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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-11-24 Government Operations Committee Minutes Government Operations Committee November 24, 2009 Minutes Councilor Attendance: Wheeler, Blanchette, Gratwick, Hawes, Palmer Staff Attendance: Barrett, Farrar, Dubois, Lovejoy, Various Election Staff, Mike Gleason Committee Chair Wheeler opened the meeting at 5:00 p.m. 1. Review and Wrap-up of November 3, 2009 Election Dubois recapped the election describing the significant changes that took place. The City of Bangor along with nine other communities participated in an early voting pilot program again this year in conjunction with the Secretary of State’s office. She said that early voting in Bangor is something that the voters have come to expect, and the City staffs the Civic Center for one week before each election to allow people to vote absentee in person. This is not necessarily new to the voters, but this pilot allowed the voters to feed the ballots directly into the voting machine rather than seal the ballots in an envelope until Election Day. This is a test that is being done to try and see what the effect is on the overall election process and whether it takes the strain off the election officials in processing so many absentees. Bangor usually leads the State in absentees voting with about 50% of the turn out. Part of the early voting pilot was for voters to participate in a survey asking whether they like the service, whether they had any suggestions to improve it, and whether they would support the idea of sending it out to the voters for a Constitutional Amendment so that it could be allowed in candidate elections. Those results have not been compiled from the office of the Secretary of State but the results should be available by the end of 2009. Most people thought it and thought it was convenient and would like to see it in the future. Dubois said that early voting was intended to be a solution to the absentee strain on the process. The Secretary of State’s office requires an audit every day with the absentee ballots that have been cast by early votes. This means that every vote needs to be entered into the State’s computer system to show that they have voted in person and a computer code is entered that segregates those early voting ballots from the absentee ballots that are received in the City Clerk’s office. Each one is entered and checked off the voting list with a hand written log. This provides an audit trail and then the ballots are cast into the machine. At the end of each day, staff had to reconcile with the number of people that would show up on our State early voting list as voted in person, to the number of ballots that have been cast on the voting machine. If staff was off slightly, they would be required to go back and reconcile it to the hand written log where the voters signed. This would take approximately two hours for Dubois and another staff member to accomplish. Dubois said it is very important to have an exact tracking system of who has voted so that those people do not have an opportunity to vote more than once or are not denied the right to vote if the wrong voter was entered. She referred to the voting log where this past election they were short one ballot one day and it showed up the next day out of 3627 votes cast. This early voting was done two years ago in which it was a low turnout election and was relatively easy to audit every day. It was not as easy to audit this time. There were 956 voters the day before the election and before the check off list for the next day those numbers had to match. The numbers were off by about 30 that day. Although this program solves some of the problems, the program creates other problems and Dubois cannot imagine doing this during a Presidential year. Dubois has shared these thoughts with the Secretary of State’s office. She admits that it is very convenient for the voters and the voters like it; however, she does not think it takes the pressure off the voting process. Responding to Gratwick, Dubois gave examples of problems that could be resolved, such as with the State’s Central Voters Registration (CVR). It is not programmed to automatically segregate those early voter ballots. This requires staff to force the system to segregated those ballots and put in a specific code. If the code was not put in or done incorrectly, those people did not show up on the report. If the wrong date is entered, those people do not show up on the report. She admits that there are manual errors, but if this goes forward on a permanent bases the state would make an investment in programming changes to help fix these problems. Dubois said that overall for the first time going from 4 polling places to 1 that she would consider this to be successful. This was intended to be a learning process and done on an off-year or slower election year so that issues could be worked out. This turned out to be busier than the gubernatorial election, which means it did not give staff an opportunity to work things out. Dubois explained that the initial set up included 5 check-in tables and the alphabet was separated. In the future the lines would be separated into easily recognized groups such as A through C instead of A through Co and Cr – F for example. Each sign will contain all of the letters, such as A, B & C instead of A – C. Dubois thought that having an associated voter registration table would move voters more quickly and solve the problem of people registering to vote. In hind sight, Dubois felt that system did not work well and seemed like a reward for those that had waited to register. In the future, there will be a separate line for voter registration like in the past. She also has decided to double the amount of lines available for voting. Instead of the 5 lines, she plans to double that number to 10 which should help move the lines more quickly. The smaller room off to the left (the G Room) will be used for voter registration. Dubois stated that after meeting with the election staff and brainstorming some of the issues, they identified and came up with some potential resolutions. She indicated that when a certain line backed up, there was not any flexibility to be able to quickly move staff to that location to help solve the problem. She feels that breaking the list up into separate alphabet groups will help and if there is an “A +B” line to have a separate “A” list and a separate “B” list so that staff can be added with two check in people at one station. There needs to be people assigned to float. This will allow them to move from one station to another where needed. Overlapping shift is another suggestion. In the past there have only been 2 shifts; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Staff discovered from talking to people in line that many were unaware of the early voting. Dubois felt surprised by this, but thinks that more effort needs to be made in making the public aware of this option. She discussed several possible options for publicity. Dubois said that any address and name change will slow down the process. She is going to work with the Secretary of State’s office to try and come up with some form or log that can be done quickly as opposed to filling out a complete voter registration card for those voters. She thinks that having a floater that can move up and down the lines to fill out that type of information in advance would be beneficial. She feels that more media coverage to get people in to make those changes before Election Day would help a great deal as well. Dubois talked about some of the staff having a hard time dealing with a large amount of people in a given time. She feels that some staff members found it challenging to deal with a high volume of people at one time and these staff members should be placed in areas that were not as demanding. The key positions that have a great deal of production should be staffed with City employees in the future. She discussed the busy timeframes pointing out that between 7 until 2, which is half of the day, there were about 1,200 voters. From 2 until 8 p.m. there were about 4,500. During 5 to 7 p.m. there were about 1,000 each hour or more. Dubois feels that if there were 4 polling places, there would be a line at each polling place during that time frame. Parking was an issue and although the lighting was an issue this election, she feels that was a onetime situation. She feels that if there were a few staff members outside in the parking lot to help direct voters, and particularly for large elections the PAL van could be used to shuttle people around from their vehicles to the building. Another suggestion is that the staff and the TV vans should be asked to park behind the Civic Center and not block the lanes in the front of the Civic Center. Overall, Dubois said this election went very well. Gratwick appreciated the evaluation Dubois provided and asked if her original objective was achieved, which was to save the City money with fewer hassles. Dubois stated that there is a financial savings because half the staff was needed. She believes that the key issues were resolved and she had a good feeling about the process and the way things moved at the Civic Center. Responding to Gratwick, Dubois said there is no other location that she can think of with the exception of the Auditorium but it is not a place to get people in and out of easily. She feels that if she works with the Police and Fire department to figure out how to que people up better and to make sure emergency areas are not blocked this would help in crowd management. Wheeler was intrigued with the total # of voters of 11,430. He referred to the number of voters that voted early (5,717) and those that voted absentee (5,715) in which there was only a difference in 2 voters. He asked Dubois if she had a goal to increase these numbers. Dubois responded by saying that she does not have a goal in mind but thinks that the more people who vote in advance, the less stress there is on Election Day. Bangor is leader in the State right now at 50% turnout and it is generally around 35% statewide. Palmer said that one of the concerns with having only one polling place that the District 16 area might have a difficult time getting to the Civic Center. He asked if she had any feedback on those types of issues. She stated that the City Clerk’s office did not receive calls regarding this issue and reminded the Committee that the BAT is offered at no charge to and from the Civic Center. She pointed out that there was not a huge use of that service. Staff is still working on entering the data on who voted on Election Day in order to have the figures or statistics to go on at this point. Palmer also asked about the N1H1/Flu clinic and how that affected the voting process. He wondered how they would handle that in the future. Dubois said she was unaware of the Flu clinic until 2 days before it was to happen and had already reserved the Civic Center with no scheduling conflicts. The clinic was unexpected and huge. On that particular day the early voting numbers were down because people were intimidated by the lines, and people that called were told by staff to try to avoid voting that day and if possible to come a different day. Going forward she says that the Council need to decide if voting is the only thing that can take place during this time. Palmer said that given the effort from the Arena Committee to give Bangor a new facility, he hopes that Dubois’s needs and thoughts would be put into the mix so that the facility meets her needs as well. Responding to Wheeler, Dubois said that the cost of the Civic Center was around $2,000 total, which included early voting and Election Day. Wheeler thanked the volunteers, staff and the Deputy Clerk for coming today. Michael Gleason pointing out things that the voters did not have to deal with such as; school bells going off during the change of classes, curtains that separated the voting place from the children playing basketball and being loud. The voting process this time did not bring strange adults into the schools where children’s safety could be an issue. The Civic Center provided a much calmer environment with fewer distractions. Responding to Wheeler, Dubois graded the experience as a “B” and expects next year to be an “A”. Dixie Thayer worked on the voting machines during Election Day and received many comments and compliments on the organization and desirable location of the voting place. She believes that the issues that were experienced will be worked out and finds Dubois presence at the Civic Center a big bonus. She praised Dubois for her training of the election workers. Dubois stated that several years ago an emergency plan was drafted and it was used when the fire alarm was pulled at the high school. She said it worked very well. Although the plan was made by her and she feels that it needs to be done with the help of the Fire Department and the Secretary of State’s office. Blanchette suggested asking candidates to help spread the word for early voting. She also talked about the number of voters on Saturday and suggested that due to the few numbers of voters that Saturday not be a day for early voting in the future. Dubois said that because of the continuity, it helps to be able to say that early voting is held a week before election. Blanchette said that the Clerk’s office has done a great job. Adjourned at 5:40 p.m.