Elections Commission
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
Elections Commission Meeting
December 15, 2004
(Approved 01-19-05)
1. CALL TO ORDER. President Townsend called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm, and led the FLAG SALUTE.
2. ROLL CALL. PRESENT: Commissioners Gleason, Mendelson, Safire, Chung and Townsend. ABSENT: Commissioner Matthews.
3. DIRECTOR’S REPORT.
November Election Certification - The November election was certified by the Director on November 30, 2004 and the results were declared by the Board of Supervisors on December 7, 2004. The office has completed the destruction of unused ballots as well as the packing and storage of election material for retention according to state law.
Upcoming Elections -There is a scheduled Retirement Board election for mid-January with approximately 50,000 voters. Ballots will be mailed out by December 27th. Election must be certified in early February.
There is a possible election to be held for a Health Services member election due to the passage of Measure C on the November ballot. There are approximately 60,000 voters involved. A possible tentative schedule would be Spring of 2005.
Precinct Services Division – The division continues to work on "Phase 2 of the 100% Accessibility Plan" to bring all polling places in to HAVA compliance.
Technology Division - The Department is preparing to install a new server as well as receive an updated version of the Voter Registration system, which should help improve some of the processes.
Budget / Personnel Division - The City is dealing with a citywide budget crisis of approximately 97 million dollars. The DOE is working with the Mayor's Budget Office on our projected budget for the remainder of the fiscal year with a goal of reducing the Department's budget in a way as to not overly impact any one service the office provides to the voters.
Commissioner Gleason asked the Acting Director, Linda Tulett, if the Director could discuss his memo of 12/08/04 at the next Commission meeting. Specifically, the Commissioner wanted the Director to cover the expiring contract with ES&S (due to expire on 1/15/05), how the expiration will effect Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), having the Secretary of State remove conditional approval of RCV and making it permanent, and if the Secretary of State has approved touch screen voting and how this all effects access issues, RCV and future contracts. Ms.Tulett said she would let the Director know the Commissioner’s request.
Commissioner Mendelson asked Ms.Tulett how much the Department of Elections (DoE) charges organizations to run their elections. Ms.Tulett replied that she cannot currently answer that question would get back to the Commission with an answer.
Commissioner Mendelson asked if the DoE has conducted many elections for groups such as the Health Service System and Retirement Board?
Ms. Tulett replied that she had no information on the past elections but that the election for the Retirement Board is probably a standard event for the Department.
President Townsend asked Ms. Tulett to ask the Director to give the Commission an update on what is happening with ES&S, requirements that the DoE’s still needs from ES&S regarding RCV, and the possibility to have the voting equipment be able to rank more than three choices. The President requested that Director Arntz be prepared to answer these questions at the next Commission meeting.
4. New Business:
(a) Discussion and possible action to approve the minutes for the Commission meeting of November 17, 2004. Commissioner Mendelson MOVED to approve the minutes. The MOTION was seconded and CARRIED.
(b) Discussion and possible action to support an amendment to California Elections Code section 12105, which requires pre-election publication of poll workers and polling places in a newspaper. Other counties have previously recommended this change to section 12105 as a cost-savings measure. Instead of newspaper publication, the Department of Elections could post the information on its website and in its main office. This item was TABLED until the next meeting.
(c)Discussion and possible action to recommend that the Board of Supervisors amend Municipal Elections Code section 600, to (1) authorize the Northern California Newspaper Guild or the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists to nominate candidates for appointment by the Mayor to the Ballot Simplification Committee (BSC), and (2) provide compensation to members of the Ballot Simplification Committee. Commissioner Mendelson MOVED to discuss. Commissioner Gleason said that he wants this item to go back to the Budget and Policy Committee because he has become aware of recent development that needs to be considered. Commissioner Gleason said that he had been recently in touch with the Society of Professional Journalists who feel that in light of the Commission seeking an amendment to the Elections Code section requiring pre-election publication of poll workers and polling places in newspapers, and the Commission’s desire to eliminate this requirement, there would be an conflict of interest on the part of the Society if it were to nominate candidates of appointment to the BSC.
President Townsend asked that the Commission’s Budget and Policy Committee seek an official position from the Society regarding whether it wished to nominate a candidate for the BSC. This item was defeated and sent back to the Budget and Policy Committee.
(d) Discussion and possible action to adopt the Request for Waiver dated October 27, 2004, prepared by the Director of Elections and approved by the Elections Commission, as the template for future waiver requests.
President Townsend clarified that acceptance of this item would mean the Commission would not have to rule on whether or not to seek future waiver requests from the Board of Supervisors. It was agreed that this template would be the one used for future elections. The MOTION CARRIED.
(e) Discussion and possible action to ask the Commission President or a
Commission member selected, to present and to discuss with and seek action from the Board of Supervisors on Motion # 06-16-04-2 passed by the Elections Commission on June 16, 2004: The Motion reads in part:
Recommendation to the Board of Supervisors for a Charter amendment moving the election for the offices of Public Defender and Assessor/Recorder from the statewide primary election to the following November General Municipal Election. This amendment, if accepted for the Board, placed on the ballot and approved by voters, could take effect as early as 2006. Commissioner Mendelson suggested that the President of the Elections Commission bring this item to the attention of the Board of Supervisors on behalf of the Elections Commission. President Townsend said that the would follow up on this item with the assistance of Commissioner Gleason, to get the Board of Supervisors to calendar this matter. President Townsend said that he would speak personally with the appropriate Board of Supervisors committee chairperson and attempt to arrange an appearance before that committee.
ADJOURNMENT was at 7:20 pm