly External Stakeholder Meetings: A recurring meeting series is held the second Wednesday of each month from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., to keep stakeholders informed about the CARS Project and to facilitate an interactive question and answer segment. Upcoming meetings are scheduled for March 12, 2025, and April 9, 2025.

We invite you to share your ideas for topics for future CARS Project Monthly External Stakeholder Meetings. Please complete a five-minute survey and share what’s on your mind about the CARS Project and how we can best keep you informed: CARS External Stakeholder Monthly Meeting Survey

Program Increment (PI) Activities:
- PI I Development: December 2024 through June 2025
- PIs II, III and IV Targeted Design Reviews: February through June 2025
- PI I User Acceptance Testing: July and August 2025

Reminders

SharePoint Site Access & Feedback Guide: The CARS Project Team is committed to engaging our external stakeholders as we move through the application design, development, and user acceptance testing phases. We launched a SharePoint site for external stakeholders to review and comment on documentation. We encourage you to review the materials, provide your valuable feedback, and remain actively engaged with the CARS Project.

You can access the External Stakeholder SharePoint site to review and comment on documentation. If you have not yet received access to the SharePoint site, please complete the following steps:

Send an email to PRDCARS@sos.ca.gov with first and last names and email address.
A guest account will be created using the email address you provide. This may take up to 48 hours for SOS to process. 
When the account is created, a link to the CARS Stakeholder Repository SharePoint site will be emailed from carsstakeholders@sos.ca.gov to the address provided by the account requester.
Access to the SharePoint site requires user authentication in one of two ways:
- Verification code (sent to the email provided by the requester)
- Authentication (requires use of MS Authenticator mobile app)
Once the reviewer is authenticated, the site will open displaying the folders with the files to review. Email your feedback to: PRDCARS@sos.ca.gov.

External Stakeholders Hybrid Agile Training: A recording is available on YouTube.

Question of the Month

Once CARS is available, will we still have to file on paper?

No. All filings will be e-filed in the CARS solution and penalty of perjury signatures will be collected electronically. The CARS solution is being designed to be more user-friendly and streamlined than the traditional paper filing method. Training will be available before CARS is implemented. SOS staff will provide post-go-live support to answer filers’ questions and provide guidance on how to file electronically.

Tell Us More

What would you like to see included in the next CARS Stakeholder Bulletin issue? Email PRDCARS@SOS.CA.GOV to provide your ideas and feedback.

Where to Find Project Resources

The CARS Project Monthly External Stakeholder Meeting Series (MS Teams), PowerPoint Presentations, Q&As, FAQs and additional project information may be found on the CARS Homepage .

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