Minutes
Elections Commission Meeting
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 6:00 pm
City Hall Room 408
Order of Business
- Call to Order & Roll Call - 6:00p.m.
Present: President Richard Matthews, Vice President Winnie Yu, Commissioners Gerard Gleason, Arnold Townsend, Rosabella Safont, Catalina Ruiz-Healy and Jill Rowe.
Also present: Deputy City Attorney Mollie Lee and Director of Elections John Arntz.
- Announcements: None
- Public comment on any issue within the Elections Commission’s general jurisdiction that is not included in any other item on this agenda.
Public speaker David Pilpel gave Director Arntz compliments on the way the Department of Elections handled the Elections, said a job well done. Public Speaker Brent Turner said the Director and the Department did a good job with this Election. Turner also stated that he would like to have self certification implemented.
4. Director’s Report
The Director will update the Commission on matters pertaining to elections and the Department of Elections, including updates on activities of the divisions, plans and activities for upcoming elections or election-related functions, and budgetary matters.
Director John Arntz says the Department had approximately 42% turnout with approximately 58% Vote by Mail (VBM) says this is a low to medium turnout compared to past elections. All of the polling sites were open and ready for voters with the exception of one which opened at 7:10.
The Department mailed 214,000 VBM received 113,000 VBM (53% returned). There were approximately 7,700 provisional ballots, with 7000 accepted.
The Department has approximately 3,000 provisional ballots remaining to be processed tomorrow (i.e., November 17). The count will be certified later that afternoon.
Precinct 1118, which was the location to which hundreds of thousands of voters were erroneously sent on their VIP’s, had a total of 98 misdirected voters; 30 voters were redirected to their correct location and 68 people chose to vote provisionally.
The pollworkers payroll was sent to the Controller’s Office the day before this meeting, checks are expected to be in the mail by next Tuesday, November 22, 2011.
Ballot Distribution department will be mailing 35,000 ballots for the Retirement Board Election.
Voters Services: 15,000 signatures required for the Referendum, 50,000 signatures for the New Party Petition.
The Department has requested that the Budget and Finance Committee approve two one-year options for voting equipment from Dominion Voting, and the Director has asked for a three year extension.
The department is participating in a minimum staffing day, Wednesday prior to the holiday. In all, nothing unusual happened this Election day; everything went calmly.
5. Commissioners’ Reports on observations, if any, of the November 8, 2011, Consolidated Election.
Commissioner Gleason worked as an inspector at precinct 2112; he said that his training was fantastic, and he praised the Elections Department for a job well done. Commissioner Townsend visited the Department on a few occasions during a few days prior to the Election; his thoughts were that things were well managed and things ran very smoothly compared to past elections. Commissioner Yu spent this election at City Hall; she was disappointed with the overall voter turnout but pleased with the Elections Department handling. Commissioner Yu offered a suggestion to Director Arntz for future elections regarding a digital printout are made available for use to aid the voter. Commissioner Safont visited the polling place near her residence held at a local Starbucks; she says voter turnout was low, however she was pleased with the manner things were handled. Commissioner Ruiz-Healy thanked the Department for giving students a tour on Election Day and said that the students were very impressed. Commissioner Rowe worked as a poll inspector; she commended the Department on a job well done she commented that she was very impressed with the instructions being very precise and easy to follow. President Matthews was a Field Election Deputy for his first time; he worked a long day working between eight polling locations. He complimented the Department on the excellent training and organization for FEDs. He mentioned that a couple of things came up and were handled as needed.
New Business
6. Discussion and possible action to approach the Board of Supervisors and/or any other responsible party to resend the Resolution on the voter profile, approved by the Elections Commission at the meeting of November 18, 2009, to the City's State Legislation Committee. Motion continued to future meeting.
7. Discussion and possible action to approve the Minutes of the October 19, 2011 Commissionmeeting.
Vote taken and was unanimous to approve the Minutes.
Adjourned at 6:40 p.m.