Draft Minutes
Elections Commission Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee Meeting Wednesday August 3, 2011
At 6:00 pm
City Hall, Room 421
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Order of Business
1. Call to Order and Roll Call:
Present Commissioner/Chairperson Gerard Gleason, Commissioner Jill Rowe- Director John Arntz
2. Public Comment on items appearing or not appearing on the agenda within the jurisdiction of the Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee.
No Comments
3. Discussion and possible action to adopt policy related to the timing of release of election results in Ranked-Choice Voting contests. Item referred to Committee by the Commission at May 18, 2011 Commission meeting. Invited to speak to the Committee on this topic is Steven Hill of the New America Foundation.
Commissioner Gerard Gleason welcomed Steven Hill of the New America Foundation to be a Guest speaker. Discussion focused on the Department’s existing practice of commencing to release vote totals after the 8:00PM closing of polls on the evening of an election. This includes first choice vote totals for offices subject to Ranked Choice Voting. However, the Department’s existing practice has been to wait to release the Ranked Choice Voting second and third choice vote totals and apply the Ranked Choice Voting algorithm using those totals until 4:00PM on the Friday following a Ranked Choice Voting election.
Mr. Hill expressed concern that for disclosure and transparency reasons, it would be better to release the Ranked Choice Vote totals and apply the Ranked Choice Voting algorithm sooner, and possibly at the same time other election results begin to be released.
Elections Director Arntz explained the operations involved in gathering the data from ballots and election day tabulation machines, and particularly that the second and third choice vote data is contained in a separate module of the voting system equipment, and that data needs to be brought together with data in the primary module. The Department has also had the practice of applying the Ranked Choice Voting algorithm once there is a larger pool of vote data available, which has been some 3 days after the close of polls. This practice is seen as preventing wide fluctuations in rankings as further vote totals are applied.
Director Arntz said new procedures in place this year for counting ballots should speed up the process and there should be no need to wait until Friday after the election to release Ranked Choice Voting results. However the Director cautioned that there still would be the process of obtaining the second and third choice data from the separate module of the voting system, and that should not be rushed on election night, given that the Department of Elections has numerous other duties, processes and requirements, such as transmitting vote totals to the California Secretary of State that same evening. Director Arntz said the Department could release Ranked Choice Voting results sooner than Friday, but expressed the need to have some time to handle the process of gathering the data.
Commissioner Rowe supported the idea of releasing Ranked Choice Voting results sooner than the current practice, however she also pointed out that the Department would be working election day which starts at 5:00AM, and rushing to get the data and apply it after a 15 to 20 hour day may not be the best plan.
Director Arntz stated that he would be comfortable with changing the targeted release of Ranked Choice Voting results and applying the Ranked Choice Voting algorithm at 4:00PM the day after the election (Wednesday).
Commissioner Gleason asked if the Department could also release ballot image reports and data related to Ranked Choice Voting at that same time, 4:00PM the day following the election. Director Arntz agreed this could be done.
Mr. Hill provided his comments on this possible schedule for release of Ranked Choice Voting results and data.
Public Comment: Mr. David Pilpel made comments regarding the discussion of releasing Ranked Choice Voting results and data.
The Committee voted to recommend to the full Commission that the Commission adopt a policy regarding timing of release of Ranked Choice Voting results, data and applied Ranked Choice Voting algorithm before the November 8, 2011 Municipal Election and to use the discussion of what is possible and practical from this meeting as a guide to crafting such a policy.
4. Discussion and possible action regarding Department's Election Plan for the November 8, 2011 Municipal Election.
No items were discussed regarding the Department’s Election Plan.
5. Discussion and possible action to approve the minutes of the February 2, 2011 meeting of the Budget and Oversight of Public Elections Committee.
Vote was take and was unanimous to approved.
Adjourn 7:00