Elections Commission

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City and County of San Francisco

Elections Commission

     Approved: 2/19/03

Minutes of the Meeting held

February 5, 2003

 

 

1. President Mendelson called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.

 

2.         COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:  Robert Kenealey, Thomas Schulz, Vice President Alix Rosenthal, Commissioner Brenda Sowers, Commissioner Richard Shadoian and President Michael Mendelson.  ABSENT: none.

 

3.         FLAG SALUTE: Commissioner Keaneley led the Flag Salute.

 

4.         PUBLIC COMMENT:  Sandra Elizondo and Cathy Russo spoke about why paid ballot arguments should not be eliminated.

 

5.         CLOSED SESSION: The Commission went into Closed Session to confer with counsel at 7:08 pm pursuant to Ralph Brown Act section 54956.9 and Sunshine Ordinance section 67.10(d).

 

            Commission took a break at 8:14 pm.

 

            Commission reconvened at 8:20 pm and voted to not disclose the discussions conducted in closed session pursuant to Ralph Brown Act section 54957.1 and Sunshine Ordinance section 67.12.  The vote was unanimous.

 

6.         Discussion and possible approval of Election Commission Minutes for Commission Meeting held on January 15, 2003.  Commissioner Kenealey MOVED and Commissioner Rosenthal SECONDED that the Minutes for January 15, 2003 be approved.  PASSED unanimously.

 

7. OFFICERS’ REPORTS:  President Mendelson reported that he and Commissioner Rosenthal met with Ana Borja-Valdez and Anne Marie Monroe from the Department of Human Resources (DHR) about the next steps in the process for selecting a new Director of Elections.  He explained that DHR will compile a list after it has had a team of elections experts interview and rank the candidates.  Those candidates’ names will be given to the Elections Commission for a final interview and selection.

 

President Mendelson explained the challenges ahead for the DOE for ranked choice voting for the November election, especially its integration with touch screen technology.

 

8.        DIRECTOR’S REPORT:       Acting Director Arntz reported on efforts to implement Proposition A – Instant Run-off Voting, now referred to as “Ranked Choice Voting.   Election Systems and Software (ES&S), already has a contract with the City with an option that says if the City decides to try methods of voting, ES&S is to be given the opportunity to provide the software for new that method.   He said that the DOE is not in the business of designing a voting system, however, this is the situation the department  now finds itself in and it is a difficult process.  There is no time to request another vendor to present a proposal because Prop. A says that ranked choice voting must be in place for the November 2003 election and the Secretary of State has not certified a system.  Mr. Arntz said that, in his opinion, June 30^th is the drop dead date to have a system for San Francisco in order to be able to implement the ranked choice voting system mandated by the voters. 

 

On July 1^st, at the onset of the new fiscal budget, more employees will be brought in to work at DOE and they will be given the new system to learn and implement for the November election.  At the present time, the DOE has no system about which to train staff.  The DOE must wait until it has developed the system and the State has  certified that system. 

 

            Mr. Arntz discussed several alternatives, including a request for bids.  However, the bidder would need to have a system that is State certified and the City would need to accept the lowest bidder.  Even if the department were to take the lowest price, that vendor’s product may not have the services that the City would need.

 

Another alternative is hand-counting.  The staff would need to hand examine and shuffle each card from the election for the write-in candidates.  While this is not impossible, the perception of the public, seeing each vote hand tallied, may be that the handlers could be doing something with the vote.  Even the process used for the hand tally needs to be certified by the Secretary of State.

 

Vice President Rosenthal asked Mr. Arntz if it was true that the reason for getting away from the term “instant run off” voting was because the software can’t be run until after every ballot is counted, including absentee, provisionals and write-ins.  The Commissioner said that in a race where there seems to be a clear winner, with 65% of the vote counted – the result would take time because many ballots would need to be counted by hand.  She asked Acting Director Arntz if it was true that the final results may not be known for three to four weeks after the election.  Mr. Arntz answered that this is true, however, it would depend upon the election.

 

Vice President Rosenthal inquired how the system would comply with the State Elections Code which requires a tally after each count of the vote.

 

Acting Director Arntz replied that this was a valid point that has not yet been determined.

He said there are many statutes that have to be applied to every election.  The laws are just one of the mechanics of ranked choice voting which need to be considered.  Another concern is how to put directions on the cards – what are the instructions.  While these issues seem simple, they are not. 

 

Commissioner Schulz asked Mr. Arntz what were the toughest questions Supervisor Gonzales asked him during his meeting with the supervisor.   Mr. Arntz said that the big problem he expressed to the supervisor was that the DOE doesn’t have what is needed (no data, no system, no certification) to implement ranked choice voting.  The department is making a big effort to make this happen.

 

Commissioner Rosenthal asked the Acting Director how many full time people did he have working on this daily and how much time were they spending.  Mr. Arntz replied that he has at least three to four people daily working to implement ranked choice voting.

 

Commissioner Rosenthal asked if the department had given up on touch screens.

Mr. Arntz answered that touch screens would be ideal for collecting the data but then the City would be using TWO new technologies in November.

 

Commissioner Schulz asked the Acting Director if it was true that there are three possibilities that he is examining: hand tallying, touch screen and ES&S.  Mr. Arntz agreed and said that there will need to be additional software added to the eagle machines and if a hand tally is done, there is no space available to count the cards.  Commissioner Schulz asked how these plans would fit into the budget.  Acting Director Arntz said that hand counting would be a cost to be totally absorbed by the DOE; the proposal for ES&E would cost $1.498M.  Touch screens could be paid for with $5.7M of Prop. 41 money, $2.2M of which goes into the general fund to pay for the existing eagle machines. 

 

Mr. Arntz reminded the Commission that the City has a deficit of $350M.  DOE staff is taking time off without pay in efforts to make the budget cuts that the Mayor’s Office is demanding from all City departments. 

 

Commissioner Rosenthal said that one of her big concerns was the time it would take to do the hand tally – several weeks.  She said that the longer the department has the ballot cards and doesn’t have a count, the more concerned campaigns and voters will become.  Acting Director Arntz replied that a hand tally was NOT a situation he wanted.

 

Commissioner Schulz asked, “when a law is passed and we all want to enforce it, but the resources aren’t there, the time is not there, so it can not be done properly, what do you do?”  Commissioner Kenealey replied that this is when you go for declaratory relief.  President Mendelson responded that this is premature, as the Department is doing everything to implement the program.  Acting Director reminded everyone that we were not even near to making that decision and he thought we would not be.

 

              Mr. Arntz introduced Rachael Gosiengfiao, manager of the Campaign Services Division.  This is the frontline for the DOE, the front desk.  Ms. Gosiengfiao gave a brief description of the work her division does:  campaign filing, initiative filing, fair political practices state repository filing.  The last mentioned filing receives more than ten thousand documents annually and these date back to 1998.  Campaign Services also handles paid arguments, and proponent arguments.  Ms. Gosiengfiao explained that new software which should be in place within the next fiscal year will assist her division greatly and enable staff to retrieve information more quickly.  Her division holds informational meetings for candidates, observers and others.  One of the subjects the division will be explaining during these meetings will be ranked choice voting.  During election day, the division runs the phone banks.

 

To date, there are 21 candidates for Mayor.  In the middle of the Mayoral race, campaign services has to prepare for the March presidential primary. 

 

              Mr. Arntz reported that the Voter Services Division completed their survey to determine the costs for the Health Services System election.  Also, purging of the voter data base is occurring with the assistance of reports from the post office (address changes), death records from the State, and the Cal Voter System from the Secretary of State.  The latter is used to see if voters are registered in more than one county.  By using these systems, the DOE has reduced the voter roll by 15,000 voters, which is not unusual. 

 

Mr. Arntz discussed the outreach program which has organized several meetings with community groups.  At these meetings, citizens are asked what they want and expect from the DOE.  In turn, Outreach asks citizens to be poll workers.  These meetings have been very informative and have assisted the DOE greatly and are ongoing monthly with each group. 

 

The Management Information Systems division has received the proposal from DTIS (Department of Technical Information Systems) regarding re-precincting.  Some items in the proposal are being refined and there will be a presentation before the Commission soon.  In the future the Procedures Manual will be on line and staff will be able to run searches for information.  New employees will be able to use the search engine to learn about their tasks.  The challenge of training will be made easier by this application. 

 

Precinct Services has been working with Americans With Disabilities to evaluate polling places.  The division is also speaking with the owners of these polling locations to get their input about what happens during election day.  There has been a lot of feedback and the program has been a success. 

 

Purchasing has prepared three drafts for RFQs (Request for Proposals): ballot printing, Voter Information Pamphlet (VIP) printing and layout and translation of the VIP.  The DOE is currently seeking reimbursement from BART because the BART Bond, Measure AA, was included on the City’s last election ballot and in the VIP.  BART piggybacked on our election and they will be reimbursing us for their expenses.  The DOE is still working on the formula for determining BART’s share and it looks like the amount will be over $125,000.   Additionally, the department is working on the request for Prop. 41 money for purchasing technology and the first draft of next year’s budget.

 

The poll worker recruiting division has been contacting other counties to look at their programs and comparing them to San Francisco’s.

 

Personnel Division is working with DHR to get requisitions filled.

 

All managers are working with staff regarding taking time off without pay.  Many staff have stepped forward to cut back on their hours to assist the department in meeting this policy.

 

Staff is already working on the election calendars for November and March.

 

Commissioner Thomas Schulz asked the Acting Director if special plans will be made regarding security for the November Election since the office of Sheriff will be on the ballot and the Deputy Sheriffs will not be able to provide security.  Mr. Arntz replied that no formal meeting has taken place to discuss this topic but he has been in touch with Deputy Vicki Henessey. 

 

9.   Unfinished Business – Discussion and possible action to recommend that the Board of Supervisors amend the Municipal Elections Code to eliminate paid ballot arguments from the City’s Voter Information Pamphlet.  Commissioner Rosenthal announced that the next meeting of the Budget and Policy Committee will be about the subject of the elimination of paid ballot arguments.  The Committee will make a recommendation to the full Commission and Commissioner Rosenthal invited all interested persons to come to that meeting at noon on Friday, February 7, 2003 in City Hall Room 408.  She said that the Committee hopes to discuss every argument and every possible solution and develop a report to present at the next Commission meeting.  President Mendelson suggested that this item be put over until the next meeting.

 

10.  New Business – (i) Discussion and possible action regarding the recruitment and selection of a permanent Director of Elections.  Commissioner Schulz MOVED that the Commission defer to DHR on the process and method for selection of a permanent Director of Elections.  SECONDED by Commissioner Kenealey.  PASSED.  (ii) Discussion and possible action on the process for recruitment and selection of a permanent Director of Elections, and the role of the Commission’s Personnel Committee in this process.  Commissioner Schulz stated that working through the process just approved, there is no need to have the Personnel Committee in the process. (iii) Discussion and possible action on whether to schedule a Commission “retreat” to discuss setting goals and objectives for the next year, and operational issues concerning the Commission.  President Mendelson suggested creating a special committee chaired by Commissioner Schulz to prepare a report specifically outlining the various issues that the Commission should address as well as a time and location.  Commissioner Schulz replied that he would endeavor to have the information for the next full meeting of the Commission and that he would try for a date in March for the retreat.  President Mendelson said that there was no rush to have the information by the next Commission meeting. 

 

11.  Public Comment.  Caleb Kleppner, Center for Voting and Democracy, reiterated his organization’s commitment to the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting for the upcoming election.  He said that the most logical approach for the November election would be to modify the Optic Eagle machines.  His concern was what would happen in the event of a catastrophic failure of the equipment.  If this happened with the eagle machines, there would still be paper ballots that could be counted, this would not be the case with touch screens.  Mr. Kleppner suggested that Commissioner Rosenthal’s concern that a hand count could take weeks was incorrect, and that a hand count would take only a few days.  Jared Gleason, a former employee of the DOE, suggested that the department go out to high school student body elections to experiment with the ranked choice voting as a public demonstration of how the system would work.  This would also assist the DOE staff with getting hands-on experience in a practical application. 

 

 

Meeting ADJOURNED at 10:05 pm.