Elections Commission
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City andCounty of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved: May 7, 2008
Minutes of the Meeting held
City Hall, Room 408
March 19, 2008
1. President Gleason called the meeting to order at 6:08 pm.
2. COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Commissioners, Gerard Gleason, Richard P. Matthews, Winnie Yu, Jennifer Meek, Joseph B. Phair, Deputy City Attorney Ann O’Leary and Director John Arntz. ABSENT: Commissioner Arnold Townsend.
3. Director’s Report.
Ballot Distribution: The Division is readying supplies for inspectors to deliver to polling sites for the April election. Early voting and test ballots are in house, inventoried and staged and staff is preparing the ballots for the Health Service System election in May.
Budget and Personnel: The Mayor announced yesterday that City Departments should prepare for a 16% cut in their budgets for the next fiscal year including an 8% of the cut in salaries. The Division has been invoicing vendor payments, working with the Sheriff’s office and preparing for parking for the April election.
Campaign Services: The phone bank will begin March 24th for the April Special Primary Election, and election observer materials are being prepared. The nomination deadline for the June election has just ended. This Division has simultaneously prepared for two elections including reviewing paperwork, challenges to ballot designations, in-taking ballot arguments (which includes proofing for accuracy), and verifying signatures and organizations who are presenting the arguments. There are 153 candidates and 59 paid arguments for the June election. The Department is working with the Secretary of State’s Office (SoS) to finalize the federal candidate information. Two initiative petitions have been received for the November election, and paperwork for 40 candidates has been received. There is a backlog of FPPC’s (Fair Political Practices Forms used to disclose campaign expenditures), from the past three months due to the recent elections which are now being scanned. In addition, the Division is completing plans to make the Department’s front counter more accessible to the public.
Outreach: The Division’s staff has emailed voters, whose addresses were available for District 12, information regarding the April election. Community organizations are being contacted regarding the June election and this Friday the staff will be meeting with representatives of Homeland Security regarding the scheduling of the nationalization ceremony that immediately precedes the 15 day close for the November election. This meeting will seek changing the schedule for the nationalization ceremony to enable the new citizens to vote like all citizens.
Publications: The Division’s staff has completed the April Voter Information Pamphlet (VIP) and ballots. The VIPs are being distributing to public libraries and other requesting sites. The June election materials are being prepared, and the formatting for those ballots is expected to be completed by the end of this week.
Poll Locating/ADA: The Division has located all the polling sites for the April Special Primary Election. These sites are on our website. Letters have been sent to potential site owners for the June election. Staff has been doing the tedious work with the Technology Division for a bar code tracking system for the City’s voting equipment. In addition, staffing is coordinating delivery, pick up and warehousing of the new voting equipment for April and June. The Division is reviewing the reports from the Field Election Deputies (FEDS) and other pollworkers to determine what issues arose from the last election regarding polling sites need to be addressed before the next election. As always, the staff is assuring that all locations are accessible to disabled voters, and checking for ways to make the sites comfortable in bad weather conditions.
Pollworker Division: Pollworkers from the February election have been assigned for the April election. Training classes will begin April 2nd. The curriculum for the training will incorporate the responses from previous pollworkers who were asked how training could be improved. Ballots will be distributed to the inspectors in the City Hall cafeteria on April 2 and 3. There will be no formal training for the Clerks for this election, since they were trained less than two months ago for the February election, however they will all be sent training packets with a test to be returned to the Division for evaluation before they are assigned.
Regarding the June Election, 80% of pollworkers contacted have agreed to work that election. The manual for that election is being prepared and will incorporate feedback from the responses of previous pollworkers who were asked how training could be improved from the February election and training.
Technology Division: Staff is preparing data bases for the April election. They will evaluate the bases used or that election as they develop new ones for June. This Division is working on the tracking system I mentioned earlier for the Poll Locating Division’s equipment.
Voter Services Division: Two petitions have been received and a third is expected. Four thousand registration cards have been processed in the last two weeks. Early Voting will begin this coming Monday for the April election, and there will be weekend voting from 10am to 4 pm. Registration cards have been sent to provisional voters who voted in the February election. Post cards have been sent to permanent Vote By Mail Voters, who are non-partisan, informing them that they can vote Republican or Democratic in June. Since there are no American Independent nominees for June, state law requires that ballots for that party not be printed. Overseas absentee ballots have been mailed for April and shortly ballots will be sent for June.
Commissioner Matthews asked if the 16% cut in the budget that is mandated by the Mayor’s Office puts the proposed managerial staff levels on the organizational chart in peril. Director Arntz said that it will make it more challenging, and explained that his office has done a lot of work already on upgrading the positions from “clerk” to management, which is more in keeping with all the responsibilities of the managers, over the past two years. He said that he has an agreement with the Department of Human Resources, and that the Mayor’s Office agrees that the positions are not classified correctly. However, under the current circumstances, he doesn’t know how the upgrades will be handled. Commissioner Matthews asked the Director to let the Commission know if there is anything it can do to help, because these positions are a very important budget priority.
Commissioner Meek asked for an update of the Sequoia Voting Systems preparations for the Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for the November election. Director Arntz said that the plan has been submitted for certification, has been tested, and that the Elections Assistance Commission has issued a change in its testing requirements and now requires a battery back up be incorporated in the voting machines. However, the state has not issued its opinion on this possible change yet.
Commissioner Phair asked if there is any change for the June election regarding the touch screen voting equipment. Director Arntz replied that there must be a 100% accounting of the verified paper audit trail, but this will not be new, therefore nothing has changed.
Commissioner Phair asked if only one person votes on the touch screen machine at a polling site, would that person’s vote be publicly displayed. Director Arntz responded that, in a sense, the answer is “yes.” Mr. Arntz said that the only thing to remedy this situation would be to invite or steer voters to use the touch screens more often, and this is possible. Commissioner Phair asked if the pollworkers would be instructed to invite voters to use the touch screens machine. The Director said that as we have more elections he will see how use of these machines is going, and if necessary, he could maximize the secrecy of the vote if this continues to be an issue. He added that voters need to feel comfortable using these machines.
Deputy City Attorney O’Leary said that it is important that the Commission raises this issue, however, it is not on the agenda. Although the question is in response to the Director’s Report, more conversation on the subject seems to be occurring, it may be more appropriate for an agenda item in the future. She recalled that at one meeting Commissioner Gleason discouraged steering voters to use the DRE’s (touch screens), and since there may be a difference of opinion among Commissioners, this discussion be calendared later.
3. Commissioner Reports.
President Gleason reported that he met with the Director on March 4, 2008 regarding items the Commission needs from the Department. The President presented a possible calendar for the upcoming year’s schedule of Commission responsibilities, such as Election Plan Approval and Evaluation. He suggested having the statement of vote (which must be completed 29 days after an election) before evaluating the plan, and said that this would eliminate the Department having to create additional reports.
President Gleason presented an article from the previous Saturday’s San Francisco Chronicle regarding a Commission that was called into court and its members not knowing some of the basics about that Commission’s Department. This was an embarrassment. And the President said he presented the article as a heads up in case the Elections Commission or the Department found themselves in court in the future.
4. OLD BUSINESS.
(a) Commissioner Matthews will continue his report of his observations and activities related to the conduct of the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary Elections. Commissioner Matthews reported that he has just today received an important portion of the information he needed from the Director to complete his report and asked the Director for one item – the form that contains the handwriting from the manual tallies from the V-Pack. He asked that this item be CARRIED OVER.
(b) Discussion and Possible action to approve the draft Annual Report. Commissioner Meek asked that this item be CARRIED OVER.
5. NEW BUSINESS.
(a) Dialog and Discussion with Special Invited Guests: Precinct Board Members (Poll Workers) are invited to report on observations, experiences and thoughts regarding polling place operations during the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary Election. Members of the public who served as poll workers for the February 5, 2008 Election are encouraged to attend and present public comment and participate in discussion. President Gleason announced that several pollworkers, he had invited, contacted him before the meeting that they would not be able to attend.
President Gleason reported that his experience as a pollworker with the new optical scanning voting equipment was very positive. He said operationally, the equipment was a phenomenal improvement. The workers at his precinct used the prepared script “you will be given a paper ballot unless you prefer a touch screen or audio ballot” and no one requested to use the DRE device. The President reported that Assembly Bill 1828, which is currently being considered, will give pollworkers an option to forego jury duty in exchange for their service working on election day.
Commissioner Matthews reported that the security seals on the equipment are difficult to see, especially in the low lighting conditions at some of the polling sites. He asked if it were possible to have larger seals in the future. Director Arntz said that the stickers will improve in the future.
Carol Bella said that she worked at precinct 2101 in the Richmond District during the last two elections as an inspector. Her experiences have increased her respect for the Elections Department “a hundred fold!” She said she was amazed at how well elections in San Francisco are run. For the FEDs (Field Election Deputies) and Inspectors she spoke to at other precincts and her own experiences, the February election was a rough one – three times more people voted than in last November. Her other comments included: the owner of the poll site was not reachable when she wanted to set up early a day or two prior, two pollworkers showed up late, two workers had poor English skills and appeared to not have learned much from the training, the manual and job cards were easier to follow during the November election – maybe because the equipment for February was new, the power point presentation (in the training) wasn’t the best way to explain what happens and that having actual voting stations at the training would work better – especially showing the opening and closing of the poll sites. Ms. Bella relayed some comments from Sacha Illmorini, an inspector, who was unable to attend this meeting: the job card appeared to be incomplete causing pollworkers to ask more questions of the inspector while the inspector is busy during the opening (making security checks, etc.). Finally, Ms. Bella suggested elevating the quality of pollworkers, and said she hoped that the new bill to offer citizens a pass on jury duty if they served during election day may go a long way toward that goal. She said the Department should also appeal to the San Francisco Business Community for workers to volunteer to work on election day.
Commissioner Meek agreed with this last suggestion and explained that the company at which she works has a “Community Partnership Day” for which employees are encouraged to participate and they are not charged as having taken a day off from work.
Kevin Shae said that his first experience as an election day worker was the February election when he was an inspector at precinct 2444, but his pollworkers had worked previous elections and were a great help to him. The day before the election, he met with the owner of the polling site. The first time he saw an actual voting booth was at 6 am on Election Day. He found that he needed assistance with the seal for the Insight because it didn’t match the number on the security form. After several inquiries he was walked through the process by someone in the Election Center, however the poll had to open fifteen minutes late, to waiting voters. The declined-to-state voters were disappointed that they couldn’t vote, and Mr. Shae didn’t recall information regarding this situation in the training he was given. As a new Inspector, Mr. Shae found the large bag of all the materials and the large packet of the forms and papers difficult to lay out at the polling site. He spent almost an hour before opening and an hour after closing going through the security procedures form, locating the seals, and checking off what he needed to do.
Commissioner Matthews recognized Nataliya Kuzina, Manager of the Poll Worker Division, who was present in the audience, and thanked her for the division’s training of the pollworkers, Inspectors and FEDs who work the City’s elections and for implementing the High School workers program. President Gleason echoed the Commissioners’ praise of Ms. Kuzina and her division and had special praise for the Pollworker’s Newsletter.
(b) Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the February 20, 2008 Commission meeting. Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Meek SECONDED approval of these minutes. President Gleason asked that the budget that was presented at the February 20 meeting be added to the posting on the website. The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS.
(c) Discussion and possible to approve the Election Plan for the April 8, 2008 Special Congressional Open Primary Election. Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Meek SECONDED approval of the Election Plan. The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS.
(d) Discussion and possible action to approve a waiver to allow City Employees to Assist the Department of Elections with the April 8, 2008 Special Congressional Open Primary Election. Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Meek SECONDED approval of the Waiver. The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS.
10. Discussion regarding items for future agendas
Commissioner Meek suggested the Elections Commission’s Calendar be on the agenda for the next meeting, including approval of Election Plan effectiveness, for the February 2008 election (including the recommendations heard today), and a decision of whether the April Election shall have oversight assignments for Commissioners.
ADJOURNMENT at 7:33 pm.