Elections Commission
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City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved: June 15, 2004
Minutes of the Meeting held
May 18, 2005
1. CALL TO ORDER. President Townsend called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm.
2. ROLL CALL. PRESENT: Commissioners, Gerard Gleason, Eric Safire, Arnold Townsend, Richard Matthews, Sheila Chung, and Michael Mendelson
3. DIRECTOR'S REPORT
ES&S Contract Update - Mr. Arntz reported that ES&S (Election Systems and Software) has signed the contract with the DoE. Once the contract has been approved by the City’s Purchasing Department it will be a completed document.
Voter Services Division – The division has sent out 42,000 Residence Confirmation cards two weeks ago and these are now being returned to the division to update the voter files. The 8D2 cards ( notices from the postal service that mail recipients are no longer at an address) will be sent out over the next week to voters. The Health Department’s lists of deceased citizens is being used to remove names from the rolls. The Secretary of State’s Office gathers voters names from its statewide data base and checks for duplicates; the results are sent to the individual counties to be incorporated into the local databases and the Voter Services Division is updating its files with this information. Names of persons who have felony convictions are sent to the DoE by the Superior Court to assist in updating voter files.
There are two statewide petitions currently being verified, and six that are pending certification for review (this means that counties are doing a raw count of the signatures received) to determine if there are sufficient numbers of signatures to authorize the various elections departments to review the signatures on the petitions.
Division members recently attended HAVA (Help America Vote Act) training. It was noted that San Francisco goes much further to fulfill its obligations under this act than is required. For example, with provisional voting, San Francisco voters are provided a website and an 800 phone number to verify whether their provisional ballot was counted. Most counties only provide one or the other means to verify these ballots.
On election day, most counties provide elections results updates three or four times during the day. In San Francisco, we provide a continuous live feed of information throughout the entire day and voters can phone in to get results throughout election day.
Campaign Services – The division has announced that on May 26 at noon the first candidate workshop for the November 2005 election will be held. The DoE has been notified, through the City Attorney’s Office, that Mabel Tang has vacated the Assessor’s Office. The election for that office will take place this November. Petitions for signatures-in-lieu of the filing fee will be issued between June 3 through July 28.
Poll Locating/ADA – This division’s staff also attended the HAVA training. Currently we have 76% accessibility to our polling locations. This leaves approximately 113 locations needing accessibility. The goal is to be 100% by November. All states are required to have all polling places accessible after January 1, 2006. Staff will be attending an assisted technology conference next week that will have examples of technology that helps persons with disabilities to vote, to determine if there is technology the DoE can use to help San Francisco’s citizens.
Budget/Personnel – The division is currently closing out the fiscal year 2004-05 budget. The budget for 2005-06 has passed the Mayor’s budget office and the final numbers will be known in a week.
The hiring package for seasonal staffing in the DoE has been completed. This package explains the City process and policies that apply to employees. The division is implementing a new seasonal staff tracking process that will show when, and for how long, an employee is assigned to work in various areas during the election cycle. This will help us be more accurate in our funding requests.
Technology Division - The staff is redesigning the DoE’s website with the goal of allowing visitors to the site to not need to scroll the pages to reach the information they are seeking. The information on the initial screen will lead the visitor to further information about the topic chosen. For the first time ever, a security sweep of all servers and email accounts have been completed. This sweep was to make certain that there was no unauthorized access to the Department’s system. There will be another security sweep after this November’s election.
The DoE has acquired a candidate access program from San Mateo County’s elections department. This data base allows staff to input candidate filing information, better track the information and create reports.
Outreach – The division is conducting a community advisory meeting next Wednesday, May 25 from 10 am until noon in room 34. Community Based Organizations (CBOs) have been invited to attend and share their ideas about outreach.
A language assistance brochure is being developed. The brochure will be sent to voters and will have a section that can be filled out and sent back to the Department to indicate if the voter would like voting information sent to them in a language other than English. This information will also be on the DoE website.
Request for Proposals (RFPs) – Last week, the Department issued an addendum to the RFP The Addendum deletes language about a buyback of existing voting equipment, and adds requirements for logic and accuracy testing. The submittal date for the RFP was extended by one week, and the length of time to conduct the mock election was shortened to two weeks (instead of four) due to these changes.
The Director reported that he attended a demonstration of ES&S’s and Hart’s new equipment in Menlo Park last Saturday.
Public Comment – David Pilpel said that he would welcome regular reports on registration statistics and reports on the circulation of initiatives as part of the Director’s Report.
Commissioner Mendelson asked if other companies, beside ES&S, have shown interest in the DoE’s RFP. Director Arntz replied that there were two others attending the pre-proposal conference: Sequoia and DieBolt.
6. New Business
- Discussion and possible action to approve the minutes for the Commission meeting of April 20, 2005. Commissioner Matthews MOVED to approve the minutes and Commissioner Chung SECONDED. Motion CARRIED unanimously.
- Discussion and possible action to hold an Elections Commission Retreat. Commission Secretary, Shirley Rodriques, reported that all Commissioners had been queried regarding their availability and their preferred time of day for the proposed retreat. It was decided to propose the date of Friday, July 22 in the afternoon. The secretary will attempt to secure a location within the City for this meeting.
- Discussion and possible action to approve and make the Department of Elections’ Outreach Plan the official policy of the Elections Commission. Commissioner Mendelson MOVED that the Commission adopt as its official policy the Department’s Outreach Plan. Commissioner Safire SECONDED.
Public Comment – David Pilpel suggested that Comcast Cable to added to the list of media outlets.
Commissioner Chung said that approving this plan might be duplicative since the outreach plan is a state law and since the plan is still in draft form and will be reviewed by community groups with which the Director plans to meet next week.
Commissioner Mendelson said that he felt the Commission could now stand firmly behind the Director’s proposed Outreach Plan since it provides, generally, a sound framework for outreach.
Commissioner Matthews asked Commissioner Mendelson if there was a difference between adopting a policy and approving an Outreach Plan?
Commissioner Mendelson replied that the Charter says the Commission is a policy- making body. So within that context, the Commission would be adopting it as an official policy of the Commission.
Commissioner Matthews added that the Charter specifically states that the Commission also approves plans.
Commissioner Mendelson said that his pleasure is that if the President of the Commission is satisfied he, Commissioner Mendelson, would be happy to withdraw the motion.
President Townsend said that he was very pleased with the Director’s plan but that he has a few suggestions. Particularly, he would like to see more specificity regarding voter education and would like to speak to the Director about this as well as the status of ex-felons and their voting rights.
This item was TABLED to the call of the Chair.
- Discussion and possible action to amend the Bylaws regarding the procedures for the election of Commission President and Vice President.(Commissioner Mendelson). Commissioner Mendelson MOVED to amend the bylaws regarding the procedure for the election of Commission President and Vice President, making the basis for the holding of those positions: either the holding of Vice President, being the senior in rank on the Commission and “further that if an individual having had seniority doesn’t want the position, then another individual can step up”. After discussion, Mendelson agreed to withdraw his MOTION.
- Discussion and possible action to set regular meeting dates and locations for the Commission and the Commission’s Budget and Policy Committee. Report by Commission Secretary on available dates and locations. Commission Secretary, Shirley Rodriques, reported that she had met with the Building Services Department about the availability of the meeting rooms in City Hall for regular monthly evening meetings. Ms. Rodriques asked the Commission to decide upon a weekday, other than Wednesday, when members could meet during the first week of each month. It was agreed to try to schedule the first Thursday of the month at 7:00 pm in Room 408 of City Hall. Ms. Rodriques said that she would notify each Commissioner when a regular meeting day is confirmed.
7. Old Business
- Discussion and possible action to approve the Elections Commission Annual Report for 2004. Commissioner Mendelson MOVED and Commissioner Safire SECONDED that the Elections Commission Annual Report for 2004 be approved. MOTION CARRIED.
(b) Discussion and possible action to approve the revised Election Plan Template. The San Francisco Charter section 13103.5 requires that the Elections Commission approve an Election Plan in advance of each election. Commissioner Mendelson MOVED and Commissioner Matthews SECONDED the approval of the revised Election Plan Template. MOTION CARRIED.
8. Annual Election of new Commission Officers. Commissioner Mendelson nominated Commissioner Eric Safire for the office of Commission President. Commissioner Gerard Gleason nominated Commissioner Richard Matthews for the office of Commission President. In a roll call vote, Commissioner Matthews received four votes (Chung, Gleason, Townsend, Matthews) and Commissioner Safire received two votes (Mendelson, Safire). Commissioner Matthews was ELECTED President of the Elections Commission.
Commissioner Matthews nominated Commissioner Sheila Chung for the office of Commission Vice President. Commissioner Chung was ELECTED Vice President of the Elections Commission UNAMOUSLY.
ADJOURNMENT at 8:18 pm.