City and County of San Francisco
Elections Commission
Approved
Minutes of the Meeting at City Hall Room 408
October 20, 2010
1. Call to Order & Roll Call:
Vice President Winnie Yu, called the meeting to order at 6:10pm.
2. Roll Call:
Present
Vice President Winnie Yu, Commissioners Gerard Gleason, Commissioner Richard Matthews,
Commissioner Rosabella Safont and Commissioner Arnold Townsend
Present also: Director John Arntz, Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee
Excused
President: Joseph Phair
3. Announcements
None
4. Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the September 15, 2010 Elections Commission Meeting.
The roll call vote was UNANIMOUS to approve the minutes.
5. Director’s Report
Ballot Distribution:
Inventoried and reviewed over 1.5 million ballot cards. Overall, we mailed nearly 200,000 Vote by Mail (VBM). Preparing cards allocated to specific precincts. Begun mailing VBM scanning/sorting equipment and it seems to be going very well. Preparing for the Community Benefit District Election for the Ocean Avenue, the tallying will take place on November 16.
Budget/Personnel:
Processing requisitions for staff, equipment and materials. We are getting prepared to have all the people and materials at the various departments.
Campaign Services
The office has become very busy, especially Mondays within the last couple of weeks there has been an increase in the traffic at the front desk. Phone bank has been operating and having busy sessions: averaging 200-300 calls. We are prepared for Open House tomorrow Thursday October 21, from 3-5 pm.
Outreach:
We have been conducting presentations, focusing on registration for the past few weeks.
Publications:
All books are in the mail stream for English, Chinese and Spanish. All books are on the website. Large print books are still in the process of being prepared. Audio information is complete and available at the library.
Poll Locating / ADA:
We have all polling places located we are finalizing delivery routes to assure the equipment gets to the polling sites. We are preparing to train drivers for delivery routes and getting them prepared for loading of equipment and supplies for the poll sites.
Poll Worker Division:
We have all of the poll workers for the precincts fully staffed all bilingual requirements have been met. The division continues to recruit standby poll workers. Fifteen hundred poll workers have been trained; approximately 1100 poll workers are yet to be trained this Saturday, which is the last day for the clerks classes; Inspector classes will begin next Tuesday all 64 Field Elections Deputies (FEDs) have been recruited; this coming Saturday is the last day of FED training preparing for Field Election Deputy’s materials and routes. Elections Center preparation is in a full swing.
Technology Division:
Database Development continues working on tracking generic ballot tracking database Vote by Mail (VBM)/Provisional Vote (PV) database. When VBM/PV is received on elections night we will be able to count and track them more quickly. Preparing registration reports for Secretary of State, which is common requirement for every election. We are getting equipment and computers ready for elections day for the various divisions.
Voter Services:
Preparing to key in several thousand (5000) Voter Registration Cards (VRC) since Monday will be the deadline. In preparation for operating new scanning/sorting equipment that we are piloting with Brunback Election Services which we are doing well. We’ve have been verifying signatures: Received over 30,000 VBMs. Staffing early voting counters: over 1200 people have visited, which is a pretty good number. Supporting Inmate Voting, we have been very busy we have processed approximately 350 applications from inmate voters.
6. Commissioners’ Reports
Commissioner Matthews, ask Director Arntz, if there have been any anomalies? Director Arntz, replies that there have been no anomalies, that there were approximately 1800 VBM ballots that had to be redone, they got into the process later and were taken to the mail drop later than the larger group on October 4. It has been a normal election process up to this point. That a lot of the calls coming in from the public have been angry, not at us or City Hall it has been consistent and we see it. The turnout is expected to be stronger than the last election in 2006 which was at 60% and we are tracking about that now, with an increase of VBM, it is expected to be greater. Up to this point we have had some 1200 people walk in to our office. Commissioner Matthews, What is the cause that the 1800 ballots needed to be redone? Director Arntz, replies there are two issues the first is with the five ballots plus inserts, were more than their equipment or anyone’s before we are aware of them, as well as being able to back track and fix problems equipment could handle. There were some ballots for whatever the reason did not assemble perfectly and it took them about a week before we received them back. The second issue was once packages were received they were taken to the Post Office, where we learned that the Post Office, do to cutbacks no longer except bulk mail on the weekends, we are not putting blame on the Post Office however if we had been able to mail them on that date it would prevented a lot of the calls, we lost delivery time. The vendor has been very responsive, in most cases alerting us to problems. Commissioner Gleason, Mentioned he wishes to thank Director Arntz, for mentioning the five card ballots and the use of ballot worksheets to be used at the precincts, this will be helpful. Commissioner Gleason, ask that sometime after the first of the year that Director Arntz and Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee, to provide information to the commission, information such as what entities can put Measures on the ballot, like Measure AA, just so we know as a commission what types of things come before the voters and which things are covered by municipal election code and which things that are not covered. There are situations were we do, and other situations where we do not accept paid ballot arguments on certain bond measures, such as Tax Rate statement vs. Physical statement from the controllers. Perhaps that after the first of the year when things are a little slower, a presentation could be provided for clarification. Commissioner Yu, request from Commissioner Gleason just what information he is requesting, Gleason responds explains for an example if the School Board puts on a bond issue, they do not allow paid ballot arguments on the ballot. Commissioner Gleason, goes on to state that this is the Municipal Transportation Agency, which is the eleventh number to the board. Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee, with respect to Measure AA on this elections ballot the State Law give San Francisco Transportation Authority the right however this was unusual, this was specific and something we had not experienced before and it did not include a general guide. In other cases the ED code and the California Elections guide provide more detail guidance when other entities put measures on the ballot. I will provide a full report in January.
Commissioner Gleason, Comments that his son turned 18 years of age a couple of week ago and registered with DMV and find out he was not registered at all. Feels that we are perpetuating fraud, that if he had not gone through the steps necessary his son would have assumed he was registered. This is a serious issue, and feels that we need to have further discussion.
7. Old Business
(a) Discussion and possible action to approve the Voter Profile Resolution and the approval of forwarding the resolution to the media in the form of an op-ed with additional information regarding its importance. Commissioner Gleason, he and Commissioner Matthews worked on this project and have submitted a draft which has been given to all of the commissioners. Commissioner Gleason, Motions to have this item submitted as a by line from the San Francisco Elections Commission this item was voted. The roll call vote was UNANIMOUS to approve this Motion.
Public Comment:
Jean Stelato, from San Francisco State University, Reporter from Golden Gate Express News Paper: Would like to have clarification of item 7(a). Commissioner Gleason, will provide additional information, guest speaker was provided with a copy of the proposed Op Ed submission.
(b) Discussion and possible action to hire a Commission Secretary, including but not limited to defining the positions description and qualifications and approving procedures for posting the position and hiring an individual to fill the position. Commissioner Safont, states that all information has been forwarded to Human Resources on October 25th it appears the job has been graded down from 1446 to 1444. Commissioner Matthews, Human Resources has requested this position be listed for at least 10 days.
8. New Business:
(a) Discussion and possible action to adopt performance criteria for review of
The Department Of Elections Director.
1. Commissioner Matthews, request this be held over for the next meeting in November until President Phair, is available.
9. Discussion regarding items for future agendas:
Commissioner Gleason, suggest a discussion of the Motor Voter Program.
10. Meeting adjourned at 6:35 pm.