Elections Commission Regular Meeting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaeaxzgjQ3E

 

welcome everyone to the August 21st 2024

regular meeting of the San Francisco elections commission I am the President Robin stone stone uh the time is now

6:03 pm. and I call the meeting to order before we pre proceed further I would

like to ask commission secretary Marisa Davis to briefly explain some procedures for participating in today's meeting

after

okay can you can you hear me yes okay

um thank you president Stone the minutes of this meeting will reflect that this

meeting is being held in person at City Hall Room 408 1 Dr Carlton B goodlet

Place San Francisco California 94102 and remotely via WebEx as

authorized by the election commission's February 15 2023 vote members of the

public May attend the meeting to observe and provide public comment either at the physical meeting location or remotely

details and instructions for participating remote Ely are listed on the commission's website and on today's

meeting agenda public comment will be available on each item on this agenda

each member of the public will be allowed three minutes to speak six minutes if you are on the line with an

interpreter when providing public comment you are encouraged to state your name clearly once your three minutes

have expired staff will thank you and you will be muted please direct your comments to the entire commission and

not to a specific commissioner when joining by phone you will hear a beep when you are connected to the

meeting you will be automatically muted and in listening mode only to make a

public comment dial Star three to raise your hand when your item of Interest

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please wait until the host calls on you the line will be silent as you wait your turn to speak if at any time you change

your mind and wish to withdraw yourself from the public comment line press three again you will hear the system say you

have lowered your hand when joining by WebEx or a web browser make sure the

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hand press the hand icon to raise your hand you will be unmuted when it is time

for you to comment when you are done with your comment click the hand icon again and to lower your hand in addition

to participating in real time interested persons are encouraged to participate in this meeting by submitting public

comment in writing by 12: pm on the day of the meeting to elections. commmission

sfgov.org it will be shared with the commission after this meeting has concluded and will be included as part

of the official meeting file thank you president Stone

thank you secretary V Davis will you please proceed with item one commission roll call President Stone present vice

president Parker here commissioner bernh holes here commissioner Dy here

commissioner loli here commissioner Wong here thank you you have all participants

attending thank you um secretary Davis

okay uh the San Francisco elections commission acknowledges that we are on the unseated ancestral homeland of the

ritus alone who are the original inhabitants of the San San Francisco Peninsula as the indigenous stewards of

this land and in accordance with their Traditions the RIT to Shalon have never seated lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as caretakers of this

place as well as for All Peoples who reside in their traditional territory as guests we recognize that we benefit from

living and working on their traditional Homeland we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the rsh community and

affirming their Sovereign rights as first peoples that closes agenda item number one we'll move to agenda item

number two general public comment public comment on any issue within the elections commission's General

jurisdiction that is not covered by another item on this

agenda um I have a call

in can everyone hear yeah hold on just a moment I want to set my timer and then

you can begin your

comment

timer did you start it yes go ahead and

start hello Commissioners for the record my name is Christ donik I served on the elections commission for 10 years until

this past February and I'm now speaking as a member of the public I hope all of you are doing well I wanted to make a

comment about an email I sent to all of you yesterday in case you haven't had a chance to read it yet and also so the

public can know you may remember that last fall during our September meeting I showed a

demo of an open source rank Choice seding results report I wrote that supports multiple languages and

accessibility for people with visual impairments it also does things like let the department display the final round

RCV vote totals from the Dominion system directly on the Department's election results summary page alongside the First

Choice totals instead of only the First Choice totals one of the things I mentioned

back then was that the results reporter also opens up the possibility for Tool tips on the pages that means that when

you hover your mouse cursor over certain terms that might be unfamiliar to people like

exhausted Ballot or continuing ballots it would show an explanation of the term

there seemed to be a lot of excitement around that possibility and I told you back then that I would implement it in the future I did recently do that and

the purpose of my email was to let you know my email included some screenshots of what it looks like and also link to

an online demo where anyone can try it out it happens to be the same link as I

used last fall I also sent an email to director erns last Tuesday a week ago to

let him know about the update I don't know where staff is in the process of integrating the reporter into their

system for this November but I also offered him to help in case there's anything I can do between now and the

election to make the integration process easier for them that can include things like making further changes to the code

or just answering questions thank you very much and it's great to hear and see all of you again

at least on a video thank

you hello hello can you hear me yes I can hold on one minut while I

set the timer

should I begin just just one moment yes you may begin okay hello my name is Eric rashan

Eisner I'm a San Francisco voter and I was calling in briefly um about the same topic is um Chris I've seen his demo and

I think it's a great improvement over pretty much any RCV results system I've seen I really think we should uh the

commission should work with um the staff to see that it's implement before the November election I think it would

clarify a lot of confusion points that I've seen about RCV results from people that I know um yeah so I endorse it

thank you for your time thank

you okay me see if there's any other

callers there are no other callers thank you secretary Davis that

closes agenda item number two we will move to agenda item number three approval of previous meeting

minutes discussion and possible action on previous elections commission meeting

minutes commissioner D yes um I had um sent around some minor

Corrections for the last three

um meeting minutes um the only thing that might

be somewhat more substantive most of them were um typos formatting changes

Etc and missing words um was just to clarify director Arn's comments about

um uh the kinds of um election misinformation that the department is

able to respond to which is which is related to election operations uh and he

clarified that the department does not regulate campaign speech I thought that'd be a clear way to State it and

then I just added because I had written down a note that commissioner loli had asked about the racial Equity report and

so I just added a sentence on that um and then other than that I think our

new DCA might have attended our July meeting too is that right

yeah so as as a member of the public oh as a member of the public okay uh and

then that was in the May minutes and then let me just double check and see if there's anything else I should bring to

everyone's attention I think most everything else were just

typos [Music] and uh oh yeah and then the July one I

just added a sentence um that President Stone had mentioned that uh commission secretary Davis's review would be in

October under uh under other agend agenda items for future

meetings thank you commissioner D vice president

Parker um I had a couple of quick minor things um and I didn't I didn't have a

chance to review the Corrections that um commissioner D submitted but um on the May minutes um I wasn't at that meeting

but I did notice a typo in the second sentence of number four under the director's report I I'm not sure what it was supposed to say but um I think there

was a typo there um and in the July minutes um to my recollection and per my

notes I don't think in the future agenda items I don't think that that was an accurate section because I think the

discussion about um the director's evaluation actually happened in that meeting so it

wouldn't have been an August agenda item so I think it was just an incorrect summary of what uh was hoped for in the

August meeting thank you great

catch on both both Commissioners thank

you is there General consensus that we can adopt and approve the feedback from

vice president Parker and commissioner D great we will incorporate that feedback and

add them to the respective meeting Pages let's move to public

comment there are no hands

raised thank you secretary Davis that closes agenda item number three we'll

move to agenda item number four director report discussion and possible action regarding the August 2024 director's

report I'll hand it to director ARS thank you president Stone so also

attached to the director's report is the memo that I provide to the commission before each election seeking a waiver on

the prohibition of city employees assisting the Department of Elections to conduct the election and uh that has to

be moved to September because there's we need to have a separate agenda item for that I thought I could put that under my director's report and then with that

said also for the September meeting I'll include the alternative security plan

which uh the department must provide to the commission whenever the incumbent sheriff is appears on the ballot then

also I'll provide the election plan uh for the November election in the September uh commission

meeting then uh can I can take questions on the report but uh at this point we'

received all the content for the ballot and for the voter information pamplet and so that's been

uh where a lot of our Focus has been for the past um two weeks or so uh one one

item that the commission has entertained previously is the listing of supporters and opponents on the local ballot

measures so the local ballot measures will include the supporters and

opponents um and there's no need to opt out because we'll go beyond six cards in

fact will uh likely not exceed five cards for the selection so uh which is

really good and the reason we'll have less cards than we than was feared going into the election cycle was just the

number of of local measures was far less than what was uh sort of moving through the process earlier in the year at the

board level um and from there I can kind of take any

questions on my report so thank you director

Arns open the open to commissioners

yes vice president Parker and then commissioner bernh Halls um thanks as always for a really

comprehensive report and for the visibility into what you all are doing to prepare for the election um what it

looks like I think it's really good for the public to see that um just a couple of comments and a question um I was

interested to read about the change in the the um ballot receipts um and I was

just curious is this common you know moving away from the tear off to the the full page is that common excuse me

common in other jurisdictions or was this a department Innovation or just I mean seems great it's giving you more

space it was just curious where that idea came from it's our Innovation I think

wonderful so that good eye actually so where this came from was us trying to

find a way to keep the card count Lower with the extra space given to the

supporters and and opponent on the on the ballots and and one of the one of the items that

takes up space on the ballots are the stubs yeah and so if we could remove at least one of the two stubs then we would

gain that space for content on the ballot uh and this is this is where the

this this card is this extra piece of paper is uh coming into

play and then once we had the extra piece of paper that would be a essentially divide then we thought we could make it a divider so poers gave

out the right car right number of cars to to the voters then also we've got a potential space for advertisement you

know uh so it just it's just all stem from us trying to to react to not going

Beyond six cards to have this extra sheet available to us um well

congratulations that's that's great I'm you know happy to hear all that and I I wondered so thank you for telling us

more about that um I was um glad of course to read about the mailer going

about RCV um that's something that I've been wondering concerned about so I'm glad

there'll be extra communication about that on all those outre out Outreach packets that you'll be sending to

organizations um and another question regarding AB 3184 um what I was I did a little bit of

reading you know some of the Articles and coverage and just going to um member burman's site to try to understand uh

the measure a little bit um what are the implications on the Department's work and resources timelines if this passes

it looks like it's moving that direction but what uh do you know the implications

we have to keep the election open longer probably so we can't certify we always try to certify by Thanksgiving because

once you come out of Thanksgiving it's really hard to focus on an election uh so and then this year too Thanksgiving

is towards the end of the month there's a longer space between election day and in the Thanksgiving holiday than than

previous elections for most elections um so we can't close down we can't certify the election we have to

keep it open uh that means we have to maintain the sheriff's deputies

providing security for the election at the warehouse uh we have to we can't package the election we we

can't archive the material as yet uh we have to make sure that we're able to process ballots that that from any cured

ballots that we receive and uh and then it also extends potentially any time for a recount so if

we were to if we to certify the election let's say on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving then like

the Thursday Wednesday Thursday the following week would be the the deadline to to seek to request a recount now if

we have to go until December third or 4th whatever the date is in that legislation uh we would certify at that

point and then it's December 9th potentially is the last day to request to recount so we could potentially go

into go into Christmas or that Christmas holiday uh for uh the recount season if

if there's a request for recount so it just it just pushes everything back and then it just kind of instead of trying

to use the holidays as a as a as a point to take a an end point to an election to

open up the next process meaning the the the recount requests time which probably

doesn't usually occur which not usually a recount request so instead of being done by the by the mid to the late

November the the election continues and the costs continue so does that then perhaps have

budget implications if saying that okay yeah um okay um and then uh you know I

was thinking about this also um in relation to you know the report after the primary election when the department

does so much to cure the ballots already and so um so this is really extending the timeline but the process you all

already do a lot to cure the ballots um right is there anything else that would change is really just extending the time

for people to be able to submit their signature yeah and I don't think I don't and I think that San

Francisco does probably one of the has one of the highest standards when it comes to curing ballots in the state so

I don't think this legislation will have doesn't really the impact isn't in San Francisco other than the time the

extended time frame um we are also try seeking to I think it might have been my last report I can't remember now where

we can have people cure their ballots using their phones and send it back to us uh so that would even create more

accessibility for carrying ballots if there's a signature related issue on return vote by mail

ballot okay uh thank you um and then uh the

last thing um I wanted to ask you

about um again after the primary election we discussed communication with

the media and other ways to um set and manage expectations for results reporting and making sure they're not

reporting that it's done right like the day after the election um and in following the news you know over recent

weeks my sense is that there could be several local elections that are very very close um perhaps coming in with

dozens of votes different and so um and obviously this Happ this has happened in past elections um and so just has me

thinking that um I know that you're you're doing a lot we've already discussed doing a lot proactively there but it um feels extra important watching

all of that kind of play out around us to really really lean into managing expectations about how long the ballot

um counts will take and when results will be final um and also I'm wondering if um with all of that and and this

being I mean it's a presidential election so turnout will be high again watching I'm thinking probably the

aternal will be really high um in this election is that affecting how you're thinking about temporary staff fires and

making sure that we that you all can process all of the ballots given how high it's likely to be in a turnout yes

to the latter for hiring temporary needed Personnel no to the former so we're not we're not trying we're not

seeking to increase Staffing levels so that

people don't have concerns about the the the time frame to to count ballots uh we

are we will increase the number of Temporaries need Personnel so that we can um accommodate the the volume of

ballots that we will receive so we can move through them in in a timely manner but we're also we can't rush through the

process so just it just takes time to move through everything so we want to make sure that the the public the San

franciscans uh has the the final results in a timely manner but we're not we're

not we're not we're not running scared because people might think it's taking too long to count the ballot you know I

mean it's just we've gone through this before this is not something that's that's new we'll when time comes going

into the cycle we'll have information we'll make pronouncements we'll meet with we'll talk to the Press about the

length of the accounting then as we go through the cycle it'll continue and it'll continue until we uh certify the

election but the main thing is that we have the Staffing to move through through the the processing in in a

timely manner and they we do it effectively you know and it's really it's it's not as much speed as it is to

making sure that everything that can be counted disc counted and we do the process correctly okay thank you and that's all

I had thank you vice president Parker commissioner burnol thank you uh

president Stone hi director AR um a couple of questions um and picking up on

the conversation you were just having can you tell you a little bit more about how people would cure their signatures by

phone so the vendor that provides the remote assessible vote by mail ballot

also has has an application that we can send to voters who have uh who who need

who can cure their ballot have a challenge to their ballot based on a signature related issue and so we can

send instead of someone using the form as a download from our website and

signing it and mailing it back to us or scanning it as a PDF and emailing it back to us they can open the the

signature space on their phone use use a stylus use their finger uh provide a

signature sample and then send that back to us got it thank you um on

the uh first item on your report uh since they pulled the bond

issue does it still appear it's just I I'm trying to figure out if it's 15

local measures minus the bond is it 15 with the bond does this mess up your

alphabet what happened when they pulled this the two days after you set this all up

so it's 15 without the bond uh the bond the regional Bond was uh the the

designation was Regional measure 4 so it's not included in the in the random Alpha that we drew last

week uh and the the measure was

withdrawn within the the time frame allowed under state law so was it was something that and it was wasn't a was

something that was uh communicated to the counties so we weren't we weren't totally surprised

that the that the bond was withdrawn and would and happened in a in a time frame that had really no impact on our

preparations okay okay thank you I just wanted to I was hoping you would say that um going down

to section two item f um I'm just may just be reading this

incorrectly but um or uh is is there

when you say that the a significant increase in email correspondence from such voters is that just a normal

increase because the elections approaching or is it a potentially significant increase

because something else is happening I think uh the safest ground

that I can I can cover is that due to this being a presidential election cycle we're seeing an increase in interest in

voters who are overseas if there's if there's a reason beyond that I I I would I wouldn't Venture there okay so just

that's what I thought and then [Music]

uh uh you talked about the other question and then my other question then has to do with uh the uh comment from uh

former commissioner jonic and the other member of the public uh can you fill us in a little bit on

um if you've if the department has um made any steps toward using the uh

reporter Tool uh and where you are in terms of that yeah so as I as I

indicated I think before the March election even uh we intended to use the uh software the code that former

commissioner jonic provided uh we've already completed our our our Pro our part of the process so uh for us to

receive new code at this point is late and in the in in in time uh but we've we

are going to use the the code we will have the reporter as part of our of our reporting uh website and if we can have

some of these uh informational uh tags appear on the on

the site we'll we'll Implement them but uh yeah we're using it and it's already been developed with the information that

we wanted to include in in the reporter for this upcoming election brilliant that's great news thank you director AR

those are all my questions thank you commissioner bernel commissioner

loli thank you commissioner uh excuse me thank you um president Stone and thank

you director ARS um I was very excited to see in section 3B the election

Readiness toolkit and to see how easy it was to navigate I did it on my phone my

iPad um it was very easy and I was particularly encouraged to see the

information available to people who are formally incarcerated and it's very clear language that explains to them

welcome everyone to the August 21st 2024 regular meeting of the San Francisco elections commission I am the President Robin

what they need to do to register and what the eligibility is so thank you and

I think this is really fantastic um and something that we should be proud of and

your office should be proud of so thank you thank you commissioner ly

commissioner D yes um director AR

um uh I really like that I was I smiled when I saw the the thing about the

Innovation about getting rid of the Stu because I've always wondered why do I end up with a handful of stubs afterward

so um so that's great I had a little trouble um picturing it it so it's being

replaced by another entire sheet or a different um regular size paper for the

divider I was trying to understand what the new receipt looks like yeah it'll eventally be another ballot card

separates the whatever number of cards we have per voter in the box at the point so you're not quite saving paper

but you're definitely saving the ter offs correct right but but you got space so we we've gained we've gained space

for the artwork perfect um so so that

means I just want to make sure I heard you correctly so that means all of the measures will have both both the local

and the state will have the the supporters and the opponents in the in the C perfect um great and then on uh

3884 uh just as a follow up to commissioner Parker's question would you remind me what our current cure period

has been because it was faster right no it's it's set by state law it's uh seven

no it's two days prior to certification okay so this but this is extending it

then so we used to certify faster basically right correct so we' certify about 10 days prior to to the full up to

10 days prior to the full uh ballot processing period okay so because we

were fast got it um couple other things um have you set the date for the

job fair for um no is there anything that we can do to help get the word

out once you do set the date possibly yeah yeah if you if you can send us a

link I'm sure we'd be happy to share and our social media and all that uh do you anticipate having any issue hiring

seasonal workers or do you have a a good bench of folks who've done this before what I'm seeing right now I don't think

so yeah okay great uh and then I was

wondering if you could give us a little color on the Outreach events versus the

actual registration um because you know just

looking at the numbers there doesn't seem to be an obvious correlation the you know the district with the highest

number of registrations which was uh sd5 um you know had the fewest number of

of events and kind of vice versa so any commentary on the relationship between

the Outreach events and the registrations no it just depends on the event

of of the the type of activities around the event uh so no I don't there's

there's not nothing you draw a correlation to the number of of events versus registrations yeah I mean I recognize

there are certain districts where it's just harder to register people so even if you had a lot of events it may not yield that many new registrations um

okay great and then um I was wondering if I was going to bring this up in my commissioner's report I was wondering if

uh you had any insight on what's going on with uh s SP

1328 which was supposed to be just a cleanup uh bill for the elections code but um

I've not been tracking that so I don't have any okay um so one of the concerns

uh and I'll talk about it a little bit more in the in the my commissioner's report but just in case you're not here

um there is apparently discussion about

banning all of the county registers from um publishing the cast vote record

report report um you know for at least 30 days which is of course inconsistent

with you know San Francisco's been so transparent and we publish the ballot images and people can go look um pretty

you know as soon as we can do it so 30 days would really push it out there um

so you know any concerns about that because uh I don't know if you've heard

anything about about this me I'd have to read the the draft legislation I don't I

don't have really have any comment at this point okay all

right I was having oh I'm sorry no no it's

okay was there any I I will miss say more during my commissioner's report okay

cool um thank you commissioner d uh commissioner WAM and I think I'm just

having some trouble hearing folks because of the air conditioning so if you all don't mind speaking a little bit

don't mean to be nitpicky it's just very loud uh so thank you commissioner Wong

thank you president Stone can you hear me okay yes thank you appreciate that um

so it is really exciting to see the Department's effort to start recruiting seasonal employees and pro workers um

for both seasonal employees and pro workers um I'm just curious are there any languages required the most support

or currently lacking people signing signing up for volunteers or and

seasonal employees well we haven't hired into most of our positions yet so I really I

don't know if there's a need for more on the PW worker side we we I I I really

don't think we're going to have many challenges with getting sufficient numbers of Bilal po workers for November

U usually we're we're we get more than enough applications so that's great to

hear but yeah I'm I'm happy to share within my network too sure um that's a language accessibility uh collaborative

and that's people speaking all sort of languages so happy to share once you know um the job fair date is set um and

um under part three section B I share the same sentiments that I'm really

impressed by the elections two kids um and available in four languages I

reviewed the Chinese and English version um the Chinese version looks really great the translation was really clear

easily understandable um I am I really appreciate I was using the tools too

like mapping out each person's footing plan um the rzv practice ballot is

really helpful and interactive actually because they explain kind of like what

that means whenever you vote so I I I am really impressed by like how interactive those twos are um and under part uh

section c you mentioned delivering packets uh with tailored information for

house communities SRO tenants and hospitalized residents I'm just curious

can you share a little bit more about this information tailored for this specific group of people it's mostly the

same information that we'd send to the community organizations what's what would be different or emphasize would be

that to indicate to inform people they don't have to have a permanent address residential address to register and also

to provide examples of how they can receive their ballots and also that they go to any polling place uh to register

and get a ballot and vote on on Election Day or come to City Hall so but but as far as the the processes of registration

voting uh the availability of the the vot information pet being online you know that's that's the same so

baa um since this is my first elections um I wonder like so for onh house folks

you said they don't need to like they don't have to have their ballot mailed to in address how how would they

um kind of are they going to come up to like City Hall and pick up their ballot right come to city hall or they can get

a mail drop we can so if they have a mailing address gotcha uh so it's one common mailing address would be the post

office okay so there's a mail drop at the post office we can send it there and they can pick it up for instance or even at the

SRO that's great um thank you so much and this is just you know once again

just out of my curiosity I know in the 2020 presidential elections in order to boost voting access for S

Talent tenants in Chinatown the department had a ballot drop off station at P pmel Square to address some Ming

issues also for S residents in Chinatown and I'm just wondering if we are

considering a similar approach this time no we won't set up a separate uh drop

off station in porsa square I think we've got a a drop off box in the area though I can't think of the location

okay um but that the the that was a different type of election due to the

the pandemic okay uh so when we have the 37 boxes now throughout San Francisco

which we didn't have in in 2020 and I I can't remember the one that's near Chinatown psma square but I know there's

one down there that they could use I think that's one outside City College in China time BR okay yeah I think I saw

that but yeah good to know um and one last questions about the assembly Bill a

3184 um do you know the timeline for when the State Assembly might vote on

this bill like just to know no I haven't looked at it since the no I don't know I

don't know okay that's fine yeah I have the same concerns that commissioner Parker has just to want to make sure you

know your department have enough time to be ready for it in case there's any changes but it seems like you already

have a plans and it just it would just push back the timeline exactly right

okay thank you thank you commissioner

Wong um okay I have a few um that were tendentially touched on through other

Commissioners um I wanted to appreciate extend my appreciation for uh touching

on some of the specific areas that I know I've brought up a handful of times

one being unhoused voters um who can vote and I wanted to also add this for

commissioner Wong's reference so they can the an additional piece to know

about being voting as someone who let's say doesn't have um who is unhoused you

also can use an intersection so you don't just have to you you don't have to have a specific address you can have an

intersection um and so I appreciated the attention to that in this and also

specifically kind of expanding on uh the Public Services like the utilization of

Public Services to do that Outreach um so thank you for that and then also uh

the addition of the overseas voters which I think we had talked about I don't even recall when that was um but I

appreciate that being added in here as well uh one piece that I wanted to add

onto commissioner bol's uh question around that is I assume that um the

context there is also that in that conversation you and I had had about overseas voters you had said that we

actually have low participation rates of over I believe if I recall correctly

that we have relatively lower participation from overseas voters on average um during election

cycles and so when I read this I perceived that as there was an a greater

interest or demand for information from overseas voters compared with previous

ction Cycles is that correct yeah okay that's that's exciting that's um great

to hear um and also probably a testament to uh how easy and accessible resources

are in the department to folks overseas so glad to glad to see that um and then

I also was excited by I mean excited by the influx of pole workers or the pole

worker recruitment that and how successful it has been so that's really great um one uh one question or one

additional piece that uh vice president Parker had brought up was the um

concerns about the uh results reporting and the tabulation process um one idea

that just came to mind and it doesn't need to be you know this isn't a this is just an idea um so zero pressure um but

I did see the press release uh of the partnership between the department and the office for civic engagement and

immigrant Affairs which I was also really excited about because I know we had talked about that before um and I

wonder if at some point along the way if there's I don't know if there's a one sheeter that you already have or um or a

specific resource that that you could send to us um wonder if there are specific talking points or like I said a

one sheeter that you could share with the commission and or with like that

office um who's already out there talking to voters all the time talking to the electorate all the time so that

they can communicate uh the process of how results are counted um and so it

puts less burden on perhaps the department and maybe just hey in your conversations maybe you can weave in

these three points that it results won't be reported on Election night that it

might take x amount of time anyway so um it was through that partnership perhaps there could be some talking points and

obviously through us um as opposed to maybe like some massive press conference

like that might be a more um kind of uh a bottomup approach to getting the word

out there um so just an idea and then one question I had was around the pole

site locations um I think I had read 17 or 18

um uh have to change and I just wanted to there wasn't necessarily a uh

anything associ with that of whether that's been difficult or not and so I just wanted to ask um let's see what

page was it on I didn't unfortunately list what

uh what number it was um but around the PO site

locations um I recall is this ringing a bell to you at all uh page two thank you

uh 2 e oh yes the depart thank you I appreciate the department needs to locate 17 new sites because of

cancellations and relocate 18 sites that's where I got the confusion so I

assume relocate means you already have identified where those would go um and

they locating identification of 17 new sites I just wanted to ask how that's going if you're having any trouble are

there ways in which we can support in finding those

locations uh I think it's going well and is not a lot it's very it's a very small

number of of sites for us yeah of the 500 yeah even between elections I mean

often we have over 50 you know 50 60 7 they have to change yeah or or or relocate or people cancel between

elections or now with elections and every other year we're gonna have a potentially a big drop off before June

2026 so this is a very low number that's that's helpful context cool um but at

the same time you know there's going to be a couple of spots that are going be hard find site so yeah maybe I'll be

contacting you okay but yeah well let us know no that's helpful context you know

I I feel like I uh even if I've lived through a few elections now as a

commissioner I sometimes don't remember these kind of context details um so I

appreciate the perspective there um one other question I had is around and I

imagine you know we'll talk about this when the election plan comes up um one

question I had was around um coordination with law enforcement uh to protect the movement

of ballots and poll sites and the warehouse um I imagine you all are already thinking about this and planning

on it so I just wanted to know if that um kind of how that's going and uh any

concerns you have um or

not well U for an election like this it's there's a lot of interest in

supporting elections and so when we contact or or we're we're even being contacted by law enforcement uh

regarding support for the election for the elections process in San Francisco for November and then also built into

the charter we have the the Sheriff's Office responsible for election security with and responsibly for the voted

ballots which is wonderful it's truly been a wonderful support through since

that changed in in 2002 uh so so now right right now as far as the support

level of support that we're receiving and and will receive um I don't have concerns that any agency or any group

that we request assistance won't step forward because I think they will oh

great I meant um so I that all of that is great I meant also just um yeah I

think all that is all that makes sense um I think I am also cognizant of um p

observers um and how folks may or may not interact with pole workers um I

don't believe we ever have not ever but very rarely do we have um like the

sheriffs on site at poll sites so for uh intimidation other forms of intimidation

and so um I was also glad to see that you Incorporated the deescalation piece

in there per previous elections um as we've talked about and so um just

thinking ahead of what could come because it will be a tense as always a

tense election um so preparing for that in a coordinated way not just the actual like movement of ballots but also just

rapid response planning as needed um was the kind of the second part of what I was asking which it seems like you're

already thinking about but we are okay great um one other question I had about

vice president Parker's comment regarding AB 3184 um and the budget

implications are you aware if there are any state Appropriations tied to the

bill um or is it going to be self-funded there's never money I know yeah well it

has there is but they never actually it never comes our way actually deliver the funds yeah so yeah I ignore that part of

the legislation when I see it it won't be funded okay yep yeah I I think many

jurisdictions are still waiting to get reimbursed from 2020 for moving to

automatic vote by mail um okay I think that was

it and yeah appreciate

the the director's report any other comments from Commissioners or follow-ups before we move

to public comment

okay let's move to public

comment Mr Hill are you there I'm here okay you may

begin uh thank you so much it's a pleasure to join uh the commission tonight and director ARS um my name is

Stephen Hill and uh uh was one of the original Architects if you will of rank

Choice voting in San Francisco um director ARS I can't believe it's like 20 22 years later since we embarked on

this journey I hope you've enjoyed having your Decembers back all these many years for those of you who don't

know San Francisco had December runoffs which was uh director ARs and his team

would be certifying elections in the middle of the holidays and it was I'm sure quite a drag so um it's uh been

great to uh to see the continued evolvement of the administration of rank

Choice voting I was calling in tonight uh to comment on

uh encouraging director ANS to use the uh the tool that uh former commissioner

jonic has come up with and I was pleased to hear that he's already planning to do it so again congratulations on

continuing to improve rank Choice voting elections um in Alam County uh a newly

formed elections commission there is actually watching uh how this tool is going to perform because there's

interest in Alam County to uh to bring this tool because of way it's multilingual uh has more accessibility

than the Dominion PDF reports or HTML instead of PDF uh up until a few years

ago the Dominion reports used to be in HTML um and then they switched to PDF

and that actually caused some problems in Alam County where a blind advocacy group uh threatened a lawsuit over the

PDF so it's uh it's great to go back to HTML because I think it's going to cause

fewer problems and it's more public friendly um the showing the final round

vote totals in the summary page these are all great improvements and we look forward to seeing how it works in San

Francisco and them being able to take this to other cities and and you know we

I I've all these many years continued to point to San Francisco as really the

gold standard in many ways for how to run rank Choice voting so that's my congratulations to director ANS and the

commission those who are on it now and those who have served in the past the thing that I would say is that

there's always new voters every election and so um you have to continue to educate those voters about rank Choice

voting and to figure out new ways in the new environment where there aren't that many voters voting in precincts anymore

I mean as director ARS will recall there used to be a lot of extra training for pole workers they were kind of the last

line of defense because they could help voters out if we didn't understand how to vote in rank Choice voting but that

that tool is kind of Disappearing so um you know it's it's a little bit more challenging to figure out how to educate

people um in when they're voting at home and I I know that the uh San Francisco I

believe still does a mailing to people but I I encourage you to keep thinking of new ways as a commission to educate

voters in in in these ways um because it's very important we have in at Fair vote have uh we had a project Mr Hill

your time has has expired can I have 10 more seconds to just tell you one thing that

I think you'll be pleased to about we had a uh we had a project to go out to Chinese speaking organizations with a

Chinese um fluent uh speaker to educate about rank Choice voting so I encourage

the commission and the department to continue that kind of Outreach it's incredibly important thank you so much

thank you thank

you put my mute perfect okay there are no other

participants wishing to make a comment thank you secretary Davis that

concludes agenda item number four director's report we'll move to agenda item number five Commissioners reports

discussion and possible action and commissioner reports for topics not covered by another item on this agenda

meetings with public officials oversight and observation activities longrange planning for commission activities and

areas of study proposed legislation which affects elections and others I

will open the floor yes commissioner

D thank you president Stone um yeah I wanted to just bring to the commission's

attention this um SV 1328 um as I mentioned it was originally

supposed to be just a cleanup Cod cleanup of the elections code it was very

technical um and uh actually uh Mr Hill brought this to my

attention um that there is um some scuttlebut about uh this this

idea of banning um registr from releasing the cast vote record report

for 30 days um the thinking is that it it it came

from Elam uh and the Secretary of State you know backed it it was not in Senator

Bradford's original bill so we gone through a couple of committee hearings um so I had contacted president

Stone and asked if she would send a you know a letter to the U Senator

Bradford's legislative director and CC the uh Deputy uh Secretary of State just

to kind of ask what the status was and to kind of reassert you know San Francisco's long history of transparency

and the fact that we you know released our ballot images and we try to do this very promptly and that it would be a

step backwards to make us hold that information for 30 days um just to find

out where things are and and perhaps to kind of nudge the legislation in the right direction so that we don't have to

you know come out against it basically um so if it's okay um with uh the rest

of the commission I was going to invite um Mr Hill to maybe add a little more color on it

since he's the one who brought it to our attention that's okay um Mr Hill is definitely entitled

to give public comment um I think should we he want to submit a letter or join as

a potential guest speaker at our Nest meeting although it seems like this is kind of timely I would encourage him you

know we could discuss for sure um but I think ideally there' be

three minutes that he could offer sure um if that's okay

yeah um but please continue whatever yeah well that's that's really um all that I

had I was hoping Mr Hill could add any more detail to kind of give the rest of

the commission some context and then you know if if we kind of agree then we

could ask president Stone to to send a quick note off and uh like I said maybe do some nudging in the right direction

um so Mr Hill if uh you have uh three minutes of comment to add to this we

would love to hear from you I I think let's wait till we finish the like go through it as public comment

if it's okay sure um and then folks can also sorry it's so loud um then folks

can also share any public any um reports they have as well and I'll just add if

it's helpful with uh um as context on the communication with commissioner Dy and myself just to share a little bit of

insight into where uh why I had suggested that we postpone or I postpone

sending the letter um was more it was kind of a there are a few things so one

which I'm I'm I'm assuming um Mr Hill can also address um in his very brief

three minutes um is the notion that there haven't been actual draft changes

at this point um and so until we have seen the a change to the bill I didn't

feel that it was I thought that it was prudent to wait until those draft

changes were actually material rather than a kind of word of mouth um as

particularly in our role as Commissioners um and the commission of San Francisco elections Commission of

San Francisco um you know our role isn't necessarily to engage with state

legislators par state legislators particularly not our state legislators

not our Representatives on potential inner workings of legislation

um in Sacramento and so um until we had something more material I suggested we hold off and that also um it kind of in

that same vein what our role is um in the context of San Francisco and what

our role isn't in the context of the State of California and so just talking through those those um those things I

didn't feel that it would have been appropriate for me as in my current role

as the acting president of the commission to speak on in that uh with

that title based on kind of where it was at this point um and thought that it

would be better to understand where things stand perhaps through Mr Hill or others um and then have the commission

discuss it democratically um and then the last piece of that is should the uh this

amendment that um that Advocates and um and commissioner D have raised um go

into effect into the the draft legislation um there is also a more

formal process for us to go through in San Francisco um where we would basically work with a

specific legislative committee um that Advocates on behalf of San Francisco to

um our representatives in Sacramento so we woulde present to them what our

position is uh likely director ARS would participate in that process we would bring it forward to that committee and

then um uh the committee works with the mayor's office to uh Advocate on the

city's half so there is a more formal process should that legislation actually

become more formalized um as um and the amendment be in that and in that um

formalized bill so I wanted to just add that context that there is a a a path to that um that exists uh once something

more material does happen so wanted to share that which I also shared um I

didn't I don't know if I shared the legislative committee part to commissioner d um but I did share the other pieces in my comments in our

exchange out of the

meeting vice president Parker um thanks for bringing this to

our attention um maybe this will be answered when we hear the public comment but um do you know what the intention do

we have any idea what the intention is behind um extending the um reporting

date of this information to 30 days okay oh yes sorry commissioner D

um we're not sure and I think Mr Hill can provide more color but um basically

Alam followed our example and put in an elections commission and this um new

elections commission and the Alam registar are having some conflict uh and

the commission obviously is a body not unlike ours and is interested in transparency and all

this other stuff and and uh they're getting some resistance from the registar so I think there's some

political things going on behind the scenes to essentially try to avoid doing more work would be my guess can you

sorry I couldn't hear the last part to what was that last avoid more work okay

that's what I thought you said thank you

floor is still yours vice president Parker oh that that was it thank you for

that yeah thank you commissioner D we can invite public comment um so

we'll invite um all public comment including Mr Hill and then should we

want a continue discussion after public comment we can do that as well does that sound good okay let's move to public

comment Mr Hill Mr Hill thank you very much um so uh yeah briefly um uh I I had

a a an email today from the legislative director of Senator Steven Bradford's office who's the legislative sponsor of

this bill and they sent the Amendments um that they are going to introduce the bill currently has been through the

assembly it's now been through the Senate it's gotten through Appropriations just a few days ago so

they're going to introduce these amendments now over the next few days um and then they'll have to have some sort

of joint conference committee for both the assembly and the Senate to pass it the the expectation the bill is going to

pass so what I've been told in uh and I haven't confirmed by looking through the Amendments because I just got them today

that uh the bill will not include this 30-day ban anymore it just became too

controversial and need more time but the Secretary of State's office has said that they are committed to taking a look

at this um and it's not clear to me why they're going down this road I had very

good Communications with the deputy secretary of state who's in charge of this bill and um you know for months uh

there was no mention of this at all and suddenly it was on the uh radar but um

they have withdrawn this part but they are going to come back to it so what I would suggest to the commission is um

that you don't have to take an advocacy position on this if you just send an inquiry to both the deputy secretary of

state and Senator Bradford's office and say we are inquiring because we already do this and we have heard that this is

something that you are going to be looking at going forward and we would like to be informed about and be

involved in this discussion with you so that you understand what we've been doing and how it's been working successfully and how it could

potentially be a model for uh you know unprecedented level of transparency and

accuracy and security and accountability of Elections and other counties may want to do this we've tried to emphasize to

uh the secretary's Secretary of State's office that this is an area where home rules should be respected that each

County should be allowed to have its own chart its own path in this way as long as it's keeping within law um and that

they shouldn't try to put a top- down one siiz fits-all rule for all counties in California because every county in

California they're very different types of counties LA County versus shast County for example so there I think you

have a a role to play here to let them know hey we're watching uh we're interested we this is what we're doing

and we want to be in dialogue with you um so so make so we make sure that you are considering our needs as as sanan

Francisco county for how we should um be able to to conduct our policy around

cast voter records uh especially when it comes to rank Choice voting elections uh if you don't know what happened in Alam

County uh the registar voters office there made a Terri Mistake by um uh you

know they they checked the wrong box in the Dominion system which is the same system San Francisco has and as a result

ran the uh elections incorrectly and and in a one Schoolboard race a very close

race it actually made a difference in the outcome and they didn't know that they had made this mistake until after

the election was certified and once the election is certified it takes a judge's order to reopen those ballots and

recount them again it led to two lawsuits many months of of headlines and Scandal and all sorts of things and it

just was a terrible situation and in Alam County if they had simply followed the policy that San Francisco has the

mistake would have been discovered within the first week of the elections and could have been fixed before the election was certified so thank you Mr

Hill thank you y y sure thank you for taking for giving me some time to explain that and I'd be happy to work with you

uh if you want to have more information or you start thinking about you want you're willing to write something involving the director and making sure

he has appropriate input I I I get all that uh happy to help him in any way I can thank you thank you are there are

there any other public commenters let me check again but

before no

great thank you do Commissioners have any other

comments

yes commissioner D yes um well I'm I'm relieved to hear

that it's not in the current bill that's that like um takes the urgency away um

but I agree with Mr Hill this is a situation we should watch I mean I think

San Francisco's you know ballot images is really unprecedented uh we're kind of

a you know a shining star for for other counties to emulate and it would be a

shame if you know we had to abandon this because of

of again it's really unclear what the motivation is behind this um we can

speculate uh but given what Mr Hill was explaining it was a pretty embarrassing

and costly situation for Alama County so the irony is if they were committed the kind of transparency that that San

Francisco had maybe they would have found it sooner um so that is part of um our election

security and it's the fact that we have other eyes on things so I I think it's a good idea for for us

to send such a letter and just indicate our interest and and educate a little

bit about what we do in San Francisco and why we do it

thank you commissioner

D yes vice president Parker uh I think that you know if um

what Mr Hill um suggested that there is a commitment um from the tech Secretary of

State's office to take a look at this if that's a documented thing that they are they are truly doing I I don't think

that it it hurts for us to just send an inquiry again I I don't think that this is the point for advocacy necessarily I

think it's a um this is something we care about in our jurisdiction it would affect us we

want to be informed we are happy to speak with you you know as sort of suggested in that way in sort of the a

friendly um uh yeah a friendly inquiry to to

share that this is an important thing to us and so we are happy to talk about it but minimally would like to be um kept

aware of their progress I think would be a good

idea thank you vice president

Parker I'll just jump in um

I I think I would there's a couple things so I'm glad to hear that that

was scrapped as we'd all hoped um I

think the cast vote record is a very important transparency tool that we

offer in San Francisco um I am also glad that we kind of waited a

little bit just to see um though the potential that the Secretary of State uh

that secretary Weber uh might be opening this back up

um definit and may or to look more deeply at this question I would be

interested to actually understand why um I think the why is

still relevant um you know if there are security reasons that you know there's

always this balance right between security and transparency it's this like ongoing

friction uh and from our point of view of course we want the transparency um

but I I would be interested to know why um if it is really about the kind of

friction between the oversight body and Alam that was implemented as a result of

the uh of that catastrophe um for lack of a better word

um you know if that's really the reason or if it is you know they're doing a full policy analysis as to why I'd be

interested to understand that um I also think maintaining our focus on this

being a San Francisco issue and not trying to advocate for change at the

state level um so saying this is something San Francisco would want to

retain um and it's important to us I also think it's something we could discuss with the deputy City attorney um

should there be implications that uh we could opt out um which oftentimes we can um and so you

know what does that mean for uh for a charter city um you know I think these

are all considerations and I am hesitant to put the cart before the horse and

reach out to secretary Weber until we have some of these questions answered um

so if there is in I mean I have to imagine that this I I unless I'm

misunderstanding that given that this would be no longer a piece of legislation that is moving forward um at

in Sacramento that it wouldn't be implemented at with secretary Weber before November but I correct me if I'm

wrong um and so I don't know if there's an immediate urgency although I could of

course correct me if I'm wrong um but I think these are all questions that should be answered in addition to

actually seeing material uh any sort of specific

material that shows that the secretary has said that they that she would like

to evaluate this so if there's a specific report that you um commissioner

Dy or Mr Hill can direct us to I think that would also be helpful I think going based on like verbal rumors is not in

our best interest um so those are the things that are on on top of mine I'm not opposed to sending an inquiry but I

do think that there are broader uh considerations at play um and even still

my my thought is is there a concern with working through all of these questions

before our next commission meeting um is that enough time uh and um yeah I I

think that is a a a question mark I have to get some of those things answered so

I think I'll punt that to commissioner if you have some thoughts yes

commissioner D yeah um so I think uh we can get a copy of what the amendment

that was proposed that got scrapped so that at least we can we can see what they were talking about so I think that

would be helpful um my guess is that you're probably right that uh they they

probably won't do this before the election um that we can kind of watch it

um but I do think it would be useful to reach out to see if you we can get the

why because I'm not sure we're going to get the why unless we ask the question so um so I like uh vice

president Parker's suggestion of just doing a friendly inquir inquiry and

saying we'd love to stay informed about this that this is really important for San

Francisco uh it's worked very well for us and um you know uh we'd like to

understand um you know any state um you know code that would potentially impact

our ability to continue with our transparency policy something to that effect thank you commissioner D just to

respond to that I'm not opposed to the inquiry I think there are just many considerations that I'm interested in

such as I definitely think the draft Amendment any reports that secretary Weber has said that she you know you

know Mr Hill has communicated that so it sounds like he has some background that he could potentially share with us I'd

also be interested to have the DCA uh participate in this conversation and then the last piece being the um the

timeliness of this meaning should once we have collected that information of

the amendment the reports of the secretary saying this the timeliness of it any implications gone through the DCA

then in SE in our September meeting discussing what an inquiry would look like um so uh it's more just can we

collect more facts before we submit an inquiry um is is really my my kind of

alternative suggestion yes commissioner D yeah I

mean I I'm happy to pull some stuff together uh and maybe you know uh

commissioner Wong may may not remember the debacle and in Alam so we can pull some articles together on that just so

there's some background on that in the alamia elections commission and just so

we have some context and color um but uh yeah and maybe we can make this an

agenda item at the next meeting great I appreciate that um I

think this that will really help um and I agree adding some background on what

happened in almea would be really valuable for commissioner Wong and for the public um so that folks can really

understand the full scope of why we're bringing this up so thank you for volunteering to pull those things

together and I'm if there is um regardless even if this could come

before November I have to Imagine That September would be sufficient so I will

um kind of work toward that as a as an item in September

great thank you commissioner D any other commissioner reports or

comments or questions any of this okay great that closes agenda item

number five we'll move to agenda item number six agenda items for future meetings discussion and possible action

regarding items for future agendas so just a couple quick things obviously we just discussed one agenda item um the

other item that uh will go into the September meeting is the waiver um that

was agendized for this meeting um we will move that to the September meeting and then one other thing I

wanted to add about the September meeting due to scheduling conflicts um I have heard from most though not all I

think I've heard from a quorum um so

hopefully the other folks can join as well but um we are going to post or push

the September meeting to the 24th so September 24th at 5:30 p.m. um I know

this is a little um inconvenient uh but uh I wanted to confirm with folks who

hadn't had the chance to yeah what did I get wrong no just to yes I will do that

thank you um I just wanted to confirm with those who hadn't already shared

that that works um that they are able to to do that and I apologize for the

inconvenience

I'm not going to call people out directly so if you have an a concern about September 24th you can let me know

now or um offline that's fine too um just qu one quick note about that change

date it will be in room 4:16 so not in our usual room um and folks can look out

on the commission website for uh the cancel notice of cancellation

and the updated um meeting page anything else about that or other

agenda

items yes vice president Parker um director arnst uh you know

mentioned he mentioned the waiver and then also the election plan does that just need to be part of his regular report or separately agendized oh it

will be separately agendized

okay anything else okay let's move to public

comment there are no public commenters okay anything else before we

adjourn okay the time is now 7:23 p.m. and the meeting is

adjourned you so short

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