City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved: June 16, 2010
Minutes of the Meeting at City Hall Room 408
April 21, 2010
1. CALL TO ORDER. President Joseph Phair called the meeting to order
at 6:02 pm.
2. ROLL CALL. PRESENT: Commissioners Gerard Gleason, Joseph Phair, Rosabella Safont, Derek Turner, Richard P. Matthews, Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee, and Director of Elections John Arntz. EXCUSED: Commissioners Winnie Yu and Arnold Townsend.
3. Public Comment. Roger Donaldson of the Voting Systems Task Force reported that the group has been working for a year. One of the many areas the Task Force is investigating is the “prime three system” which was demonstrated recently and at which members of the DoE attended. Mr. Donaldson presented a three page summary description of the system which is attached to these minutes. Mr. Donaldson said that this system and others should be examined as replacements for the current Sequoia Equipment system used by the City, and he offered to make future reports of the Voting Systems Task Force’s findings and recommendations to the Commission.
Jim Soper of the Voting Systems Task Force added that the system Mr. Donaldson mentioned is cheaper because it uses standard hardware and is worth further examination. He said that any system needs to be audited and checked carefully. Mr. Soper spoke briefly about internet voting and said it is being supported nationally.
4. Announcements. President Phair reported that in the case of Dudum v. City and County of San Francisco, the request for a temporary restraining order was denied. President Phair said that the court decision was well written and the City Attorney’s office was doing a great job.
5. Discussion and possible action to approve the minutes of the March 17, 2010 Elections Commission Meeting. Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Turner SECONDED this item.
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the minutes.
6. Director’s Report
Division Updates:
Ballot Distribution is expected to have mailed the ballots for the Health Service System’s election before the next Commission meeting. Currently the Division is contacting the various City Departments’ Health Service System Election officers to help make sure all employees receive ballots.
The Division is working with the vote by mail ballot vendor, putting together the routes for the memory packs for election day with the Sheriff and the Department of Parking and Traffic.
Today the Division met with Sequoia regarding preventive maintenance with the 400-C machines that read the vote by mail ballots in our computer room.
Budget and Personnel is working with the newest round of budget cuts since the last Commission meeting. The Mayor’s Office requested another reduction in salaries, materials, supplies, travel and vehicles. Since the DoE’s budget is already extremely tight, we didn’t have to make further cuts in materials and supplies, however we did cut an unfilled 1403 election clerk position and the travel budget, which was $1800 is now down to $300 for the next fiscal year.
Additionally, the Division is working on the Controller’s 9 month report that looks to see if a Department is on track with its expenditures.
Campaign Services Division will be holding an Open House on May 19th from 3 pm to 5 pm and will include a tour of the Elections Department, and a demonstration of the voting equipment. This event is open to the public. The Division is preparing materials for the Election Observer Panel and has posted the candidate guide for the November election on the DoE’s website.
Outreach Division is preparing letters for voters who voted incorrect party and had to vote provisionally in February or June 2008. The Division is working on shelter ads for MUNI stops which will promote voter registration.
Publications has sent the June ballots to the printer and is currently finalizing the voter information pamphlet.
Poll Locating and ADA Division reports that, to date, the Division needs to locate 16 new polling locations and is working to complete a new citywide precinct map. The new district maps are finished.
Pollworker Division has completed and posted on-line the new pollworker manual. They have also completed their training video, and the pollworker hiring office has opened in City Hall Room 43B.
Technology Division is working to get closer to real time election results. The process has been reduced from 15 minutes to one minute, but this has not been tested.
Voter Services Division has been monitoring changes and cancellations in voter registrations for the City. State petitions’ signatures are being verified. One petition this week had 19,000 signatures. The permanent vote by mail file has been transferred to the vendor and there are 176,000 permanent vote by mail voters for the June election. Decline to state voters were sent postcards and their responses are being received.
Commissioner Matthews asked about the letter from Christopher Bowman. President Phair said that the Director had given him a report earlier, and asked the Director to repeat it for the other Commissioners. Director Arntz said that the Department of Elections asks the person who is being challenged to state their reaction to the challenge – either they will make no changes or will make changes.
It was noted that there is an April 9, 2010 letter from Mr. Bowman regarding technical issues about the Statement of Vote. Mr. Arntz said he had not yet seen the letter (the Commission Secretary will provide it to the Director), but would let the Commission know his response.
Commissioner Matthews asked if the Department will have difficulty finding the 300 more pollworkers it needs for the June election. Director Arntz said that the Pollworker Division has always done an excellent job of recruiting workers and reminded the Commission that the June election has built-in recruitment problems – high school students taking final exams and adults starting vacations. Commissioner Matthews asked the Director to let the Division know if problems continue, and the Commissioners said he is willing to volunteer to work this election.
President Phair asked Commissioner Matthews if he would be willing to coordinate with the Director to review the two new pollworker training modules and report back to the Commission. Commissioner Matthews agreed that he would do so. Director Arntz advised the Commission that the modules would be available on the Department’s website soon.
• Update on the “Audio Voter” equipment and its ability to read back ranked candidates, and other voter equipment remedies since the November 2009 Election.
Director Arntz reported that currently there is a limitation of the audio on the touch screen equipment, that is the audio does not tell the voter that “this is your rank one”, or “this is your rank two”. It says only “selection John Doe”, but not the rank. There were other issues which were corrected without having to go through certification.
The Director will give the Commission an update of remedies taken before the November 2010 meeting.
6. Commissioner’s Reports
Commissioner Gerard Gleason will give an update on proposed legislation which impacts elections at the next full Commission meeting.
7. New Business
(a) Discussion and possible action regarding informing the City Attorney of concerns with postal delivery of ballots and voter materials, in connection with the City Attorney’s actions regarding postal delivery of U.S. Census forms and other mail to Single Room Occupancy hotels.
President Phair explained that he and Commissioner Gleason propose that the Commission send a letter to the City Attorney to alert him that not only the U.S. Census forms must be delivered to each resident in the Single Room Occupancy (SROs) hotels, but vote by mail ballots and other election materials must be delivered as well. Commissioner Gleason presented his draft letter.
Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee said that this is pending litigation that was filed last year and the complaint is not limited to delivery of census forms. It mentions that all forms of mail is not being delivered to SRO residents. Deputy City Attorney Lee said the litigation is moving forward and that the relief her office is seeking is delivery of mail to individual mail boxes for each tenant.
Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Safont SECONDED this MOTION.
The Roll Call Vote to send the letter to the City Attorney under the signature of the Elections Commission President was UNANIMOUS.
(b) Discussion and possible action to approve the Election Plan for the June 8, 2010 Consolidated Statewide Direct Primary Election.
Commissioner Gleason pointed out that under Section III, “New Practices” (B) Change in Conditional Certification for Edge Touch Screen, he still has concerns that the Secretary of State continues to insist upon utilizing remakes of ballots as a regular process for counting voters ballots. The Commissioner said that the average voter does not know that this is the process and asked that this be discussed at a future Elections Commission meeting with the goal of taking the issue to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Commissioner Matthews said that he agreed with Commissioner Gleason and that voters who use the DRE (direct recording equipment) have no idea that they are not really casting their vote, but that they are really logging in their vote which will be copied over onto a paper ballot – that will be the actual vote. This is assisted voting, and the voter does not know that their vote is actually an assisted vote.
President Phair said that there are two issues: voter information of the remake process if the voter uses the DRE (which may cause the voter to not choose to use the DRE for that reason), and is there a remedy for avoiding this in the future?
Commissioner Safont said that this process is an issue of disclosure to the voter and does not give the voter a choice.
Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Turner SECONDED approval of the Election Plan.
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the Election Plan for the June 8, 2010 Consolidated Statewide Direct Primary Election.
(c) Discussion and possible action to approve the Waiver Allowing City Employees to Assist the Department of Election with the June 8, 2010 Consolidated Statewide Direct Primary Election.
Commissioner Matthews MOVED and Commissioner Safont SECONDED approval of the Waiver.
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the Waiver Allowing City Employees to Assist the Department of Elections with the upcoming June Election.
8. Discussion regarding items for future agendas
- To approach the City’s State Legislation Committee in support of amending California Elections Code to define precincts as greater than 1000 voters. (Commissioner Matthews)
- Discussion and possible action to consider how the Elections Commission addresses the issue of its concern surrounding the SoS’s conditional certification of the City’s Sequoia Voting Systems contract. (Commissioner Matthews)
- A presentation by Roger Donaldson, or an expert he is to name, regarding the Prime III Multimodal Electronic Voting System.
Adjournment at 7:10 pm
ATTACHMENT