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Election Advisory Committee 2006 Minutes

Lynda Roberts, Registrar of Voters, Elections

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, December 15, 2006, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Registrar of Voters’ Election Advisory Committee was held on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 9:30 a.m. in Room 324A of the Civic Center. Present were: Greg Brockbank, Steve Burdo (Grassroots), Linda Bagneschi Dorrance, Anne Layzer, Jeanne Leoncini, David O’Connor, Sherry Reson, Carlos Sanchez, Cat Woods, Carl Carter, Barbara Gaman, Bob Roberts. Also present were: Tom Pattison and Dagmar _______. Michael Smith, Elaine Ginnold, Colleen Ksanda (polls and poll workers) and Caroline Foster (absentee voting) were present from the Registrar of Voters Office.

Report on November 7, 2006 General Election

Elaine Ginnold gave a report on the November 7, 2006 General Election and then asked for feedback on the election from committee members. See attached report and attached summary of Election Advisory Committee feedback.

New election laws effective 1/1/07

Ms. Ginnold provided committee members with a summary of some of the new election laws that were signed into law by the Governor. These new laws will take effect on January 1, 2007. Many of the new laws affect absentee voting, including the requirement to include absentee ballots in the post election manual tally of precincts. See summary of new election law highlights attached to these minutes.

Election Dates in 2007

There are only two elections scheduled in 2007 so far: March 6, 2007 for parcel taxes in the Ross School District and CSA 29 and November 6, 2007 for City, School and Special District elections. Other election dates are: May 8, 2007 – mail ballot only, June 5, 2007 and August 28, 2007 – mail ballot only. However, as of today, nothing has been scheduled for these last three dates.

Meeting dates in 2007

The committee discussed proposed dates for Meetings in 2007 and decided to hold meetings on the third Friday of each month from January through December with the exception of one meeting to be held in the evening to be determined. There will be no meetings in October and November due to the election. See 2007 meeting schedule attached. Suggestions for the evening meeting (6 to 8 p.m.) include inviting a panel of Local, State and Federal officials to discuss the voting process. Ms. Ginnold will circulate a calendar to committee members to determine the best date for an evening meeting. There will be more discussion of the evening program at the January meeting.

Update on webpage redesign

The committee reviewed and made suggestions for revising the proposed tabs on the new Registrar of Voters’ home page and for adding content. Ms. Ginnold will see if the development site can be made available to committee members. There will be an update on the website changes at the January meeting. Changes suggested are as follows:

  • Put information about how to contact election staff on website.
  • Change the tab “Campaign Resources” to say “Candidate Services.”
  • Add tab for polling place lookup
  • Change tab that says “current election” to “Ballot Information”
  • Change tab that says, “Election Procedures” to “Post Election Audit”
  • Add the word, “Roster” to the tab for Elected Officials.
  • Include procedures on equipment deployment and cha in of custody
  • Include pictures of the election process – i.e. show the bags the ballots and scanner come in, the ballot counting room, receiving center, etc.
  • Put poll worker training materials on website.
  • Include link to Cal Voter.org with its descriptions of political parties and contacts.
  • Remove the sentence, “For more County of Marin Registrar of Voters Information…..” as it is redundant.

Report from Grassroots

Steve Burdo, from Grassroots, gave a report on the activities that his group had undertaken in partnership with the Registrar of Voters for the November election. Grassroots participated in 20 events such as forums and street fair s and festivals during September, October and November that reached over 800 county residents. In addition, over 1500 people in targeted neighborhoods (Marin City, Canal area, and precincts 5211 and 5266 in South Novato) received targeted mailings on the voting process in Spanish and Vietnamese. Materials used for all events included the voter bill of rights and instructions on how to mark the ballot in Spanish and Vietnamese.

Grassroots also conducted exit polls in these precincts on Election Day. The questionnaire included demographic information about the voters in these precincts. Results of the survey will be available by early next year.

Subcommittees

The Voter education and outreach subcommittee meeting is scheduled for Wed., Jan. 10 4:30 p.m. in ROV office. Ms. Ginnold will schedule the meeting of the voting integrity subcommittee with committee members.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. The next meeting will be on Friday, January 19, 2007.