Elections Commission Regular Meeting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_bbTVmkAJA

 

welcome everyone to the October 16th 2024 regular meeting of the San

Francisco elections commission I'm the president Robin Stone The Time Is Now 6 pm and I call the meeting to order

before we proceed further I'd like to ask commission secretary Marissa Davis to briefly explain some procedures for

participating in today's meeting thank you president Stone the minutes of this meeting will

reflect that this meeting is being held in person city hall room 408 one Dr

Carlton B goodlet Place San Francisco California 94102 and remotely via webx as

authorized by the elections 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 par participating remotely are listed on the commission 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're 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

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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 12m on the day of this meeting to

elections. commission at 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 Davis will you please proceed for please proceed with item one commission roll call President

Stone present vice president Parker here commissioner bernh holes here

commissioner D commissioner loli here commissioner Wong here president stone with six

members present and accounted for you have a quorum the thank you secretary Davis the

San Francisco elections commission acknowledges that we are on the unseated ancestral homeland of theu shalone who

are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance

with their Traditions the remsh alone have never seed 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 respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the ritish community and

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

number two general public comment public comment on any issue within the elections Commission General

jurisdiction that is not covered by another item on this

agenda Mr Turner are you there oh we actually have someone in person first so let's hold on Mr Turner and um

we will take public comment in person just bear with us for one moment

thank you

you I can also do it if it's easier

okay you may begin thank you Commissioners well John

I guess I'm the last man standing huh about last year I'm sure you all

know that John just about lost his job it was over a card game seems that there

was a big card game and a whole bunch of politicians were playing and John was

dealing and he took the cards and went in the back room then he came out and he said I'm

ready to deal they said let's cut the deck I said no you don't get to do that

so I DT the cards out and surprisingly mayor breed won the mayor's race you

know what that's exactly what we have going on in the Department of Elections we have a proprietary algorithm we don't

know how they count our votes that is so caveman in Tech San Francisco John

orence has been keeping that in place for 20 years for 20 years he's been

saying he's not smart enough to figure out how to do open- Source voting we're

not smart enough as a city to do uh to to do rank Choice voting it's absolutely

Preposterous the uh you missed out last year uh my my comments are to the public

uh not particularly to you all and I you're a fascinating group you talk about a a real mixup

a buddy of mine created you Matt Gonzales I I always uh thought that that

was a real mix of seven there that you should always have a wild cat in from at

least one of the positions it's getting to where the uh uh the whole commission

though is uh pretty much lock step with orang and you you've got a system in San

Francisco that's fixed and that's nothing new are any of you old enough to remember ballots in the bay

I mean that's not a song that's a reality the uh we were uh that's not the

worst thing happened that election worst thing happened that election was a grandmother and her grandchildren got

burned to death they were pole workers she was she was ready to testify against

Willie Brown and suddenly there was a mysterious fire and she died the her uh

relatives got $10 million uh started out as $5 million to pay for her death there

was nothing was was ever proven about it well he said I'll never pay it and he didn't uh Nome had to sell school

property to pay it is that 30 seconds or is that the it was 30 seconds long thir

three minutes is a long time I can tell you a bunch of stories here my name is H Brown I'm a retired reform school

teacher got a masters from Clemson uh I taught from South Carolina to San

Francisco I taught kids that killed their parents I taught kids that killed cops and did it successfully reform

works and revenge does not thank

you let's move to public comment

online Mr Turner are you

there Mr Turner

Mr

Turner Mr

Turner is he does he still have his hand raised can you hear me yes I see him now

thank you um hello uh Commissioners my name is name is Brent Turner I'm here to

make comment on uh a link that I sent into the uh commission today um

regarding Mississippi and uh the fact that Mississippi in New Hampshire has now adopted and deployed open source

voting systems of course we know that most of the work was done here in San Francisco but unfortunately blocked by

John arst and so again we want to remind the commission that this is probably the most intense civil rights matter of our

time and the fact that has failed to lead is as well as California I think is

now an obvious embarrassment to all of us um the uh article I sent begs a

question why is Mississippi ahead of California when it comes to election system technology and I think the issue

falls upon the lap of John arnst and also Los Angeles who if we remember was

allocated $300 million to create an open source voting machine that $300 million

is gone and they still don't have an open source voting machine they were last seen in conference with oset and

others that enjoy Shenanigans regarding elections but we're we're we don't think

it's funny and and we're saddened by it so I just wanted to have the elections commission take a look at that article

and ask the question why is Mississippi ahead of San Francisco and California

when it comes to Next Generation voting systems and so you did all the work Tom

Amano started it um uh this is in the name of the med grever family people

that have given their lives for this issue and I think we should pay pay attention to it thank you again for your

time and your efforts here thank you thank you

there are no other hands raised thank you secretary Davis that closes agenda item number two let's move to to item

number three approval of previous meeting minutes discussion and possible action on previous elections commission

meeting minutes yes vice president

Parker uh thank you president Stone um I just had one small correction and and that was the correction that I offered

for the August minutes last month was not included in these minutes it only mentioned um some other

Corrections thank

you yes commissioner D um so I had sent in uh shared with um

with President Stone and uh secretary Davis some um typos and uh some other

more substantive changes um so one was

It was obviously a special meeting at a special time last meeting uh I had a

different order for the motions and seconds so um perhaps secretary Davis

can double check those and then I just added some uh

my online connection to my draft just went down so I just added some clarifications to

the discussion around SB 1328 uh since the

um most of the discussion was not on 1328 itself but on the proposed amendment that didn't actually happen so

uh as I put in some clarifying comments about that um as well as I thought it

was important to provide some content Tex to uh the public commenter the commissioner from the Alam County

elections that um to provide the context of of why she was um speaking to the

commission and the fact that she had U mentioned that there were three elections that were affected by the vote

tabulation error um and if the cast vote records had not been released that they

would not have been discovered in a timely fashion so just some minor

clarifications thank you commissioner D any other

comments I'll add a comment um I would like to review the edits that

commissioner D has proposed sounds like they're more than just typos and I haven't had the chance to review them so

um I would not like to move forward with these minutes um until the next meeting and I've had the chance to review her

edits is everyone okay with that okay any other

comments okay thank you vice president Parker and commissioner D let's move to public

comment there is another commenter in person

just one

moment go ahead the uh city attorney's appoin he has a an interesting history

for her boss um he got right out of Harvard and went into business with a

guy named Tim dick and who was into Russian oil uh moving it around they

created a an agency a PR agency uh to uh

go after uh political advertising they had the head of the Christian Coalition

on it uh un unbelievable ad so what happened was excuse me um just it's

related it's I'm I'm a Storyteller let me tie it together yeah thank you so what happened was the city appointees

appointing authority uh uh got some work with uh George W uh bush in the 2000 uh

campaign against Gore and wrote progr s to train his top staff and could have

made the difference in Florida so our City attorney elected a bush there's a

just on a side there the uh uh the uh on the Dominion machines there's a story

told John maybe you can verify it at the airport the Dominion representative said that he had San Francisco machines wired

I I don't know what that means we are uh this agenda item is spefic spefically about the meeting minutes um is there

anything is there a comment you'd like to make about the meeting minutes uh no ma'am I don't I don't mean to be rude

I'm just grabbing every chance I can here thank you for listening to when you give comment um uh on the agenda

items the meeting what somebody said that that they copied what they said wrong they misinterpreted it I mean that

happens all the time on the phone or computer when you're talking did did did somebody say that they changed what they

said in the meeting minutes is that against the law no thank thank you so much for your comment if you'd like to

make a a comment on a future agenda thank you so much are there any other public

commenters any online thank you secretary Davis that closes agenda item number three let's

move to agenda item number four director's report discussion and possible action regarding the October 2024 director's report I'll hand it to

director thank you president Stone uh I can take questions on the report just a few items though so next Monday is the

deadline to register to vote and I'm sorry is what for what register to vote

thank you and have a about mailed to a a registered voter after next Monday

people people can still register but they have to do so in person uh so next Monday is a key date if someone wants to

register needs to register update the registration information and have about mailed to them uh right now we have

around 517,000 registered voters in San Francisco which is the second highest we've had in in the city's history uh so

far we've received around 23,000 ballots back which is actually about half of

what we expected to have at this point if not actually less than half so it's it's been a bit light as far as the

turnout's been is concerned uh our phone bank has been steady but not overly busy

we've received around 4,000 phone calls since the middle of September which is when we mailed the overseas

ballots and um you know right now everything as far as our plan is concerned has been moving forward as as

we would like uh there's no resource issues uh and uh we have enough pow

workers already for this um election we have enough Personnel that we've uh

brought into the department and will'll bring in to the department so right now everything's looking really good for this election and I can take any

questions from from the thank you thank you director ARS take commissioner question

questions yes vice president Parker um thank you as usual for the

detailed report um let's see um I have a a few notes I'll just start with a few

of the comments and then um and then end with a couple of questions um

I this is maybe more for the public um in your first section I always uh really appreciate the detail and transparency

around the processes the department uses around the elections um and specifically

around the ballot signature image capture process which I think is interesting I just wanted to encourage the public to read the detail about how

this works on the website um on the securing and protecting the Integrity of the elections um because it also

describes the training and guidelines and regulations that the staff is all following and I think

as so many people are concerned to make sure that our election is secure and and

um verified and all that I just there's so much information so I want to encourage the public to look at that um and there's also the public access to

the whole thing as you described in your report um I really loved the voter

turnout page and all the charts on that um that was really interesting to look at um and you know as you're talking you

just mentioned the the kind of the record um registration numbers we have our second and highest in history it was

also just um this is more Reflection from the past when I was looking at those charts is that um the last

presidential in 2020 we had an 86% turnout that year right and that that

was the highest in like 20s something years and before that it was only that high in like the 30s to the 60s so a

long time ago so I know that there are a lot of inputs that get us to that um that turnout number you know including

Community groups and Advocates and things like that um but I know the department also plays a role in that and so it was just it was nice to see it in

a visible way um through the charts and the number so um thank you I so just

wanted to acknowledge that um let's see just would you mind um uh Mr Brown would

you mind sorry would you mind sitting in the sure we can speak louder thank you

so much sorry vice president no problem no problem um let's see um

I also had um really glad to hear about that expanded team to answer the calls thank

you for that um I was also glad to read about the expanded training on managing potential disturbances at polling places

and the administration of the non-citizen voting uh voting um and it sounds like folks are prepared so thank

you for that I also really like the vertical video that you all just published um on rank Choice voting with

the glasses and the beads another version I think the more versions and um of illustrations of how that works the

better I've posted on my social so hopefully others will do the same um and

then the couple of um questions that I had um this is really just out of

curiosity how many voters do you expect will come to the city hall voting Center um this year like how many did you all

have in 2022 for instance like how many are you expecting to come do you plan for do you have any idea like sort of

Trends and numbers there the the turnout at the voting see

voting Center can range from about 05% of of the registration base in San

Francisco to about 2.5% uh so I would I would think at

least we'll get around 0.5 to0 75 and then build from there so right now we we

have what 517,000 registered voters so times 5.75 that would be your base number okay

I was just curious um and and also that the other kind of curiosity I had was how often the translation and curbside

assistance services are used it's well it's not a matter of us

not doing it it's not requested often yeah okay so okay it's we offer it if if

someone asks a request for it um but it it is not something that we receive a

lot of requests for okay I mean it's great that we offer it I was just curious often it was used um thank you

um and then uh two other questions one was around um the Outreach in section

two to serve voters who are experiencing homelessness in housing insecurity I know commissioner Wong brought this topic up last month um and I so thank

you for the update on that do you have did were you all able to receive any responses from partner organizations um

you know about the offers that you all provided to have specialized Services um other contact where they actually

responded back to your Outreach I haven't no uh the Outreach team probably

has but I don't have that information okay okay um and then the last question

that I had actually isn't related to something in your report but it's related to some U past director's

reports in just as we're hitting these final weeks towards the election I'm wondering about any updates related to

AI in local elections um you know if there's anything that you've been hearing um recently notification of um

misinformation disinformation and campaigns that you all have been notified about or any other observations

on the impact of artificial intelligence locally locally no there's there's been nothing I'm aware of nothing's come to

our attention we're not the only ones who um are are sensitive to AI

potentially affecting local elections and nothing has come to me from any other source as well okay thank you

that's all thank you vice president Parker commissioner

Wong thank you president Stone um thank you so much for your detailed report as always um I was looking at the E data to

it is extremely helpful to look at uh those daily update especially registration by languages ballot status

is really easy to read and understand so and also with the graphic pres uh uh

presentation it make it so much easier to get a sense of the proportion um of

the data so that is much appreciated and so I have two three questions um mostly

just clarifying questions so on the report you mentioned approximately 50

events will be held in of a variety of um Fair newses uh with a focus on

neighborhood in which they have historically less engag with elections just out of curiosity which

neighborhoods uh would be the target for those additional

Outreach be like the Southeastern side of the city

the southern part of the city northeastern part of the city and then also somewhat in the north central part

of the city okay those areas good to know just out of curiosity um I also

have just one last questions about um um the S access to ballot as well as people

who is experiencing homelessness so just for my fellow Commissioners I uh

provided five building names to director erns uh last year when some nonprofit

organization contacted me that uh the tenants there have had issues receiving ballots and then direct arens has kindly

um basically referred those buildings to USPS for coordination and hopefully the

mailing issues could be improved this time that's just um one thing that we work together and which I really

appreciate for the coordination from director AR side and um I have one

questions for the Emergency ballot delivery options so who can request this

kind of surfaces or maybe B question have historically requested the surfaces

usually it's people who are unable to uh go to a polling place or you know in a

in a care facility uh people who maybe have challenges leaving the house um or

and haven't receed their ballot in the mail or maybe they they need a replacement ballot uh so it's usually

people that would can't independently obtain a ballot on their own would have this request a service how often did

people request this kind of surface to say during the last election it depends because in some instances we like with

the Laguna Honda we actually organized with them with that facility to bring ballots to those voters at that site so

they're not they're not requesting as much as we're bringing the service to them if they want it um but it depends

on the election we might get 100 200 okay so it it is only available on the last week of for the most part I mean if

someone really had I mean people can also authorize someone else to pick up their ballot for them it's not just uh

their only options and for the Department to to bring a ballot to a voter uh so we do encourage actually

that voters have authorized someone to obtain a ballot and bring it to them and not just call us as the only source of

ballot delivery um but you know someone give us a call we're we're willing listen and work with them if we have to

right um I I do share that with the nonprofit organization that work with

asot tenant as kind of a last resort if people just show up kind of like the

last week of that sometime happen that people just remember oh I need to vote

last minute that they might have uh they would they would just talk to you directly the department and might have

access to this kind of option especially for elders that have mobility issues

that they basically uh basically is the most concern of U their voting access

but yeah thank you so much think that's it for my end thank you commissioner Wong

commissioner D thank you president Stone um love to see all the work that you're

doing to work on language access and also um all the pr and all the press

releases that are going out to keep everyone up to date on what the um Department's doing

um I was curious um I saw in your report that you mentioned that if someone requests you know a a voter information

P Pamplin in a different language that that's sent in addition to the one that

they already received in English is there a process to kind of Auto opt out

of the English once they've selected um a language or will they always get sent

to they can opt out of receiving the English VIP in the mail and in receive a

link email to them or just uh receive a postcard if they don't want want us to email them anything uh and then they

could remain opt in for the hard copy language book if they wanted so it is

they can make a decision um yeah I'm just wondering if if uh if there's any attempt to kind of

automatically I mean once they've opted in for the for the preferred language is there kind of a note saying did you know

you can opt out of the receiving the English one because presumably if they've chosen a different

language that they maybe won't need the English one moving forward so those voters are receiving the same information as all other voters about

opting out so we don't exclude them from the messaging around opting out okay uh so uh and the difference with the

English VIP is that the legal tax is included in that addition the legal tax is not included in the the language VIPs

nor are the paid arguments the paid arguments can be received upon request but it's only in the English VIP that

the paid arguments and legal texts are contained u in the in the addition as

it's delivered to the voters okay um yeah I was just looking if there

was an opportunity to further reduce the um the mailings but if it if they're not

actually identical then I could see making them proactively say they don't want it um another question is just a

clarification you mentioned that um once the election starts that you'll be publishing the ballots left account the

number on the homepage will you also do some kind of running percentage is that um something that can

be done I don't think so and the reason is we don't know the percentage uh probably until later in the first week

and so I don't want to be throwing percentages up on the website and then it it changes because we receive 10,000

ballot from the post office that have Val postmarks then it's well the ctions is adding votes to to the count so we'll

indicate on daily press releases uh how many ballots are left to count the sources of those ballots if we received

any from the post office uh so we'll we'll provide this the storyline of

where we are in the processing but I don't want to put a percent to count on the on the website I think that would be

misleading okay fair enough um and on the kind of marketing of of the

education and Outreach campaign um love that you're doing in all kinds of different places I've been observing

them on bus shelters and things um does the department actually pay for City ad

space like like the bus shelters and things that are owned by the city do does that actually come out of the

Department's budget is it yes okay yeah the so the the shelters

the structures I guess they're owned by the city I don't even know I assume that they are uh but the advertising attached

those shelters is not owned by the city so there's a vendor that that does the advertising It's associated with those

shelters okay yeah I was just curious whether it's some kind of you know in

interde Department transfer or if we're actually paying a third party but it sounds like we're actually paying a third party in these correct got it and

then um does the department take advantage of you know Public Service ads

that might be free um in in we do and we have uh this elction I don't know if we

are uh we have we have our PID ads but certainly we have in the past yeah okay

great and then this probably just got left off of the report because it was right at the end um it was missing the

number of um Outreach events for sd11 so I don't know if you know that off the top of your head but I would imag number

yeah I would imagine sd11 is probably one of the uh ones that needs more Outreach so I was just curious if you

could get us that number I'd be curious what it is thank you

thank you commissioner D commissioner bernholz commissioner Lei

nothing okay um I just had a couple uh quick quick questions um I was or

comments I was excited by the uh update to the homepage um to feature the

clickable invitation to view preliminary election results I think that's great um

so excited about that uh you I'm thank you for mentioning the registration

deadline I was actually going to ask you that exact question um and then can you

just speak to what that means for outreach events so are you still does is

are you still continuing I assume not doing can yeah can you just talk about with the deadline on Monday what that

means for outreach in terms of registration and then just one quick call out which was just to say that's

really awesome about the number of registered voters also because the population of San Francisco has actually gone down um so it it actually it's not

just that you know it's not Apples to Apples of previous years it actually shows the tremendous efforts of the

department to register more people to vote so um I just wanted to make a quick kind of caveat to the comment um and

offer some praise uh but yeah can you can to speak to the registration Outreach events well it changes the storyline

because people can't won't receiving ballots in the mail that's that's the main change but as far as uh

wherever we're invited and wh we can go we still will show up still do it yeah through election day yeah it it starts

to really slow down as you get towards that that final weekend when it comes to outreach as far as requests are

concerned okay so it just kind of you'll continue doing it but it just kind of naturally dial down cool thank you um

and then just about the Emergency Services piece I imagine that you know

it seems like that's kind of like a last resort um is that is that a fair I mean

if you only have capacity to be able to assist 100 to 200 voters I just want to make sure that we're not overburdening

the department um and so I assume there are nonprofits that you also partner with office of Civic engagement that

could provide alternatives to the department providing the emergency um the Emergency Services can

you just speak to that of kind of how you know now that we're this is a topic of conversation I just want to be

careful about not inundating the department with requests and also you outlining Alternatives of organizations

um that uh and and Partnerships that can provide Alternatives such as you know

signing authorizing someone else to deliver your their vote can you just talk through what those options are well

we don't partner with other organizations regarding picking up

ballots but educating folks that they can do that we we make it known if people contact us especially that what

their options are uh and we we try to if there's someone if if they're not alone in the household for instance we really

would encourage that someone that other person or other people in the household would be authorized to pick up the

ballot and potentially bring the ballot and mail it back um we do have resources

to deliver ballots and to pick up ballots but they are limited and as we

get closer to election day we have we have less capacity to respond uh we

can't do like large orders uh for emergency ballots like we can't we can't

replace the post office you know so if people haven't have need a replacement

ballot Ely they're not going to wait to the to the very end but at the same time we do what we can and uh you know we try

to make sure everyone that needs needs a ballot receives a ballot and we try to work through the solutions but we don't

partner with other or organizations or agencies uh we try to you know stay as

independent as possible when it comes to providing ballots and receiving ballots from voters uh but uh as always just

like I was saying at during the beginning of my report the the number of ballots that we receiv received at this point is light for a presidential

election at this point um that means that uh we'll likely have a large number of ballots come to towards towards the

end yeah that's unfortunate for voters that wait and they they have an issue with their ballot they need to replace

ballot uh we were getting more then we'll be getting more phone calls we'll have more stress in our resources uh so

earlier that people attend to these issues regarding their ballots the better and the more able we are to to

support them directly but again like as you referenced it is better if people

have folks that they can authorize to assist them to receive their ballots

thank you okay thank you director ARS for the

report you're welcome let's move to public comment

yes um sorry just bear with us for one moment we have one other comment from a

commissioner yes commissioner Wong yeah sure deada thing going into the emergency ballot delivery options is

that by authorizing a nonprofit to deliver um a ballots can be a very

sensitive issue so I you know um director AR and I we talked about it um

because those organization usually endorse or oppose ballot measures or in

candidate sometimes so I tried not to do that right like as a department so

that's why you know I think getting the education there through those organization is okay just for their

education overall um but I just want to be condent to working with them on on

delivering and obtaining ballots that we both express some concerns about and I

do agree with Al even the Optics of doing that so yeah just wanted to provide that um perspective um and I

think my uh approach has always been just boosting voter education for S

tenants and voters that might have had issues accessing ballots in the past but

hopefully this time we had some resolution in place and I guess the emergency ballot delivery is mainly for

um public education like people know there's an option out there that said um

director ARS also told me about the limiting resources that the department has and especially toward the end of the

election dates so I also FL that to the nonprofit who might be getting to word I

like don't rely on that that would be an absolute last resort to do and hopefully

only apply to people that really do not have any person like say like um Elders

living by them themselves that definitely would would be an exemption so I also make clear of that um so we

can be aware of the department resources too yeah just want to provide that perspective thank you thank you

commissioner Wong we'll move to public comment now just bear with us while we pull up the

timer uh what won't be on the ballot is something that director orence had taken

off a couple weeks ago the state of California usually puts it to us they

take away our powers they're just about taking away all of our management of our property here but they did one good

thing they made a law that said that if uh you give a whole bunch of money to

back a proposition and you're buying all kinds of propositions uh uh you have to

put your name on them but uh the people the billionaires who are buying all

these things didn't want their names on them and so they had their lawyers at least at the state level put well give

the local municipalities a chance to opt out that we don't have to ID them right John and so John went before the rules

committee and said let's opt out let's not identify our billionaires on these things because it'll take up too much

paper so that won't be there ballots ballots ballots are you still washing

the lids of the ballot boxes off on the pier ended up all the way up to Stenson

Beach they had them over the bar the what happened to 2 million counterfeit ballots your immediate predic

Tammy hey good bought 2 million ballots out of state might have even even been in British Columbia remember that they

must have been in the garage when you got here uh she got fired over three of them in two years the uh you still got

those uh uh the uh Washington Lids proprietary secrets we got a secret we

don't get to know the billionaires uh uh who are paying for those propositions John got him REM removed proprietary

codee you don't know how your boats are counted because it's proprietary let me give you an example of uh of what what

the what you can do with those machines and it's been done the uh you can program this machine to say hey if the

mayor uh if lurry gets uh uh 10,000 votes ahead of the mayor count every

other lury first place vote for the mayor until the mayor gets a th ahead

and then when it's all over and the mayor wins in the 10th round erase this command you can do that with the

proprietary machine we're sitting on those machines here I'm not saying they're happening I mean I've had some

questions about uh uh some races I I don't think think uh it amazed me that

uh uh uh that breed was able to beat Preston in the district with 75% renters

when he was the top rental lawyer in the state just lucky I guess thank you

great thank you um director ARS that closes agenda item

number four we'll move to agenda item number five Commissioners reports discussion and possible action on Commissioners reports for topics not

covered by another item on this agenda meetings with public officials oversight and observation activities long range

planning for commission activities and areas of study proposed legislation which affect elections and

others yes commissioner D yeah this will be quick um I just uh

wanted to add to some rank Choice voting education resources that um uh wor

sharing there was a article that came out in the Kon a couple days ago um

about um uh it was uh a poll on which was the best San Francisco event and it

was it's basically a test that their uh data Specialists there did to see if you

could game rank Choice voting and so um so it was very I think informative for

people who might might have worried uh about that because they're used to voting strategically and anyway through

the process of the article she shows how it's probably not in your best interest to try to gain rank Choice voting but in

fact to express your true intent um so I thought that was u a pretty helpful and

elucidating article so look for that it was called a poll for the best SF

event um and then the other thing that came out in the last couple of months uh that I just had the opportunity to see

recently is a new documentary called majority rules that is about um it's the

story of the uh the new voting system in Alaska that employs a combination of

open primaries and a top four rank Choice voting um election uh and it's a

it's actually really entertaining and fascinating uh the filmmaker you know got former Governor Sarah Palin on there

um Senator Lisa marowski and then uh other candidates uh and kind of capture

the whole thing from what they thought about rank Choice voting in the beginning and and what the party's

attitudes were and how they changed as um people actually exercised their first

time using the system and saw the results and how it's actually changed the legislature there um so it's really

worth seeing uh you it's streaming I think on most major platforms now and you can also find out more information

at majorityrules film.com but yeah where's where's the hour and a half of

your time thank you commissioner D I'd be curious to know who produced that film

was it an RCV advocacy organization or or do you know um I know it's an

independent filmmaker I'm not sure um who yeah um I know that certainly there

are organizations like rank the vote that have been doing showings of the of the film but it's pretty um you know

it's pretty objective I mean that the the filmmaker just went in and wanted to tell a story and um and it's great I

mean he captures he's like walking with candidates when they started knocking on everyone's doors instead of just doors

of you know people they knew would vote for them and things like that and how it really changed the Dynamics

thank you thank you commissioner D any

other okay I will share mine um so in the last meeting last month's meeting

we'd uh mentioned or I'd mentioned that I would be reviewing the process

previous previously proposed for reviewing the performance of the

commission secretary um and I said I would provide an update during this meeting uh so

ahead of the meeting I did that I reviewed the previous proposal I looked at past years um I uh also reread our

bylaws um and wanted to share kind of an update on that process and so since the

secretary does report into the president um and also

I work very very closely with the secretary um and so I have the most insight into working with her I've

decided that it makes best sense for me to conduct the performance evaluation with your input um I do have you know um

uh like I said I do have a unique vantage point because of how I work with the secretary um that I think the rest

of the commission doesn't have however it's very important that um you know that you are welcome to share your

comments and feedback should you have any and I will take those into consideration when providing a review of the secretary um my only ask is that

when you provide comments you refer to the bylaws section or article 4 section

two uh which explicitly States what the commission secretary's responsibilities

are um so just a quick recap I did a review I looked at the bylaws uh I will

be conducting the performance review oh the only other thing sorry that I didn't mention is that that will happen at the

end of the year which is also what was in the bylaws um so uh that will kind of

coincide with the end of my term as president um so let me start over so I

did a review of the bylaws previous proposals I took into consideration the

working dynamic between the secretary myself and the rest of the commission I decided it made best sense for me to

conduct the per performance evaluation but uh open for input from all members

of the commission to provide their feedback about the performance of the secretary uh but specifically based on

the requirements of the job outlined on article 4 section two of the commission

bylaws I will open it up for any questions that folks have

do any Commissioners have any um questions I'd just ask that if members of the public have comments they uh they

uh incorporate those in the in the section when we ask for public

comment yes vice president Parker um thank you for that for doing

the review and sharing your um what you learned and have recommended to us us um

so if this is the end of the calendar year will you let us know what the process is if we have any feedback we want to share later or um do you want to

share now if we have anything we want to contribute oh the process for us

sharing anything oh you can share that via email um that uh that

um that feedback should not be provided in public setting that should be provided you know via email uh I'm

available on the phone I would prefer email um but uh phone excuse me but

email is would be fine just please provide it directly to me um and then

I'd be happy to answer any other questions you have on the other end of

that vice president Parker did you have any other questions or um just timeline

if you said the end of the year is there in time you would want any feedback by I probably will begin that proc like I'll

probably uh connect with secretary Davis in December um so you have plenty of

time to provide feedback and that way it really is reflective of the rest of the year president Stone if I may um I am

going to check with my uh colleagues in the labor um team because

I'm just trying to determine how this is done in other commissions um whether it

has to to be a closed session matter where all you are present um to avoid a serri atam meeting um but I wouldn't

they would only be providing it to me it it it doesn't I mean it's we've done that with John with the director's

performance over the last three years we've had a close session item where we discussed all these items um but it

wouldn't be something we're taking action on so if if I we can talk about it if I may I just want to make sure

that that's the process that other commissions follow um if that's the process that they follow then perfectly

fine um but I just thought I'd chime in yeah thank you um and I should have just

waited and we could talk about it offline um thank you commissioner D oh I

should uh cancel that because vice president par asked the question I had which is by what date you would want

this feedback yeah I my goal was to make this pretty informal um honestly I I

didn't feel that it was fair to the secretary to approach it differently um I do have

that very like obviously you all interact with the secretary uh from time to time between meetings but most of the

time it's once a month whereas I'm interacting with her daily um and so my

goal was to make it really easy for all of you pending uh DCA flores's um discussion

with labor um but so that is a long-winded way of saying you know you

have plenty of time I wanted to tell you now so that you had time to share your

comments are you raising your hand yes commissioner ly

um DCS Flores I'd like to know when you'll get back to us about um

whether this process is what other

will you get back to us via email or the next meeting um yes I can provide that um advice um in attorney client

privileged communication um via email okay um but either way um I should be

able to get back to you by the end of this week so that you don't so that you know you can continue on the process

either way okay yeah I mean I you also be sharing that with me directly okay

thank you thank you yes and then you know you could let them thank you thank

you anyone

else okay let's move to public

comment lady I hope you're Civil Service yeah yeah the uh stal Stalin was

a EXC me would you mind directing your questions to the to no individual I said

lady there could be any of seven people I hope you're all Civil

Service would please proceed Stalin uh uh was a bank robber and a murderer uh

that was his uh long end he he didn't take any prisoners he made a lot of money by by doing that and so uh when

they tried to find a position for him said uh you're a tough guy so you take attendance we'll we'll let you do that

uh secretary didn't seem like uh much of a job then uh but uh uh Joe did all

right with it uh he had everybody's addresses you know what he said about voting he said I don't care how many

people vote I don't care how they vote all I care John is who counts the votes

we've got proprietary voting system in San Francisco I've got them in 28 States

actually uh dominions they can be hacked a kid in Vegas about 10 years ago a 12y

old kid took a Florida Dominion voting machine hacked it in 10 minutes and

Chang the outcome of the state race this is not a good system that year after

year decade after decades San Francisco is stuck with with with this proprietary

Source it's it's sinful and where are the 2 million uh

counterfeit ballots that Willie had Tammy Hagood make did you get rid of

that I know there was never any disposition of those uh announced I mean with those stand standby uh ballots for

for fixing things I'm sorry to be uh so hard on you tonight folks but uh there's

only one person here and I speak for uh 800,000 uh San franciscans uh we need a

fair vote I spent six years in the military and 5 years as a firefighter I

wore the American flag on my sleeve for 11 years and I would have died for it I'll die for my fellow tenants now uh I

deserve an honest vote we all deserve an honest vote we all deserve a transparent

vote John orang has been standing in the way of that for 20 years thank

you thank you and any other

comments thank you secretary Davis that closes agenda item number five we'll

move to agenda item number six cast vote records policy discussion and possible

action on the San Francisco elections commission's potential position on state-based policy or Le legislative

changes affecting San Francisco's practice of releasing cast vote records prior to election

certification Commission commer D I will um hand it to you as I know this was your agenda item thank you president

Stone uh so just for the benefit of the public um just go over the attachments

the first two are just links to the record on SB 1328 which was uh the

bill uh that was discussed that um in the previous couple of meetings that

just uh was was supposed to be a clean Bill to fix some technicalities in the

uh election code and um as I was trying to clarify

um for the um correction in the minutes is the controversy was not over the bill

itself but a proposed amendment uh that came from the Secretary of State's

office uh ultimately this amendment did not make it into the final version of

the bill the bill itself and if you can click on the history of the bill has now

become law was signed by the governor um but um uh thanks to um Mr

Stephen Hill who's appeared before this Commission in the past um he shared with

us his conversation his email discussion with uh Senator Bradford um the major

sponsor this bill uh with the legislative director uh just confirming

that in fact this had been taken out but um that what they had heard from the

Secretary of State's office that of her intention to to bring it up at some future point

and um just this background uh there's a link here to uh

San Francisco Chronicle article which uh goes into some detail about the vote tabulation error that uh um miss Karen

butter brought up as public comment at our last meeting so um that's just an

explanation of what's there um I um wanted to give the rest of

the commission a chance to discuss this uh since you know San Francisco has had

a long history of transparency to uh deal with um some of the concerns that

uh Mr Brown for example has brought up today uh including uh publishing the

actual IM Imes of the ballots that have been cast uh and in trying to do this as

soon as practicable after um votes are counted and the proposed amendment would

have actually banned it from being published for 30 days and in fact as

Miss butter had mentioned would actually have made it a felony to publish it any sooner than that which does run counter

to um this uh Election Department and this Commission I's policy on

transparency and so um my suggestion uh which had started to talk

about um at a previous meeting was simply to uh send an inquiry into the secretary

estate and uh maybe share some of our practices and our policy on transparency

and why we think it's important uh and then ask what um what

the plans might be for reintroducing U such

a uh measure in future legislation uh just to start the

conversation thank you commissioner d

if there are no comments I'll jump in so oh go ahead vice president

Parker um if you'd like to go first you you can go for um you know was thinking

back to our last discussion I think it was in August um about this um and one

of the things that I think we talked about that I am still curious to understand and you know and and do think

it would be good to have some sort of dialogue with the office is what their perspective is why are they what is

their intention behind it um to understand where they're coming from um and then also to remind us that um we

need to stay focused on what San Francisco needs to do you know not get too caught up in you know sort of

Statewide um issues but to stay focused on what's best for us which includes the TR the history and the values we have

around transparency and that as this you know moves forward we would uh want to

be considered and included so that we can continue to uphold that value here in San Francisco so but kind of the

again the first part of that in my opinion is understanding what their intentions are and if they if they're fully considering the implications on

other counties like San Francisco who do have a a strong value um in this way um

I think the other thing that we brought up was um and I don't I don't know that we could determine this until we know

what shape this would take from the Secretary of State but was um whether we

could opt out whatever future thing was because we're a charter city um but I don't think we can know that until we

know what shape it's going to take you know thus the conversation to find out would be helpful um you know what the

intention is from the Secretary of State's office but those

thoughts thank you vice president Parker um I will I'll jump in so I

reviewed I did some Outreach and reviewed our bylaws as well um obviously

I reviewed them for the previous agenda item but then also just took a look at our our bylaws as a refresher um and did

some you know I read through this uh commissioner D had alerted me to this months ago and so um I did some

additional research I also spoke with director Arns um about this uh and some

other folks so so you know I there are a few things on my mind first of all the Secretary of

State doesn't have the authority to do to pass law that would affect San

Francisco um and so they secretary Weber

isn't going to do it would have to go through the state legislature um it wouldn't go through secretary Weber she

doesn't have that um oversight or authority or she doesn't have that authority over how the San Francisco

Department of election conducts its elections or uh ad or rather administers

certain policies um and so it actually isn't an issue for us because we do uh

continue to do the transparency if it became an issue on um on the docket for

the state legislature there are Avenues within the city that we could employ uh

it's different tactics we could employ to Advocate to our representatives in Sacramento uh on the behalf of of the

elections commission but at this point it's mostly just the word of this one

Aid in communication with an advocate uh asking

us to write a letter uh or to well and the ask In This Moment is for us to

reach out to the Secretary of State about something based on that um and so I even though the fact even though she

doesn't have any authority over that for us it's really the state legisl so at

this point I don't think that it actually makes sense for us to get involved um if the if it does uh become

a topic on the on the um on the Slate of

items for the legislature you know I think that could be a time when we bring

this back up um and I also know that you know the commissioner or whatever the

title is in Alan had reached out but San Francisco isn't Alam um and I don't think that we should

be advocating for anything on behalf of another jurisdiction uh they have very specific

issues um that are specific to uh that registar uh and that commission and even

today I believe uh the city council or excuse me the council supervisors uh in

Alam already just required that the registar release C vot records against

the based on the wishes of the commission including Miss Butters uh against the wishes of the regist and

there are specific reasons for that which I did do some research into um so

long story short secretary Weber doesn't have the authority to do this it's not

uh we don't have any sort of indication that this is something that is going to be taken up by the legislature who would

have the authority it isn't an issue for San Francisco at this time and I don't think that it is in the best interest of

the elections commission to be advocating um or or indicating advocacy

on a matter that draws more attention to it than it does um actually uh uh uh

advocate in favor of transparency we already have transparency so that is my take

any other Commissioners have thoughts on this commissioner

Wong um I think I hear both sides you know it is not an immediate it doesn't

have an immediate impact on SF transparency policy at the moment but I

do agree with vice president Parker perhaps not have a specific

demount but more so like inquiry to ask about the perspective and intention

behind um this bill just for our own knowledge and maybe the uh for the

benefit of the public as well just for clarification but I agree I do agree

with the timing and whether or not we should send it right now so I think

perhaps we can do more research on this just to see you know what kind of

substances we want to really asked about this um measure and then you're right

about Alam County that the city council also just passed the bill which I think

is great for Al Al County but I don't think by sing that inquiry that

necessarily uh um imp implicate that we are advocating on behalf of other

counties per se because that's not what where I think uh commissioner D is

coming from but it is just for context as to why this became a controversial issue um in our neighboring County so I

think context matters just want to clarify I don't think we're advocating for other counties that we do not have

jurisdiction to um on but yeah I think maybe just maybe we can talk about

timing I do think that it is crucial for us to look into this as a preemptive

preventive measure in case uh it got reintroduced um at the state senate

next year um but I think the timing could be crucial so for now I I do agree

we should focus on um upcoming election perhaps not this policy but like I

appreciate commission as I um communication with nonprofits and just getting getting us you know um a

perspective you know before it is too late sometimes these things just happen really quickly in sacramental um so yeah

I I truly appreciate that but the timing might not be appropriate at this moment

yeah commissioner bernholz I can't see so oh I got it thank you no commissioner

bernholz says no commissioner ly

no yes commissioner D yeah thank you for the input um I also

agreed this is not urgent um what you know was urgent was when it looked like

it was going to get inserted into the bill um and then obviously that that didn't happen so um I agree we have more

important things to work on right now um I do think we should continue to monitor

this and uh thank you commissioner Wong for um correctly stating that I was not

at all um you know intending that we should Advocate on behalf of alam that

was not my point um it's just uh you

know as another independent County that has an independent elections commission that also happens to use rank Choice

voting you know they have some similarities to us and uh they obviously had a big boo boo in their County that

we have not so um so they as a new commission you know have also been

looking to to us so that again it's just context but to me I see this more as an

opportunity um to educate uh because whatever the intentions are behind this

uh we can only speculate as vice president Parker said we don't really know and probably we won't know unless

we ask um but you know I would think that after this election is over and

after we as usual publish all the valet images and you know put out our you know

our our um uh cast vote record report you know

quickly that um the timing might be good you know after that point to point out

yet again San Francisco publish its you know CVR report you know 10 days after

the election and you know once again unlike any other County actually publish

the ballot images and here's why we do it you know it allows um

organizations you know whether they be partisan or nonpartisan it allows anyone

any member of the public to go back and verify for themselves that our election was in fact free and fair and address

the kind of concerns that that we've heard tonight from a member of the public um and uh also the other point

that I think is really important that vice president Parker brought up is that as a charter City we believe this is the

right you know policy for San Francisco and that we would hope in any proposal

that goes you know to the state legislature in the future that as a

charter City that we would you know be able to continue to develop the policies that we think are best for San Francisco

um and so to me that's really more um about educating because I do believe

that we're kind of advanced in what we do in this level of transparency um and

it would be helpful to to share that with with the Secretary of State's office and just make sure they're aware

of what our policies and why we do it and why we think it's a

benefit thank you commissioner

D appreciate you bringing our attention to the this

issue Let's uh if there are no other comments let's move to public

comment we actually have someone in person um

so and just a reminder to not address anyone by directly and to stay on the um

item the agenda item that we're talking about y all don't like uh secretary we

huh she blames you for uh or they not being open source in San Francisco just

one moment we don't have the timer up okay go ahead secretary Weber blames

you for their not being open source in San Francisco I read over a few of your

uh your records uh before I came in today and I noticed that uh you've

managed to take open source and push it down into a section below the uh feed

the pigs and uh and take out the ducks or something uh it's not it's not on

your front burner anymore is it and what you've got is a system here that

cheats millions of people have died for democracy it all gets down to the

polling Booth if I pull that lover and vote I want my vote to go for the person

that I wanted to vote for okay uh this proprietary algorithm does not do that

it offers the opportunity for cheating as a matter of fact uh the the One release that they had of one of these

things uh experts went into it and they said hell it's not only screwed up you could fix the election from a computer

in Moscow you know you don't want that you want open source uh let me take a

last minute to sing Al jolson's uh Go Away song He said my dad would never preach

to me facts he'd never teach to me the different things a man should know to

make his life goes smooth in fact he said go on alone you have ideas of your

own or leave me son before life's done a better man you'll be and then one day to my surprise he changed his stand before

my eyes when I went to say that I was going to other lands to live and as I

turned to say goodbye I saw a tear for him in his eye said he my lad well that's too bad I've some advice to give

always leave them laughing when you say

goodbye never linger long about or else you where you're welcome out when

they're laughing good you know that's the time to turn and go always leave

them laughing when you say goodbye take it easy

folks thank you move to public comment

online Mr Hill are you there yes can you hear me yes let me start the timer for

you you're good to go how long is do I have three minutes thank you uh my name

is Stephen Hill resident of San Francisco um lections consultant with Fair vote and been involved in rank

Choice voting in San Francisco for many years um about the uh situation with the

Secretary of State there's some background information that you may not be aware of um you know the I was in

conversation with the Secretary of State's office for um about SB 1328 and

everything was really going fine everyone was on the same page and then it was very suddenly that uh I was told

by Senator Bradford's office that the secretary of state was asking for a ban on all release of cvrs within 30 days

before the certification of an election it came up very very quickly in the legislative process it was really hard

to mobilize at that point um fortunately we had a senator and and it wasn't just

an aid to the senator uh it was the legisl director of the senator who was

responsive and understood the idea that uh Charter counties and cities do have a

a degree of home rule on Election matters and that um there should be um some respect for home rule when it comes

to each County uh deciding its own home um CVR policy and and so uh but in this

process we did get a letter from Senator Bradford's office about the intent of SP 1328 they made it very clear that

secretary state is going to return to this issue in 2025 legislatively it's

not just a discussion the secretary state is looking to pass a law that

would put certain rules around this and unfortunately at this point the Secretary of State's office has quit

really discussing what their thoughts are so we have really no way of knowing um and you know no one has put more time

into this issue than I have over the last several months it would be extremely helpful to have a letter from

the San Francisco elections commission as well as the Alama County elections commission and other people as well to

the Secretary of State's office just simply asking it doesn't have to take a position just simply asking what are you

thinking about this issue where do you are you thinking about going with it our city our county is using uh you know has

a policy in place now and of course we have a vested interest in uh

understanding what you might be thinking of changing how we may or may not uh have to follow whatever policy you're

coming up with um and and so I think being sort of at the table at least in

terms of communication with the Secretary of State early uh rather than

late is going to be advantageous to make sure there are no surprises um as I said it's not a matter of taking a position

it's just a matter of saying hey we're here we're already doing uh certain things with our CVR policy we want to be

apprised of what you're thinking so that we can uh be aware of of of how we may have to adjust things so that's what

would really be helpful at this point um there's no rush on it of course the session won't start again until January

but at that point um it to have a letter into them before then would be extremely

helpful for those of us who are trying to have this conversation and make sure nothing untoward happens with this

policy thank you thank

you no other public commenters okay thank you uh secretary Davis that closes agenda

item number six uh we'll move to agenda item number seven agenda items for

future meetings discussion and possible action regarding items for future

agendas don't I'll rush to it commissioner D yeah so I I think um

after the election it would be appropriate to um maybe consider sending

sending an inquiry um and in the context of the election that had just happened

and like I said what we actually did in this last election it could be timely

and it would be before the 2025 session

so should we put this on the agenda for next time Well I this President don't I

make the agenda um and I will take that into consideration thank

you just one thing to note about that is that we won't be reviewing the election

plan until or the post elction review until December

sure thank you commissioner D yep commissioner Wong yeah uh so yeah I was about to ask

when are we going to review the elections because I'm going to take a vacation actually in December and I might not be able to

attend the meeting in December so just want to check in with my fellow Commissioners and see um if others also

have travel plans since it is toward the end of the year if it is just me that's

completely fine please please you know go ahead without you know my presence but just want to double check because

I'm sure you know most people want to be here to examine and reveal the elections

result I can't speak to other Commissioners but I can just tell you one quick thing about that um secretary Davis and I

earlier this year looked at the timing of the holidays um because in years past

that had been an issue uh of it being like directly up against the holidays

for both November and December um if you celebrate those holidays um and we

didn't move the December neither actually we didn't move either meetings um because they both were not within

that that uh time period um but that doesn't speak to Commissioners availability that's just to answer the

uh part about us not having proactively moved the meeting but we did look into

it I can speak for myself that I unfortunately am not available earlier

um in in December um I unfortunately can't move um my plans for personal

reasons um for those first two weeks of December unfortunately I'm

sorry other Commissioners want to comment on the scheduling

ask yes commissioner uh well to other Commissioners who haven't commented on

this have okay commissioner D yeah I was just going to say maybe at the next meeting

we should just check on whether we will have a quorum or not for December can

just see I would prefer that we do that now because if we can't meet in December

we won't be able to review the post elction plan and I won't even be able to schedule a room um because people so if

if people aren't planning to come in December I mean I think we talked about this earlier in the year we need need to know as soon as possible

um okay vice president Parker yeah I think the earlier we make

these decisions the better um for all those reasons um I will be available during the already scheduled times um so

if we were to look at other dates then I would need to check my calendar but I currently have both of our November and December dates available and planning to

attend our meeting thank you um commissioner D do you have

concerns that you wouldn't um my plans in December are a little fluid but I always put the

elections Commission on my calendar and try to avoid those dates Thanks okay

sorry commissioner Wong you will be

missed um safe travels um any other

items for discussion for to people would like to have

okay let's move to public

comment okay that closes agenda item number 7 The Time Is Now 7:27 p.m. and

the meeting is adjourned