Elections Commission
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City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved: 10/15/03
Minutes of the Meeting held
September 17, 2003
1. Call to Order. President Rosenthal called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm.
2. COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Commissioners Michael Mendelson, Alix Rosenthal, Thomas Schulz, Robert Kenealey, Brenda Stowers. ABSENT: Richard Shadoian and Arnold Townsend.
- PUBLIC COMMENT. Gonzalo Ferrer told the Commission that half of San Francisco’s population is Asian and Hispanic and that the makeup of the Elections Commission is not representative of the population. He asked the Commissioners to resign so that their positions could be filled by persons more racially representative of the City.
Commissioner Townsend joined the meeting at 7:04pm.
- DIRECTOR’S REPORT
October Recall - Director John Arntz reported that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling postponing the recall election until March, but placed a seven-day stay on their decision. He noted that the media is reporting that the recall election has been placed on hold, and this is misleading. The Department is proceeding as usual with its preparations for the October 7th recall election, and the Secretary of State (SoS) has made it clear that all counties are to do so.
President Rosenthal asked Deputy City Attorney Julia Moll if she had anything to add to the recall information. Ms. Moll explained that the lawsuit to stop the recall is about punch card voting. The City stopped using this method of voting before the 2000 Presidential Election. During that national election, punch card voting got a lot of attention in part because of the potential for errors. The SoS decertified the system for use after March 2004. A system that is not certified for use by the SoS cannot be used, and six counties representing 44% of the voters in the state would need to use the punch card system for the upcoming recall vote on October 7th. It has been argued that the voter strength of these counties would be diluted because of the high rate of invalidated cards with the punch card system.
Outreach – This division visited with 21 community groups in the past week and 28 presentations are scheduled for the upcoming week. Nearly 200 bilingual poll workers were signed up.
Ranked Choice Voting – President Gonzalez of the Board of Supervisors introduced a resolution last week in support of the City using touch screen voting equipment for RCV, which will be presented to the Board in the next two weeks.
Voter Services – This division is inputting the information from 10,000 registration cards that have been turned in to the DoE within the last two weeks. Currently, approximately 1000 are coming in daily. 17,000 absentee ballots have been received. Since early voting began last Monday, nearly 1000 citizens have voted.
Campaign Services - There will be an open house tomorrow in the DoE beginning at 3:30 pm. Anyone who wants to observe the activity in the department is invited. There will be another open house on October 16.
March Primary Elections – Campaign Services is going forward with plans for the March election and workshops for Superior Court Judges begin next week. Guides for the State Senate and Assembly and central committees are being prepared.
Possible June Primary – The bill bifurcating the primaries was slated to pass on September 12th. This did not happen, and so is it presumed that there will not be a bifurcation of the March and June primaries next year.
Poll Locating – There have been eight cancellations of polling places since last Monday but replacements have been made. A citywide postcard mailing to voters letting them know their polling locations goes out tomorrow.
Poll Worker Recruitment – The need for poll workers has been filled. There are 3,038 poll workers, 553 inspectors and 1700 clerks.
Training – Over 2000 poll workers will be scheduled for training before the election.
Ballot Distribution – This division has mailed out over 65,000 absentee ballots. All the cards for the October election are in. The cards for November will begin arriving this Friday. Logic and accuracy and scriptwriting for the November election will begin within a week.
Technology – This division will have the election results on Channel 26 and on the DoE’s website. In addition, the results will be transmitted to the Northern Light Court on the main floor of City Hall. The SoS has certified the DoE’s election accumulation and transmission program. This allows us to transmit election results to the SoS on the evening of the election. This is the second time the Department has been able to do this – the first time being the November election last year. The division is working with the vendor to send files for the mailings of the VIPs, absentee envelopes, and poll location notification post cards. They have been developing a fully electronic problem tracking data base that will be used in the election center with a paper back up. The DoE is attempting to put polling location information on the website including a picture of each polling site.
Budget/Personnel Update – The Finance Committee passed the budget supplemental request with a reduction from $3.5M to $3.4M. The Department’s current spending level is several hundred thousand dollars below last year’s spending. This was accomplished in spite of this year’s preparations for RCV and the recall. One reason for the improvement is that this year we had no outstanding debt. Last year the department had several hundreds of thousands of dollars of outstanding debt that the DoE’s budget had to absorb. This year, the department began with a clean slate.
There are currently 136 staff which is approximately 15 less people than last year.
President Rosenthal asked if it was correct that the department has spent $1.5 million on the recall election so far. Director Arntz stated that $1.5 million has been spent or otherwise committed so far and that approximately $2 million more is expected to be spent to complete the recall election. The Director said that a majority of the $2 million would not be spent if the recall was called off.
Commissioner Schulz asked about the cuts made by the budget analyst from the supplemental request. Mr. Arntz replied that cuts were for supplies that were redundant for the October and November elections, and other small items for supplies and materials.
Commissioner Schulz asked if the proposal from the Board of Supervisors for the touch screen voting equipment was for November 2004 election. Mr. Arntz answered that it was. The Director reminded the Commission that there is $1.6 million that may become available if ES&S doesn’t complete its optical scanning system for RCV. Commissioner Schulz asked if that money had to be tied to ES&S or would it be available to any supplier. The Director said it could be used for any supplier.
Commissioner Townsend asked if the outreach money put aside by the Board for RCV would need to be returned. Mr. Arntz said that the monies were on reserve and may be put into the supplemental for the recall election. The Commissioner asked how the members of the Observer Panel were selected. Mr. Arntz said that the procedures from the SoS for the optical scan system lay out the process. The criteria are already set. The Commissioner said that the Commission should explore the reasonableness of sending a letter encouraging observers be persons of color within their organizations if they have them. He said that he understood that the selection is within the appointing entities just as it is within the appointing of the Elections Commissioner but this should be explored.
5. PRESIDENT’S REPORT
President Rosenthal reported that there will be a hearing tomorrow on the City’s motion to dismiss the federal suit filed against the City by former Director Tammy Haygood. She handed out a list of possible topics for the upcoming Elections Commission retreat, including an outline for a strategic plan. President Rosenthal asked the Commissioners to review the retreat information, particularly the goals and objectives.
5 MINUTE BREAK started at 7:38 pm
MEETING RESUMED at 7:44 pm
6. New Business
(a) Discussion and possible approval of Elections Commission Minutes for Commission Meeting held on September 3, 2003. Commissioner Mendelson MOVED to approve, Commissioner Schulz SECONDED. Motion CARRIED.
(b) Discussion and possible approval of Commission assignments for Commissioners during the October 7, 2003 election. President Rosenthal suggested that the assignments agreed to by the individual Commissioners at this meeting also be the assignments for the November election. She reminded the Commission of the evaluation purposes of these assignments. Director Arntz suggested the areas that he thought would be interesting for them to observe, including: Pier 29 processing center, uplink sights where memory pack data is transferred at City Hall, poll working at precincts, working with Sheriff Deputies, and City Hall operations. Commissioner Schulz agreed to observe poll workers, Commissioner Mendelson agreed to observe the Election Center, Commissioner Kenealey to observe general office operations and early voting, Commissioner Stowers is to observe the Pier 29 processing center, Commissioner Rosenthal the Sheriff Deputies and Commissioner Shadoian will be assigned the uplink sights. Commissioner Townsend will be out of town for the October election but will observe the Sheriff Deputies for the November election.
7. Unfinished Business
(a) Discussion and possible action to approve the Election Plan for the October 7 Recall Election. Commissioner Mendelson MOVED, and Commissioner Kenealey SECONDED to approve. Motion CARRIED.
(b) Discussion regarding agenda and timing of Commission Retreat. The President asked the Commission if the retreat for October 1, 2003 should be postponed because of the recall election. She asked that the subject of “the respective roles of the Commission, the Department Head, and Department Staff; Policy Decisions vs. Day-to-Day Operations,” an issue listed as a topic for discussion at the retreat, be a topic at the next regularly scheduled Commission Meeting. The President also suggested taking other topics from the list and incorporating them into future regular Commission Meetings.
Commissioner Schulz suggested that the list of items be left to “the call of the chair.”
Commissioner Mendelson asked about the availability of the Director and Deputy City Attorney Moll for the retreat, and reminded the Commission that new Commissioners may be appointed to fill three positions at the end of the year. He said it would be a concern if the retreat was held before the first of the year and then needed to be repeated when new Commissioners were on board.
The Commissioner suggested that the President assign some of the issues to the Policy and Budget Committee for an in depth evaluation pending the actual retreat.
Director Arntz suggested that the Commissioners could help the department by becoming involved in the issues of space and permanent staff for the department.
Commissioner Townsend said that he was interested in learning how the department can end a contract that has not performed adequately and how the Commissioners will be putting together the “After Action Report” of their findings after the elections.
President Rosenthal said that she would work with the Director to determine how the Commission can help him.
8. Discussion regarding items for future agendas.
Commissioner Townsend asked that the Department of Elections’ staff’s role for doing outreach in low voter turnout areas be on an agenda before the November 2003 election.
President Rosenthal reminded the Commission that any new voter outreach plan could not be implemented before the November election.
Julia Moll explained that the DoE can engage in voter outreach and education in areas/populations of the City that traditionally do not turn out to vote as long as money is appropriated for that purpose. She said the department has done this in the past.
Commissioner Townsend asked that the information circulated by the first public speaker at today’s meeting, about the ethnic make up of the Commission and how to remedy it to make it more reflective of the population of San Francisco, be considered as a possible topic for discussion at a future meeting.
Commissioner Schulz suggested that Commissioners’ experiences from the October election be discussed before the November election.
9. Public Comment.
Steven Hill spoke about the ES&S application. He said that the certification for the software may be completed in a month but he has been getting conflicting responses to his questions to the SoS and ES&S. Mr. Hill said that he is concerned that if the DoE goes to touch screen voting for next year, it could complicate the start of RCV.
ADJOURNMENT at 8:22 pm