2011 Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, December 16, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes - Revised

A meeting of the Election Advisory Committee was he ld on Friday, December 16, 2011 . Present were: Greg Brockbank, Barbara Gaman, Bo nnie Glasser, Marcia Hagen, Mark Kyle, Anne Layzer, Jeanne Leonci ni, Morgan Kelly, Cat Woods. Present from the Registrar of Voters’ Offic e were Elaine Ginnold, Colleen Ksanda and Melvin Briones. Present from the County Administrator’s Office was Clarissa Daniel.

Minutes from September meeting - there were no changes to the minutes from the meeting of September 16.

November 8, 2011 Uniform District Election

Ms. Ginnold distributed a report with statistics on turnout, including vote by mail and provisional voter turnout for the November 8th election. Total turnout for the election was 39.23%. Of the total turnout of 57,520 voters, 40,794 (70.91%) were vote by mail voters and 16,728 (29.08%) voted at the polls (the minutes reflect the corrected percentage of polls voters). 77% of the vote by mail ballots were counted by election night and 23% were counted after the election. There were 1,138 provisional ballots, of which 94% were counted. The turnout for November odd year elections has increased incrementally from 35.01% in 2007; 37.69% in 2009, to 39.23% in 2011.

Committee members discussed whether or not polling places should be eliminated for future elections in light of the low turnout at the polls. While it may be possible to eliminate some polling places for the low-turnout elections, all polling places are necessary for high turnout elections such the November gubernatorial and presidential elections. The current practice of the elections office is to maintain the same polling places in every election to reduce voter confusion about where to vote from election to election. When an existing polling place becomes unavailable, our practice is to see if it is feasible to combine it with another polling place or eliminate it before finding a replacement.

Committee members also discussed different ways to boost voter turnout by expanding voting opportunities, such as early voting as the State of Nevada does. Another example is holding an election on more than one day and using kiosks to enable voters to vote in places other than formal polling places. Most ideas to expand voting opportunities would require changes in California law.

Anne Layzer reported that the League is working on a project to videotape candidate debates and put them on line.

June 5, 2012 Top Two Primary Election

Impact on ballot

Ms. Ginnold distributed a sample of a ballot for the June 5, 2012 Primary Election showing the required instructions, language and description of the candidate’s political party required by the new law. Candidates have the option of including their political party preference or lack of one under their ballot designation. The addition of the extra explanations to voters and the third line for the party designation results in a longer ballot th an in previous elections. The Secretary of State has provided more streamlined la nguage for counties to use which may help keep Marin County’s ballot to one page.

Information for voters

Committee reviewed and made recommendations for revisions to an information page titled, Voting Will be Different in the June 5, 2012 Primary Election. This page has information about changes for the Top Two Primary Election on June 5, 2012 and will be published in the Voter Information Pamphlet.

Party option to hold election

Ms. Ginnold reported that the Secretary of State has advised counties that due to changes in the law, county central committees can now opt for an alternative method to select their members, rather than holding an election. During the last week in December the ROV office will send a letter to the chairs of the central committees of each party asking them if they will be using an alternative method to select their members. Committee members provided the names of the central committee chairs for the Democratic, Republican and Peace and Freedom parties.

Re-precincting for elections in 2012

Every 10 years, the Elections Office makes revisions to precinct boundaries to reflect changes in the jurisdictional boundary lines. This time the ROV office will attempt to align precinct boundaries with census block boundaries to provide a better foundation for analysis over the years.

Highlights of new election laws effective in 2012

Committee members discussed the impact of some of the major election laws that were passed in 2011 (see attached). In particular, AB985, which permits election official to conduct manual tally of vote by mail ballots using a random sample of 1% of the ballots cast rather than a sample of 1% of the precincts. Committee members felt that using the 1% of ballots cast for VBM ballots would be more accurate and a better audit then counting the VBM ballots by precinct.

The schedule for Election Advisory Committee Meetings scheduled in 2012 was distributed at the meeting. (attached)

Committee members requested the following topics for the agenda for the January meeting: Goal setting for 2012-13, candidate filing period information, more information about the Top Two Primary and central committees, and the new party, Americans Elect.

As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:15 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, January 20, 2012.

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, September 16, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Registrar of Voters Election Advis ory Committee was held on Friday, September 16, 2011. Present were: Memb ers present were: Present were: Steve Burdo, Greg Brockbank, Ericka E rickson, Bonnie Glaser, Marcia Hagen, Mark Kyle, Sean Peisert, Anne Layzer, Jeanne Leoncini, Pashia Lord, Bob Richard, and Cat Woods. Also prese nt was Suzanne Brown Crow. Present from the Registrar of Voters’ Office were Melvin Briones, Elaine Ginnold and Colleen Ksanda. Present from th e County Administrator’s Office was Clarissa Daniel.

Ms. Ginnold reported that she had revised the numbers in the minutes of the August 19th meeting under item 1 - Election Issues - to say th at of the 156 candidates who took out nomination papers, 147 filed, 7 did not complete the process, 73 will be on the ballot and the remaining 76 candidates will be appointed. There were no other changes to the minutes and they will be posted on the Elections website, www.marinvotes.org.

1. November 8, 2011 Election

• Election facts - Ms. Ginnold distributed a report about the November 8, 2011 election that showed that there are currently 146,589 voters and 87,187 permanent vote by mail voters. There will be 160 precincts, including 30 vote by mail precincts and 104 polling places. Voter Information Pamphlets will be mailed on Sept. 29 an d Vote by Mail ballots will be mailed on October 11, due to the Columbus Day holiday. The deadline to register to vote is Monday, October 24. The Logic and Accuracy Test will be on Thursday, October 20 at 3: 00 p.m. and the random selection of precincts for the1% manual tally is currently scheduled for Monday, November 21. As some of the dates on the handout were incorrect, Ms. Ginnold sent a revised version to the Committee after the meeting.
• Colleen Ksanda explained that there are 546 Chief, Deputy and Clerk positions for this election and all positions are filled. Assignment letters will go out later this month. She expects 70 to 80 people will cancel after they receive their assignments, which is typical in every election. However, she has approximately 200 back up poll workers she can call on to substitute for those who cancel.
• Voter Information Pamphlet and Sample Ballot - Ms. Ginnold distributed samples of the Voter Information Pamphlet for the election and a report showing the jurisdictions on the ballot for each ballot type. There are 33 different types or styles of ballots for this election and each type has its own Voter Information Pamphlet. The report illustrates how each ballot type has its own unique combination of jurisdictions even if there are only one or two voters living within the area covered.
• Election observation - All election processes are open to public observation.
• Logic and Accuracy Board - The Logic and Accuracy Test will be on Thursday, October 20 at 3:00 p.m. Members of the League of Women Voters and the Grand Jury will be invited to participate.

How order of candidate names and measures on ballot is determined

Candidate name order: The random alphabet determines the order of candidate’s names on the ballot and is drawn by the Secretary of State before for every established election date and for special vacancy elections. Ms. Ginnold distributed the Secretary of State’s memos howing the results of the randomized alphabet drawing for the November 8th election. When two or more names begin with the same letter, the random alphabet is applied to the second letter and so on.

Order of Measures: Ms. Ginnold distributed guidelines for determining the order of measures on the ballots. (on website www.marinvotes.org - how measures get their letters). Committee members discussed the option of using all of the letters of the alphabet sequential ly throughout the year rather than starting over at the beginning of the alphabet with each election. Ms. Ginnold will consider this option.

Brainstorm what “indigent” means for candidates who claim they are indigent and can’t pay for statement in Voter Information Pamphlet.

Committee members had a lively discussion of what constitutes indigency in regards to candidates who claim they are unable to pay for a candidate’s statement in the Voter Information Pamphlet. Committee members asked the Ms. Ginnold to research what other counties do and then determine a standard that is fair and inclusive to discuss at the December meeting. Other suggestions were to get the law changed to allow a per word cost in lieu of a cost based on a full 200 word candidate statement; put reference to the availability of free candidates’ statements in the Smart Voter blurb currently in the Voter Information Pamphlet.

County initiative petition flowchart of timeline and process.

Ms. Ginnold distributed a flowchart of the timeline for county initiative petitions and discussed the difference between initiatives and referenda. Initiatives are initiated by voters who want to change or have a new ordinance. They have 180 days to circulate their petition. A referendum is a petition that is circulated to overturn an ordinance. Circulators have 30 days after passage of a city or county ordinance to gather signatures on a referendum to put the ordinance on the ballot. This flowchart is on the Elections website.

New election laws – additional bills signed into law by Governor since last meeting.

AB80 (CH138) – Changes date of presidential primary from February to June to be consolidated with the statewide direct primary election.

AB754 (CH57) – permits person deployed in military outside of US to file nomination papers through an attorney-in-fact with power of attorney.

AB985 (CH52) – permits election official to conduc t manual tally of vote by mail ballots using a random sample of 1% of the ba llots cast rather than a sample of 1% of the precincts.

SB202 moving all state propositions to the November ballot is on the Governor’s desk. Mark Kyle pointed out that, while the public reason for this proposal is that more voters vote in November even year elections, there is really a political motive behind it.

6. Other business

Committee members suggested the following items for the agenda for the December meeting: more legislative updates, U.S. Po stal Service, language requirements, indigent guidelines, state propositions in circulation for the June ballot, results of reprecinting, June election, impact of the Election Assistance Commission’s best practices publications.

Committee members received a schedule of meetings for 2012. (attached)

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. The next meeting will be on Friday, December 16 at 9:30 in Room 324A of the Civic Center.

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, August 19, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Election Advisory Committee was he ld on Friday, August 19, 2011. Present were: Greg Brockbank, Ericka Ericks on, Barbara Gaman, Marcia Hagen, Anne Layzer, Jeanne Leoncini, Pashia Lord, S ean Peisert, Steve Silberstein, Hoa Long Tam and Cat Woods. Present f rom the Registrar of Voters’ Office were: Melvin Briones, Elaine Ginnold and Colleen Ksanda. Present from the County Administrator’s Office was Clarissa Daniel.

Election issues

• Candidates and measures on ballot for November 8th Election Ms. Ginnold reported that 156 candidates took out nomination papers during the filing period. Of those, 149 filed and 7 did not complete the process. Of the 149 candidates who filed, 73 will be on the ballot. The remaining 76 candidates for open seats in school and special districts will be appointed by the Board of Supervisors because the number of nominees in these districts did not exceed the number of open seats. The Board of Supervisors will make appointments to vacancies in the Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District and the Tomales Community Services District because no one filed for the open seats. Marcia Hagen and Anne Layzer requested that the language on the report of candidates be changed from “not on ballot,” to designate candidates who have not filed to something like: “not yet official” or “not yet certified.”
• Initiative repealing the SMART tax Proponents of the initiative to repeal the SMART tax filed the proof of publication of their Notice of Intention on August 1 and can begin circulating their petitions. The proponents have 180 days to collect enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot. As this is a multi-County district, Sonoma County, with the majority of voters in the district, has agreed to be the lead county for the purpose of receiving the petitions. If the measure makes it to the ballot, the proponents can submit their ballot arguments in each county. Issues still being addressed by county attorneys is the number of signatures needed to qualify the petition for the ballot and the number of votes needed to pass the measure. (Per County Counsel, the measure needs a majority of votes to pass.)

VBM instructions

Ms. Ginnold distributed the printed VBM instructions to committee members. Members pointed out that one of the names used to illustrate how to vote - Ted Robinson, Baseball player - should be changed to either Jackie Robinson, Baseball player, or Ted Robinson, Sportscaster. This will be corrected in the next printing of the instructions.

Report on redistricting hearings and next steps

The Board of Supervisors will hold its final hearing on the new supervisorial district boundary lines on August 23. The new lines will be effective beginning with the 2012 primary election.

At the completion of the state redistricting process, Marin has one each Congressional, Senate and Assembly District. The districts were renumbered to 2 for Congressional and Senate Districts and 10 for the Assembly District. Our current senator is Mark Leno whose term ends in 2012 and who was moved into a new Senate District that does not include Marin. The new District 2 is represented by Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, whose term ends in 2014 and who will “adopt” Marin in the meantime.

3. Impacts of election legislation chaptered for 2 011

• AB 84, Chapter 186 - extends time for new citizens to register and vote from 7 days before an election to 8:00 p.m. Election Day. In response to questions raised by Committee members about the definition of “new citizen” Steve Silberstein sent information to committee members that “new citizen” is defined in the legislation as anyone who became a citizen between the close of registration through election day.
• AB 193, Chapter 137 - prohibits a single family residence from being used as a polling place if a registered sex offender lives there. Requires the election official to check before designating the residence as a polling place. Colleen Ksanda reported that Marin uses only one private residence and will check to make sure that no registered sex offenders live there. Ms. Ksanda also reported that she checks the Megan’s List Website against the list of poll workers before every election.
• AB 413, Chapter 187 authorizes vote by mail pilot program in Yolo County. Ms. Ginnold explained this pilot is only for non-statewide elections. Furthermore, there are already 3 vote by mail election dates every year for all counties without the requirements for ballot drop-off sites and data collection.
• AB 461, Chapter 189 - allows a write-in vote to be counted during a manual recount if voter’s intent is clear even if voter has not followed voting instructions. Ms. Ginnold explained that under the old law, the voting instructions did not permit a write in vote to be counted if the voter did not fill in the bubble next to the name on the write-in line on an optical scan ballot.
• AB 503, Chapter 190 - Qualified write-in candidate can request manual tally of undervotes within 5 days of completion of semi-official canvass if total undervotes plus number of votes cast for the write-in candidate is equal to or greater than the number of votes cast for the candidate with the most votes for the office.
• AB 1343, Chapter 191 - Can remove permanent VBM voters from file (and send them a new application) if they have not returned their ballots after 4 consecutive statewide general elections instead of only two.
• AB1357, Chapter 192 - Permits county election offices to post voter registration form on line provided it is posted on or before Jan. 1, 2012. Marin plans to post the form before the first of the year.
• AB459 - “National Popular Vote,” adds California to the list of states that agree to elect the President by a national popular vote instead of by electoral votes if certain conditions are met. Steve Silberstein commented that presidential campaigns now only occur in the battleground states such as Ohio and Florida and, while candidates raise money here, they don’t campaign in California because the result of electoral votes is already known. However, if the president is elected by all voters, it will make a difference whether a candidate wins by a lot and the candidates will then campaign in all states. California is the 9th state to enter into the pact to elect the President by national popular vote and that 10 more states are needed to agree.

Other Business

• Pashia Lord reported on a Conference that St. Vincent’s is conducting with Dominican University’s Social Justice Program. The goal of this collaboration is to assist St. Vincent’s in its efforts to reduce homelessness and to make students aware of issues confronting low income and disadvantaged residents. Students will be asked to volunteer to work at the polls and register voters as part of their studies.
• Sean Peisert reported on a project that UC Davis is working on with University of Massachusetts and which is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The purpose of the project is to study and map common election processes in different counties in order to develop standardized models of more robust processes for counties to follow.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:15 a.m. The next meeting will be on Friday, September 16, 2011 at 9:30 a.m.

Rev. 9/16/2011

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, July 15, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Registrar of Voters Election Advis ory Committee was held on Friday, July 15, 2011. Present were: Greg Brockbank, Suzanne Brown Crow, Barbara Gaman, Bonnie Glaser, Marcia Hagen, Anne Layzer,Jeanne Leoncini, Pashia Lord, Sean Peisert, Bob Richard, and Eva Waskell for Linda Bagneschi Dorrance. Present from the Registrar of Voters’ Office were Elaine Ginnold and Colleen Ksanda. Present from the County Administrator’s Office was Clarissa Daniel.

Redistricting – Supervisorial Districts in Marin – (Clarissa Daniel).

Clarissa Daniel explained that after every decennial census, the population of the supervisorial districts must be rebalanced so that each district has equal population. In Marin County, the majority of the changes will occur in the Novato area since that is the area of the county that grew the most in population during the past ten years. Ms. Daniel presented two different scenarios for the five supervisorial districts and distributed copies of the Board letter that will be on the Board agenda for the pubic hearing on redistricting scheduled for July 26 at 1:30 p.m. After the public hearing, the County Administrator’s Office will schedule consideration of an ordinance which codifies the new supervisorial district boundaries.

Election issues

• Nominations period for November 8, 2011 Election begins July 18 and ends on August 12, with extension to Aug. 17 (for non incumbents) in offices in which the incumbent has not filed. Anne Layzer asked that a simple report showing each candidate’s filing status be posted on the website.
• Suspension of election mandates in Governor’s 2011-12 budget
  Ms. Ginnold explained that payments for the following mandates were eliminated in the governor’s 2011-12 budget:
  1. Handicapped Voter Access Information Act
  2. Fifteen-Day Close of Voter Registration
  3. Permanent Absent Voters
  4. Absentee Ballots
  5. Brendon Maguire Act (death of candidate)
  6. Voter Registration Procedures
  However, according to Ms. Ginnold, the elimination of these mandates will have no practical effect since some are now mandated by Federal Law and the state has not provided reimbursement for them for many years. The Elections Office plans to continue providing the mandated services because eliminating them would disrupt the election process and be confusing to voters.

Review communications to voters:

Committee members reviewed changes to the Instructions to Vote by Mail Voters and the Provisional Ballot Envelope and recommended changes to make the language clearer.

Election legislation proposed for 2011

• AB 193 – Current law allows using a single family residence as a polling place regardless of who lives there. This proposal would prohibit a single family residence from being used as a polling place if a registered sex offender lives there. It requires the election official to check before designating the single family residence as a polling place.
• AB 461 – Current law does not permit election official to count a write in vote if the voter has written the candidate’s name on the ballot but has not followed the instructions to mark the bubble next to the name. This proposal would allow a write-in vote to be counted in the event of a recount if voter’s intent is clear even if voter has not followed voting instructions.
• AB 477 – Current law requires all ballots to be received by the election office or at polls by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. This law would allow ballots from military and overseas voters to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received by 10 days after Election Day.
• SB183 – Current law requires election officials to reject ballots with personal information on them. This law would require ballots with personal information on them to be duplicated in the same way as a defective ballot.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. The next meeting will be at 9:30 a.m. on August 19, 2011.

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, May 20, 2010, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Election Advisory Committee was held on Friday, May 20, 2011. Present were: Greg Brockbank, Suzanne Brown Crow, Barbara Gaman, Marcia Hagen, Mark Kyle, Jeanne Leoncini, Pashia Lord, Sean Peisert, Susan Raeder for Anne Layzer, Steve Silberstein, and Eva Waskell for Linda Bagneschi Dorrance. Present from the Registrar of Voters’ Office were Elaine Ginnold, Colleen Ksanda, Dan Miller, and Tony Aquilino. Present from the County Administrator’s Office was Clarissa Daniel. Also present was Jennie Bretschneider from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Dixie School District Election of May 3, 2011

Ms. Ginnold reported that the May 3, 2011 Dixie School District Special Vote by Mail Election had a high turnout of 55.89%. The measure passed with 80% of the voters voting yes on the parcel tax measure. The Committee discussed the reasons for rejection of returned ballots. Steve Silberstein suggested that the department contact voters whose signatures on their VBM ballots don’t match the signatures on their voter registration to ask them if something happened to cause their signature to change. (See report attached).

Over 100 ballots were dropped off at the Election Day drop off site at the Marinwood Community Center. The department prepared fliers announcing the drop off site and also sent press releases to the Marin IJ, the Patch, and the Marinscope paper for San Rafael during the week before the election.

November 8, 2011 Election

Ms. Ginnold distributed a list of the districts with seats up for election in November. Greg Brockbank asked that a correction be made to show that the City of San Rafael has 2 Councilmember seats up for election.

Candidate filing report for website

Ms. Ginnold reported that the department plans to have a more streamlined report of candidates who have taken out and filed papers to post to the website for the November election. The report will allow for candidates’ addresses to be redacted automatically so that the information can be posted daily.

Demonstration of Netfile

Dan Miller and Tony Aquilino demonstrated the department’s new web-based financial reporting program for candidates and campaigns. The program allows candidates to file their fund raising and campaign expenditures electronically and provides a searchable database for the public. Dan Miller reported that he will let all of the candidates and campaign treasurers know that they can file electronically. Reports submitted on paper will be scanned and posted.

Poll worker newsletter for 2011

Colleen Ksanda distributed the 5th edition of the poll worker newsletter, Marin Votes which will be mailed in August to approximately 4000 poll workers along with the recruitment letters for the November 8, 2011 election. The newsletter has articles about redistricting, turnout for the November 2, 2010 election, a memorial for Supervisor McGlashan, and a thank you from Colleen.

Post-election risk limiting audit presentation.

Jennie Bretschneider, Assistant Chief Secretary of State, spoke to the Committee about the Secretary of State’s efforts to improve post-election auditing and about her work with the Secretary of State’s 2007 Audit Working Group and the pilot audits permitted in 2011-12 under AB2023.

In 2007 the SOS created a working group of representatives from elections, the private and nonprofit sectors, and academia to study and make recommendations on a post-election audit process for California elections that would be more efficient and robust than the current one per cent manual tally. Philip Stark, statistics professor from UC Berkeley, was on the committee and has developed a statistical model for post-election audits which he calls, “risk limiting audits”.

Risk limiting audits measure the risk that the outcome of an election could be wrong. If errors are found in the random selection of audit units during the hand count, additional ballots are counted until there is a high level of confidence that a full recount would not change the outcome of the election.

In 2010, the legislature passed AB 2023, which authorized a pilot project for at least 5 counties to participate in risk limiting audits after elections held in 2011 and 2012. The Secretary of State’s Office coordinates the projects which are conducted by the counties under the direction of lead researcher, Professor Stark. To date, 20 counties have signed up to participate. The Secretary of State has received a $230,000 grant from the Federal Election Assistance Commission to cover some of the costs of conducting these audits.

Ms. Bretschneider reported that there have been two pilot risk limiting audits so far. The first one was held in Orange County after a special election with 17,823 voters. In that audit, 467 ballots were randomly selected and hand counted to a confidence level of 90%. There were no errors in the sample. The second was held in Monterey County after the May 3, 2011 election with a total of 2011 ballots cast for a measure that won by a large margin. For that audit, Professor Stark created an audit model, the “ballot poll audit”, specifically for elections with large margins. The county used a Bates stamp to stamp numbers on all of the ballots. Then, a random sample of 92 ballots was hand counted. This audit was unique in that it didn’t depend on precinct or batch results.

Eva Waskell observed the audit in Monterey County and will e-mail a link to the report on the Monterey audit to committee members.

Election legislation proposed for 2011 - sample of bills still active

• AB 193 – prohibits single family residence from being used as a polling place if a registered sex offender lives there.
• AB 461 – Allows counting of write-in votes on a ballot if voter’s intent is clear even if voter has not followed voting instructions. Would allow write-in votes to be counted on Marin’s system if the voter writes in the name of the write-in candidate but doesn’t fill in the bubble next to the name.
• AB 477 – Ballots from military and overseas voters can be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received by 10 days after Election Day. The concern with this bill is that much mail is not postmarked and the postmark is often unreadable. Therefore, even if the ballot came in within the 10 days, it still would not be counted.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. The next meeting will be on Friday, July 15, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 324A of the Civic Center.

Marin County Registrar of Voters Vote by Mail and Provisional Ballot Report, May 3, 2011 Dixie School District Special Vote by Mail Election

Turnout

# Reg. Voters	Total Turnout	% Turnout
13,073	7,307	55.89%

Turnout

#VBM Issued	# Returned	% Returned	# Counted	% Counted	Difference VBM Ret-Count
13,073	7,491	57.30%	7,307	97.54%	184 (02.45%)

Reasons for Challenges of VMB Ballots

VBM Challenged	No Signature	Sig No Match	Too Late	Other
184	24 (13.04%)	82 (44.57%)	68 (36.96%)	10 (05.43%)

Ballots Counted on Election Night and Post-Election Night

Election Night	Post-Election
7,247 (99.17%)	60 (00.83%)

Rev. 5/19/2011

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, April 15, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Election Advisory Committee was held on Friday, April 15, 2011. Members present were: Present were: Steve Burdo, Greg Brockbank, Suzanne Brown Crow, Marcia Hagen, Mark Kyle, Anne Layzer, Sean Peisert, Jeanne Leoncini, Bob Richard, Eva Waskell for Linda Bagneschi Dorrance. Present from the Registrar of Voters’ Office were Elaine Ginnold and Colleen Ksanda.

Elections Department updates

• Dixie School District Election
  Ms. Ginnold reported that there is a 30% turnout for the Dixie School District Election to date. The department plans to establish a ballot drop off site at the Marinwood Community Center on Election Day, May 3, and asked Committee members for suggestions on the wording of a flier announcing the site that will be distributed to the schools in the district. Committee members made suggestions for changes to the flier and also suggested that a press release announcing the site be sent to the “In Your Town” section of the Marin IJ, the Marinscope, the Pacific Sun and to the Patch, in addition to sending a press release to the IJ.
• November 8, 2011 Election (possible statewide).
  Committee members looked at the department’s Candidates’ Manual that has been prepared for candidates running in the November 8, 2011 general district election. They suggested that, in the future, there be a one page overview for candidates with bullet points about the key forms and deadlines. On the website, this overview can have links to the forms. They also suggested holding workshops for candidates and/or setting up appointments with individual candidates to walk them through the filing process. Further, a suggestion was made to use bold-faced type for the current legal disclaimer.
• Candidate financial filing program
  Ms. Ginnold reported that the department was going to implement a new candidate filing program that would allow candidates to fill out and file their financial reports on line and would have advanced search features to allow the public to search for information on expenditures and contributions across all electronic filings. Eventually, the archive of filings would be expanded to go back farther than the current 7 years.

Budget - software licensing and equipment maintenance costs

Ms. Ginnold explained the various software licensing and maintenance costs for maintaining the election management and vote counting systems. (See attachment)

Risk limiting audit

The Secretary of State is planning to do a ballot level risk limiting audit in Monterey County after the May 3 election and another in Marin after the November 8 election.

Jennie Breitschneider, Assistant Chief Deputy Secretary of State, will be at the May meeting to discuss the risk limiting audit pilot project.

Voter registration statistics

Ms. Ginnold distributed and explained the following reports from the election management system’s database (DFM)

• Registration activity from 1/1/2011 to present – this report shows the number of new, updated, inactive and cancelled voter registration records from the DMV and the social service agencies that the National Voter Registration Act requires election departments to track and report to the Secretary of State. The report shows that during this period of time, the department added 1,095 registrations and updated 2,260. Most of the new registrations came from the DMV and the rest from other sources.
• Vote by mail voter’s registration status – this report shows the number of vote by mail voters by party and status (active, inactive, cancelled, pending). The report shows that Marin has 87,354 active permanent vote by mail voters.
• Active voters by age range and party – this report shows that 28% of Marin voters are over the age of 65, 44% are between the ages of 45-64, and 28% are under the age of 35. In addition, 55% of Marin voters are registered as Democratic, 19% as Republican, 22% have no party preference, and 4% are in other parties.

Also distributed at the meeting were the new voter registration forms that have been revised to show “no party preference” instead of “decline to state for” voters who do not choose a political party when they register to vote, and a Secretary of State memo from 4/11/2011 with the list of parties attempting to qualify for the ballot in California.

State redistricting commission hearing schedule

The State redistricting commission will be conducting hearings to get input from communities on where the new boundary lines should be drawn. The hearing for District 8, which includes Marin County, is scheduled on May 20, from 6 to 9 p.m. in Santa Rosa. The hearing schedule is available on the commission’s website, www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov

On April 10, The Marin IJ published two editorials regarding the potential impact of redistricting on Marin County.

Election legislation proposed for 2011 (new or amended since last meeting)

• SB 109 - Allows counties with populations less than 400,000 to conduct special vacancy elections by all mail ballot. Amended March 14 to add special elections called by the Governor to bill.
• SB 183 – requires duplication of ballot that has identifying marks. This bill lists the identifying marks as signature, name or initials of voter, voter ID number, social security number or driver’s license number.

Other business

Committee requested that information about the security of the vault and other areas where ballots and voting equipment are stored be added to a future agenda.

There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. The next meeting will be on Friday, May 20th at 9:30 a.m.

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, March 18, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Election Advisory Committee was held on Friday, March 18, 2011. Members present were: Present were: Steve Burdo, Greg Brockbank, Suzanne Crow, Barbara Gaman, Marcia Hagen, Anne Layzer, Sean Peisert, Jeanne Leoncini, Pashia Lord, Bob Richard, Eva Waskell for Linda Bagneschi Dorrance. Present from the Registrar of Voters’ Office were Elaine Ginnold and Melvin Briones.

Proposed June statewide special election

The Governor has not yet called for a special election. Two bills (AB107 and SB83) have been introduced and call for a special election for June 7 for tax measures. Initiatives that have qualified would also be on this ballot. The Secretary of State has voiced concerns to both the Governor and the Legislature about the shorter than normal lead times for county election officials to prepare for a statewide election.

Paperless sample ballot

A new law allows voters to opt to receive their sample ballot on line and opt out of getting it on line if they decide they would rather have the paper version. The ROV office is looking at ways to implement this law (which is optional for counties) and asked committee members for input.

Committee members made suggestions on how a program could be set up to manage the distribution of electronic sample ballots. One suggestion was to set up an FTP site with the sample ballots on our webpage and direct voters to our website. Another suggestion was to set up twitter and Facebook to communicate with voters that use these social networks to direct them to the on-line sample ballot. A third suggestion was to see if Smart Voter could be used.

Members then reviewed and suggested changes to draft language that could be printed in the sample ballot letting voters know about the program and how to get their voter information on line. The ROV office will determine whether or not to implement this new law once more is known about its cost and ease of implementation.

Humboldt transparency project

Ms. Ginnold explained that the Humboldt Transparency Project originated in Humboldt County in 2008. After every election, the ballots are scanned with an off-the-shelf digital scanner using open source software and then are posted on the internet. This program allows voters to see the ballots and count them independently.

Ms. Ginnold explained that she is reluctant to use such a program because there is nothing in either law or regulation that provides guidelines for this type of post-election process. On the other hand, the law is clear that ballots must be sealed after an election and only opened by the election official as part of the canvass or in the event of a recount.

Ms. Ginnold reported that Marin County plans to focus its attention on risk limiting audits and plans to participate in a pilot program after elections held in 2011. This program has enabling legislation that was passed last year and the research will be conducted by UC Berkeley statistics professor Philip Stark and the Secretary of State. Ms. Ginnold stated that this program could lead to a more rigorous audit requirement than the current one percent manual tally. She suggested that counties might be more willing to try the Humboldt project if there was enabling legislation that provided guidelines for a pilot project; however, for counties that are larger and have a higher turnout than Humboldt, rescanning all of the voted ballots requires a significant investment of time and personnel.

Eva Waskell reported that the voters in Humboldt County liked the program and now have much more confidence in the election results. One of the factors of its acceptance in Humboldt is that when it was used in 2008, it revealed a flaw in the vote count program that the county was not aware of. The Registrar was open about acknowledging it and has used the program ever since. The Secretary of State conducted an investigation and wrote a report about it. The events in Humboldt County led to the passage of a new law that requires voting system vendors to report flaws and malfunctions to the Secretary of State, who then reports them to the Election Assistance Commission.

Ms. Waskell suggested that Mitch Trachtenberg, the creator of the program used to recount the ballots in Humboldt, be invited to give a demonstration of his program to the Election Advisory Committee. After discussion, Bob Richard volunteered to read the written material about the program and bring questions about it back to the committee which would then decide if they would be interested in seeing a demonstration of the project.

Election legislation proposed for 2011

The Committee discussed the following election related bills that that have been introduced in the current session of the Legislature:

SB 109 - Allows counties with populations of less than 400,000 to conduct special vacancy elections and special statewide elections by all mail ballots. This would apply to Marin County and would be for special elections called by the Board of Supervisors and for a special election called by the Governor.

SB 348 – Allows counties to count VBM ballots postmarked and received within 6 business days after election (AB447, AB896 and SB802 similar). Ms. Ginnold reported that most of the VBM ballots that are too late to count come in within the first few days after the election. Committee members discussed the question of whether an extension of the deadline would give voters a false sense of security by assuming that if they put their ballot in a mailbox on Election Day, it would be postmarked and received by the deadline.

SB 304 – VBM pilot and study for San Diego County – this bill is only for San Diego County. Provides for drop-off sites in each supervisory district in VBM elections beginning 2 weeks before election day and until 8:00 p.m. on election day. Provides for pre-paid postage for ballot return envelope.

AB 413 – VBM pilot and study for Yolo County. Requires one site per city to be open during business hours beginning 28 days before an election to receive ballots and one voting site per city where voters can request a ballot on election day if they have not received one in the mail. Provides for pre-paid postage for ballot return envelope.

AB 867 allows voter to authorize any person (with some exceptions like candidates and campaigns) to receive or return VBM ballot.

AB 663, AB 945 and SB 802 – requires ID at polls. These bills are unlikely to pass given the current composition of the Legislature.

AB 1357 – allows counties to have on-line voter registration without waiting for CalVoter to be in place. (SB397 includes getting signatures from DMV). These bills are most likely a response to the delay in implementation of the statewide database, CalVoter, which is currently a pre-condition for on-line voter registration.

Other business

Agenda items suggested for the next meeting include the budget, redistricting and the risk limiting audit.

Eva Waskell asked about the costs of maintenance of voting equipment listed in the budget. Ms. Ginnold explained that these costs included the software maintenance for the Election Information Management system, the GEMS ballot counting system and the Accuvote and Automark hardware maintenance. Bob Richard suggested that the term used to describe this item on the budget spreadsheet be changed to cover licensing, software and hardware maintenance.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:25 a.m. The next meeting will be on Friday, April 15, 2011 at 9:30 a.m.

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, February 18, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Election Advisory Committee was held on Friday, February 18, 2011. Members present were: Present were: Steve Burdo, Greg Brockbank, Barbara Gaman, Morgan Kelly, Anne Layzer, Sean Peisert, Jeanne Leoncini, Bob Richard, Eva Waskell for Linda Bagneschi Dorrance. Present from the Registrar of Voters’ Office were Elaine Ginnold and Colleen Ksanda. Present from the County Administrator’s Office was Clarissa Daniel.

Changes to minutes of Jan. 21, 2011 meeting.

Eva Waskell asked that the words, “by advocates” be changed to “an advocate,” in the first bullet point under the goal for Election Integrity and Voter Confidence on page 3 of the minutes. There being no objection, the minutes will be corrected and posted to the ROV website.

Dixie School District Vote by mail election, May 3, 2011

Committee members reviewed the cover, voting instructions and reminder page of the Voter Information Pamphlet and made several helpful suggestions to clarify the language. Ms. Ginnold will make the changes and give them to the printer. The Voter Information Pamphlet will be mailed together with the Official Ballot to voters in this election. The packet mailed to voters will have a Business Reply Envelope for voters to return their ballots. The Dixie School District has 13,500 voters. The Registrar’s Office is trying to keep costs as low as possible for the school district for this election.

Brainstorm - use of street index at polls & hours for poll workers

Street Index

Colleen Ksanda explained the use of the Street Index at the polls and distributed indexes from a past election. The Street Index is used by campaigns to get out the vote. The law requires poll workers to update the street index every hour between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., which they are doing with a different colored pencil every hour. Members of the Committee agreed that while the street index is useful for campaigns, there may be ways to make it easier and faster for poll workers to update and made the following suggestions:

• Look for ways to automate the process.
• Provide the Roster and Index with the names of VBM voters who have already returned their ballots already crossed off.

Ms. Ginnold to follow up on these suggestions and report back to the Committee.

Poll Worker Hours:

Ms. Ksanda explained that the hours at the polls are from 6:30 a.m. to when the closing duties have been completed, approximately 9:30 p.m. Currently, split shifts are offered only to clerks who are close relatives and only one person is paid for the day.

The committee discussed opening up the options for poll workers to split a shift, where the Elections Office would offer split shifts in the recruitment mailing to poll workers and match up those who respond that they want to work limited hours. Ms. Ksanda pointed out the potential drawbacks which are that it could double the recruiting workload and cause problems on Election Day if one of the clerks splitting a shift did not show up.

Bob Richard asked for an analysis of what it would cost to offer split shifts to all of the clerks and for an estimate of how many more people would apply if their time commitment was only 7 hours instead of 14 or 15 hours.

Other suggestions included:

• Giving poll workers longer breaks (current breaks are 2 hours)
• Hire more new workers to give them experience and thereby create a bigger pool of experienced workers to draw from.
• Increase poll worker pay

Discussion of Humboldt Transparency Project

At the suggestion of Eva Waskell, the Committee agreed to postpone a discussion of the Humboldt Transparency Project until the March meeting when more members may attend.

Registrar of Voters’ proposed budget for FY2011-12

Elaine Ginnold distributed the Registrar of Voters’ proposed budget for 2011- 12, described each line item, and answered questions from Committee members about different aspects of the budget. The total budget for personnel, supplies and services expenses for two county wide elections is $2,982,704. Revenue is anticipated at $910,000, with a Net County Cost of $2,072,704. The budget is a draft only and does not include the changes to be made as a result of the budget cuts.

Other business

• Ms. Waskell asked that Tony Aquilino be thanked for posting all of the Election Advisory Committee minutes on the website.
• Revised redistricting schedule. Ms. Ginnold distributed a revised redistricting schedule for 2011 that includes the dates of the Board hearings. She asked members to add a July 18th Election Advisory Committee meeting to their calendars in order to review the proposed redistricting plan that will go to the Board in August.
• Committee suggested putting pictures of staff on website and/or staff name plaques on each desk or on wall inside office so that faces could be matched with names and their responsibilities in the office.

There being no further business, the Committee adjourned at 11:30 a.m. The next meeting will be on Friday, March 18th at 9:30 a.m.

Registrar of Voters
Election Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, January 21, 2011, 9:30 a.m.
Room 324A, Marin Civic Center

Minutes

A meeting of the Election Advisory Committee was held on Friday, January 21, 2011. Members present were: Present were: Esther Beirne, Steve Burdo, Greg Brockbank, Barbara Gaman, Bonnie Glaser, Marcia Hagen, Mark Kyle, Sean Peisert, Jeanne Leoncini, Bob Richard, Eva Waskell for Linda Bagneschi Dorrance, and Cat Woods. Present from the Registrar of Voters’ Office were Melvin Briones, Elaine Ginnold and Colleen Ksanda. Present from the County Administrator’s Office was Clarissa Daniel.

Annual Report to Election Advisory Committee

Ms. Ginnold distributed the Annual Report for 2009-2010 and reviewed the sections of the report showing goals, objectives, action taken and impact. Following the goals section were reports of registration and turnout for the different types of November elections held in Marin County from 1996 to 2010. The reports show that as the percentage of vote by mail voters has increased, turnout has also increased in each type of election (Presidential, Gubernatorial, and General District elections). An additional report showed that Marin County was among the top 5 counties in California with the highest percent of registered to eligible voters and the highest percent of turnout for the November 2, 2010 General Election.

Committee requested additional information about registration and turnout in Orange County, which had a high percent of registered to eligible voters but a low turnout percent for the November 2010 General Election. Ms. Ginnold to find out more about voter participation in Orange County and bring the information to a future Committee meeting.

Committee discussed the availability of race and income data to correlate with registration and turnout data. This should be available when the new census data is released on April 1. Bonnie Glaser pointed out that the statewide database at UC Berkeley merges voter registration and turnout data with census data. The Registrar of Voters is planning to align precinct boundaries with census block boundaries which should provide a more accurate foundation for precinct level data analysis of voter participation.

The Committee discussed “ecological inference” with statistical data, which means, for example, that just because the data shows that a Hispanic precinct has low turnout doesn’t mean that Hispanics are not turning out. However, it is better to have the some information than none at all.

Election Advisory Committee Goal Setting for 2011

Committee members suggested the following goals and objectives for the 2011:

Voter outreach and education

Goal: Identify and eliminate barriers to registration and voting in Marin County to maintain Marin’s current high level of voter participation.

Objectives:

• Continue to identify precincts of the county with below average participation and conduct voter outreach and education campaigns in those precincts.
• Work with community based facilities such as health clinics to reach low income and minority voters
• Educate voters and poll workers on the vote by mail (VBM) process, especially that all VBM ballots are counted.
• Educate voters about the requirement to bring in their VBM ballot and envelope if they decide to vote at the polls.

Poll worker recruiting and training:

Goal: Implement poll worker recruiting methods that maintain current high level of poll worker participation. Continually review and update poll worker training methods and materials.

• Implement methods to make sure that poll workers assigned to each task have the ability and training to carry out the task successfully – for example: poll worker stationed at the Roster should be able to hear the voters. Poll worker assigned as greeter at polling places with multiple precincts should know how to use the street guides to direct voters to the correct precinct table. All poll workers should understand the VBM process and know that all VBM ballots are counted.
• Stress importance of provisional ballots to both voters and poll workers and suggest how to organize the polling place to process provisional voters efficiently and without interfering with the other activities taking place at the official table.

Consider on-line training for poll workers, especially for clerks Committee asked for time at the next meeting to continue brainstorming about reducing hours for poll workers and the use of the street index. The Street Index is not used much, but requires a large effort to maintain throughout the day.

Communication:

Goal: continue to review and update the website to improve services to the public.

• Explore options to provide a searchable database of candidate financial filing information
• Revise report on who has filed for office before an election. Current report is very cumbersome to use. (Check out how SF and Alameda County provide candidate information on their websites where public can select election and race and candidates come up)
• Provide searchable database for sample ballot and voter information pamphlet.
• Provide link to city websites to enable on line look-up of who has filed for office in the cities.

Election Integrity and Voter Confidence:

Goal: Identify methods and practices that enhance the integrity of the voting process and increase voter confidence.

• There was discussion about inaccurate statements made about the Registrar of Voters’ office by advocates of the Humboldt Transparency Project in Marin before the November election. Cat Woods will work with Mark Kyle and Eva Waskell to draft a letter to address this issue. They will get ROV feedback and then bring the letter to the full committee at the February meeting for review.
• Promote the Annual Report and work of the Election Advisory Committee and the Registrar of Voters’ Office via website and news media.

Redistricting timetable and process

Ms. Ginnold distributed a general timeline for redistricting in the County. Bonnie Glaser gave a presentation on reapportionment and redistricting which will take place in 2011 in time for the 2012 statewide elections.

• Reapportionment is rebalancing the populations for congressional districts and knowing how many of these each state will have. There was no change in congressional seats in California in this census. California has 53 congressional districts, 40 state senate districts, 80 assembly districts, 4 Board of equalization districts. Each county has 5 supervisorial districts.
• Redistricting is when the boundaries of the districts are redrawn to balance the population within them as equally as possible. The census data with voting age, income, race and ethnicity will be available April 1, 2011.
• The CA Redistricting Commission will use the April 1 information to redraw the boundary lines for the congressional, state senate, assembly, and board of equalization districts by August 15, 2011.
• The County will be rebalancing its supervisory districts and scheduling hearings. The projected time frame for holding final hearing and adopting new supervisorial boundaries is August-September 2011.

Discussion of Humboldt Transparency Project

As there was no time for discussion of this issue, it will be postponed to the next meeting.

Other business

Marcia Hagan announced a meeting, California Crack-up, with speaker Mark Paul to be held on Feb. 13 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Dominican University. Eva Waskell asked that all of the minutes from past meetings be posted on the ROV website. Ms. Ginnold asked Eva to let Tony Aquilino know which minutes are missing.

The Committee requested another copy of the meeting schedule for 2011. Ms. Ginnold to send schedule with the minutes and post on the website. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m. The next meeting will be held on Friday, February 18, 2011.