Are the folk online wired up?

I'm here.

Great.

Okay, so they can hear they can hear us.

Okay.

I'm gonna call the meeting to order.

We do have a quorum.

Um so uh clerk, could you please call the roll?

Yes.

Commissioner Belcher.

Commissioner Butter?

Here.

Commissioner Henderson?

Yes.

Commissioner Moore.

Commissioner Pan?

Here.

Commissioner Ramone?

Here.

Commissioner Seabrook.

Commissioner Barlick.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez.

Here.

Commissioner Wagner.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Vice President Dieter.

Here.

President Lindsay.

Here.

So that does give us a quorum.

Commissioner Moore said that she uh will be here at about 4:30.

I'm not sure about Commissioners Whitehurst.

Uh Commissioner Wagner will be here any minute.

And I'm not sure about Commissioner Seabrook.

And uh Commissioner Um Ritzy Hernandez doesn't count for the quorum, but can vote and participate fully.

Uh Ty is ex officio, that means he never counts as as a voting member, but he can participate completely in the meeting.

So for Sasha and Ty, I'll do my very best to see if you have your hand up, but you might have to just interrupt verbally.

That's perfectly fine.

It's hard.

So I'll just yell out if necessary.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If if we don't see your hand is up, just say you have your hand up or something like that.

Cool.

Okay.

So we're gonna do the public swearing in of uh of uh Sasha.

Um do you prefer to be called Sasha or Alexandra in this sort of formal situation?

Sasha is okay.

Okay.

Um Shahir, can you swear in Sasha?

Sasha, are you able to see my screen?

Yes.

If you could uh repeat this oath.

I Alexandra Jalith Metianes do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States.

Um and the constitution of the state of California against all enemies for a non domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Commission and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will and I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um can you record that Commissioner Whitehurst is here now?

Uh we're about to move on to item two A on the agenda uh commission, uh, which is um nominations and elections of president and vice president.

So we have our we don't call them bylaws, we call them rules, rules and procedures, but they're like bylaws.

Uh and and um they say that uh I guess that there's term limits of two years, but every year we in January, except we didn't have a quorum in January, um, we uh nominations and elections for president and vice president, but a president cannot serve more than two years, so uh, and which is fine by me.

Um so my term is up.

Um, so we're now gonna uh elect the president and vice president.

The um I don't know what it says about term limits for vice presidents.

Is there one?

Do you remember?

There is okay.

Um so here's my proposed method since there is nothing in the bylaws that uh or in law that I'm aware of that says exactly how she'll do it.

So I'm gonna suggest this and see if it's okay with everybody that we simply do the president first, then the vice president, um, that we take nominations and then we vote.

Um so if there are more than one person running, then they can we can have some discussion or something about ideas that they have or how they think things should be done.

But if there's only one person, we'd probably just vote on them, right?

Is that okay?

Yes, um, and let the record show that Commissioner Wagner is here now.

Uh all right, so everybody's cool with that, so we're gonna do that.

So you can nominate yourself if you're willing to do the job, that would be a good thing to know.

Um, or you can nominate somebody else.

Um a lot of times this is based on willingness more than a competition.

Uh, but we'll just have to see what happens.

So any nominations for uh president.

Yes.

This is Commissioner Barlack.

My question is do our rules state, thank you.

Do our rules state the um duties of each office?

I don't know about our specific rules.

The duties of a chair or a president um are to preside over the meetings, so to run the meetings.

Um, and we have a practice of the president and vice president meeting uh typically twice a month with the registrar voters and the um deputy registrar.

One meeting is to go over the agenda, so the president and vice president make the agenda together and then take that draft to the uh to staff, and the four of us together come up with the final version.

Um, and then once a month we meet to go over the request list.

Remember, if people want information, they need to request it through the president and vice president so that staff is not getting pounded with you know tons of demands for information.

They have one central source, and that that's uh what we call the request list, and sometimes there's request for actions that are more informal than formal, and if we can just get it done that way, everybody wins.

Um, so that's the request list, and so there's that meeting also.

Um, can you think of anything else, Irene?

Or twice a month, yeah.

Um, and then there's sometimes the president also is if the commission says they want to send something to the board of supervisors, that's the president's job to do that, right?

You know, I represent you know, on behalf of the commission.

Um that's it off the top of my head.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's a that's a great question.

Um, so again, any nominations for new president, Karen?

Um, I nominate Irene Dieter.

Okay.

Do you accept that nomination?

I accept that nomination.

Okay.

Any other nominations for president?

Hearing none, we would then take an up or down vote on Irene.

Is that okay with everybody?

Okay.

Any questions or discussion?

Okay.

So, Shahir, would you call the roll on on um this will be a yes or no vote, right?

In this case, uh on Irene becoming the uh president, it would starting effective, you know, right after the vote.

Commissioner Belcher.

Oh, we did not get a second.

I'll second.

Thank you.

Seconded by Ramon.

So effectively, this has become a motion by Butter and a second by Ramon.

Um, that Irene be the next president.

We'll go ahead.

Got it.

Okay.

Commissioner Butter.

Yes, Commissioner Henderson.

Yes.

Commissioner Ramon.

Yes.

Commissioner Varlick.

Yes.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez.

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Yes.

Vice President Dieter.

Yes.

President Lindsay?

Yes.

Okay.

Congratulations or condolences.

I'm not quite sure which.

Um, I'd like to thank it.

It was a hard-fought campaign, and I'd like to thank all my volunteers and contributors.

So I believe you should take over now with the uh choosing of the vice president and the rest of the meeting.

Okay.

I'll see everybody.

I can stay here for the rest of the meeting.

That's fine.

Okay.

So now we need a nomination for vice president.

Hi, this is Susan Henderson.

I'd like to nominate Commissioner Ramos.

Ramona, sorry.

That was bad.

Sorry about that.

Do we have a second?

I'll second it.

Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Henderson and seconded by Commissioner Lindsay.

Can we take a vote?

Well, we can do it that way, but what we said we were gonna do is see if there's any other nominations first.

Oh.

That's what we agreed before.

Yeah, no, that might be.

So let's just check on that.

Okay, hearing none, now we can take a vote.

Was there second?

Yes.

Oh, Jim second.

I should hear to Commissioner Belcher.

Commissioner Butter?

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson.

Yes.

Commissioner Ramone?

Yes.

Commissioner Seabrook.

Commissioner Barlick?

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez?

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

President Dieter?

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay?

Yes.

Okay.

The motion passes.

So congratulations to our next Vice President.

Are you going to have a campaign statement?

Wonderful.

Okay.

And a big round of applause for the uh president who is leaving, who's done service for two years.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Okay.

Moving on to item number three.

Are there any agenda changes?

I do have one.

I suggest that we move item 8A4, the post-election assessment, to after item eight B2.

The observation notifications.

Because the draft assessment deals with that same subject matter, and it might change in the assessment after the discussion.

So 8A4.

8A4 to after 8B2.

So that is my motion.

Do I have a second?

My second.

You could also just ask if oh no, we do have to take a vote because we have uh somebody who's not here.

So yeah, we do have to do it by roll call.

Um I'll second it.

Okay, that it was the motion was made by Commissioner Butter and seconded by Commissioner Lindsay and Shahir, would you please call the roll?

Commissioner Belcher.

Still not here.

She stepped out of the room.

Commissioner Butter.

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson.

Yes.

Commissioner Ramon.

Sorry, Vice President.

Yes.

And thank you.

Commissioner Seabrook.

Commissioner Varlick?

Yeah.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez.

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner?

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Yes.

President Eater.

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay?

Yes.

Okay.

The motion passes.

So we're going to switch the agenda then.

So next item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes for the November meeting.

We can do these separately rather than together.

Approval of the minutes for the November meeting.

Do I hear it?

On pages four through seven for anybody who's wondering.

Let me just check.

I don't think I had anything on mine.

So I'll need a motion for that.

I'll move to approve the November 2025 minutes.

Okay, it's moved by Commissioner Ramon.

Second.

Oh, second.

And seconded by Commissioner Henderson.

Could you please call the roll?

The vote rather.

Commissioner Belcher?

Yes.

Commissioner Butter.

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson?

Yes.

Vice President Ramon?

Yes.

Commissioner Seabrook?

Yes.

Commissioner Barlick.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez?

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Oh, yes.

President Dieter?

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay?

Yes.

Okay.

The motion passes unanimously.

Now we need a motion for the approval of the minutes of the January meeting.

I think I saw something that needs fixing on this.

I think.

On page eight at the bottom, it says absent commission members.

And it has Allie as being absent, but she was here.

It was just via video.

So she didn't count for the quorum.

That's correct, isn't it?

Yeah.

So Commissioner Lindsay, this is this is uh yeah, Jason.

I'm I'm sorry, I'm of remote, but I'm on the way there from court.

I so there's no provision under the Brown Act that would have allowed Commissioner Whitehurst to participate remotely.

So to the extent that she was present, I believe she would have to be treated as a member of the public and not present as a commissioner because there was no no legal way for her to participate remotely.

So it wasn't just a matter of her not counting for quorum under the circumstances of the last meeting.

Okay, thank you, County Council.

That makes sense because um any remote appearance has to be notified in the agenda ahead of time.

So um, yeah, I mean I suppose it it's I I I get how it makes legal sense.

It just makes Ellie look bad that she wasn't there, but she was here, so you know, uh, but I guess nobody's gonna notice or care.

So Ellie, should we let it go or okay?

All right, we'll just let it go then.

Okay, so we have a motion and a second on the floor.

Uh, David was remote.

If David was remote, he was he he he was uh in the agenda as being because he was in the agenda as being away and like where he was at or something like that.

It's just the book he would he would have been allowed to participate in the meeting.

No, that was part of the reason why we didn't have a quorum because he didn't, because he was out of the district.

I get it, so I can I can help you a Jason guy.

I apologize if I'm cutting it one off.

Um yeah, I and again I I do apologize when cutting and went off on driving, so I can't see if anyone is talking or not.

Um so Commissioner Wagner uh did appear, but because he was out of the county, um he couldn't count towards the quorum.

So he was present under the Brown Act, but he couldn't count towards the quorum, which is why we couldn't proceed with the meeting.

Uh I can I can maybe elaborate a little further.

Uh the Brown Act requires not only uh uh requires uh notification in the agenda of the location uh it like in advance and uh posting there of how a member of the public could participate by attending.

I is my understanding, and um I believe that that the the difference that you're seeing here is the difference of uh appearance in the agenda and like opportunity for member public to attend uh remotely in that remote location.

Thank you, Commissioner Wagner.

And that that is without wanting to nitpick and and um that is correct for the provision of the Brown Act under which you were appearing remotely.

There are other provisions that that apply and the rules are a little bit different for those provisions, but for the provision under which you were appearing, you are absolutely correct.

Yeah, it's a mess.

This this this part of the Brown Act about like you know, when when you can be remote and not remote is just it's just a mess.

Um, so I don't know what else to say.

Uh with that every good intention, but anyway, let's move on.

Okay, so it sounds like there are no edits to the minutes unless anyone else has any edits.

We still have a motion and a second on the floor to approve the November minutes.

So could we please take the roll?

What was the first and the second for that?

I'll move to approve uh the minutes from uh January 2025.

Second.

I'm sorry, it's January.

First of all, um I I do it a little bit different, Jim, so it's hard.

I'll call on you or anyone else.

So that's why I got a little confused.

So we're all clear.

We there are no changes to the minutes.

We now have a motion by Commissioner Ramone and a second by Jim Lindsay.

Okay, now we can take the role.

Commissioner Belcher.

Yes.

Commissioner Butter?

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson?

Yes.

Vice President Ramon?

Yes.

Commissioner Seabrook?

Yes.

Commissioner Barlick.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez.

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner?

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Yes.

President Dieter.

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes.

Okay, the motion passes unanimous.

The motion passes unanimously.

So we'll go on to the next item on the agenda, which is public comment.

Do we have any public commenters?

And how many?

Point of order.

We have we have uh announcements first.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You guys have to just put up with me till I understand my routine here.

Okay.

Okay, good.

Okay.

Uh I jumped one ahead.

Announcements and communications.

Do we have any from staff?

Yes.

Uh I have an announcement regarding the location where the meetings are going to be conducted moving forward.

We were notified by the library that there's a conflict from March on.

So our team has been actively looking for another location.

And so what we've decided to do, which I think everybody would be in agreement, but I'll bring it before you all is to have the meetings in a space at ROV.

So back in Oakland at the courthouse.

And that's it's large enough.

We have the method to have the communication going.

We acquired a piece of equipment recently and we've tested it so it will work.

So that's what I would like to announce, just basically because the space is no longer available.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

So moving forward, the next meeting in March will be in that new location.

It'll be at the Registrar Voters' Office, which is 1225 Fallon Street in Oakland.

It's the superior court building, and we're located in the basement.

Any other questions?

Any other announcements from staff?

Okay.

Announcements from commissioners.

I don't have an announcement.

I have a question.

To who?

To the um to the board.

To the commission.

Okay.

Well, I just am curious about um, you know, reading the news and people have asked me about this, whether um Alameda County is preparing to uh threats to our elections in 2026 from various um so Judy, I have to cut you off because we can't have a discussion.

It's not a good it's a it's uh I'm not a no no, I'm just saying what's your announcement?

My announcement is that I'm curious about the um whether we are um addressing any threats to our election systems in the 2026.

I'm curious about that.

That's my announcement.

But we can't discuss it because I know, I know.

But it could be it could be like an early agenda item request or something like that.

Yeah.

Okay, any other communications?

Okay, hearing none.

Now we'll go to public comments item number six.

Please raise your hand if you would like to make a public comment on non-agenda items.

Or agendized items.

No, no, no, sorry.

Yeah.

Uh please raise your hand if you'd like to make a comment on agendized items.

We have one.

Okay, we have one public comment.

Um so they will get three minutes.

If anyone else raises their hand afterwards, then they will get two minutes.

So please call on the first speaker, and will that speaker please say what what item on the agenda they're addressing?

Preston Jordan, you have three minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commission.

I am commenting on item 8E1, which regards budgeting for elections and candidate statements.

Uh my name is Preston Jordan, as mentioned.

I'm an Albany City Council member.

I asked Commission to please secure a binding schedule of charges for the various components of an election from the ROV.

Um, one motivation for this request is what happened with youth voting in 2024.

And that indicates the schedule needs to be binding.

I mean, that in a sense the ROV uh wrote in the report to the board of supervisors in July of 2024 that the maximum charge per registered voter of that age, 16 and 17, would be $21 each after the election was conducted.

The ROV sent an invoice to Berkeley and Oakland each for over $150 per each registered voter.

And this is concerning in general, obviously, to have an eight times escalation against what was uh Board of Supervisors informed.

Um makes it pretty impossible for cities and school districts to make responsible financial choices and plans when the ROV has such unlimited latitude.

Um it's specifically of interest, Albany because the voters here lowered the voting age or provide the city council and board of education power to lower the voting age.

216 upon a finding of feasibility.

Um, however, with that kind of uncertainty, it's it's very hard for me as a decision maker to make a finding of feasibility, and I don't know what the charge is going to be, and there's that level of um risk.

Um the anticipated surcharge for deducting elections by rank choice voting has not been provided by the ROV at a prior elections, um, not even a range of estimates like for the other components, the base election charge.

Um discharge increased by 80% from the 2020 to 2022 elections.

So again, tremendous uncertainty.

And it went from under $3 per voter to almost $5.50.

So again, illustrating the need for a binding schedule.

Um, once the ROB provides the schedule of charges, please consider their basis, their justification.

The need for this is motivated by the charge.

The registrar has levied for printing a ranked choice voting ballot.

Um, in Albany, this only requires one side of a card.

Um, I think all across all the district jurisdictions that use ranked choice at maximum is two sides of a card.

And the registrar is charged in uh 2024 almost four and a half dollars, which seems excessive for printing charge.

Um, it's also 10 times the cost of printing the rest of the ballot, which again goes to need to understand why.

Thank you for your work.

Thank you for working to improve our democracy.

Are there any other public comments?

No.

Okay, the public comment period on agenda items is closed, and we shall move to the monthly update from the registrar voters.

Ms.

Cornejo.

Good evening, everybody.

So I did provide um in the January meeting, um, our monthly report, and that's what I'll be reporting on as well today.

Um, we are in the process of preparing for the upcoming June 2nd primary election.

Um, we are in the candidate nominations period right now where candidates are coming in to file for candidacy and therefore qualify um by the deadline date.

Um, we have since this reporting concluded the signatures in lieu period.

And just to give you a little overview of what that is, in case you're not aware, signatures in lieu are signatures that can be gathered that have a money value to them.

So the number of valid signatures in lieu that you have can count towards the filing fee that some of the offices are required to pay in order to run for election.

So um they could be a uh as much as 25 cents per valid signature.

And I will tell you there are some candidates that really go out and collect hundreds of the signatures in order to offset some or all of their filing fee.

Um, so once those signatures come in, we have to verify them and then provide a dollar amount to the candidate and deduct that from their filing fee.

So that period is done.

We're in the um candidate nomination period where actual filings are being done now for various candidates from federal level all the way down to a local level in our office.

To date, we have about a hundred filings overall and everything, and that will climb.

Sometimes we have over 200 to 300 candidates at a time that take out papers and file.

It just depends.

We do not uh file or have the authority to file any city candidates.

Those are all done within the cities themselves.

We're filing federal, state, and local school and special districts.

That's who come into our office.

Superior Court judges come into our office, boards of supervisors come into our office.

So at that local level, is who we receive.

Some kind of an important dates.

The nominations period runs February 9th through March 6th.

So by March 6th, that's the deadline that a candidate would have to uh qualify to get on the ballot, which means file all the appropriate paperwork, and there is a lot, and the qualifying signatures and pay a filing fee, and an optional candidate statement of qualifications if they choose to do so.

Um also if we provided in here a link, which is um you can go on our website and you can actually look for offices and who filed, and we give you the status of their filing by uh document and where they fall.

So it's it's pretty interesting if interesting information if you're interested in seeing who has taken out papers who's completed their filings, and um just as a note, any federal or state offices are um controlled through the secretary of state.

They may file in our office because they live in Alameda County, but the state is the authority for those offices and all of that paperwork for qualification has to be sent to the state along with filing fees.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Um I have a question uh about signatures in lieu of the filing fee.

In both situations, depending if it's local or uh state um and federal office or I should say county.

Um is this an opportunity for anyone to run without having the money to file?

It is because they have enough qualifying signatures to offset that entire filing fee.

They could.

They could.

A lot of candidates I know um also use it as a platform to get their name out.

They go out door to door and still conduct those grassroots campaigns by you know taking the signature and lie petitions out and gives um you know their constituency or the potential constituency to put their name and talk to them a little bit and gather those signatures.

So it still happens.

And of course, if money's not an issue, you just pay easy, and you don't have to go get any signatures.

Yeah, it's optional.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Commissioner Butter and then Commissioner Belcher.

So uh um my question is about the filing fee as well.

I know that, for example, in Alameda City, the school district pays, I think the filing fee for candidates.

Is that correct?

I think we're I think you might be talking about the candidate statement of qualifications.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So some districts, I'll just say it differs.

Some schools will pick up the whole cost, some um jurisdictions, including special districts will say, oh, candidates have to place a deposit, and then you know they're responsible for collecting the the remaining, and that's what we collect and forward those off to the jurisdictions.

But nobody pays the filing fee.

So for school, there is no filing fee, okay commit commissioner Belcher.

Um on uh federal or state uh candidates.

You said they um, even though they file an Alameda County, the paperwork goes to the state or the Fed.

Does the paperwork also stay with the county it does so it does it goes to him yeah Jim has a question okay commissioner lindsey um can you give us an example of I don't know for uh supervisorial candidate or a candidate for city council in Oakland or something like that what the filing fee actual amount is and how many signatures would offset it I'm trying to grab I'm a example kind of guy you know so the filing fee is a percentage of um you know what I'm not even gonna bother I'm gonna ask the expert here you so you all know knowing Lucio he is the division manager for candidate services so no he probably knows all the figures off the top of his head so there we go uh so for cities they file at the city so if there is a filing fee it differs between the city and they do all their paperwork at their respected city's office and uh for county and yes it's uh one percent of their annual annual base salary and uh I can't remember them off the top of my head but it's in the two thousand dollar range and to completely offset that fee uh each signature costs 30 uh it's sorry each signature is worth 33 cents off that filing fee so they'll have to get around anywhere from six to seven thousand good signatures so we have to verify each signature no I'm done okay I was just gonna say um two questions so one what is the policy we talk behind getting signatures in lieu of filing a fee or paying a fee and second question is is it true when you declare that you have to pay for different language translations of everything and so for uh the policy is basically there is no fee to to come to our office and collect signatures you come to our office at the start of the signature loop period and you just say hi I'm here to pull petition and lose for this office and we have the candidates basically fill out a form to make sure they qualify to run for that office and then we issue them a petition in lieu and they go out and they make they collect signatures and they have a deadline to return those signatures by and your second part of the question you have to pay to have everything translated that's what I've heard.

And yes so for if you uh opt to pay uh or sorry opt to submit a candidate statement or qualifications to be printed in our voter guide uh by law we're required to print those in five different languages so that's part of the cost.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay thank you miss cornejo.

Let's move on to the next agenda item which is the ad hoc committees and our very first report will be from the voting participation committee Mr Seabrook um we have kind of took a couple of steps back to kind of kind of rethink the direction we're going and we so and we did that in I don't know if I read this if we I shared this last meeting but we have now kind of recreated or created a mission statement to kind of give us some boundaries to move forward with and now our next task is to come up and which we're working on this is some measurable goals and we're and the plan is to partnership with some other organizations.

I'd also like to announce that uh Commissioner Hernandez has joined the our committee as well um and we're meeting um every two weeks here's our is our meeting schedule so that's kind of where we're at right now we're kind of again took a couple steps back to kind of refocus it and kind of re rethink how how to move forward, and that's so we're kind of working on most of those.

Okay, so uh miss uh Ms.

Uh Commissioner lindsey.

Um I'd like to formally add Sasha to the committee, which has to be done by the commission.

So I move that Sasha Ritzy Hernandez be added to the voting participation committee.

That's second.

Okay.

Um unfortunately, I don't know why the agenda says discussion only.

Um it says uh action item on 881.

Oh, I'm looking at the wrong one.

Okay.

Sorry.

Good.

We don't have to worry about that.

Okay.

So Jim made a motion, and who made a second?

And Mr.

Seabrook made a second.

Could we take a roll call?

Commissioner Belcher.

Here.

Commissioner Butter.

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson.

Yes.

Vice President Ramon?

Yes.

Commissioner Seabrook?

Yes.

Commissioner Varlick.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez.

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Yes.

Yes.

President Dieter?

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay?

Yes.

Okay.

It passes unanimously.

And we can uh move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the nominations committee.

So that's me and uh Commissioner Seabrook.

Um it looks like as if our our duties are done.

Uh we're with the successful nomination and inclusion of Sasha Ritzy Hernandez.

Um the action item on here looks like it's prepared to go, which is the disbandment of our committee.

Uh and so uh I'll make that motion.

I will second.

Okay, are there any questions of the committee before we take a vote?

I just want to thank the committee for an outstanding job, and it's nice to see the seats filled.

So congratulations.

Uh we all agree, and let's take a vote, please.

Commissioner Belcher.

Yes, yes.

Commissioner Butter.

Yes, Commissioner Henderson, yes, Vice President Ramone.

Yes, Commissioner Seabrook?

Yes, Commissioner Varlick.

Yes, Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez.

Yes, Commissioner Wagner.

Yes, Commissioner Whitehurst, yes, President Dieter, aye.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes and aye.

Okay.

Dissolved to disband it.

And uh thank you very much.

And we will move on to the next agenda item, which is the youth participation ad hoc committee.

Thank you.

Commissioner Varlick.

Thank you, President.

Um, I'll give a short report just to say that um myself, Commissioner Whitehurst, and Commissioner Butter didn't meet, and we didn't get to meet last month due to my travel schedule, but we're gonna resume our meetings, which will be the last Friday of the month.

We have done some preliminary research to try to get a better grasp of how to serve the youth vote um here in Alameda County and to that vein, um, past President Lindsay did put in a request with request for me um with the ROV um asking for information relating to the demographics of our youth voters as well as the trends um in the election cycles since the vote has passed um to allow them to participate.

We did get a flurry of emails before today's meeting.

Um one of them we've heard from the uh the council member earlier was about the cost of youth voting, and that's been something that has been raised um because apparently it does cost more for the youth to vote.

So I am reviewing the minutes from last from November, it looks like we are thinking about making some type of effort to push the ROV to allow for in-person voting by youth versus mail.

And maybe our next task for the committee will be to determine if that will be a new cost.

We also learned about a commission out of Illinois, which basically is called the Defenders of Democracy, and it works with students in high schools to help them learn about participation as well as how to monitor elections and how to handle ballots and equipment and things like that.

And I think it would be a good idea for us to study it a little bit further, in line with our suggestion, which is to allow for youth workers to learn more about the process since it is a nice wage for a day of work and it will help them learn how to participate.

And if I missed anything, please, committee members chime in.

Okay.

Any questions or comments for Commissioner Varlick?

I would like to thank you, and I would encourage your committee and all the ad hoc committees to submit a brief report like that in writing so it can be part of our agenda, which would allow us to look at what's happening and maybe be a little bit more prepared for any questions that we might have.

Yes, thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

I just want to second that that almost nobody is going to page through is going to look at a video for that kind of report.

But if it's in writing, even if it's one sentence, in this case, that was much more than one sentence.

But I just mean in general with committees.

Even if it's just one or two sentences, here's what's going on, la-da-da-da-da.

It's just a service to anybody who wants to know what's happening with the issue, as opposed to them having to go to the video, which is pretty rough.

Um, so really would really encourage committees to do that.

Okay, yes.

I just wanted to also highlight a couple of things that we've been working on in our department in terms of um the pre-registered voters and their participation and how that connects to the youth voters for Berkeley and Oakland um cities.

Um, one thing that we have been working on is the uh the program for pre-registered voters or and also youth voters.

Um we're in our we believe the final stages of having a draft of the program where we will go out into the schools and actually deputize students in the high schools to be able to register um students to vote and also train them on voting participation, give them all the information that they need in order to inform their peers about voting and why it's um important to vote and what it means.

So our outreach and education team have been working on that.

I saw a draft about a week and a half ago, and they've done a lot of work on it, and then once it's done, this is something that we're looking at planning an event.

We can provide more information here to you all to show you what that looks like.

But the hope is to be able to have one event in our office or maybe at a high school and kick it off where we can really celebrate it and get the students involved.

We've been partnering with uh a few different organizations because we want to make it to where they're interested and it's at their level in terms of you know, how are they going to respond?

What can we do to, you know, um to actively get them to participate, you know, in voting and pre-registering first.

So the other item that we've been able to do is you go to our website, um, there is a data page, and the data page you can actually look up registered voters within jurisdictions by city, by special districts, by school districts.

Um, we've since added a filter for pre-registration.

We've never had it before.

So literally it will pull the number of youth that have pre-registered in a city, in a school district.

It filters it down.

So we're pretty proud of that.

We think it's important.

And so we thought that would be a great resource resource of data for people who are interested.

Yes, Commissioner Butter and then Commissioner Lindsay.

Excuse me.

I don't know if it's ROV Cornejo or acting ROV Cornejo.

My question, I'm really excited about the work that you're doing in order to uh enable youth to register voters.

Um how are you going to work with the school districts that are already doing it?

Alameda has a very active student group that does registration, and I'm was very impressed with the students and actually helping to register in the classroom.

So what's the plan to try to partner with uh school districts that are already doing or organizations I should say that are already doing it?

Absolutely.

That's one of the um one of the topics that I wanted to make sure that our outreach team was able to connect and partner with the League of Women Voters because the chapter in Alameda has been very active with the students and we have partnered with them also in trying to get the youth to participate, especially at the school levels.

In some of the school districts, it's not very easy to get in to the administrators, but our team has done a great job in being able to do that in every school district in the county to the point where we actively go in and um provide outreach and education events.

Um we actively go in and try and provide them just information about why it's important and why you should vote.

Um, you know, in your city, this is what it looks like.

So if someone lives in Oakland, Berkeley, or um San Leandro or Albany, we talk about rent choice voting and what that looks like.

Um, if it they live in Berkeley or Oakland for youth voting, we talk about hey, if you pre-register, you're eligible to vote on school directors.

So we try and make that connection and why it's important to them to do so.

Um, it's it's something that we know has the ear of the public, you know, and we want to make sure that we can continue our efforts and partner with the organizations because we think it's very important to get the support of all the organizations.

Another program that we're enhancing is our student um election worker program.

We've always had that in the county where students participate and they get compensated two ways.

They get a stipend for working, and they also get credit for um towards their school in terms of school credits.

So that's an active program that we're enhancing also and trying to tie into pre-registration.

Um I had a follow-up question.

What school districts are actually or what communities are actually doing the uh student election worker program?

I will say we've probably had most school districts where students participate.

I will tell you, I guess I don't know if this is bragging, but it's kind of in our blood.

I've been in the county for over 30 years and in the ROV for over 30 years.

My daughter, my grandson, my nieces have all been student poll workers, and um they're friends, so it's a great program to get the youth interested and to move on to participate.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yeah.

So uh I'd sort of okay.

Okay, three things, but I'll try to combine them and make it quick.

How do how do people find that data page?

So if you go to our website on the initial page, the home page, they drop the tab under resources.

It'll say data.

And you click on it.

So you go to resources, and then the page comes up and it's um vote by mail statistics, and then it's like voter registration, and you'll click on that, and then that's where you can filter either the whole county or you can filter by jurisdiction.

It's all listed there for you.

So it's research, research.

Resources data, and then you just choose what jurisdiction you want.

Because this is like registration, I think is what you said.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

But there's a link there or something.

Oh no, there's uh four blocks.

There's a registration block, vote by mail block, uh, public record requests.

No, we could you say that in front of the mic so that everyone online can hear you.

So it's on our home page.

If you just scroll down far enough, it's after our events calendars.

Uh and we have registration, vote by mail, we have public request form and maps.

And if so they can just kind of go down to the bottom or something, click the registration.

Okay.

Yeah, you can registration, it'll default to the countywide stats.

Right.

But then you can click uh for districts, and then you can basically get information for every single district in Alameda County.

That's pretty cool.

All right.

So uh I mean it's not the sort of thing I do, but I got a lot of friends that do that kind of thing.

So, you know, um, I ask them to, you know, but um as an ex-high school teacher, I really love the student poll worker uh program.

Uh it's when kids do stuff that they get it, right?

Um, and you know, we can talk at them all day long and they'll hear us and maybe it'll have an effect, but you know, um if the you know if you can get them off their phone, good you know, good luck, right?

But so I really think the the elect the student, I mean, I would bet 95% of the kids who work as poll workers are gonna vote every election for the rest of their life.

Um as an ex-high school teacher, I feel I I have a question about like when you do this outreach.

This is gonna sound a little critical, but I'm sorry.

Um is it like the way you out if it's setting up a table at lunch, it can be mighty lonely.

Um, you know, like who's gonna come to a table at lunch with somebody just sitting, you know.

Um if you could get in front of a uh when they're doing a rally, right?

They're all gonna be there and they're gonna be hyped, right?

And if you can figure out some way to reach them in that sort of thing, um, you know, what to say that write them up, I don't know exactly.

Uh, but that might you would reach your, I think you might reach your audience more.

And we have, and we have it just depends with in each administrators and the teachers, I know.

Yes, um, some of them only prefer that you're in the quad and you're at lunchtime.

Um, some of them are very open to going into the classrooms and providing a little bit of education and and QA, quite honestly.

Um, we've tried to get into the rallies, but as you know, they're pretty jam-packed.

And um, but one of the things that we've been able to do um is make it inviting.

So we've been able to partner up with iHeartRadio at times, okay.

And so the music's blasting and they're interested.

We also have swag um for the youth that's geared towards the youth, things that they might be interested in, and you'll be surprised.

A lot of them like highlighters and and posted notes and pencils.

Well, piece of candy.

You know, if you're if you're shameless enough, you know.

Yeah.

Um, which I am.

Um, yeah, you can do classes, it's great, but that that's tough because some teachers will let you in and some won't.

So, do and some don't.

We work within what we are allowed to do.

Okay, right.

Yeah.

Okay, Commissioner Whitehurst.

Yes.

Is there a goal for uh student poll workers?

And if so, do you have it by um area precinct?

So the goal would be of course to have student poll work, student election workers.

I have to go to election workers in every vote center.

We have 100 during a statewide.

Um sometimes it's difficult, sometimes it's not, it just depends.

Um primaries are more difficult because of the timing.

Um generals are much easier and more popular with the students to join in.

Um, but I can say that we are gearing up, especially with the program that we're instituting with the youth vote pre-reg is to make the two together.

So it's more cohesive in terms of the messaging that we're providing when we're out and about.

We have brochures, we um talk about it with them.

The first thing to get them to do is to understand they need to participate, and these are the ways they can participate and what that means to them.

So it's about pre-register now.

Did you know you can pre-register?

Um, this is what it means to you to do so.

Um, hey, you can get credit if we know we're in that school district where the school district allows or the administration of the high school allows students to get four credits towards um you know their grades, that's a big incentive.

Huge.

Um, and also the stipend they receive, they get a little money to participate, which they all love.

Um, but it's it's full circle is what we're trying to do.

And I'll tell you this, it pays off more than just the students participating, it's their family.

And I'm not the family.

I might have missed it.

How are you marketing this?

So we have a recruiting team.

They recruit election workers.

They are the ones that will recruit election um student election workers as well, and they work with the administration um themselves, but now we also have the outreach team that goes out works with the administrators in the high schools to get us in the high school, and then the recruiting team comes behind to say, okay, we have these applications.

We'd like to go ahead and have them work because they have to have a certain GPA, um, and they have to get approval from their teachers and their uh their parents.

Okay, anyone else?

I just just to kind of add on.

I have I had the opportunity to work as at the poll at a poll as an inspector, I think it was called that time.

And the the students, I did have students that worked in on my team, and it was it was a good experience, and you could tell that they were into it, and you get them to operate in different roles as people took breaks and everything.

So they embraced it.

I think it's an excellent program.

Okay.

What a great report.

I'm just gonna ask one last question.

Would it be, I guess, a conflict of interest to allow the electeds, like the board of supervisor members to have it on their newsletter to ask for students to turn in applications or must it come through the ROB?

Oh, I think any kind of advertising is a bonus, quite honestly.

I I think any type of advertising is a bonus.

When we go out to any event, whether it be um within any of the communities, you know, we're out in um for a language event within a language community, um, we're out for students, we're out just for underserved communities, um, all our pamphlets are there, and depending who walks up to the table, we're going to tailor our message to them.

So I would agree.

Yes.

Yes.

Sorry.

It just occurred to me this program is so wonderful.

But you must have a only a finite number of positions, right?

How many positions do you have, say for the city of Oakland, for example?

Well, some cities are more popular, school districts are more popular than others.

Some students are willing to cross over.

Yeah.

I may live in Oakland Unified, and we don't really, we have all our slots filled, let's say.

Oh, are you willing to go into Hayward?

Yeah, but how many total slots do you have?

So we could have two in each location, um, and sometimes they'll split the difference.

They'll serve half the time because you know we're open four days and we're open 11 days in some locations.

So they'll split the time.

Um, most of the students opt to do the four-day because that's what you know that's reasonable for them.

We want them to make sure they still get their education.

So we've been able to put two sometimes in one vote center, sometimes it's just one.

It depends.

So I guess we could do 200.

Right.

And they could split the difference.

Okay.

I was yeah, just wondering about the gross number because it sounds so wonderful.

But we can't put 20,000 kids in there.

Right.

Yeah, okay.

Okay, thank you.

And during that um discussion, Commissioner Moore arrived.

So for the record.

Okay.

Moving on to the next item.

Um would be the update on the recruitment for the ROV position.

And I'm going to turn this over to Commissioner Lindsay.

I think this one will be shorter.

It's certainly much more boring.

Although pretty important.

We're all into getting kids to vote, right?

So I was asked to send a letter to the Board of Supervisors saying that we'll we'll work on, you know, we're encouraging people to like spread the word and also to ask them if there's anything they would like us to do.

And what the response was I actually got a response.

That's good.

And the response was we really appreciate that very much.

And they sent a whole bunch of information, which is in the agenda on pages 14 through 22 about the process and where they're at and all that kind of stuff, which I don't need to tell you, because it's just sitting there on the agenda.

And they said, you know, yeah, we really appreciate that.

Um and we'll certainly call you if we need your assistance.

So that's the answer that we kind of expected, right?

They've hired lots of ROVs over the years, uh and they know how to do it and they're doing it, right?

So yeah.

That's it.

I don't know if there's any questions, but yeah.

Any questions for Commissioner Lindsay?

All righty.

But it is in process, like they're actively now, you know, so it it is in process.

All righty.

Okay, the next agenda item is um 8B1, which is budgeting for elections and candidate statements, and this is an action item.

Um, and uh so this issue has been around the commission for a while.

Um it's been in previous uh post-election assessments for any of the new members.

Um, and what it's about is that the city clerks and city managers have a hard time uh budgeting for elections when they're not clear about the costs of doing so.

So um with that, um what I would like to do, and I'm going to do this from now on at every meeting is I'm going to follow the Rosenberg's rules of order a little bit more uh closely.

And what I'd like to do is first open it up to clarifying questions if anyone has any clarifying questions to do that, and then uh we will entertain a motion just for the sake of discussion, and then we will move into the discussion area.

So it may feel a little awkward at first, uh, but I think once we do it a few times, we'll all feel a little bit more comfortable with doing it.

So with that particular issue, there is um a report.

We did get some correspondence on this issue, and we actually received one that didn't go through our email server.

So um, and that's from the Berkeley Mayor's Office.

So I think it's incumbent upon myself just to read it out loud.

Until we get our email service worked out.

It says dear election commissioners, as long as time, the League of Women Voter members and formerly, as a league of voters member and former league president.

I care deeply about transparency and the administration of elections.

I've been following the changes in costs for each election.

And I'm requesting that your commission pursue a breakdown of the anticipated charges for the upcoming general election.

And currently there is no such estimate for the rank choice voting race races.

This charge, along with the charge for the non-RCV elections, have doubled in just a decade, far outstripping inflation.

Berkeley, like most cities in Alameda County, is dealing with a budget deficit.

We need certainty on these costs and transparency around any increases that occur.

And I hope that your commission will be able to shed some light on this matter.

Thank you for consideration of my request and for serving our county on this commission, Mayor Ishii.

So with that, President Lindsay, do you have anything to add to this agenda item?

Yeah, for a clarification item.

Yes.

Um just want to clarify that there doesn't seem to be that I'm aware of any concern from cities that do nothing special.

They get a range from the ROV.

I think it was four to six dollars or something like that, four to seven, whatever it was.

And then the ROV always comes in within that range for those cities.

Non-issue, you know, if you're um uh Dublin uh, well, okay, it's not, you know, it's it for unless you have too many issues, but anyway, um, so that's not the issue.

The issue is what I understand called reallocations or other charges.

That is after they it's for things like if you have too many issues on the ballot, if you're using ranked choice voting, if you're using youth voting, right?

Then uh there's reallocations from those cities, pay more, and the other cities then pay less, if you will, right?

Uh because it it's reallocated for the special purposes.

It's those reallocations that are problematic, right?

Um, and uh, but for the regular stuff, you know, if you're not in that situation, it works very, very well.

Cities are able to budget for it.

Um, and that's most of the cities, actually, right?

The vast majority of them, I guess 10 out of 14, something like that.

Um so that that's just a clarification.

Okay, great.

So I'm going to open it, open it up for clarifying questions.

I have one, and I'd like to direct it towards um Commissioner Lindsay, and then I'll I'll go next to Commissioner.

Um sorry.

Is it Henderson?

Is that who wants to say something?

Okay.

I wasn't sure which one.

The last names are hard, you know.

Yes, I know.

I wasn't sure if it was Carl or Susan.

Um, okay, so I have a clarifying question for um at the October meeting, the commission asked the ROV to work with the city clerks to analyze a financial proposal, and then to come back and provide this commission with a status update by April.

So I'd like to find out how does this particular item fit into that scenario, or does it at all?

I don't know what I just did.

Okay.

Um what was it that we said again in October?

Remind me?

We asked that the ROV to work with the city clerks to analyze a financial proposal, which I think had to do with the budgeting, and then to provide the commission with a status update by April.

Well, I didn't remember that.

So this is similar.

So I guess this is a discussion on that item, right?

And so how we whatever we do will be.

So as a I think this is an alternative or a continuation of that, and we may stay with the April date.

Maybe it's earlier, maybe it's later, in terms of the date.

So basically, whatever happens today, they may incorporate it while they're working with the city clerks.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, and Commissioner Anderson, you have a clarifying question?

Um maybe, but might not be the it might be for further down the line.

I just noticed that all of the letters and the email from the Berkeley mayor all mentioned the c inflation, that the chart costs, it doesn't seem like this is a kind of thing that really tracks inflation.

So I was just wondering if Claire, wondering if if I'm wrong about that.

It just didn't seem like inflation would be the measure that we would look at for this.

Yes, Jim.

Well, the points that the various letter writers made on the people who sort of look at the numbers, is that it's gone up tremendously faster than inflation, like dramatically.

Uh, and particularly the RCV charges, because youth voting is pretty new, so what are you going to compare it to?

And the um too many issues, too many issues on the ballot, um doesn't come up that often, I don't think.

Um so there I think that was in the context of of the RCV charges, if I remember correctly.

But I really think a lot of these clarifying questions can go to staff.

So, you know, on that question of the raise in RCV uh rates per registered voter or whatever it's charged, and the relationship with that to inflation.

Do you have any comment or clarification for that?

Or what I'll say is we've, you know, we received all of the communications that you know were sent to the commission, and they've been provided to our finance team who have been working on based off of the report, you know, for April on election costs, um, and where they sit for the upcoming cycle.

So that's something our team has been working on.

Um, Jim's right, in terms of a standard election, which is non-RCV non-youth voting, it's pretty clear.

Um, our published rate is five to seven dollars in a general election.

We came in at four dollars and sixty-three cents in November of 2024.

So we were under, um, and we typically are.

Um, I think what we're looking at is not just complexity with ranked choice voting, um, not just with increasing costs due to inflation, because that does have something to do with it when you're talking about printing costs and paper and the resource of paper these days.

That's that's an issue as well.

Um that all of that is being taken into consideration, um, along with you know, any additional requirements or mandates that have to be taken into consideration as well.

So we're looking at everything as a whole, and um are looking at other billing methods by other counties.

Um, I'll say I think I mentioned this in a few uh meetings back that at one of our annual conferences of last year, um, there was a subcommittee that was formed to look at billing methods, some kind of standardized method that the counties could um could go to so there would be some continuity in how 58 counties bill for elections, regardless of whether you're a small county or a large county like LA.

Um, and we're reaching out to see, you know, where where are they with that to give counties guidance?

Um, also the Bay Area Election Coalition, which I'm a member of, that's a topic also that came up is within our Bay Area election officials in the R counties, you know.

Can we do something there too?

What are the practices that we're doing and what can we share and see what works best, what doesn't work.

We stand out in Alameda County, rightfully so.

We're a great county, because we do have different types of elections.

We have ranked choice voting, we have youth voting.

We're the first in the state, I think in um, yeah, in the state of California to enact youth voting.

Um, so it's pretty impressive.

As you said, Jim, this is our first time out.

We met with the stakeholders as directed by the board to work through what it would look like, get it done, and then go on from there.

When the MOU was signed by the two stakeholders, um the MOU stated that the jurisdictions would pay for the costs, and that's what the MOU states, because at the time that it got worked out, that's what the end result was.

Now that we've had one, we can look at future in terms of printing outreach and some of those one-time costs, like the development of the software that's been done to allow um school director elections for youth voting.

Um, some of the supplies that were purchased, that was a one-off, so we don't have that.

So now we can take that and really look at um, you know, where we would go for November, and you know, what could we come up with as some estimates for youth voting?

It's a small amount right now of voters, right?

It's a small amount, so the costs are going to be um more than other, I guess, types of elections.

Um, but that's something we can work on with the stakeholders, and we continue to work on with the stakeholders.

RCV is something also that we're looking at in terms of what are maybe some of the other counties because we're not you know, San Francisco and Alameda, but there's another county, I believe, that has that too.

So what are they doing in terms of their billing practices?

So it's something that we're really diving into, getting a better understanding of how we can share best practices and make it more transparent and more clear.

Okay, any other clarifying questions?

I have um yes, Commissioner Belcher.

On the um possible action for uh ad hoc committee that that's with the uh registrar of voters and the city clerk and staff.

Well, staff would be who who would the participants be?

What's your question?

I'm sorry, who are the participants and this recommended ad hoc committee would be the register of voters and the city clerks?

Uh no, an ad hoc committee is comprised of commissioners.

Oh okay, that's with the and yes, that's a group of commissioners that we will get to once we get to that point.

But you know, any other clarifying questions?

Okay, so with that, I am going to entertain a motion or make a motion.

And of course, this motion um and it will need to be seconded before we move on.

Um this motion may get changed by the time we finish a discussion.

I the maker of the motion uh may withdraw it.

It could be amended, whatever.

The purpose of making a motion at the beginning before deliberations is to kind of narrow the discussion so that we know what direction we're going into.

So with that, I open it up for anyone who'd like to make a motion.

Yes, Commissioner Lindsay.

It's actually on page 23 of your agenda.

At least my first draft of the motion.

Um this was planned for the January meeting, so just kind of keep that in mind.

Um, so I'll just read it out for those who don't have it.

It's pretty short.

Um, that the ROV office uh uh produces a written document that clearly and unambiguously defines exactly how cities will be charged for the 2026 primary and general elections.

This is not the amount, but rather the formulas that will be used.

It doesn't say it, but obviously things that are working, like the range for cities that aren't doing anything special.

That method does not need to be changed.

That's working.

Let's not break something that's working.

But at any rate, so that's not in here, and maybe it needs to be there, maybe not.

But anyway, it's not the amount, but rather the formulas.

If that makes sense for RCV for youth voting, um, and perhaps for uh having too many issues on a ballot.

Um right, and then part B is RCV youth voting and any other charges uh must be clearly defined in the document.

And then part two, which we may need to play with.

Um due to the tight time constraints that cities are facing, the ad hoc committee.

Oh, sorry, I missed something.

Recommend the following actions and form an ad hoc committee, preferably with the city clerk participating.

We're talking about tie in that case, to work with the staff and follow up on resolving the issue, and then um what I just said, and then due to time constraints that cities are facing uh for budgeting, right?

Um, the ad hoc committee or budgeting or deciding whether or not to put a measure on the ballot, or whether or not to use youth voting.

Albany's facing that decision.

Uh due to the tight time constraints that cities are facing, uh the ad hoc committee or the ROV will report the completion or the progress of the task at the March committee meeting.

We might be able to just kill number two, uh, because um if we form an ad hoc committee, it'll automatically be on the agenda and they can automatically provide a report.

You know, the staff can always just give a report and staff updates or special reports or something.

So maybe we should kill the number two item there.

Uh I don't know.

But anyway, that's the that's the motion is uh currently what sits right there.

May I shorten the motion so that it's of course it's a little bit easier.

Um I suggest that we move or that would it be me making the motion, Jim, or would it?

This is my suggestion to move to request the ROV office produce a written fee schedule that clearly defines exactly how cities will be charged with an explanation of those charges, including RCV and youth voting for the 2026 election, and to form an ad hoc committee to ensure that it is followed up on.

Yeah, that's that's that's fine by me.

It's but we also should add in there the issue of going over um uh a limit on ballot measures.

Um, we really need to add that in because that that needs to be one of the I think I think staff is already working on documenting that anyway, but you know, is that part of the okay, but I don't quite understand your motion.

Yes, take that motion, just add in, you know, limits on ballot measures or what's the right word?

Is that reallocation?

I forget.

So for the reallocation of the charges for five or more ballot measures.

Yeah, that should be in there.

Okay.

Other than that, well, to me, that is part of the fee schedule.

So I don't think we have to stay that it.

No, it's light, it's I'm sorry for interrupting.

Go ahead.

It's okay.

We can add it in because it's a little over my head.

That's fine.

We can it doesn't hurt to add more than it's just it's a little bit shorter.

So that is my motion, and could I have a second?

Okay, so Jim, you withdrew your first motion, and then I just think we chatted through yourself.

Okay, I make a motion and I've got a second from uh commissioner Lindsay.

And did that include forming an ad hoc committee?

Yes.

Okay, good.

Okay, can you repeat the motion for the yes?

Um, I move to request the ROV office produce a written fee schedule that clearly defines exactly how cities will be charged with an explanation of those charges, including RCV and youth voting for the 2026 elections, and to form an ad hoc committee to oversee this implementation, except also besides RCV youth voting.

Oh, um, and to include what's the best terminology here and and reallocations for ballot for five or more ballot measures?

Okay, and for reallocations of five or more ballot measures, and for reallocations for five or more ballot measures.

Okay.

Did that okay?

Yeah.

So we have a uh an issue.

I made a motion, we have a second.

Now we can open it up for deliberations.

So anyone who wants to make comments or whatever can do so now.

Commissioner Belcher and then Commissioner Butter.

Okay, first Commissioner Butter.

I'm not sure what the ad hoc committee is going to do.

Uh the ROV's office is going to produce the list of charges.

So what do you see as the role of an ad hoc committee?

Well, because this has been around for since I've been on the commission, this issue.

That this gets done, that we actually resolve this issue, and then they can report back with that.

Jim, is that kind of Commissioner Lindsay?

Yeah, and there's expertise.

There's at least three people sitting on this commission that have worked professionally in elections.

And then we have city clerks right there who's run elections actually when he was in Southern California.

And so there's some expertise, but the main expertise is with staff who we kidding, right?

But there's but but basically, yes, uh you know, just you know, to just collaborate um with staff, um, and there may be some getting people to talk to each other type of stuff happening, um, and then report back monthly, because and all ad hoc committees report back monthly.

So it'll just be part of the agenda until it's complete, and then that ad hoc committee can blissfully be disbanded.

Commissioner Belcher, thank you.

With this ad hoc committee, then uh take in the ideas and recommendations from the various cities, uh Albany and Berkeley, and wanting to have more information about what the costs are going to be.

So would the ad hoc committee then make it some kind of recommendation working with the ROV?

Yes, we would like to have these uh requirements and then um uh like notification of uh increased costs, various um ideas from the cities, and then that would be the ad hoc committee would have uh make a recommendation and then the commission would vote on it, say Berkeley, say Berkeley, the mayor issue would like to know ahead of time maybe some of the increased costs.

So the ad hoc committee might uh recommend that the cities be notified early so uh ahead of increased cost, but I'm wondering then so then the commission votes for it, so is that law.

So I think what the ad hoc committee does will be up to the ad hoc committee.

Um they may through their work, they may come back with something to ask the commission on, but I think that however they decide to work to get to get this done.

I think is up to them, and they can give us a monthly report on what they're doing.

Yeah, Commissioner Lindsay.

Yeah, I mean that's that's just absolutely correct.

But I could say what I what I'm hoping for from this is that the there will be a joint thing uh between the city clerks and the registrar of voters and the commission.

Um it's very helpful to the city clerks and to the registrar voters if the commission blesses something and backs something.

Um we have some credibility with the board of supervisors.

They're more likely to get board of supervisors backing and support in that way.

Um that's what I'm hoping will happen.

Um, but you know, it may very well be that so some would come back to the commission one way or the other, um, at some point, as a as a sort of policy or a process, a proposal, hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, uh praying that it's together with the with the registrar of staff, and that we would say yes, we think that's a good thing.

Let's go with it, right?

Or it's already out there and we just approve of it and thank them for their work or something.

Right.

So just to remind everyone, part of the motion that I made actually does give direction for the 2026 elections, um, to have a fee schedule um done for the cities.

So the ad hoc committee, of course, can do what it wishes to do, um, you know, after that to make things um move smoothly.

Uh any other comments, yes.

I just wanna make sure that we don't leave out other jurisdictions, it's just not cities, it's schools and special districts as well that we work with that we would have to, you know, and plan on provide all the information to them.

So it's it's the jurisdictions that conduct elections.

So substitute the word cities for jurisdictions.

Sounds good, very good.

Commissioner Lindsay.

I would just uh like uh Commissioner Phan, a city clerk representing all of the city clerks, uh, for your thoughts on this.

I'm wondering.

Okay.

Okay.

So I was gonna I rose my hand, but I was waiting for the right time, so I was gonna say I support uh for fully for this motion and along with the uh participation in the ad hoc committee for this.

Okay, great.

Any other comments?

I'm sorry, but I also want to know how staff feels about this proposal.

We can do whatever we want.

Staff has no control over this, but I'd just like to know how what you think about it.

What's something we're working on anyway?

So of course it would be something that we would be happy to work with the commission, the the committee to show you what we've done, what would the information that we've gathered actually, because like I said, we're looking at different billing methods that other counties have in place, and um it's something even at the state level for the 58 counties that is a topic of interest as well of having some kind of somewhat standard methodology in place as a guide.

Okay, great.

Anyone else?

Okay, so with that, um, close down the deliberations, and I would like to amend my uh motion to rather than say how cities will be charged, is how jurisdictions will be charged.

So there is a motion and a second already on the table.

So could we get a roll?

Commissioner Belcher.

Yes.

Commissioner Butter.

Yes, Commissioner Henderson, yes.

Commissioner Moore.

Yes.

Vice President Ramon?

Yes.

Commissioner Seabrook, yes.

Commissioner Varley, yes.

Commissioner Ritzi Hernandez, yes, Commissioner Wagner?

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Yes.

President Dieter?

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes.

Now we need to do it.

Yes.

Um next will be do we have I should have actually entertained this before I move forward.

But do we have any volunteers that would like to be on the ad hoc committee?

Great.

David Wagner.

Jim Lindsay.

I will also like to participate.

And TIF FOM.

Great.

That's a great size.

So I make a uh, do I want to entertain a motion?

Can I hit entertain a motion from someone?

So moved.

Okay.

Those three people.

Second it.

Second.

All righty.

Let's take a vote.

All right.

Commissioner Belcher?

Yes.

Commissioner Butter?

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson.

Yes.

Commissioner Moore.

Yes.

Vice President Ramon.

Yes.

Commissioner Sebrook.

Yes.

Commissioner Marley.

She stepped away.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez.

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner?

Yes.

Commissioner Wayhurst.

Yes.

President Dieter?

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes, and Commissioner Barlock is back.

Commissioner Barley.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay, that passes unanimously.

Fantastic.

Let's move on to the next agenda item 8B2, which is the start times and processes in the ROV notifications to the public for observations.

And this has to do with an item that is in two places for tonight's meeting on this agenda item and also the next one.

But it's identifying start times and processes in notifying the public for what they can exactly observe while the process is happening.

So with that, are there any clarifying questions?

Okay, so everyone understands the issue.

And could I entertain a motion?

David, you're almost leaving like you were gonna say something and I talk so much.

I want to make space for other people, but if nobody else has one, I have one.

Okay, Commissioner Lindsay.

Okay.

Um it was actually embedded in um I think in 8A4.

Um it's it's it's in the it's in the packet.

Um if I know I'm gonna make a motion, I try to get it in the package.

Yeah, we're on item 8b2.

I know, but this directly, as you pointed out, is directly for what page is that one?

10 to 13.

What's it?

10 to 13.

Oh, okay.

Uh all right, hang on a second.

There was um, it was a suggestion on oh heck, I can't find it, but oh, okay, thank you.

Um, thank you very much.

So it's on page 25 at the bottom.

It's a paragraph.

So this is a tricky situation.

If you read the uh ROV's response.

They don't know what they're gonna do.

And and it changes all the time and it's fluid, and there's an enormous number of processes and moving pieces.

This is not they can't say even the day before here's exactly what we're gonna do tomorrow.

It's just not possible.

If they did that, the count would be much slower.

Do we want that?

People don't want that either.

So an idea that I have is so this is a suggestion, but it could be a quote sort of happening.

And you can put it in a motion form that one staff member be designated as the point person to give election observers and any other interested parties the fastest and the most thorough updates possible via the ROV's alert list.

For example, uh ROV management makes a decision that a certain process will start in two hours, right?

Or now, right?

Um that staff member just goes to their computer, sends out a notice, comes back and does whatever votes they need to do.

Um if the if if management has already decided, if the leaders have already decided at the end of the day as to what they plan to do the next day, that staff member goes to their computer, sends out an alert to that list and says here's what we plan to do next day, right?

It's just more proactive communication that a staff member be assigned to do that.

Um so that's the that's the proposal, it's the only idea I can think of.

Maybe if somebody else has a better one, but thanks.

Does that make sense to people?

It's a little long of a motion, Jim.

Um so the example part doesn't need to be in there, it could just be um the first sentence of the last paragraph.

I'll read it one more time.

Um, just that one staff member be designated as a point person to give election observers and any other interested parties the fastest and most thorough thorough updates possible via the ROV's alert list.

Okay, that's a motion.

Do I hear a second?

Uh I'll second.

Okay.

Uh so.

Uh Cynthia Cornejo, would you like to start off the deliberations?

Our deliberations.

Well, as Jim noted, um, we have responded to the grand jury report.

Um, and this was one of the topics that um was noted.

The ROV's done quite a bit of um enhancements and towards observation, um live streaming, uh, the alert list, which is the notification at the beginning of each day to those that subscribe that they will get notified that we will be processing today, that day, and we try to do it to where um, you know, it takes into consideration timing and such, but we cannot stop or stall or wait, you know, for individuals to come and observe.

So we send out the alert in the morning typically, and it's just we will be processing.

You know, some of the things that have changed, I'll say over time, and uh actually most recently in 2024, is the mail delivery that we pick up from the post office.

Um, it's it's not as regular as it had been in the past.

Um we do schedule ahead of time.

We work with the USPS, our project managers.

Um, each county's assigned a project manager, and you work with them beginning before the election and during the election, and they help you out with any issues or scheduling pickups and and such.

So we do that, but we've noticed that even in that, you know, things are out of their control in terms of when they'll have the mail ready for us, so we could have a pickup at a certain time and be there, but the mail's not ready.

So we wait.

So that's one of the problems in being able to schedule or say we're going to do this process at that time.

It's just unpredictable.

It really is.

So what we're trying to do is at least alert, and we have been by sending that out, and that seems to be working.

Um the other is one of the enhancements that we're making for 2026, and we've already purchased them, is one of the suggestions or concerns were procedures, which we always provide to observers and observer guidelines.

So we've purchased interactive kiosks, their touch screen, which will be placed in each observation area where an observer can go and just at their fingertips read the observer guidelines or read the procedures for that process that they're viewing or they're observing.

And so that's an enhancement.

So we're trying to do what we can to enhance the experience and the transparency as much as we can without disrupting our processing and getting the votes counted and processed.

So the issue would be designating one team member to do that before, because that may even change.

We don't know.

We've had where we think we're going to be able to do a process at this time, and then something else comes up and we've got to you know stop or we can't start it, and now there's a little delay, so we switch gears and we go to another process that we can do.

So it's a lot of that.

So that's what makes it very difficult to be able to notify for a specific time for a specific process.

Yes, Commissioner Ramon.

And I think that hits upon what we're trying to achieve here, and what uh Commissioner Lindsay was talking about is proactive communication, making it transparent, saying that uh, you know, through the ROV alert list that this has occurred and this is where we are in the process was the reason why we're stuck at this moment, like putting in just a brief one sentence, we anticipated this, we can't get to this now because of the X and leave it at that.

That would create the transparency, sort of the customer service that I think a lot of voters are looking for to understand the system, to understand what's happening and not feel like as if though um it's all reactive.

The more proactive the communication you have, the more you get out in front of issues and alert people to issues and why things are happening the way that they're happening, the more the less stress you're gonna see come from uh the the constituency.

So is there any reason why let's say you're about to start a process, you realize that you need to change uh gears and and you can't start it.

Is there any reason why you can't put an alert like that in the ROV alert list?

Well, that would be if we were going to alert the public that we were doing opening at that time and then had to switch gears and start something else, so it's not an issue, so to speak, it's just a change in process, which happens all the time.

Um it literally happens all the time where we're looking at space, we're looking at uh process of when did we get the mail?

You know, when are they coming back with the mail?

Okay, now we have the mail, and this actually happened in 2024.

We had observers there, they happened to be there for something else.

I saw that they were out there on the cameras.

I jumped out of my office specifically to go talk to them because we knew the plus mail was coming, and that's what they wanted to see.

So I went out and I said, We have the plus mail, it's coming.

Are you willing to wait a little bit?

And they were there and they were able to see it, but it wasn't fast enough, and you know, they weren't happy with us about that.

And those are things we can't change.

We can only provide information that we have, but I think in terms of causing confusion, that's the other thing.

One of the enhancements that we made on the list of processes.

So before we would just say we're starting, we're gonna begin processing today.

Well, now if you go onto our website to look at the live stream, it literally tells you what we're doing, we're opening, and they can click and see opening.

Oh, we're doing adjudication, so they can now see that adjudication is going on, so they can specifically see a process, which gives them more information as to what we're doing.

But that's when we decide to do it or can do it, that we go ahead and update the the live streaming notification.

But prior to that, at usually about nine o'clock in the morning we know we can process we have mail in we can start going and that's the alert that we send out we're processing today and I have a a question um so as I recall a lot of the complaints weren't I mean people are happy with the progress that the the ROV is done but it's about if you live in Fremont and you want to go down to watch something you know you get an alert that a processes are going to happen today but you want to watch the envelopes you don't exactly know when to go watch that because you guys are working perhaps you'll be doing four processes that day but you don't know when you're going to get to the envelope to doing it what's just something that I want to you know just pretend if I wanted to see so the um thing that I think that is trying to be perfected is once you know you are going to be doing a process nobody's telling you it's to send out let's just stick with the envelopes we um the elections you know the ROV is going to be opening envelopes within the next you know 10 minutes or whenever I don't know how it would work but you would send something out like that and um and then if I'm interested then I would know that oh that's when I want to I want to go or I want to tune in to the to the live feed because right now people have to just check throughout the day is there anything happening now is there anything happening now so I think that's where uh Jim's motion um came from that premise it's before something takes place not necessarily you knowing when it's going to take place but is there a way that the ROV could alert people when something is about to take place.

So when we are about to turn on the cameras to live stream that's when the notification goes out online on our website that says what process is is beginning and they can see it at that point.

Prior to that they've already received the alert from us telling telling them that we'll be processing today.

All vote by mail or any vote by mail is going to be processed today and so their notification of what is going to be done is at the time that we're able to turn on the cameras before we begin the process to live stream.

So whether it's five minutes or 10 minutes they may still not make it down to see it but they can see it also live streaming as well which a lot of our observers do they do live view the live stream.

So am I wrong in what I'm describing because I have signed up for the alert system and I hope every commissioner signs up for the alert system because we should all be um prepared to know exactly the what's going on but I I do get an alert in the morning that says processes are going to happen that day.

But that's the only alert I get for the rest of the day I don't know when you're going to be doing anything so I have checked a couple times and it's like oh there's there's nothing on now there you know so am I correct is that what what happens is just like we get to send out the alert in the morning and that lets the subscribers know today we will be processing vote by mail ballots the processing will begin.

Included in that is could be an array of things it could be one or two things depending on you know what we have to do in the day.

Right but I don't know when to log on to see that.

No.

When you'll know is like you said, if you go and you and you're looking at our website where the live streaming is is where we've been able to put the detail of what we're a what we're doing at that moment, what we're going to start doing.

Right.

But it's up to the it's up to the public to keep checking.

They have to check throughout the day to see, okay, are is it on?

You know, if what's happening.

So I believe the the request is, is it possible?

Um, because it just may be a standing recommendation from this committee to try to make that happen that when you know a process is going to happen, send out an alert.

You know, you were alerted this morning that a process was going to happen, and we will be doing envelopes.

So that the other issue about that is staffing.

When you think about it, Jim's saying, can you assign one person?

I and the team do not have one person that that's all they do, quite honestly.

Everybody's assigned multitasks to be able to do.

We're talking about assigning someone to coordinate all the different processes that are going on that could also happen simultaneously.

As if you watch live streaming, we could be sorting through the envelopes.

We could be signature checking, we could be opening, we could be ballot scanning as we get closer to the, you know, to election day or even after election day.

Let me just say when the canvas is being done, we could have everything going on at one time.

So it's the coordination of having one or two people would even be more because now I've got two people all day long.

That's all they do because it's it's that.

So you're saying it's overly burdensome to have somebody send out an alert when they're about to do.

I wouldn't say it's burdensome.

I wouldn't say that.

What I'm saying is it would be a time constraint on one or two staff members to do that all day.

Okay.

Uh yes.

Uh we're no, I'll go after you.

So if you can close for after.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Wagner and then Commissioner Lindsay.

I'm feeling pretty frustrated about how this conversation is going.

So let me just share where I'm coming from, and then you can like help correct any misimpressions I have.

My impression is that there's some complaints here, that it's difficult to observe because it's hard to know when to show up, when things are happening.

Okay.

And I think we also have seen from the Alameda County uh grand jury a recommendations to make some improvements uh to support Alexa and observation.

Um so to me, it seems like from a customer service perspective, we're seeing some complaints that indicates there's an opportunity for improvement.

What I see in the ROV response is a response from a compliance mindset that says, no, we're doing what's required.

Um to me that misses the point that there's an opportunity to improve the customer service.

And I'm also a little bit frustrated with the ROV response that the ROV response seems to take an all or nothing perspective, that either we do nothing, or we have to give like a daily agenda itemization of everything that we're going to be doing, or we have to assign a person their sole responsibilities is to communicate with the public.

And it seems like there might be opportunities here to make incremental improvements that are not nearly so burdensome and that might go a distance to improving um the customer service for for these observers.

So I'll just tell you my experience.

I haven't gone to observe recently, but I've signed up for the alert list, and I get an email that says this is what it says.

An election process will be conducted today.

That's what it says.

It doesn't say, hey, we're gonna be counting uh uh, you know, plus mail ballots.

It says an election process will be conducted today.

So my impression is that observers would either like who that many observers typically there's some part of the process that they are most interested in.

I want to see the signature verification, or I want to see the ballots that are arriving by mail after after election day, or I want to see the manual 1% manual tally.

And so then their interest is I'm guessing is in either showing up in person at the time when that process starts or uh looking on the webcam remotely when that process starts.

So the question is how can we aid those observers?

What what's what are the possibilities to aid those observers so they know when to when to observe?

Um and right now it seems like the support that's provided for those for that is not very much.

So I'm just wondering if there's an opportunity to do something um incremental to support those observers.

Like for instance, pick what you think are the top three um items that uh observers might be most interested in attending when those start or the day before you plan to send those start, you send an email saying, hey, um we're planning to start signature verification today, or if that's going to be uh live stream, sending out one, it's gonna be live streamed or 10 minutes before it's live streamed and alert saying, hey, we're gonna be live streaming that in 10 minutes.

So I don't know exactly what is the right proposal to propose doing that could be done without a lot of burden, but it seems like there might be an opportunity to have some minimal burden improvements that would maybe help with some of the complaints.

Um I don't know what the cost would be.

It's possible that maybe the staff senses like this is only a handful of people and the burden is too much for the handful of observers, but but my sense where I'm coming from is I see these repeated complaints and requests for improvement.

I am not hearing anything that really feels like it addresses those complaints, and it feels like there's an all or nothing mindset here.

And so I'm coming at this from a perspective of frustration, and then I am not sure this motion is exactly the right one.

I don't know whether what's needed is a staff member who's assigned to this, but it feels like the commission has a responsibility to advocate for these people who are looking for a chance to observe, and I don't know what the right thing to recommend is, but I do want to recommend or advocate for exploring some action, and it feels like the discussion here is a little bit dysfunctional because uh can you repeat that?

I'm sorry, the mic's got off.

Some reason.

Sorry.

Maybe maybe you can summarize or something for for the record.

I would like to advocate for a customer service perspective for incremental improvements for trying to find a way for if we could identify, for instance, a few processes where we could provide specific uh timing to the people who want to see those specific processes or look for some concrete ways we could make an incremental improvement, even if it's not perfect or not everything that would have a minimal burden on the election staff.

And I'm wondering what might be possible.

Um, so I would welcome feedback from the staff about what the opportunities might be that would address the concerns about a burden on the staff.

Um, and I'd also would be welcome any input about how to vote on this motion.

Is this overly specific or uh, you know, it feels like we need to do something.

So this is where I'm coming from.

It's like, seems like something needs to be done, and um, and I don't know if this is it.

Okay.

Well, I'll remind everyone that there's all they there will be an opportunity for a substitute motion or an amendment to the motion.

So with that, um, Commissioner Lindsay.

I'll defer to Commissioner.

I just have kind of questions to double down on what Commissioner Wagner saying.

Um, this is a question for staff.

Do we have a social media presence for ROV that also goes live when accounting goes live?

Um, is there a spokesperson dedicated to tell us what's going on at any given time?

And is there a list of activities that uniform that the ROV performs in the count that we can just categorize and just call that out?

Maybe you can give those one at a time to set up to you.

Sorry.

So hopefully we do have a social media presence.

We do?

We do.

Okay.

Um great social media presence.

Thank you, digital teachers.

They're very good at what they do.

Um, in terms of uh, I think you said notification notifying of or all the lists, I believe knowing, don't we have on our page?

We describe all the processing, the VBM processing.

So that's on the page.

We say we it's gonna be, you know, signature checking as part of VBM processing, ballot scanning is part of VBM processing, um, opening is part.

So that's there.

So we have that.

But I think what I want to say is I understand your frustration, but I also want to highlight that we're more than just compliant, we are, and we've had great strides in working with the public over the last few election cycles to make enhancements and not small enhancements.

We've built an observation room that I welcome all of you, and I've said this again, and I know Tim has.

Come and look at the room.

It's literally one room where the observers can go and see our large VBM processing area, and you can literally be in the middle of it almost.

And we have monitors, we have live streaming that we've done.

These are all enhancements to the process to be more transparent.

The alert system came about for 2024.

It was a recommendation by the commission.

We put it in action while we were trying to get the election together.

That was an enhancement that we were very proud of also and was well received.

So we have made strides, and I I think the team is very proud of the things that we've done, but I do understand your level of frustration.

I do want you all to know that we strive every time to see what it is that we can do within reason without additional costs, without putting more strain or any adverse reaction to ballot processing or trying.

So we take everything that you have, um, we'll take it in.

Like I I wanted to say, well, the one that we did this time that um we were very proud of it was those kiosks because we were getting complaints about procedures.

They're available to observers when they come, but they wanted it right when they go in.

So we said, let's get something that's interactive that they can actually read as they're in the area, so that's an enhancement.

But I hear you all, we're doing our best to do this, but also within reason to make sure that we can get our jobs done as well.

Okay, first um, thank you.

And we'll go to Commissioner Ramon and then to Commissioner Belcher, and then to Commissioner Lindsay.

And so none of this is meant as a personal attack, right?

We're all we're all trying to figure out what's the best way to go about uh dealing with this particular issue, and and we acknowledge the the improvements that have been made uh by the ROV, including the observation room, but that brings me to the specific point that we're getting at here.

What good is the observation room if you show up and you don't know what process is happening or even if process is about to start?

You show up to the observation room, you're looking through the uh um into the facilities, and you see nothing happening, and you have no idea when or what is going to happen next.

That's the frustration.

And so, you know, and I I'm with uh Commissioner Wagner here.

I'm not entirely sure which direction I should we should go in, and I think it starts with a capacity question.

What is the ROV's capacity to give advanced notice and how specific can that advanced notice be?

I think that's the question.

More than the initial alert every day that we will be processing that.

Right, so what good is that alert, right?

If if I were to receive notice, for instance, from the court that said at some point, today we're gonna hold a hearing.

I don't know the subject matter that hearing, and I don't know what time that hearing is going to occur.

I have no way to tell my client, we're nothing to be there.

I have no way to prepare for that uh hearing in advance.

I don't even know what evidence to bring with me or what arguments to make.

Similarly, if you were to say an election process is going to happen at some point today, the observers don't know what the process is, they don't know when an anticipated time range uh in which it will occur or begin, it leaves a lot to be desired.

That and so, and and I don't even know if it's a reasonable request because I don't know what the capacity is of the ROV to change that process to make it a little bit more accessible for the public, that's that's my question.

Understood, and I think the capacity is an issue here to be able to do it effectively, that's the issue.

Because as quickly as our processes can change, to be able to now pull a resource to be able to make sure that we send that out in a timely manner, maybe not even 10 minutes, maybe not even five minutes, is an issue.

The other part of it that I think we need to take into consideration.

What if we miss?

What if we miss one?

Now we're being held accountable for not providing it.

And let me just say one more thing, please.

It has happened where we can't come back and say, but you didn't do it that time.

So, you know, we have to take all of that into consideration when we're saying we can do this effectively, but accurately.

So it goes it goes directly to Commissioner Wagner's points and Commissioner Lindsay's point.

First, it's non-all or nothing proposition.

Correct.

And two, uh it it's it's one of those things where the proactive communication saying we anticipate starting at this time and then proactively communicating that we can't do it at this time would be helpful.

And then what fault is it of yours that people could people try to blame others for all sorts of things that are beyond their control, right?

Including the ROV not receiving the mail when they anticipate it.

You guys are not the US Postal Service.

Reasonable people would understand that.

And so, but putting out an alert saying we have not received the mail from the Postal Service yet, as soon as we have it, we will give you an alert.

We are otherwise ready to start this process.

I think any reasonable constituent would appreciate that sort of communication.

Again, I don't know if the ROV has the capacity to do those sort of communications.

And I don't want to step out of line here, but I think just as a quick point, um, I'd like to give a quick cheer for compliance.

Um, but honestly, to some extent, the laws and the regulations that exist are the legislatures and the secretary of state attempt to balance the rights and the needs of observers against the need to get the ballots counted.

And so the ROV already complies with the law and then stuff.

And so by complying with the law, they are already trying to strike that balance that the legislature or meet the requirements that the legislature set for striking that balance, meet the requirements that the secretary of state set for striking that balance, and then go above and beyond.

And so while while I'm supposed to have uh yeah, the they can't hear you too well.

Oh, sorry about that.

And so, and so while I do understand that this particular issue raises a different type of complexity, um, I don't think that we should be dismissive about what it actually takes and what it means in terms of processes and getting the job done just to meet the minimum legal requirements in this context, uh, let alone to meet what the ROV is already doing that that goes above and beyond those requirements.

Okay, moving on to Commissioner Belcher.

Um yeah, I'd like to um just point out that uh the Alameda County Grand Jury report uh covered uh 2024, 25, and the report came out in July or August.

So that's about six or seven months ago, and it sounds like the ROV has been making during that period, has already been addressing a lot of this and making incremental improvements already.

So these complaints come from over a year ago or a year and a half or yeah, a year and a half ago.

So Cynthia ROV or assistant, whatever you are, uh uh announced that they've been making these improvements all over the place, small incremental improvements, so it's almost um what's the word?

I don't know.

What redundant?

Yeah, it's almost redundant what we're talking about because it sounds like everybody is bringing up good points, and the ROV is trying very hard to address it while also being compliant, okay.

Okay, Commissioner Lindsay.

Yeah, I'm also I feel like I bet you everybody feels like, but I could be wrong.

Um, we are talking this way, we are not actually hearing each other, and we're not dealing with the same stuff.

And so what I think I'm hearing is some frustration from staff and from leadership of people not understanding how hard this is and how hard they've been working and the improvements that have been made.

And I think that's where and concern about staffing and like more stuff gets thrown at them and then more stuff, and then they fix that, and then people start yelling them about more stuff.

Um I get that a thousand percent, right?

Um so I I want to say that we know the ROV is compliant with law.

That's just pretty much a known fact, and it remains to be disproved in a court of law once that they're not, and it has not happened, right?

Um, and I've been working with the election integrity folk to understand where they're coming from, what they're working for, and they pretty much at this point they haven't said it officially, but they also feel okay, they're compliant with the law, fine, but they would really like, um, both both the official Utah folk, but also all the unofficial folk that have no affiliation with them that are election observers.

Um, they do want more customer service and they do want to be to do their job, that very, very, very important job that election observers do.

Um, and bless all of you.

I ain't one of them, and I ain't gonna be one of them, but bless you.

Um, so not only is the Alameda County ROV compliant with the law, but they're substantially past the law, substantially.

And I've heard from election observers how much they appreciate that new room, you know, and having the staffer in the room, by the way, I thought somebody mentioned that last time I talked to them.

Having a staffer in the room is just there to answer questions, right?

Um, and these kiosks sound really amazing because they were a little frustrated there, right?

You know, they're like, what is going on?

And I'm looking at this, but what are they doing?

All right, well, now they got that, right?

They solved that problem.

So that's pretty fabulous stuff.

I feel like maybe the maybe the answer here is we ask you guys to come back next month and think you know, think about it a little bit, right?

And come back next month and without us trying to shove anything down your throat, um, because that's not we're trying to collaborate here, not be like that.

Um, and uh to me, I I'm not in your shoes, so I could just have my head right up the rear end, um, but it doesn't feel to me like anything like a full-time position um to do this to do this.

It feels to me like I'm Johnny worker, right?

You know, has some computer skills, and among the other four things I'm doing, okay.

I get another thing out of it, right?

I understand that ain't great, right?

Um, so I you know, juggling that is tricky, right?

You know, where where do you get that?

But to me, it's five minutes an hour, maybe to send out an email to one l, you know, just to that one list and say, um, you know, we've just uh we've just started, you know, some some ballots just came in.

Some ballots just just arrived, and we're gonna start processing very, very shortly.

Apologize for those of you who have a long drive, that can just be some standard text.

Apologize for those of you who have a long drive, we told you as soon as the mail came, right?

Um, and it feels to me like that would actually be a complete win-win, you know.

Um in terms of uh, and it might be a pilot project the first time, right?

That that might make sense, you know, for for uh June or something.

Um, it could be restricted to certain processes to reduce staff uh, you know, things like that, maybe the most important ones.

Um and in terms of uh the very real when you said it, I was like totally resonated with me.

Is you set their, you've now set their expectations higher, and so then you make a mistake and they start yelling at you again.

Um I would say that if we do that, that's guaranteed out.

I it's about confusion, right?

The last thing you want to do is confuse the public on what it is the information that you're providing to them, and and as election officials or any type of service-oriented that you provide, you know, information to the public you want to make sure that the information that you provide is accurate right because the last thing that you want is confusion especially in elections yeah and they tell you from an elections official's perspective that's the number one taboo thing you never want to do right okay I'm going to have to wind this up because the time is out so um if that's okay I'd like to make um a substitute motion sure for us um based on everything that was said um and I may need some help from Commissioner Wagner I'm not sure um but I move that the commission make a standing recommendation uh for incremental improvements um on the ROV alerting subscribers when a certain process is about to start can you repeat that um okay I'll try this again uh I move that the commit that the commission have a standing recommendation that the R ROV make incremental improvements to alert subscribers when a certain process is about to start I can second that okay I have a second here um any other comments okay so with that um we're going to entertain the substitute motion first unless Jim you want to withdraw yours or leave yours standing okay okay so a motion and I've got a second um is there anyone else who would like to uh say anything else regarding this issue because we have to move on um it sounds like also like a good chance to have one of those youth in there in the office to um do an internship and a free of cost obviously that's brilliant yeah okay so could we take um a roll call uh is there any other discussion on I asked already unless somebody else oh okay sure yeah so I like this it's a little vague um so can we also just get uh when a decision is made on what that's gonna be what that incremental improvement is going to be if any or decision is made it's not gonna happen can you just proactively notify us right that you know so besides there'd be a standing recommendation that happened that we get notified that we get notified because we would love to include that in our post-election assessment of some improvement so there's so yeah so can we add notifications yes so we can add when when those incremental when and if they're made that you let the commission know or well okay just that they update us on what's happening on this is yes because if there's no improvements made because for whatever reason they just don't have the time or money or whatever and we can and we get complaints yes okay all righty well I mean the second that will be seconded.

Okay please take the vote Commissioner Belcher no Commissioner Butter yes Commissioner Henderson yes Commissioner Moore.

Maybe too many mics on that once yes vice president Ramon.

Yes Commissioner Seabrook yes Commissioner Barlick yes Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez yes Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Yes.

President Dieter.

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes.

Okay.

There's uh one no vote and the rest yes.

So we can move on to the next item.

Which was moved from earlier, one of the ad hoc committee reports.

So I'll let Karen take that over.

When are we going to go about time?

It's 6 25.

Oh, we have public comment.

So I need a motion to hear public comment first.

So moved.

And a second.

Second.

Okay, and I guess we have to take a roll call for that.

Okay.

Commissioner Belcher.

Yes.

Or here.

What are we doing?

Changing the agenda before.

Oh, yes.

All right.

Commissioner Butter?

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson?

Yes.

Commissioner Moore.

Yes.

Vice President Ramon?

Yes.

Commissioner Seabrook?

Yes.

Commissioner Barlick?

Yes.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez.

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

President Dieter.

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay?

Yes.

Okay.

Do we have any public speakers?

If you would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand.

Looks like just one.

One?

Okay.

You can go ahead and call on the speaker.

How many minutes?

Uh three minutes.

John Guerrero, you have three minutes.

I just want to clarify.

Are we on item number 10?

Yes.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

I'd like to actually comment on your your recent discussion on how to improve customer service.

And I will echo um acting ROV Cynthia Corneillo's assertion that they've made numerous changes.

I will say they did.

Over the years that I've been there, they they actually have made some very significant changes.

However, I also understand I'm not sure exactly which commissioner did uh said about the customer service part, but that is the big concern.

Now personally we've Etaka actually has suggested this in a court of law actually to the ROV how to fix this.

And we suggested that uh they do like San Francisco and their other ROVs around the you know in other states where they have the uh the video cameras on 24-7.

And so the public can see when something happens, or it's about to happen, or finished already, and it moved over into someplace else.

Now I've been doing this for a couple of years, or a few years actually, and I know the process, and I could tell just by the color-coded uh bins that the that the ballots are in, or the envelopes and then the ballots, where you are in the process, and we also through the video and in person, we're able to actually estimate how many mail-in ballots are actually in one section, and we are pretty close sometimes.

We can tell just by you know the the daily updates, so we're we're not far, and so what the problem is is that we can predict it if you leave the cameras on 24-7.

Even when you're not there, we want to be able to see that nobody's there, and that was very nice in, you know, some of the other states, including uh San Francisco, where I could call look come in and look, and nobody's there, and it's the middle of the day.

And I go, oh well, they're at lunch.

And you can see that and go, yeah, okay.

You can see them come in.

So okay, we're gonna get started, and you can actually see the processes as it's flowing through, and they are actually going, you know, in batches.

You can see it go through the scanning machine for the signatures, and you know when that's done, then the all of a sudden signature verification starts, and then when that's done, they scan it through again to open up the envelopes, and then when that's done, it goes over to where they open take the ballots out of the envelopes.

When that's done, it goes over to where they actually run it through the tabulators, and all the bins are color-coded, just leave them on 24-7.

Don't shut them off.

Thank you.

Is that it for public comment?

Okay, I'll close public comment.

And we still have two items that we did not get to tonight.

Um, we do try to end our meetings by 6 30.

It is not a um mandatory that we do, but um, I'd like to find out if everybody is okay with postponing those two items to the next meeting, um, unless you'd like to hear it tonight.

The special report from the ROV about the new laws that to that are taking place this year, and also about the post-election assessment.

Madam President.

Pardon me?

I was gonna say that I'm uh I for one am part of the ad hoc committee, and I do would like to say that it would be all right if we do postpone it to the next meeting so that way, but as long as we can discuss it as the first item.

Of course, yes, thank you.

I would agree because I think those topics could kind of will be involved, so we will need time.

Yeah, right now it's like we're already an hour and a half into the meeting.

Everyone's probably looking for dinner or some sort, so I think it's probably a good time to uh you know adjourn.

Okay, and I actually apologize.

Um I need a little learning curve too to manage time and to end the discussion when it starts to go on, and I will try to do better with that, and I do not mind if anyone throughout a meeting interrupts me to say point of order and to bring up time.

Um you will not hurt my feelings.

I would actually appreciate it until I get my groove down on doing this.

Um with that, we will um yes.

I just wanted to say can can you is this working like I have the two pressed here?

Does it work?

If I yeah, okay.

Um I'm happy to to postpone these.

I think it's the appropriate thing to do.

Um, sometimes just discussions take what they're gonna take.

And this is not the first time it's happened, and I've been doing this stuff a long time.

So I don't think it was on you at all.

Uh it was a complicated discussion that wasn't quite working.

Um that's the only thing that maybe we could have done better is catch earlier that it wasn't working.

Um, but other than that, you know, it just kind of is what it is.

Well, thank you.

Okay, yes, Commissioner Belcher.

Just uh uh my impression was that um the same ideas were being repeated over and over and over again.

I was getting very frustrated.

That's what happens when people aren't connected because people start repeating themselves.

Okay, Commissioner Henderson.

Just one, and I should have done this during the announcements.

I just want to make sure other people saw that in the New York Times today, there was an opinion piece by the editorial board about how California is damaging faith in government, and it's because of the how long it takes us to post results because of the seven-day rule after you know the mailing mail thing.

And um, it just it was an interesting and it got a lot of comments.

So it if people I can send it to the list as a get as a gift article if people are interested.

Okay, so uh with that, it is 6 32.

Yes, Noe.

So, meeting this year, uh, at the new location.

Good point.

The meeting agenda says that it's at the San Lorenzo Library at the next meeting, but it will not be.

It will be in Oakland.

Um, and we will have the address um on the next agenda.

Yes, can I also just as if you've never been to the courthouse, but there is security, so you'll have to walk through security.

So please just be mindful that you will have to go through the security check by the sheriffs.

Thank you.

Okay, so I adjourn this meeting at 6:33.

Thank you.

Thank you to the virtual audience.