Elections Commission
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
City andCounty of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved May 7, 2008
Minutes of the Meeting held
City Hall, Room 408
April 16, 2008
1. Vice President Meek called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m.
2. COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Commissioners, Richard P. Matthews, Winnie Yu, Jennifer Meek, Joseph B. Phair, Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen, and Director John Arntz. ABSENT: President Gleason called that he was held up in traffic on MUNI and will arrive shortly, arrived at 6:06 pm; Commissioner Arnold Townsend was absent for roll call, but arrived at 6:10 p.m.
3. Public Comment. Brent Turner presented Director Arntz with information on an open source code ballot printing system. He said that with this system, there is never an errant mark on a ballot or a ballot shortage issue. He asked for an update regarding the Open Source Task Force that the Director mentioned last year.
President Gerard Gleason arrived, took the gavel and called for the next item.
4. Director’s Report.
Ballot Distribution: The Division is preparing for the Health Services Election which will be occurring at the same time the Department will be counting the ballots for the June Election. Additionally, the Division is acquiring space for receiving precinct ballots and pollworker class materials.
Budget and Personnel: The Division has been in communications with the Mayor and Controller’s office regarding the 2008-2009 Budget. Materials and Supplies, as well as Staffing must be cut 8.5% for the next year.
Campaign Services: The Division is making preparations for: the June Election phone bank, the elections observer panel information for the Civil Grand Jury, The League of Women Voters, various political parties and media. FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) forms are being filed, and the open house will be May 21, 2008.
Outreach: The Division is implementing a newsletter at the end of this month. Staff is preparing presentations to community groups, attending tabling events, and updating language in outreach posters and brochures.
Publications: The Division is readying the Voter Guide for the printer, and it should be on line within the next week, along with the polling place locator and the June Ballot. Staff will soon be proofing the Cantonese language modules for the Edge Voting Equipment.
Poll Locating/ADA: The Division is seeking two more polling sites for June, all others have been secured. But between now and June it is likely that some of the ones currently secured may withdraw and new ones will need to be established in their place.
Pollworker: Classes for clerks begin May 2nd. Approximately 65% of the pollworkers needed for June have been recruited, and the manual is being updated.
Technology: The Division is cleaning up the data base from the April election and is transitioning to the June election data bases.
Voter Services: The Overseas ballots for the June Election (there are 3400) are being mailed, staff is updating the voter history records with the information from the April Election, and performing voter file maintenance. The Early Voter Counter at City Hall will open Monday, May 5, 2008.
Vice President Meek asked the Director if the 8 percent budget cut was going to effect the already shortened hours of the Commission Secretary. Direct Arntz replied that nothing is final regarding staffing. He suggested that the Commission contact the Mayor’s Office now regarding its request to not cut those hours further.
April 8 Special Congressional Open Primary Election Report: There was a 25% voter turnout – 18% of that number voted by mail. The DoE sent out 30,000 vote-by-mail ballots and 14,400 were voted and returned (7% were turned in at the polls). Approximately 5,300 voters voted at the polls. The total of registered voters who were eligible to vote was 79,000. The provisional ballots totaled 167,131 were accepted and 36 were challenged.
Because this was a relatively small election, issues were handled quickly and the election ran smoothly.
Vice President Meek congratulated the Director and the Department on the success of the April Election.
5. Commissioners’ Reports. Commissioner Townsend reported that he met with two members of the Civil Grand Jury who are looking into moving the DoE out of its space at City Hall. Part of the Department’s space is wanted for a new program for Identification Cards for immigrants. The move would split the DoE into two parts. Commissioner Townsend told the Civil Grand Jury members that he feels that Elections should be at City Hall, because this is what people/voters expect. He said that in any City or town, if a voter wants information about elections, she or he would go to City Hall to get that information. Commissioner Townsend said that putting the DoE at Pier 48 would not be desirable due to public transportation, knowledge of where to find it, and other problems like accessibility for the disabled who are taking MUNI. He said that The Civil Grand Jury might contact other Commissioners to get their opinions on this topic.
President Gleason said that the Assembly Bill to give pollworkers an exemption from Jury Duty, which he strongly supported, failed by a vote of 3 to 4. He said that he hopes it will be revisited.
5. Commissioners’ reports and updates regarding observations and activities related to the conduct of the April 8, 2008 Congressional Open Primary Election. Because there were no formal assignments of Commissioners for the election, President Gleason asked if any Commissioner wanted to present an informal observation.
President Gleason reported that he worked as a Precinct Inspector again this election and that with the short period between the new voting equipment coming on line and the February election, the staff didn’t have much time to train the inspectors, in a hands-on manner, about the new equipment. During the April election, Inspector Gleason had a problem with the card activator in the Edge voting machine. He called the Election Center and was told exactly what to do to resolve the problem and was walked through it very quickly. The Pollworkers were well trained and the voters were well served on the precinct level during the April Election.
Public Comment. Brent Turner said that he witnessed the election on behalf of a candidate. He said he wanted to note that he was barred from oversight, due to the closed nature of the voting system. He spoke about the “possible” presence of a wireless device that should be noted if it “does exist”.
6. 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 requested this item be held over one more meeting because he still needs additional information to make his presentation. He said that essentially, the DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) machines worked well, there were no discrepancies between the hand tally shown on the VVPAT (paper audit trail) and the information on the chip – this is great news. He will have visual aids to explain the process more fully at the next meeting. This Item was CARRIED OVER.
(b) Discussion and possible action to approve the draft Annual Report.
Commissioner Meek presented the latest draft of the Annual Report and asked members to suggest any additions or changes. Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Yu SECONDED approval of the Annual Report for 2007.
Public Comment. Brent Turner said that regarding Commissioner Matthews’ comments that there was a reconciliation between the VVPAT and the voter verified paper audit trail, he felt they were not true and not conclusive, and that it was not an appropriate reconciliation.
A Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the Annual Report.
7. NEW BUSINESS
President Gleason asked to change the order of the Agenda, and called Item E because he said it related to items that would be discussed later.
(e) Discussion and possible action to approve the Election Plan for the June 3, 2008 Statewide Direct Primary Election. Director Arntz reported that he was not able to present the Election Plan for the June 3, 2008, Statewide Director Primary Election at this meeting. President Gleason acknowledged that this year is a busy one with four back-to-back elections to accomplish, however, it is the Commission’s responsibility to approve a plan well before an election. The next Commission meeting is May 21, and that date is inappropriate for approval of the June Election Plan. President Gleason proposed that the Commission have a Special Meeting on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 where the only item for the agenda will be the approval of the Election Plan for the June 3 Primary Election.
Commissioner Townsend MOVED and Commissioner Meek SECONDED this motion. Commissioner Meek requested that the plan be available to the members at least one week prior to the meeting, no later than April 30.
(a) Discussion and possible action to evaluate the effectiveness of the Election Plan for the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary Election.
Commissioner Meek MOVED that the Commission find that the Department of Elections conducted the February 5, 2008 Election effectively and in accordance with the approved Election Plan.
President Gleason said that he observed at Election Central that many calls from the precincts were because workers were not familiar with the new equipment.
Public Comment. Brent Turner said that the because there is a high amount of vote-by-mail ballots, that coercion and/or intimidation of voters cannot be observed, and should be noted if the DoE is moving towards more of these types of ballots.
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve a Special Meeting on May 7, 2008.
(b) Discussion and possible action to modify the format of future Election Plans. (Meek and Gleason) Commissioner Meek explained that this item is carried over from last year and has not been completed. She said the current format is cumbersome and not particularly useable by the DoE. She suggested assigning it to the Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee (BOPEC) or to one or two Commissioners with a completion date for this year. Commissioner Gleason reminded the Commission that BOPEC did accomplish some streamlining of the plan, particularly the front end. He said that much of the plan is static – a series of date changes, and he’d like to consider making the Plan permanent with “E-Minus” dates for the election. The Plan is mentioned in the Charter as having to be approved by the Elections Commission. Commissioner Gleason reminded the members that the SoS (Secretary of State) gave the City directions last November about procedures for producing remakes (110,000 hand duplicated remake ballots). He said that if the Commission makes the Plan permanent, the SoS would have to come before the Commission or present to the Commission such changes.
Commissioner Meek said that the Plan should be “a living document” and to be effective and useful, it should never be permanent. She said that the Commission may not have the authority to tell the SoS that they must come to us to implement changes.
President Gleason said that, at the direction of the SoS, the DoE has to handwrite the ballot tallies from the DRE machines in order to post them at the polling sites. We are already doing things to work around these restrictions and this is an example of an instance where the Charter takes precedence. The SoS cannot say that the DoE can’t handwrite the tallies and post them at the sites – it’s in the San Francisco Charter that this is done.
Commissioner Meek asked the Deputy City Attorney if the SoS trumps the City. Deputy City Attorney Shen replied that it is more complicated in San Francisco because we are a Charter City, and under the State Constitution, purely municipal affairs are under the control of the Charter City. He said that he would advise the Commission to work, as much as possible, in cooperation with the SoS.
President Gleason said that he was concerned about the 110,000 remakes because that decision was not publicly vetted.
Commissioner Phair asked the Director if it would be beneficial to him if the Election Plan format were changed. Director Arntz said that the Plan is information that the Commission feels it needs to be knowledgeable about the election, and he does not know what changes should be made.
Commissioner Matthews called the Commission’s attention to the materials presented by Mr. David Pipel on January 2, 2008 with suggestions for simplifying the Plan. The Commissioner said he has reviewed it twice and understands Mr. Pipel’s point and added that Mr. Pipel is one of the consumers of the Election Plan.
Commissioner Townsend asked if there have been complaints from the public about the Plan being unwieldy and does the Commission need to fix something that is not broken.
Commissioner Phair asked the Director if there are changes in the Plan that he would like to see. Director Arntz replied that much of the Plan is repetitive of things that the DoE already does and is busy-work for the Department to put together “for the most part”. He said that what should be viable in the Election Plan is whether there is any change in the process from election to election. The Director said that it takes him one to 1½ weeks to put the Election Plan together. The Director reminded the members that there is a calendar of required events preceding each election on the Department’s website already and that these are therefore readily available to the public and Commission.
Commissioner Phair asked the Director how the Plan might be simplified to be more useful and not a burden for the Department to produce. Director Arntz requested that no changes be made for the June election because of time constraints on the Department to prepare for its third election this year. He will proceed with the Plan as he has in the past to get past that election. He suggested that some sections and dates might be cross-referenced with the website or changed for future elections. Director Arntz said that he feels that “a lot of the Plan can be just static as an addendum, that what’s changed or different” could be included, and the Election Plan could then be just a couple of pages.
Commissioner Meek offered to work further on the Election Plan, taking in the comments from this evening’s meeting and present it to the Commission for a decision to accept it or forward it to the BOPEC.
(c) Discussion and possible action to approve the Elections Commission Operations Calendar. (Gleason)
Commissioner Meek suggested that a date when the Commission needs documents for its review be added to the Calendar so the Department can plan to provide requests in advance, and that the personnel reviews for the Secretary and Director be incorporated into the Calendar. Commissioner Matthews asked that the Calendar include materials that the Commission always requests after each election, for example, the IRIS Report and Provisional Ballot report. President Gleason said that he proposes to re-work the calendar to include suggestions from this meeting and present the revised version at the May 21, 2008, Commission meeting and invited further suggestions be forwarded to him in the meantime.
(d) Discussion regarding steering voters to use the DRE (Direct Recording Electionic) voting machines at polling sites. (From the 03/19/08 meeting) President Gleason apologized for the wording in this item and suggested that “assisting in the randomization of” should be used instead of “steering”.
Commissioner Townsend said that voters should be made “aware” of the machines but we must take care in how that is done.
Commissioner Matthews said that the SoS’s policy was clear and was to “steer” four voters if one voter used the DRE, and that he agrees with Commissioner Townsend.
Commissioner Meek suggested that the Commission take action and have on its next agenda a proposal to send a letter to the Secretary of State.
President Gleason pointed out that this is a situation where there is a stipulation in the City’s Charter which conflicts with state requirements, and he will place this on the agenda for the next Commission meeting.
Director Arntz explained that the conditions for the use of the equipment “mirror the Charter on this matter so the SoS’s conditions for the use of the DRE requires a handwritten posting of the results. Whereas, The Charter requires…a machine record of the results”.
President Gleason agreed, but added that it causes the action for the single vote (if there is only one person who used the DRE at a given precinct) to be publicly displayed, which is in conflict with the voter’s privacy rights.
Director Arntz suggested a solution which would involve posting the number of people who voted on the DRE. There will be a record of the result at the Department, therefore no breech of confidentiality at each polling site.
Commissioner Phair said that this would be a good alternative.
President Gleason agreed to put this item on the May 21, 2008 agenda as a discussion and possible action item.
(f) Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the March 19, 2008 Commission meeting. Commissioner Matthews MOVED to approve and Commissioner Meek SECONDED.
Public Comment. Brent Turner voiced his concern that sometimes the public comment sections in the minutes appear to be truncated. He said that he wants to be sure that the comments are properly reflected in the minutes.
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the minutes.
(g) Discussion and possible action to investigate, adopt a policy, and/or recommend action regarding how the City provides information to voters to determine their registration status when those voters have cast provisional ballots because the Department has no record that they are registered, or voter disputes political party registration as appears in Department voter registration data. (Gleason)
President Gleason called the members attention to the tally report of provisional ballots from last February’s election and displayed a provisional ballot envelope from that election. In the February election, 3,169 voters using provisional ballots were not on the voter rolls, not in the data bases of the DoE. He said that many voters think they are registered to vote because they registered at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and/or they reported their change of address to the DMV and thought this change would be reported to the SoS. A check with the DMV showed that the department only handles voters who change their addresses within the same county, they do not notify the SoS regarding intra-county changes of address of voters. The President said he has been in communication with the Berkeley Elections Research Center and was advised that the problem is statewide.
Commissioner Meek calculated that the numbers are 16% of the provisional ballot voters.
President Gleason reported that many voters he experienced when he worked as an inspector for the February election said they were certain that they were not registered in the party that appeared beside their names on the precinct roster. Again, they are given a provisional ballot, the total in the report was 2,681 voters for wrong party designation. He said that the Provisional Ballot is meant to be a protective measure/fail-safe method for voters, but is not protective or fail-safe enough. If a voter is told that he or she is not registered, what is that voter’s option? President Gleason asked the Deputy City Attorney to look into the California Elections Code and explain to the Commission whether voters, as the last absolute option, can go to a judge to have their vote counted and are we informing them of this. Further, if voters are certain that they registered for one party but the roster shows they are registered for another, they should go to the DoE and ask to see their original registration form.
President Gleason proposed that on the back of the Provisional Ballots, voters be notified that they can see a judge and the court department, and phone number be printed.
Deputy City Attorney Shen said that he would not encourage the Commission to suggest that the Elections Department include anything on the ballot to encourage people to file suit against the Department or any other department or City official.
Commissioner Townsend asked how the number of provisional ballots cast in San Francisco compared to other cities.
Commissioner Matthews replied that he is saddened that 3100 people who think that they have, in good faith, done what citizens need to do to register to vote and who actually show up to vote, don’t get their votes counted. Even if no other county has such voters, it’s worth looking into for the Commission. He said that he doesn’t feel that the source of the problem is the Department. However, in his opinion, the Charter Section 2142 doesn’t have any application in this area. Because state agencies are involved (DMV and the SoS), a state investigation is called for.
Commissioner Phair said that after reviewing the Provisional Ballot Envelope that President Gleason passed around, he observed that there is a reference to the court on the envelope. But what is not on the envelope is something saying that the voter has the option to review their original registration form at the Department of Elections.
Commissioner Matthews MOVED that the Commission President be authorized to write letters and have any other kind of communication with state agents who are involved in registering voters in California to address this issue. Commissioner Phair SECONDED.
President Gleason said he would draft a letter and bring it to the full Commission at the May 21, 2008 meeting. Commissioner Matthews offered to help with the draft and possible attachments to the letter(s).
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS.
(h) Discussion and possible action to request the President write a letter to two recommended government and non-governmental election observer groups from Mexico, welcoming them to observe the June 3, 2008 Consolidated Primary Election in San Francisco.
Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Yu SECONDED this item.
President Gleason recalled the visit he and Commissioner Matthews made last year to observe elections in Baja, and said that he has received requests from Mexico for members to observe our election in June. He said that a formal letter is required for their visit. President Gleason assured the Commission that the City and County of San Francisco would not be incurring any expenses or hosting any function, other than the election if the Commission agrees to send this letter.
The Roll Call Vote was: Gleason-yes, Matthews-yes; Townsend-yes; Yu-yes; Meek-yes; Phair-no. The motion CARRIED to write this letter.
(i) Discussion and possible action regarding final certification status of existing voting equipment for Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) elections. (Gleason)
Director Arntz reported that Sequoia has completed its testing of the 4.0 version (RCV voting) portion of its equipment and the Elections Assistance Commission has required that all voting systems contain battery backup before certification. Sequoia is adding this new requirement and expects to be completed by the end of July. There is uncertainty regarding when the state will be able to provide final approval and when state certification will be completed.
Public Comment. Brent Turner said that, unlike the Director, he feels that this delay is cause for panic.
10. Discussion regarding items for future agendas.
Commissioner Meek suggested that the assessment of elections be a future agenda item. Commissioner Townsend said that too many topics are handled by BOPEC and he would prefer topics be generated by the full Commission and then be referred to committee. Commissioner Matthews asked Commissioner Townsend for examples, but Commissioner Townsend declined to offer any. Commissioner Phair asked the Deputy City Attorney if anyone can attend and comments at a BOPEC meeting. Deputy City Attorney Shen said he thought that Commissioners could attend as citizens but not as Commissioners. Commissioner Meek said that she had been advised not to do this because her presence would constitute a quorum. Commissioner Townsend agreed and added that this had been the advice of former Deputy City Attorneys and asked Mr. Shen to check and advise the Commissioners if this is still true. Deputy City Attorney Shen replied that he would do so.
ADJOURNMENT @ 8:26 p.m.