HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommittee of the Whole July 8 20031 WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL
2 Committee Of The Whole
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4 July 8, 2003
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7 The meeting was called to order at 5:38 p.m. by Council Chair Dan McShane
8 in the Council Committee Room, 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham, Washington.
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10 Present: Absent:
11 Barbara Brenner None
12 Laurie Caskey-Schreiber
13 Sam Crawford
14 Seth Fleetwood
15 Sharon Roy
16 L. Ward Nelson
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18 1. DISCUSSION WITH WHATCOM COUNTY AUDITOR SHIRLEY FORSLOF
19 REGARDING PROPOSED CHANGES IN THE VOTING SYSTEM TO MEET
20 THE CRITERIA OF THE HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT (AB2003-258)
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22 Shirley Forslof, Auditor, stated this Act came about because of the fiasco in
23 Florida. Punch cards received a bad reputation, even though Whatcom County has
24 used them successfully for 24 years. Punch cards may not be used after January 1,
25 2006. At least one touch screen voting machine must be placed in each voting site.
26 The machines, equipped with earphones, will allow the visually impaired to cast
27 ballots without help. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be invested in this new
28 system. It's important that tax dollars be spent wisely. The system selected will be
29 with the County for many years. Consideration should be given to whether they
30 want faster election results, issues regarding a paper trail for all the systems,
31 providing for voters with disabilities, and whether they want all mail voting.
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33 Whatcom County has 45 polling sites. With the polling place consolidation
34 from last year, Whatcom County saved approximately $87,500. An election
35 management system has to be in place by January 1, 2006. She recommends
36 putting this system in place by 2004. Voter registration will be tied into the State
37 information. Eventually, a voter will be able to transfer voter location
38 automatically. The State system will be the original voter registration file. The
39 County's present system is not compatible with the State's system. The cost is
40 about $70,000 for that new system. The State will fund part of it, but she doesn't
41 know how much. Federal law drives all of this.
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43 She will need a larger election warehouse with climate control. The optical
44 scan ballots are large. They take a lot more storage space. The machines that
45 count them are large and require a climate control environment. The machines
46 count the ballots about 25 percent slower than the punch card ballots. They also
47 require lots of power to charge the batteries. She recommends purchasing a new
Committee of the Whole, 7/8/2003, Page 1
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voter registration system in January 2005. Because technology changes rapidly,
they should wait until early in 2005 to purchase the equipment.
Rich Griffith, Chief Deputy Auditor, distributed a notebook of information
about the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) (on file). There are three sections: the
State plan, a summary of the Act, and a report from the Secretary of State's Office
about punch card voting.
Each state has to submit a plan to the federal government about how it will
comply with the Act before the federal government will release money to the State.
The State plan addresses the twelve elements required by HAVA. One of the
elements requires placement of at least one direct recording machine in each
polling location and developing a statewide voter registration database. The money
they will get from the federal government is described as requirement payments.
The State will meet certain requirements, and the federal government will provide
payments.
Another element is disability access. The State will ensure the placement of
direct recording equipment in each polling place by providing funding for the
equipment. The final funding formula will be the maximum amount available to
each county. If the county signs a contract for a higher amount, it must pay the
difference. That amount hasn't been determined.
Roy asked about the criteria for concentration of people with disabilities. She
asked if they could have different voting polling places looking differently,
depending on the distribution of disabled and senior populations. Forslof stated
they have to have at least one in each polling place. Some polling place could have
two.
Brenner asked if they could have a specific polling place for the disabled and
senior populations. Forslof stated they could not.
Griffith stated the statewide voter registration base will integrate all 39
counties. The structure of the database hasn't been finalized.
Whatcom County is one of the 16 punch card counties. It will receive some
monies for the buyout of the punch cards.
The Act allocates $325 million nationally for improved election
administration, $325 million nationally to replace punch card voting, creates a
federal Election Administration Commission, allocates $3 billion to the states with a
five percent match requirement, creates several grant programs that will run over
the next few years, establishes requirements for provisional voting, sets voting
system standards, and sets voter identification requirements for voters who register
by mail. The Act also establishes Help America Vote college program, more voting
education, and establishes requirements for overseas and military voting.
Committee of the Whole, 7/8/2003, Page 2
1 The punch card voting systems must be replaced by November 2004 unless
2 the State has a good cause for not meeting that deadline, which would be changed
3 to January 1, 2006. The preferred plan is to make the purchase in January 2005 to
4 be implemented in the spring election. Voting system standard compliance is
5 required by January 1, 2006. States shall implement by January 1, 2006 the
6 statewide voter registration database.
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8 He submitted a handout of the options for compliance (on file). Whatcom
9 County is estimated to receive money for the punch card buyout and digital
10 recording equipment replacement. The total estimate is $610,201.36.
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12 Crawford asked if not all counties in the state are listed because it is just for
13 counties that have punch cards. Griffith stated that is correct.
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15 Crawford asked if the formula is population -based. Griffith stated it is based
16 on the number of registered voters.
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18 For every 39,000 registered voters, the state estimates they need one ballot
19 counter. They allocated $6,000 for each digital recording equipment machine. At
20 the time this was put together, Whatcom County had 42 poll sites. It now has 45
21 poll sites. This formula isn't final, but he doesn't know if the County has the option
22 to change some of the criteria the State uses to come up with the formula.
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24 Crawford asked if the County would get more money if it had more poll sites.
25 Forslof stated it would, but not enough to cover the costs of putting those extra
26 machines in.
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28 Griffith stated more poll sites would leave the County with a bigger funding
29 gap.
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31 There are four election system options: vote by mail; optical scan central
32 count; optical scan poll site count, and; direct recording equipment. If they chose
33 vote by mail, voting would be done completely by mail and there would be no poll
34 sites. In that situation, Whatcom County would have a small number of sites that
35 have a direct recording device.
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37 The second option is optical scan central count. People would vote by optical
38 scan ballot at voting sites. The ballots would be brought back to the courthouse
39 much as it is done now.
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41 Caskey-Schreiber asked if they would forgo the absentee mailing process.
42 Griffith stated that in all options, they would have a permanent absentee option. It
43 will go from punch card to optical scan card.
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45 The third option is optical scan poll site count. Voters go to the poll site, fill
46 out the optical scan ballot, and each poll site would be equipped with a small
47 reading device. They would get results from the poll sites rather than uncounted
Committee of the Whole, 7/8/2003, Page 3
1 ballots. The last option is the direct recording equipment, which are the computer-
2 like devices similar to ATM machines.
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4 With the vote by mail option, they would have to change all the precincts to
5 have 200 or fewer poll voters. They currently have six precincts that are vote by
6 mail already. Forslof stated they would have to have over 300 precincts. They are
7 just paper precincts, but they would have to have legal descriptions. It's possible
8 that legislation will change to allow more than 200 mail voters per precinct.
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10 Griffith read the pros and cons for the vote by mail option as listed on the
11 handout.
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13 Forslof stated the political parties are opposed to the vote by mail option.
14 They want the option of going to a poll site.
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16 Dewey Desler, Deputy Administrator, asked if there could be polls at each of
17 the city halls and at the courthouse that would satisfy that desire.
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19 Forslof stated that would be the fourth option, with the direct recording
20 equipment.
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22 Griffith read the pros and cons for the optical scan central count and optical
23 scan poll site count.
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25 Brenner asked if the function of the scan equipment that lets someone know
26 that a voter didn't vote correctly would take away that person's privacy. Forslof
27 stated the machine lets only the voter know right away. The poll workers don't see
28 the ballot. The voter has the option of redoing the ballot correctly or making the
29 machine accept the ballot as it is. The poll worker can make the machine take the
30 ballot, but it won't count the office that was over -voted.
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32 The tabulation process for the optical scan options takes much longer. Voter
33 results won't be available until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. the next morning, instead of the
34 night before. They can begin counting absentee ballots up to 10 days before
35 Election Day, as they come in.
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37 Griffith read the pros and cons of the direct recording equipment.
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39 Crawford asked if a poll voter who is not disabled could use the direct
40 recording equipment. Forslof stated he or she could, but they might have a long
41 lineup.
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43 Crawford stated he predicts that people are going to want to use the digital
44 recording equipment. Forslof stated Snohomish County already use them. Both
45 the poll workers and the voters love them. It won't allow a voter to over -vote. It
46 notifies the voter if some offices were missed.
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Committee of the Whole, 7/8/2003, Page 4
1 Caskey-Schreiber asked which system gets the best results in terms of voter
2 participation. Forslof stated it is a new system. Not many counties have used it.
3 She doesn't know if voter turnout went up. There is not a long history on these
4 machines.
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6 Roy stated the popularity of the absentee ballot is so tremendous. Most
7 people will much rather vote absentee. People aren't going to the polls anyway.
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9 Crawford stated it seems they've got funding for nearly the amount of the
10 optical scan central count. The intriguing part of the discussion is if they want to
11 consider going to a mail vote in the long run. It's a matter of legal process. He
12 asked if the Whatcom County Council could go with the vote by mail option. Forslof
13 stated she would want a commitment on the part of the Council to approve all the
14 precincts for a vote by mail option. Clallam County and some of the smaller
15 counties have gone to a vote by mail system to save costs.
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17 Crawford stated he would like to see the research on these counties and how
18 the turnout was affected and how people reacted to the new system. The chairs of
19 the county parties are very partisan. He doesn't know that those folks really
20 represent the majority view of the voters in Whatcom County. The Council is not
21 supposed to represent the party chairs. It is supposed to represent the voters. If
22 the County can conduct elections more efficiently with a vote by mail system, it will
23 take some of the luster off the Tuesday night festivities, but he wants to look into
24 it. A big negative is if fewer people vote. He wants to encourage people to vote.
25 Forslof stated Clallam County has a higher voter turnout than Whatcom County.
26 The counties with more absentee voters as a percentage tend to have higher voter
27 turnouts.
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29 Griffith stated that turnout increased in Oregon, but less than they
30 anticipated.
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32 Crawford stated he wanted to see the actual numbers.
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34 Forslof stated she didn't want to create all the precincts if the Council
35 changes its mind and decides not to create vote by mail elections. The parties
36 would be happy if they had all those precincts.
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38 Brenner stated she'd like to have an advisory ballot to see what the people
39 want before creating a vote by mail election. Forslof stated the Council could put
40 an advisory vote on the ballot this fall.
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42 Fleetwood asked if there is a larger number of uncounted voters on Tuesday
43 nights with the vote by mail option. Forslof stated there would be if voters wait to
44 mail their ballots until Election Day. A large portion of the ballots come in the two
45 days after Election Day.
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47 Crawford stated one drawback is that they have to have the ballot in by 5:30
48 p.m. to get it postmarked. Right now, polls are open until 8:00 p.m. Forslof stated
Committee of the Whole, 7/8/2003, Page 5
1 Oregon has drop off sites, which is something she'd do throughout the county.
2 She'd also have to have about ten of the touch screens for various sites to
3 accommodate people with disabilities.
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5 Roy stated they have more absentee voters than poll voters. That means the
6 majority of voters prefer absentee because that's what they are doing already.
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8 Brenner stated she votes absentee, but if she were to vote on an advisory
9 ballot, she'd vote for an optical scan central count.
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11 McShane stated there is an opportunity now for special ballots for those
12 people who are registered to vote out of this county, and who want to vote here.
13 That was a significant chuck of votes a few years ago in a state election. Forslof
14 stated there are a lot of Western Washington University students who are
15 registered all over the state. They went to the poll site at Western and voted.
16 Hopefully, those students would get their ballot, but they might not. She could try
17 to publicize the vote by mail election ahead of time. Hopefully those students could
18 write to get their ballots. If someone moves, the ballot can be forwarded. That
19 person is eligible to vote if he or she meets certain criteria.
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21 Nelson asked if the students could update their address information online to
22 receive their ballots at their new address. Forslof stated they could.
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24 McShane stated they should give a lot of thought to this issue, given the
25 population at the University. Forslof stated she could issue them a provisional
26 ballot at the polling place.
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28 Griffith stated that once poll books are automated, it could be a database on
29 a personal computer, which will allow a person to vote wherever in Whatcom
30 County.
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32 Desler asked if there is any opportunity for financial savings. Forslof stated
33 the direct recording equipment would save in paper costs. It is more expensive to
34 buy the optical cards than the punch cards. For the poll site count method, they
35 will have to buy paper ballots for the absentee voters. They also have to buy
36 enough paper ballots for the poll site in case everyone votes. They end up with all
37 the paper at the polls that the voters don't use, and then they have to destroy it.
38 They won't have those wasted ballots with direct recording equipment.
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40 Crawford stated there is also a tape record. Forslof stated there is. The
41 controversy right now is with the audible paper trail.
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43 (Clerk's Note: End of tape one, side A.)
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45 Forslof stated she'd like funding in 2004 budget to make the purchases.
46 They'd like to make the voter registration purchase in 2004 so they don't have to
47 learn two systems at once. She'd like to get the space in 2004 so they are already
48 to move in when they get the new voting system in 2005.
Committee of the Whole, 7/8/2003, Page 6
1
2 Crawford stated he would like to see the Council pursue the vote by mail
3 option, but not make a decision yet. He would like objective numbers about voter
4 turnout and expenses. There has to be information from other areas in the country
5 where this has been tried.
6
7 The Council is elected to make good decisions for folks. He doesn't know
8 what the people's perceptions are about voting. They need to be prepared to have
9 a reasonable and solid base for those decisions. He is intrigued by the cost savings
10 and convenience of vote by mail.
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12 Roy stated using the vote by mail would help a lot of disabled folks. Forslof
13 stated they use them now, but they have to have someone help them. The law
14 says that people with disabilities have the same right to vote unassisted as
15 everyone else has. That's why they have to have the direct recording systems set
16 up for anyone to use.
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18 Nelson asked for information on the cost for all those precincts. Forslof
19 stated costs would include her staff time creating the precincts. There are printers
20 that will help the sorting easier.
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22 Caskey-Schreiber asked for information on voter turnout by age. Forslof
23 stated she has a voter education program. She got to observe Oregon's vote by
24 mail. On Election Day, designated election staff takes the ballots from people at
25 many drive up locations.
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27 Brenner stated it is easier for the Auditor's Office to do it a certain way, so
28 there is a bias. Her 22-year old son won't do absentee ballots because he wants to
29 go to the polls.
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31 Crawford stated he could still go to the polls. They are going to have the
32 direct recording equipment set up in places for people who want to vote at a polling
33 place.
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35 Brenner asked if those few polling places would be able to handle the forty
36 percent of the people who vote at polls now if they still want to. Forslof stated that
37 the intent is to get the voter to vote by mail. People can still vote at the
38 courthouse.
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40 Brenner stated the courthouse isn't convenient because there isn't enough
41 parking. She asked if anyone is interested in an advisory ballot of the people to see
42 what they want.
43
44 McShane stated he just wants more information from the Auditor at this
45 point.
46
47 Forslof stated the Council has until 45 days before the November election to
48 put an advisory vote on the ballot.
Committee of the Whole, 7/8/2003, Page 7
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2. DISCUSSION WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE WHATCOM
COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE REGARDING PENDING LITIGATION
(AB2003-018)
McShane stated that one of the representatives from the Prosecutor's Office
withdrew the item to be discussed.
Nelson moved to go into executive session for approximately 30 minutes to
discuss this item.
Motion carried unanimously.
ADJOURN
The meeting adjourned at approximately 6:50 p.m.
Jill Nixon, Minutes Transcription
These minutes were approved by Council on August 5 , 2003.
ATTEST:
Dana Brown -Davis, Council Clerk
WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL
WHATCOM COUNTY, WA�HINGTON
r'
Dan McShane, Council Chair
Committee of the Whole, 7/8/2003, Page 8