Budget and Policy Committee

2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 

  AGENDA

 

January 18, 2005

7:00 P.M.

City Hall, Room 421

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

 

Order of Business:

 

1. Call to Order, Flag Salute and Roll Call.

 

1. Public comment on items appearing or not appearing on the agenda that are within the jurisdiction of the Budget and Policy Committee.

 

3.         Discussion and possible action to approve the minutes for the Budget and Policy Committee meeting of November 16, 2004.

 

4.         Discussion of the persistent vacancies on the Ballot Simplification Committee (BSC) and the need to attract and retain qualified applicants to serve on the BSC.  BSC member Betty Packard will address the Budget and Policy Committee to discuss possible causes of and solutions to the vacancy problem.

 

5. Discussion and possible action to recommend that the Elections Commission approve an Election Plan Template.  San Francisco Charter section 13103.5 requires that the Elections Commission approve an Election Plan in advance of each election.  The template would be used by the Department of Elections to prepare the Election Plan for all future elections.  (Proposed template is attached).

 

6. Discussion and possible action to recommend how the Department might meet the budgetary reductions requested by the City, and how the Commission might support Department efforts.  The discussion may include adjusting the rates for paid arguments in the Voter Information Pamphlet to reflect the actual cost of publication, or eliminating paid arguments altogether from the Pamphlet, to realize significant cost savings.

 

7.         Public comments on items appearing or not appearing on the agenda that are

           within the jurisdiction of the Budget and Policy Committee.

 

 

ADJOURNMENT

PROPOSED TEMPLATE

Election Plan

City and County of San Francisco

 

Name of Election

Date of Election

 

 

I.          Governing of Election

 

The up coming election shall be governed in accordance with

 

• California Election Code
• San Francisco Municipal Elections Code and applicable Charter Amendments
• United States Voting Rights Acts [dates]
• United States Help America Vote Act [date]
• United States Americans With Disabilities Act [date]
• Actions as directed by the United States Department of Justice to comply with Voting Rights Act, Help America Vote Act or Americans With Disabilities Act.
• Accepted recommendations from the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury
• Previously established administrative procedures which the San Francisco Department of Elections and the Director of Elections deem to be best practices

 

All operations of the upcoming election shall be in accordance with one, some or all of the above listed guidelines, except for any new procedures or practices which are not covered by any of the above guidelines, but which could effect security of ballots, or confuse voter’s understanding or perception of conduct of the election such as the introduction of any new voting equipment or procedures. All new procedures or practices will be fully explained under “New and Unprecedented Practices” (Section X below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II.         Election Summary

 

1.         Offices and Measures to be voted on

 

a) Consolidated Presidential Primary

President of the United States*, (US Senate*), US Representative*[districts], State Senate*[district], State Assembly*[districts],

State measures [#], County measures [#], Regional measures [#]

Political Party County Committee Members*[parties, districts, # seats]

*may not apply to all party ballots or decline to state voter ballots

 

b) Consolidated Presidential General

President of the United States, (US Senate), US Representative [districts], State Senate [district], State Assembly [districts], Board of Supervisors [districts], Board of Education [# seats], Community College Board [# seats], BART [districts],

State measures [#], County measures [#], Regional measures [#]

 

c) Consolidated Municipal

City Attorney, Treasurer

County measures [#], Regional measures [#]

 

d) Consolidated Primary

Governor*, Lt. Governor*, Attorney General*, Secretary of State*, Treasurer*, Controller*, Insurance Commissioner*, Board of Equalization*[district], (US Senate*), US Representative*[districts], State Senate* [district], State Assembly* [districts], Assessor/Recorder, Public Defender

State measures [#], County measures [#], Regional measures [#]

Political Party County Committee Members*[parties, districts, # seats]

*may not apply to all party ballots or decline to state vote ballots

 

e) Consolidated General

Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Controller, Insurance Commissioner, Board of Equalization [district](US Senate), US Representative [districts], State Senate [district], State Assembly [districts], Superintendent of Public Instruction, Board of Supervisors [districts], Board of Education [# seats], Community College Board [# seats], BART [districts],

State measures [#], County measures [#], Regional measures [#]

 

f) Consolidated Municipal

Mayor, District Attorney, Sheriff

County measures [#], Regional measures [#]

 

g) Special Election

Offices

Measures

 

Note: municipal offices may be added to vote upon unexpired vacancies.

 

Additionally, the election plan should make note of the reason (cite election code or other cause) if any office that would usually appear on the ballot is not on the ballot for a particular election. (Example: BART Board of Director, District 7, was not on the ballot for Nov. 2, 2004)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.         Voter Registration numbers

This number should be established at E-85 or E-60; whichever is convenient for the Department of Elections. For the Election Plan, the numbers for registration by political party are only relevant to Primary Elections causing separate ballots to be produced.

 

3.         Number of precincts

 

4.         Number of poll workers required

 

5.         Voting equipment to be used at precincts

 

6.         Number of Permanent Absentee Voters

 

7.         Ballots

Number of ballot types, languages, number of cards and format

 

For Primary Elections- a brief explanation of procedure to track issuing of partisan ballots requested by voters not registered with a specific party.

 

8.         Voter Information Pamphlet & Sample Ballot

Size and mailing date, languages and numbers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

III.       Critical Dates and Deadlines

 

• Candidate Filing Deadlines
• Write-in Candidate deadlines
• Ballot argument deadlines
• Voter Information Pamphlet inspection period

 

• Begin mailing ballots for overseas voters
• First day for Early Voting (dates & hours including weekends)
• First day for mailing absentee ballots
• Deadline for Voter Registration.
• Last day to mail Voter Information Pamphlet
• Last day to request Absentee ballot be mailed
• First Day processing absentee ballots

 

• Election Day (hours polls are open, location of City Hall absentee voter station, deadline requirements for absentee ballots)

 

• Deadline for Certification of Election

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IV.       Security and Distribution of Ballots before and on Election Day

 

1.         Absentee Ballots

• Location of fulfillment of unvoted absentee ballots
• Date of beginning mailing of absentee ballots
• Location of secured, returned, voted absentee ballots

 

2.         Precinct Ballots

• Location of distribution of unvoted precinct ballots
• Dates precinct ballots will be distributed to polling place inspectors

 

3.         Securing Voted Ballots During Election Day

 

 

 

 

 

V.        Transporting and Securing Precinct Ballots and Vote-Recording Devices after the Polls Close on Election Day

 

1.         Vote-Recording Devices

• Eagle Memory Packs (or similar device)
• PCM Cards (or similar additional device required)
• Locations of Central Ballot Count uplinks

 

2.         Paper Ballots

• Voted and processed precinct ballots
• Unvoted ballots
• Provisional and precinct delivered Absentee Ballots

 

 

VI.       Ballot Processing

 

1.         Absentee Ballots

• Date to begin processing and location for processing absentee ballots
• Date to begin processing precinct (Election Day) delivered absentee ballots
• Procedure for processing absentee ballots

 

2.         Precinct Ballots

• Procedure for processing ballots and precinct Vote-Recording devices at uplink sites (Central Ballot Count locations)

 

3.         Provisional Ballots

• Procedure for processing Provisional Ballots

 

4.         Damaged and Remake Ballots

• Procedure and guidelines for “remaking” damaged ballots

 

5.         Write-In Votes

• Procedure and guidelines for tabulating write-in votes

 

 

VII.      Election Results Reporting

 

1.         Reporting Results on Election Night After the Polls Close

 

2.         Updates: Reporting of Results after Election Day

 

3.         Reporting Results for Rack Choice Voting Elections

 

4.         Final Report and Certification of Election Results

• Canvass Procedures

 

 

VIII.     Voter Education and Outreach

• Language assistance
• Special mailings to voters
• Community Presentations
• Information Phone Bank and Department Website
• Disability Voter Assistance

 

 

IX.       Poll Worker Training and Recruitment

 

X.        New and Unprecedented Practices

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guidelines

 

The Election Plan should presented by the Director of Elections at a period between 80 and 55 days before the election.  As the Department of Elections may not have all procedures established or may need flexibility in planning the election, a Supplemental Election Plan is acceptable and should be expected as long as it is submitted at least ten days prior to the election. At that time, the location of the Central Ballot Count (as publication required by CEC§ 12109 ) can be included in the Supplemental Election Plan.

 

The Election Plan should be labeled for public review as follows:

 

Submitted (date)

 

[  ] Accepted by the Elections Commission of the City & County of San Francisco                   

 

[  ] Accepted by the Elections Commission of the City & County of San Francisco with the attached amendment(s)

 

[  ] Not accepted by the Elections Commission of the City & County of San Francisco                   

                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copies of the Election Plan should be posted in the offices of the Department of Elections and made available to the public.  The Election Plan should also be posted on the Department of Elections website.

 

 

Unsolicited courtesy copies of the Election Plan may be distributed to elected officials of the City & County of San Francisco if the Department of Elections so chooses, however no copy of the Election Plan should be distributed to elected officials prior to making the document available to the general public, nor should any other memorandum to elected officials from the Department of Elections be substantially the same document as the Election Plan, except as need for budgetary review purposes.