HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 01161996 - D.1 VA
TO: , POARD OF SUPERVISORS CA.JI I}
ra
.-
' Stephen L Weir, County Clerk/Recorder ,
FROM: r Costa
DATE: January 3 , 1996 CO^
SUBJECT: `" NOVEMBER,.7',.'_1995. ELECTION. & ,
MARCH .2 6,_ 1996 PRIMARY. -ELECTION,-%'
SPECIFIC REQUESTS) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATIONS•
PROPOSE, pursuant to November 7, 1995 Election, legislation to change section 3017
of`' the Elections Code to allow an absent voter who is unable to return the ballot
.to designate ,,anotherpersoni for°return the ballot (see attached report) .
PROPOSE, pursuant "to 'November 7_; ' 1995 -Election;, for change section ,,14.284 of the
Elections' Code ' to : allow :election',s. official to.'-,count voter:'s} ba�llaot as they
pertain to proper marking devices (see attached..report),. z
PROPOSE,,,pursuant to November 7, 1995 Election,. .to redesign absentee applications
oto i-nstruct voter to 'sign absentee returned, envelope and- print,;residehce address
as-' regi'ste'red in the space provided (see. attached;,report)'.
PROPOSE, ;pwrsuant:'.ao March, 2,6, , 1.996: Primary-Elect�ion, to restructure and increase
the Election's office staff to implement. unanticipated qualification_ of two new
political parties. . . (see attached report) .
PROPOSE';-' "pursuant to March 26, 1996 Primary Election to upgrade the existing
,computer system-;and-.p irchase,additional computer equipment (see attached report) .
BACKGROUND:
}
PURSUANT"to November 7, ` 1995 Election, current ..law._ only al lows a voter,to-.:r,eturn
,his./her absentee ballot to the polling place on election day,�,.,or-"to th'e-='Eiec`,tions
office (see., attached report) .
PURSUANT to November 7, 1995 Election, current law,only:,allows the election's
official to count,, the.,precinct ballot .when. voter..uses- marking,-device.-provided by
slaw {see;, attachedt>,report)
PURSUANT TO November 7, 1995 Election, the design of the Elections off ice.absentee
application does not state that the voter must sign and print his/her residence
address a`s stated on his/her affidavit (see attached report) .
PURSUANT to March , 26, 1996 Primary Election, :the . qualification of ?two new
,political parties to- `participate in the .March -26,; 199„6 Presidential Primary
Election was not anticipated by the Electi'on's --Office (see :>attached report) .
PURSUANT to March 26, 1996 Primary Election, with the new procedures�in'-which the
}El'ections Office must process absentee ballots,: workload will be increased (see
,,attached report) .
CON ATTACHMENT: YES ' SIGNATURE:o
G. 0.
RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDA ION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
APPROVE OTHER
SIGNATURE(S),. :
ACTION OF BOARD ON anuary 16 ,,7996 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED';.;2OTHER X_
See Addendum for discussion' and motions, ;�_nd Board' action=.. -
i^ VOTE:OF SUPERVISORS
X: UNANdM;0U8_:(AB.SENT 5 ) d.HEREBY. CERTIFY THAT THISAS A TRUE'
” AYESr N"OES:' `'AND CORRECT COPY OF AN*ACTION TAKEN
ABSENTi A'BSTAINs AND ENTERED`-ONTHE MINUTES dF THE BOARD
OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN.
;CC: County, Administrator, ATTESTED January 16 , 1996
County Clerk=Elecxions 4: Qhll.6atghelor,gerk,Otthe Board of
rVISM and my Administrator _ F , ._
M332/7•03 BY DEPUTY
ADDENDUM TO ITEM D. 1
JANUARY 16, 1996
Steve Weir, County Clerk, presented the staff report on this
matter.
The following persons presented testimony:
Ernie Scherer, 4056 Greenwich Drive, San Ramon, spoke in
opposition to the proposal relative to an absent voter who is
unable to return the ballot being able to designate another
person. to return the ballot .
Mike Arata, 589 Bobbie Drive, Danville, representing San
Ramon Valley Citizens Opposing Unreasonable New Taxes, spoke on
issues including Measure C, his opposition to that measure, and
he commented on written material he had presented. Mr. Arata
also expressed his agreements and disagreements with Mr. Weir' s
report .
Supervisor Bishop moved the recommendations of the Elections
Department, and she commented on the Measure C election process .
Supervisor Rogers requested clarification on recommendation
no. 3 of the report .
Mr. Weir responded to Supervisor Roger' s questions .
Supervisor Rogers expressed reservation about having to
write out the address invalidating the ballot, and setting up
systems to put more requirements on the voters .
Supervisor Bishop withdrew her motion because she did not
want to require the printing of the address .
Supervisor Rogers requested clarification on the marking
instrument used for voting.
Mr. Weir responded to Supervisor Rogers request .
Supervisor Bishop suggested deleting the part of the
recommendation that required the person to print their residence
address as a registered voter in the space provided and that the
voter simply sign the absentee ballot that has a preprinted
address on it and return it .
Supervisor Smith seconded the motion and clarified that the
motion was to approve all of the staff recommendation except for
paragraph no. 3 to eliminate the wording "and print your
residence address .
Supervisor Bishop concurred.
IT IS BY THE BOARD ORDERED that the recommendations are
APPROVED eliminating in paragraph no. 3 "and print residence
address as registered in the space provided" .
RECOMMENDATIONS:
I. November 7, 1995 Election - San Ramon Measure C
1. PROPOSE legislation to change section 3017 of the Elections
Code to allow an absent voter who, because of illness or other
physical disability, is unable to return the ballot, may designate
any person to return the ballot to the elections official from whom
it came or to the precinct board at any polling place within the
jurisdiction.
2 . PROPOSE legislation to change section 14284 of the Elections
Code to allow the elections official to count a voter's ballot if
the voter has used a pen as long as it can be ascertained from the
marking of the ballot during a manual tally or recount and that a
voter may use a pencil at the polling place should a marking pen
run dry. To provide a temporary solution for the March Primary
Election, the Elections office will order all new marking pens for
every polling place and should these run dry for an unknown reason,
instruct the precinct officer to provide the voter with a no. 2
pencil for marking the ballot and that the precinct officer will be
instructed at the training classes to not dip the dry marking pens
in water and then use them to mark the ballots. In addition, the
precinct officer will be instructed to notify the Elections office
immediately should any of the marking pens run dry during the day
so they can be replaced immediately. The Elections office will
also instruct the precinct officer to post in every voting booth a
notice instructing the voter to use the proper marking device as
provided, otherwise, their vote cannot be counted.
3 . REDESIGN absentee applications to instruct the voter to sign
the absentee returned envelope and print the residence address as
registered in the space provided. This will direct the voter that
he must sign and print his/her residence address as registered on
his affidavit before the ballot can be counted.
II. March 26, 1996 Primary Election
1. RESTRUCTURE AND INCREASE the Elections office staff to
implement the unanticipated qualification of two new political
parties for the March 26, . 1996 Primary Election and implement the
National Voters Registration Act which becomes effective for the
first time. Written procedures are currently underway and have not
yet been established as there are many unclear areas of the law
that have yet to be interpreted by the Secretary of State. We
anticipate the Secretary of State will clarify these areas within
the next month and provide the 58 counties with uniform procedures
as to how we will process absentee and provisional ballots. The
impact of this is unknown other than there will be a need to train
and increases temporary staffing during this period.
1
2. UPGRADE the existing computer system and PURCHASE additional
computer equipment to barcode the absentee applications and
returned absentee ballots to ensure that the Elections office meet
the statutory deadlines to process absentee requests. With the two
additional political parties, the anticipated increase registration
drives and the enactment of the National Voters Registration Act,
the Elections office estimates a projected increase of
approximately 15% to 20% increase in absentee requests. The cost
of this upgrade will be approximately $90, 000. 00 and will be funded
by the revenues received from our 1995 Election.
BACKGROUND
I. November 7, 1995 Election - San Ramon Measure C
1. Current law only allows a voter to return his/her absentee
ballot to. the polling place on election day or to the elections
office. If the voter is unable to return the ballot, he/she may
designate his/her spouse, child parent, grandparent, grandchild,
brother, or sister to return the ballot to the Elections office or
to ny polling place within the jurisdiction before the close of
polls on Election Day. There have been several instances when a
voter has no existing immediate family to assist in returning the
voter's ballot and can only reach a friend or neighbor to assist in
returning the voter's absentee ballot. This does not allow the
Elections office to count the absentee ballot if the absentee
ballot is not returned by an immediate family as specified by law.
Thereby, disenfranchising the voter. The Elections office proposes
to change the current law to allow the voter to authorize anyone
he/she so chooses to return his/her absentee ballot if he/she is
unable to return it himself/herself. I seems only reasonable that
as long as the voter provides written consent designating a person
of their choice to assist him/her in returning his/her ballot on
Election Day that the elections official be allowed to count that
voter's ballot.
2 . Current law only allows the elections official to count the
precinct ballot, if the voter uses the marking device provided by
law. There has been instances where the precinct officer have
provided the marking device to the voter and these devices did not
work. The precinct officer then provided pencils to these voters.
However, voter's do not always understand that when they vote their
ballot, only the use of the marking device or a no. 2 pencil will
read on the card reader and in turn, many voters, out of "habit" ,
will pull from their pocket their own pen. These voters are
probably unaware that the card reader cannot recognize pen marks.
It would seem reasonable that during a manual tally or a recount
that if the elections official can interpret clearly from the mark
on the ballot the intent of the voter that the elections official
be allowed to count their vote. The Elections Office proposes to
2
change this law to allow the elections official to count the
voter's ballot in the situation of a manual tally or recount.
3. Currently, the design of the Elections Office's absentee
application does not state that the voter must sign and print
his/her residence address as stated on his/her affidavit. To
resolve the problems the Elections Office encountered in the
November election, the Elections Office proposes to redesign the
form to clearly instruct the voter that he/she must sign his/her
name and print his/her residence address as registered.
BACKGROUND:
II. March 26, 1996 Primary Election
1. The Elections Office did not anticipate the qualification of
two new political parties to participate in the March 26, 1996
Presidential Primary Election. This will require the Elections
Office to print two additional parties on the ballot. Because this
is a primary election, the addition of these parties on the ballot
will change the anticipated 175 ballot types to 225 ballot types.
This will increase the cost and volume of printing sample ballots
and official ballots by 280. Along with this increase, the
Elections Office will need additional staffing to timely conduct
this election.
With the implementation of the National Voter Registration Act, the
voter registration in this county has increased from 496, 102 to
508, 393 in the past 11 months. However, this does not include the
increase in change of addresses received from the Department of
Motor Vehicles and Agencies designated by the Motor Voter Law.
There has been a steady increase in changes because NVRA requires
the Department of Motor Vehicles and the designated agencies offer
a voter registration card each time a client comes to their office.
There has been approximately 30% increase changes, adds and deletes
of processing voter registration cards. In addition, the Elections
Office anticipates an increase in registration by approximately
10%. This would bring up the registration total from 508, 393 to
approximately 559, 232 voters.
2 . With the new procedures in which the Elections Office must
process absentee ballots, this will increase the workload. In
order to alleviate some of the problems of providing a one day
turnaround for the absentee ballot requests, the Elections Office
proposes to purchase barcoding equipment so absentee applications
can be processed in a timely manner. Currently, the Elections
Office uses from 15 to 20 temporary staff/permanent workers to
process absentee requests. Using the barcoding equipment to
process absentee ballots requests and return absentee ballots will
cut our staff time and processing time by approximately 35%.
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FUNDING•
I. PERSONNEL
Funding for increased personnel staff has not been identified nor
have actual costs. The Clerk should work with the Administrator to
identify costs and source(s) of funding.
II. EQUIPMENT
To be funded by non-general fund Elections Capital Trust Fund.
4
JAMES MICHAEL ARATA, RE: PROPOSED ELECTION LAW CHANGES
It is my understanding that Mr. Weir's report on proposed election law changes has been developed
at the request of Supervisor Bishop, primarily as a consequence of Measure C results in the November 7
election. It should be noted for the record that Supervisor Bishop was a proponent of Measure C, indeed
a ballot statement signatory on behalf of the measure. For those not familiar with it, Measure C was an
$82 million school bond allegedly intended to "construct, improve and rehabilitate school facilities" in the
San Ramon Valley Unified School District. It involved a deferred payback scheme that would have added
some $62 million in additional interest charges, over and above the $82 million principal and $60 million
in regular interest charges. It further involved a number of projects and cost estimates which myself and
others found highly questionable.
Also for the record, I opposed Measure C. Along with Ernie Scherer, I requested the recount which
overturned an apparent Measure C victory which had been declared 2 days after the election, when 657
absentee ballots turned in at the polls were added to the mix, and those had come in more than 5 to 1
against us. With the very first precinct we requested for manual recount, the apparent Measure C victory
was overturned, and Measure C was declared officially by Mr. Weir and Barbara Lee to have lost by 8 votes.
As you are probably all aware, the School District and its School Board members are now seeking to
take back the Measure C election with a court challenge. Mr. Scherer and myself have filed as Cross
Contestants in the action, and will work to preserve the defeat of Measure C.
The document I have placed before you is marked "Exhibit 'H."' It reproduces a portion of the cross-
contestant filing by Mr. Scherer and myself, naming Mr. Weir and Barbara Lee as defendants. Exhibit "H"
illustrates the wide-ranging discrepancies which occurred among the various precinct vote counts, including
our own roster signature count, the initialed Election Department count, when available; the Election
Department adding machine tapes, when available; the precinct-worker voter counts; the number of ballots
in the box, the Election Department's tally of ballots cast; and the total of"yes's" and "no's."
(1) The experience of Mr. Scherer and myself, along with that of 25 other citizen volunteers who
reviewed various election records subsequent to the Measure C election, indicates that at two out of three
of the principal reforms suggested by Mr. Weir should be resected. We certainly agree that all who return
absentee ballots must be required to personally affix their own residence addresses, and we believe that
already to be the requirement under Elections Code § 3011.
A number of absentee voters who did affix their current residence addresses turn out to have moved
long ago from the address where they are registered to vote. Yet those absentee ballots were among those
admitted and counted by Assistant Registrar Lee, with Mr. Weir observing, on December 6, the final day of
the Measure C recount. Staff personnel at the Elections Department had properly removed these ballots
from the mix, per Elections Code § 2116 and § 3011. But Mr. Weir and Ms. Lee, following a demand by
counsel representing the School District, and over the express objections of Mr. Scherer, myself, and our
own counsel, overruled their own staff personnel, and then admitted and counted these ballots anyway —
and that is one of the causes of action in the Statement of Election Contest we have filed to preserve the
defeat of Measure C
So, again, we certainly agree that absentee voters should affix their own true, current residence
addresses, and if those addresses do not agree with those shown in the registration affidavit, the ballot
should be rejected. Further, a better attempt to purge the voting rolls of such ineligible voters should be
made by our elections officials. The integrity of our electoral process is at stake.
Remarks to Contra Cost County Board of Supervisors—January 16, 1996, page 2
(2) 1 do not agree with Mr. Weir's proposal to allow alternative marking devices for regular ballots, a
notion which would require repeal of existing Elections Code § 14284 and the last sentence of§ 14286,
particularly in the context of an election with such poor agreement and reconciliation among the various
ballot counts, and an election in which there were so many reports of other irregularities, including in at
least one instance an unauthorized individual hanging around the ballot box.
(3) Nor do I agree with the Mr. Weir's proposal to allow anyone at all to return absentee ballots at the
polls. Elections Code § 3017 requires that absentee ballots turned in at the polls be delivered by the voter
himself or herself, or if the voter is unable, "because of illness or other physical disability," to return the
ballot, then to authorize that return by a "spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother, or sister."
Gooch vs. Hendrix, a 1993 decision by the California Supreme Court, recorded two important subsidiary
findings which indicate a partial rationale for maintaining § 3017, and the danger in repealing that section:
Absentee ballots which were collected by political association and returned to county clerk by association,were illegal
and could not be counted (Gooch v. Hendrix, 1993 19 Cal. Rptr.2nd 712,5 Cal 4th 266, 851 P.2nd 1321, rehearing denied).
Absentee ballots which listed address of political association as address to which ballots were to be sent were illegal and
could not be counted(Ibid.).
Our experience over a 6-day recount process, two intense weeks of prior research, and the quaint notion
that taxpaying citizens deserve a reliable, honest elections process, suggest that the following election-law
reforms, locally and statewide, are in order:
1. Tighten, rather than loosen, the absentee voting process. Begin at the county level by observing
rather than ignoring the existing requirements of Elections Code § 2016, § 3011, § 3017. Review
the history of voter fraud found in the front of West's Annotated Elections Code and elsewhere
before you proceed to approve any loosening of the existing requirements. Existing sections are
already abused in significant ways.
2. Reconcile voting tabulations to assure that the precinct numbers add up. Don't wait for citizens
to alert you a problem and then require them to front $5500 of their own money to prove it in a
recount. Existing Elections Code § 15610 should have been applied by Mr. Weir and Ms. Lee to
direct a publicly-financed recount of the Measure C results.
3. Alternatively, modify the Election Code to provide in general for publicly financed manual recounts
whenever the difference between candidates or issues is less than some arbitrary percentage, say
1% in low-vote-number contests ranging to 0.1% in larger turnout elections.
4. Maintain all voter records for reasonable periods of time, including the cross-off street indices used
at the polls. This will require some clarifications within existing Division 17 of Elections Code.
5. Expedite the processing of voter registrations, as well as the cancellation of registrations indicated
by death certificates and postal change-of-address forms. In one case a voter whose registration
was apparently supposed to be logged on February 13 was finally logged retroactively sometime
during the recount process, in early December. Death certificates had apparently piled up as well.
6. Return legislatively to the positive purge of deadwood in California's voter rolls, deadwood estimated
by the Secretary of State's Advisory Voter Task Force at 10% to 24% of California's registration
files. We have some initial evidence of some of that deadwood voting locally. The problem could
otherwise grow to the dimensions of the November, 1994 race for the 36th Congressional District in
Los Angeles County, where thousands of illegal votes were cast.
t .
Remarks to Contra Cost County Board of Supervisors—January 16, 1996, page 3
7. In a related way, require positive voter identification at the polls.
8. Enforce the existing penalties for voter fraud, including duplicate votes. We have documented
a number of instances wherein double voting occurred in the Measure C election and was not
picked up by County elections officials.
9. Apply the requirements of§ 14284, so that pencil votes which suddenly turn up in precincts wherein
the poll workers never authorized same, due to any problem with the marking pen, are disallowed.
This is particularly important in close elections wherein various improprieties have occurred and
wherein the various precinct tallies do not match up.
10. Move to repeal the National Voter Registration Act, the so-called "motor-voter" law. It's a welfare-
statist's dream, a taxpaying citizen's nightmare. It will eventually increase hugely the existing
problems with voter fraud. Again, taxpaying citizens deserve a reliable, honest elections process.
11. Improve the training of poll workers so they know more readily when to disallow illegal regular,
absentee and provisional ballots, and so that they know when to call the Elections Department
and/or local police to prevent electioneering, harassment, and interference with their appointed task.
12. Slow the rush toward expansion of ballot-by-mail. The process is replete with addtional opportunities
for voter fraud. And it's not too much to ask that citizens who care enough about issues and/or
candidates generally get to the polls themselves, unless unavoidably absent or incapacitated. The
right and responsibility to vote, hopefully an informed vote, was purchased with the blood of patriots.
It is not a right or responsibility we should trivialize.
The Measure C election of November 7 was a tainted election, and the problem was exacerbated by the
admission of illegal ballots during the recount. As a taxpaying citizen directly impacted by those deficiencies,
and as someone who has now taken time to study both the elections process and existing Election Code,
I request that the Board of Supervisors give careful attention to my recommendations, and largely to reject
those presented by Mr. Weir.
cc: Assembly Republican Caucus
Bill Jones, Secretary of State
Pete Wilson, Governor
Bill Baker, 10th Congressional District Representative
Fair Elections Foundation
Print Media
Other individuals and organizations as appropriate
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