City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved: -----------------
Minutes of the Meeting at City Hall Room 408
June 16, 2010
1. CALL TO ORDER. President Joseph Phair called the meeting to order at 6:01 pm.
2. ROLL CALL. PRESENT: Commissioners Rosabella Safont, Gerard Gleason, Joseph Phair, Arnold Townsend and Winnie Yu (arrived 6:10 pm). Deputy City Attorney Jon Givner, and Director of Elections John Arntz. ABSENT: Derek Turner. EXCUSED: Richard P. Matthews.
3. Announcements
President Phair said that Commissioners are requested to always have their San Francisco Identification Card or business card and photo I.D. with them when they visit the Department of Elections, especially after hours.
4. Discussion and possible action to approve the minutes of the April 21, 2010 Commission Meeting. Commissioner Safont MOVED and Commissioner Townsend SECONDED this item.
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the minutes.
5. Director’s Report
Director Arntz reported that department staff is following up with the mechanics involved in the election, such as the canvass. Campaign Services is working on the November 2010 election ordinances which are now coming into their division. The deadline is June 22nd.
The Director gave the following overview of the election: There was a 12 to 13% turnout at the precincts; 193,000 vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots were mailed resulting in 94,000 voted and turned in (this number is lower than in a similar election 2006) and 4800 provisional ballots. This makes the total voter turnout 33%. In June 2006 the total turnout was 37%.
Four precincts didn’t open on time, but voting commenced at the sidewalk. There were incidents when pollworkers failed to open the slots at the top of the insight voting machine which caused some ballots to jam. This was easily remedied. There were no issues during the election which were outstanding or unusual.
Canvassing and counting of the ballots should be completed by the following Thursday or Friday.
The election day incident report, correspondence from the public and the VBM and provisional ballot reports with be available to the Commission before the July meeting.
Commissioner Gleason reminded the Director that the Commission would also like a report on the Direct Recording Equipment (DRE) usage.
Director Arntz introduced Mr. Dave Haines, Senior Vice President of K & H Printers from Everett, Washington, who gave a presentation regarding the company’s process for printing and preparing vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots for mailing.
President Phair complimented Mr. Haines on the presentation he gave to the Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee (BOPEC) of the Elections Commission two weeks ago, in which he explained how the approximately 350 VBMs were sent to the wrong address, causing voters to receive the wrong ballot. President Phair said that K & H was very responsive to this unusual event, and thanked him for coming to this meeting to explain this situation to the full Commission.
Mr. Haines gave a power point presentation regarding his 100 year old company, explaining that they have been producing ballots for the past 80 years. He said that the company is the largest mailer of ballots in the United States.
Mr. Haines brought a video showing the actual automated process of ballots being printed, folded, addressed, and mailed at K & M for the BOPEC meeting two weeks, but was unable to show the video at this meeting due to equipment failure. Refer to the minutes of that meeting for a description of that video.
There are cameras on the automated production line that catch and trigger the removal of problem ballots. This is what happened with the 350 VBMs that were misaddressed. The cameras check that each ballot has the correct voter’s name and address inside and outside the mailing envelope. This is accomplished through the barcodes printed on each.
Mr. Haines explained that there were two problems that occurred during this election: First, a group of ballots that were quarantined ended up in the mail stream. 1317 voters were affected. Once the ballot is in the envelope, the envelope must be addressed (although the name and address on the ballot already shows through the open envelope window). This added step is unique to the City of San Francisco. The quarantined (spoiled) ballots are believed to have been mistakenly placed by a worker with the good ballots. Therefore, some voters received two VBM ballots. Second, the wrong address was applied to the envelopes of approximately 350 ballots. This was what Mr. Haines referred to as the “read and print problem”.
In the company’s effort to find out what caused the problem, they were able to replicate the situation when they tried to clear the ink jet heads on their equipment. When they purged those heads (after a machine jam and the ink jet heads had dried out) and restarted the machines, the address printing began, but was off by one address.
Mr. Haines stated that the problem has been solved. He has met with the San Francisco Post Office Post Master and the design people for K & H’s equipment. The San Francisco Department of Elections will now be allowed to address its ballots in the manner that all of California counties use. The address will appear only once on the envelope – through the window of the envelope. It will no longer be necessary to print an additional address on the actual envelope.
San Francisco will still enjoy the postal discount it now gets for presorted mail, because it will use only the barcode on the address showing through the window which will now have cellophane covering it. The lack of this cellophane over the window was a cause of equipment jamming in the past.
Commissioner Gleason thanked Mr. Haines for his presentation and explanation of the problems and resolutions. Commissioner Gleason added that he wants to see the Secretary of State (SoS) more involved in how VBM ballots envelopes are designed and handled by the Post Office.
6. Commissioner Reports.
Commissioner Townsend reported that he and Commissioner Winnie Yu attended an event at the home of the Swiss Consulate General regarding direct democracy. There will be a global event on this topic later this month in San Francisco. Commissioner Townsend explained that direct democracy means that all voters, including minority members of a society, are represented although they maybe outnumbered.
Commissioner Townsend said that he had received a phone call from Ms. Simmons regarding the recent news reports about polling places located in buildings that house registered sex offenders.
Public Comment:
Ms. Lavonne Moore said that she was speaking for her aunt standing beside her, Ms. Josephine Simmons. Ms. Simmon’s home has been a polling site for over 40 years. Ms. Moore said the Television Station KRON “plastered” her aunt’s home “on the screen”. Ms. Moore said that at this point in time, Ms. Simmons has decided that she will not open her home as a polling site again. In the past, Ms. Simmons would always make sure someone would be there to open her home for voters, whether she was at work, or away. Ms. Simmons always assisted pollworkers in any way should could. Ms. Simmons stated that she was disappointed and hurt because her friends called her to ask what was going on when they saw the story on television.
Ms. Moore said that she hoped the Commission could do something about this type of problem before the upcoming important November election.
Commissioner Townsend suggested that the Commission write a letter to the media about the toll this story has taken on Ms. Moore and others. He said especially when the story has nothing to do with the election. The Commissioner said that voters are over 18 years old, and the people who live in the residence have nothing to do with the activity of people who work in the polling sites. President Phair responded that the Commissioner could draft a letter for the Commission’s approval.
President Phair added that the DoE and the Commission are equally concerned about this situation but have no control over the press. He said that we could send a letter pointing out the damage that the story did to Ms. Simmons and others who have been very helpful to the voting process. President Phair offered his apologies, on behalf of the City to Ms. Simmons.
President Phair asked if any of the Commissioners had observations of the election that they wanted to share. There were no reports offered. President Phair said that Commissioner Turner had mentioned that he may wish to make a report of his election day experiences. Commissioner Turner is not present at this meeting but may want to make his report at the next.
● Possible update from Commissioner Gerard Gleason regarding the City
Lobbyist’s efforts to present the Commission’s Voter Profile Resolution to the State Legislature. Commissioner Gleason reported that he and Commissioner Matthews met with the committee’s chair in March. Since that time, Commissioner Gleason has sent inquiries regarding this issue and has received no response. The item never made the committee’s agenda.
Commissioner Gleason reminded the Commission that during the recent election, the DoE had to telephone voters regarding the misaddressed ballots that were detailed during the Director’s Report at this meeting. Commissioner Gleason said he wants to present the Voter Profile Resolution to the Commission at the next meeting and propose that the Commission send an OpEd piece to the newspapers about the importance of this resolution.
7. Chairperson Richard P. Matthews will report regarding the Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee (BOPEC) meeting held on June 4, 2010. President Phair said that Commissioner Matthews asked that the Commission refer to the BOPEC draft minutes in their meeting packet and the presentation by Mr. Haines at today’s meeting.
8. New Business
(a) Discussion and possible action regarding working with the City’s State Legislation Committee to propose amending the California Elections Code to redefine precincts as greater than 1,000 voters. Commissioner Gleason said that Commissioner Matthews (who is excused from tonight’s meeting) asked that this item be on the agenda. Director Arntz reported that this item comes before every legislation session. Currently, each precinct may have only 1000 voters, however more voters are using VBM ballots and if the number of voters assigned to a precinct could be increased, there would be less ballots assigned to each precinct, and costs could be decreased. Commissioner Gleason reminded the Commission that recently the City ran a successful election with 2000 voters in some precincts in the municipal election.
This item is TABLED until the next Commission meeting.
(b) Discussion and possible action to create policy to give notice to voters whether votes cast on DRE (Direct Recording Equipment) machines will be remade onto paper ballots at a later time. President Phair said perhaps this subject should be covered in the Voter Information Pamphlet (VIP). Commissioner Gleason said that voters should be made aware that their DRE cast ballots are remade and that this information is currently reported in the Election Plan. He said that the process of making ballot remakes a standard operating procedure is not a good policy. Remakes should only be done in an emergency. President Phair asked the Director if the remaking of DRE ballots was a condition of the SoS’s certification of the City’s election equipment. Director Arntz said that this is correct.
President Phair said that the Director is aware of the Commission’s comments regarding this issue and will hold them in account when he designs the VIP in the future.
(c) Discussion and possible action regarding evaluation of the effectiveness of the Election Plan for the June 8, 2010 Consolidated Statewide Direct Primary Election. Commissioner Townsend MOVED and Commissioner Gleason SECONDED this item for approval.
MOTION: The Department of Elections substantially complied with the Election Plan with the noted exception that the Department of Elections was required to borrow equipment from another county (the tabulation units or memory packs).
Commissioner Gleason MOVED the motion and Commissioner Safont SECONDED.
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS.
9. Discussion regarding items for future agendas
President Phair announced that historically there has not been a meeting in July, and that he suggests that the next Commission meeting be in August.
Commissioner Gleason MOVED that the July Commission Meeting be CANCELLED. Commissioner Safont SECONDED the motion.
The Roll Call Vote was UNANIMOUS.
ADJOURNMENT at 7:00 pm