Elections Commission
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved: 12-18-02
Minutes of the Meeting held
November 20, 2002
1. CALL TO ORDER. President Mendelson called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm.
2. COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Robert Kenealey, Thomas Schulz, Alix Rosenthal, Brenda Stowers and Michael Mendelson. ABSENT: Richard Shadoian.
3. FLAG SALUTE
4. Public Comment.
Peter Fries presented a document he created from the Strategica Review that was presented at the October 23, 2002 Elections Commission.
5. The Minutes for the Elections Commission Meeting and the Budget and Policy Committee Meeting held on October 23, 2002 were APPROVED.
6. Officer's Report
President Michael Mendelson reported on the overall functioning of the DOE (Department of Elections) during the November 5, 2002 election. He said that his comments were based on his own observations, and conversations with John Mott Smith of the Secretary of State's office and conversations with consultant Dwight Beattie. President Mendelson said that Section 14104 of the California Elections Code provides that the Commission ensure, through the Director of Elections, that a sufficient number of ballots be purchased. Statutorily, the DOE is mandated to purchase ballots equal to 75 percent of the number of registered voters - approximately 440,000. Because this election's ballot was four cards, it was a complicated ballot to scan. The four cards represented approximately 60 separate elections for which the DOE was responsible.
The Commissioner said that this is notable because Mayor Brown, in a recent news article compared San Francisco's election to San Mateo's which was not nor has ever been a four card election. San Francisco has had a tri-lingual ballot for a number of elections and this was the first time San Mateo has had a tri-lingual ballot.
The San Francisco Examiner stated that the DOE had not purchased the required number of ballots even after The Examiner's reporter saw the bills and orders for those ballots that demonstrated that the DOE purchased the number of ballots required by law, and had more than enough ballots for all voters.
Regarding the claim that the DOE ran out of ballots on election day, Commissioner Mendelson stated that distribution is both an art and a craft. Approximately 630 polling places were provided 300 ballots each to start the day. The FEDs (Field Election Deputies) are responsible for delivering more ballots during the day. Phone calls came in that some polling places were "running out of ballots" and the FEDs delivered them. There were alternatives if a polling place was completely out of ballots: to go to the nearest polling place or to wait for more to be delivered.
Mr. Beattie and two representatives from the Secretary of State's office were on the scene and examined these situations and determined that the handling of these situations was appropriate and within the realm of good practice.
The Mayor stated that he had received emails and letters from "hundreds of people" who were unable to vote when they arrived at the polls. Commissioner Mendelson said he checked with the Mayor's office and found that those numbers were only 17. Only two concerned a shortage of ballots. He also checked with the City Attorney and the District Attorney's office at the suggestion of the Mayor's press secretary and discovered that neither office received a call from a voter who was not allowed to vote.
Commissioner Mendelson stated that the Mayor has suggested that the Secretary of State send someone to the DOE to help it run elections. In fact, John Mott-Smith, the Chief of Elections for the State of California, sent two representatives who were present during our election and validated that this was a good election.
The characterization of the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters and hundreds of complaints has not proved to be true. Commissioner Mendelson asked that anyone having such a complaint come to the Elections Department so that the DOE can attempt to determine what happened.
The Commissioner added that the Elections Commission has attempted to bring order to a process that has traditionally been one without order.
Regarding statements in the press that the previous Director had overspent and that the current Director didn't spend enough, the Commissioner stated that this election - where 50% voted as opposed to 28% in the last election, where there was the largest VIP (voter information pamphlet) in history, where the accuracy of votes were not contested - was significantly under budget.
8. Director's Report:
Director Arntz reported that he is doing a review of the November 5th election and working to complete the canvass as well as gearing up for the December run-off. Overall, the staff is doing a "fantastic" job. The department is calm and is progressing through the canvass.
Already 11,000 absentee ballots have been mailed for the December election. The VIP is ready and will be mailed out by this Friday. The ballots for the run-off are already in house. This shows that the staff not only knew what had to be done for the November election but for December as well, and did it. This is the result of everyone sitting down and putting together a plan. It was a five to six month progression that began before November.
On October 7th, we sent out 43,000 absentee ballots to the permanent absentee voters for the November election. Normally you get back about 25% within the first week. This year, we had only 2,000 ballots returned after two weeks. During the week before the election, only 6000 absentee ballots were returned on Monday and fewer every day there after. Twenty-four thousand were turned in on election day. It appeared that there would be low voter turnout for November, however, on election day we had to set up four extra terminals at the early voting counter in City Hall to meet the demand. Some voters had to wait for 1 to 1 ½ hours because so many people showed up at City Hall to vote. Other polling places in the City experienced the same high voter turn out. People waited until the last minute to vote, both at the polls and by absentee voting.
All but 14 precincts were open at 7 am, staffed with over 3000 poll workers, 550 bi-lingual Chinese and 150 Spanish-speaking poll workers. This exceed what the DOJ (Department of Justice) required. Ballot deliveries, due to the size and weight of the ballots, were scheduled throughout the day. In the evening there was a huge rush of voters going to vote. Usually you expect about 50% of your voters at this time, however this November the number was more than 65 percent.
The results of the balloting were available by 12:20 am, even with this unexpected large voter turn out. This is much earlier than in the past and the final results were sent to the SOS (Secretary of State) by 12:40 am. San Francisco reported earlier than surrounding counties - even those with touch screens.
Last year, people complained that they couldn't closely observe at Pier 29. This year a wider area was set up so the public could observe the processing when cards were delivered. This year it was closed at 1:00 am. Last year it never closed.
The canvass will be completed ten days before it is required to be completed by law. This is because of the good planning and execution done by staff. I am very proud of the Department of Elections staff.
The fourth card was a huge issue. The bags sent to the inspectors to open the polls weighed almost 100 pounds. This is why we didn't flood the precincts with a lot of ballots. Every additional ballot delivery added to the weight of the materials poll workers had to handle. You also have to consider those who have to pick up those ballots at the end of election day and take them to the processing center and then to Brooks' Hall. This is why we had a delivery schedule for Elections Day, to balance the need to have enough ballots against the problem of overloading poll workers and other elections workers who had difficulty handling such heavy materials.
There will be changes for the December run-off. FEDs will not leave the territories at 5:00 pm. They will stay out for the entire election.
We came in under budget in all areas except staffing. The staffing problem was expected because the DOE is never budgeted for a full year. We were very careful regarding how we assigned people to tasks and then we removed them and put them on other tasks so that we didn't have too many people at one job.
The ballot for December will be one card the size of a regular 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper. This time the boxes delivered to the precincts will weight about 8 pounds instead of 22 pounds. Each inspector can be supplied, in advance, with all ballots he or she will need for the entire day, and the full supply will weigh less than 30 pounds.
President Mendelson - announced that the Secretary of State has selected Director Arntz as one of fourteen people to serve on a committee that will be responsible for the disbursement of $350 M for voting goods and services throughout the state. He said that this shows the confidence the SOS has in Director Arntz.
Commissioner Kenealey - asked how many precincts actually had an inadequate number of ballots. Director Arntz replied that ballots were delivered throughout the day to the precincts. He said there were a handful of sites that had a problem and that he would be looking into what may have happened. However, the great majority of precincts had no problems. The canvas will provide the DOE with answers to this question.
Commissioner Schulz - gave kudos to the DOE and to the voters. He said that he visited many sites during Election Day and that people were so eager to vote that many sat on the curb to mark their ballots. One problem, the Commissioner stated that he observed, was that the ballots were extremely sensitive to mis-marks. When this occurred on one of the cards, all four had to be marked "spoiled" and the voter had to start all over again.
Director Arntz added that there was a lot of ballot card spoilage during the November Election. He reported that 50,000 cards were spoiled compared with 4000 last November.
Commissioner Rosenthal - stated that the DOE was under a microscope for this November's Election and many people, especially the press were looking for any small thing to go wrong. She said the Department did a great job.
President Mendelson - stated that there is an ongoing investigation into whether some of the calls received during Election Night complaining of an absence of ballots may have been untrue. If the investigation finds any irregularities or sabotage, he will report them to the Commission.
9. Public Comment
Chris Bowman, former member of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections, said that the of turnout for this election should be compared to the last gubernatorial election in 1998 when 55% of the voters went to the polls. He said no one should be patting themselves on their backs this time when the turn out was less. Mr. Bowman shared a map he created that color-coded areas of the City according to voter turnout.
Frances Rubenstein - a FED who worked in the Tenderloin, reported that the election went very smoothly considering the size of the ballot, the rate of ballot spoilage, and the large numbers of voters showing up unexpectedly to the polls. He said FEDs should stay on duty during the entire day in the future. Mr. Rubenstein quoted a reporter's story in the Bay Guardian:
"Mr. Arntz said he over estimated the problem election night, at first calculating as many as a hundred precincts were short on ballots. Now he says it was probably far fewer. The exact number should be clear within the next few days. But there is already a welcomed change in the local election process. Leadership that is willing to look bad in the interest of telling the public what's happening. Can you imagine that? Leadership that's willing to look bad in the interest of telling the public what's happening! That's a pretty refreshing change for the City of San Francisco."
Meeting ADJOURNED at 7:57 pm.