May 18, 2011

MINUTES

Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 4:30 p.m.
City Hall, Room 370
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, California



1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL

The meeting was called to order at 4:54 pm by Voting Systems Task Force Chair Jody Sanford.

Present:
Roger Donaldson
Jody Sanford
James Soper
Ka-Ping Yee
Beth Mazur
Tim Mayer

Absent:
Gregory Miller

2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

By motion of Mr. Soper, seconded by Mr. Yee, the minutes of the April 20, 2011, meeting were approved.

3. PUBLIC COMMENT

Member of the public in attendance: David Cary

4. DISCUSSION OF EDITING PROCESS FOR “DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS ON VOTING SYSTEMS FOR THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO”

Ms. Sanford provided the update that Lisa McFarren, who resides in the Boston area, has been selected to provide editing services to the VSTF as the Task Force prepares its final report, to be released in late June 2011. Ms. McFarren will be paid a small stipend provided for with donations from VSTF members. Ms. McFarren began work with VSTF principal investigators in early May. The bulk of the May 18 meeting was spent reviewing her initial comments and recommendations regarding footnotes and consistency of style (voice) across the various sections of the document. The next round of edits by the VSTF will take a closer look at consistency of document structure.

5. DISCUSSION OF WORKFLOW FOR THE REMAINING MEETINGS

The next round of edits by the VSTF will focus on consistency of the document structure. The June 1 meeting will be devoted to this task with the goal that the document review will be 85% complete by the end of that session. Ideally, the June 15 meeting will be used for final edits, and the VSTF will vote to adopt the final report at that time. If more time is needed, the last session will be held on June 29. The task force formally sunsets at the end of June 2011.

Members also discussed how to deliver the report to the Board of Supervisors and other audiences. It was determined that Ms. Sanford would prepare a brief draft submittal letter for review at the June 1 meeting. After the final document is adopted, the letter and report will be sent to all members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Department of Elections Director John Arntz, the chair of the Elections Commission, Mayor Lee, and the California Secretary of State. The VSTF would request time on the agenda of an upcoming Rules Committee meeting to formally introduce the report to the Board of Supervisors. The VSTF would also prepare a press release that could be used to notify interested elections/voting groups and the general public.

6. NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business.

7. ITEMS FOR NEXT AGENDA

See items 4 and 5.

8. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 6:16 p.m.