Welcome everyone to the April 16th, 2026 Elections Commission meeting.

And will the clerk call the roll, please?

Commissioner Belcher.

Commissioner Butter.

Commissioner Henderson?

Here.

Commissioner Lindsey.

Here.

Commissioner Moore.

Commissioner Pham.

Commissioner Rizzy Hernandez?

Here.

Commissioner Seabroad.

Commissioner Barley?

Here.

Commissioner Wagner.

Here.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Vice President Love.

President Beard.

Here.

Okay.

And Ty Nam FAM informed us that he couldn't make it today.

So I'm not sure about the others.

So let's go to the agenda.

And there are no new commissioners to square in.

So for agenda changes, does anyone have any changes to the agenda?

Hearing none, let's go to approval of the meeting minutes.

And we'll start off with the February meeting minutes.

Does anyone have any changes to the minutes?

Yes, Commissioner Lindsay.

I don't actually have a change.

But I just wanted to thank our clerk and the staff for minutes are really, really thorough.

And we're getting page numbers.

We in the public are getting page numbers of where to look.

And so just want to say thank you.

Okay, so I'd like to entertain a motion for the uh approval of the February minutes.

So okay, we've got a first and a second, and we need to take a vote on that.

That was Commissioner Barley.

I was the first.

Commissioner Butter?

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson?

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay?

Yes.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez?

Yes.

Commissioner Barley?

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

President Deater?

Yes.

Okay, that passes unanimously.

And are there any changes to the March minutes?

Hearing none, can I get a motion?

So moved.

Second.

President Commissioner Lindsay made the first.

Made the motion and Commissioner Butter seconded it.

And could we take a vote?

Commissioner Butter?

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson?

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay?

Yes.

Commissioner Lizzie Hernandez?

Yes.

Commissioner Barley?

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

President Beater?

Yes.

Okay.

For announcements and communications.

On non-agenda items.

Does staff have any communications?

Actually, if I could jump in just very quickly.

I just want to introduce my colleague Brandon Fields to all of you.

And we'll be working with the registrar as well.

And we'll be around, I think, a little bit more in the future.

So want to make sure everybody gets in.

Happy to be here in pressing anymore.

Let the record show that Commissioner has joined us.

Okay, uh, I guess that's it.

Um from Commissioners.

Um comments, please, starting with Commissioner Lindsay.

Um yeah.

Um so we've been having problems with uh kidding our kidding quorum.

We made it today, we had seven people.

Um but um and I just wanted to uh uh and I'd actually like this to get into the minutes, if that's okay, so that the folk aren't here might see it in the minutes.

Um but uh um so one thing is that it's just like we only meet 10 times a year.

Um and just ask people if it's any way to like not go on vacation on the day of meeting.

Um that would be great.

Um sometimes people have no control over that.

We all get that.

Um but if it's possible, um so that would be good uh because it's gonna cause it may cause a quorum problem.

Um if you're out of the county, there's just no way to count this quorum.

Um then just um sometimes people may either coming late or leaving early, and that could cause a quorum problem.

So I would just suggest everybody try to be here like about 15 minutes early, and then if we're running a little late, we're okay.

Um, and also to plan on staying until about 6.45 because we try to finish at 6.45, but a lot of times we're all quite naked.

You know, uh, and when somebody leaves, that can make you fall before you know.

So um just a heads up so that we can always have a have a comfortable quorum and not have to worry about that.

Okay, thank you.

I I have a few reminders too, and I don't need to say it all out loud.

There's an attachment to the agenda.

Um, but I do just wanted to remind everyone that if commissioners have a topic that they would like agenda, so please put it in writing and even that would be great.

And also uh for a while, ad hoc committee reports uh were being submitted by the week before the commission meeting.

Um, but staff has asked that all the ad hoc committee reports be submitted by the close of business on Wednesday.

So they can start putting the agenda together on Thursday, and it will be posted on Friday.

So that would be um eight days before the meeting.

Um I think oh, and the other thing is based on our past meetings with the ad hoc committees.

There's been some issues that I thought might be addressed in the elections administration plan.

So I included the table of contents for just to remind everybody that and the committees that you're some that might help you in your discussions.

And in the coming months, we will be going over the um administration plan again as a refresher for the upcoming general election.

Are there any other commissioners who have communication?

Okay, that's then we can move on and let the record show that I have to.

Oh, okay.

I just want to make the announcement of the I'm sure everybody knows the special election that was called in the 14th congressional district.

So the registrar voters have been working on this since the governor issued the proclamation on the 14th.

I you know unannounced that we're working on it.

Okay, thank you.

All right, so with that, I will close uh communications and ask if there are any public commenters.

If you would like to make public comment on agenda items, please raise your hands.

Okay, please.

For three minutes.

You have three minutes.

Um thank you.

Hello, Commissioner Steve Chesson, Californians for electoral reform.

This concerns item seven, the monthly update from Registrar of Voters Office.

I also emailed you my comments.

I don't see any discussion of the June 16th special election to fill the vacancy in CD 14 in today's monthly update.

Vote by mail ballots for the statewide primary election will be mailed to all voters in Alameda County beginning May 4th.

I assume this also means that VBM ballots for the CD 14 special primary election will be mailed to all voters in CD 14 beginning May 18th.

This means there will be about a two-week period prior to the June 2nd primary, where CD 14 voters will have both ballots in their possession.

Unless proper precautions are taken, I can imagine several disastrous scenarios.

A voter might think one mailing is a duplicate of the other and throw one in the trash.

A voter might return the special election ballot prior to June 2nd and try to return the regular primary ballot between June 2nd and June 16th.

Or voter might return the statewide primary ballot before June 2nd and the special primary ballot before June 16th, but each in the wrong return envelope.

Unless the registrar of voters takes positive action to prevent these scenarios, yet another Alameda County electoral disaster will take place.

For example, the external envelope for the June 2nd primary, at least for CD 14 voters, could be stamped with large letters saying this contains your ballot for the June 2nd statewide primary election.

And the external envelope for the June 16th CD 14 special primary election could be stamped with large letters saying this contains your ballot for the June 16th CD 14 special primary election.

Similar wording could be stamped in large letters on the internal return envelopes so voters would know which ballot goes into which envelope and by when they need to be returned.

I hope that the elections commission will make sure that the registrar of voters prevents a fiasco from happening.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Next fee for she responded just with facts, Jason.

I was I was going to say that in the monthly update, maybe the registrar wants to include that as part of the best place to put it.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

You have three minutes.

Good afternoon.

I'm Dominici Morris.

I'm an organizer organizer of Oakland Kids First and a member of the Oakland Youth Vote Coalition.

I've been working on Youth Vote campaign since its conception in 2019.

And we're very grateful that our young folks are able to vote in 2024.

But the coalition, we were able to work with a voting rights and election reform strategist, Lori Schuldenberger, to co-author an evaluation report that includes takeaways and recommendations on a youth implementation of 2024.

Some of you may have already received this in the email.

But the report has sections that are directed to specific parties from election officials, government agencies, education officials, etc.

Um, an example of like some of the takeaways and recommendations are a takeaway could be in-class civic engagement curriculum combined with class discussions and pre-registration activities, what are most effective ways to engage youth voters.

This is more effective than tabling.

A recommendation would be that school districts should formalize a curriculum that pairs civic education with in-class voter registration activities across grade levels.

Another takeaway could be is that the Oakland Unified School District Superintendent didn't create a comprehensive plan to support youth voting as directed by a school board resolution for 2022, which means that schools didn't have sufficient directions or accountability.

Recommendation would be school boards should direct the superintendent to develop a comprehensive plan to increase voter education and registration among high school students.

The school board should also ensure target targeted civic engagement curriculum is developed and vetted and hold school administrators accountable to ensure it is implemented at a scale at each high school.

So if you're interested, we can share this report out with you.

I can try to mail it to the uh the committee also.

Another thing that we wanted to um have more of is more collaboration.

I know that y'all have a youth participation committee, um, but we haven't been connected with y'all yet.

And we are still actively working on the youth vote campaign.

So uh we should have some collaboration uh because if we want to try to get as many young folks pre-registered and prepared to uh vote in this uh upcoming election in November.

So we should be working together, sharing our tools and strategies to have a bigger turnout.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, once could we do a repeat of the name and the organization.

Speaker, are you still on the line?

Yes, yeah.

Um my name is Dominici Morris.

Um, I'm with the Oakland Youth Vote Coalition.

You can find us at OaklandYouth Vote.org.

I'm also part of Oakland Kids First.

You can uh get at me that that way also.

Thank you for repeating that for us.

Is that the end of public comments?

Okay, I will close public comment.

And we're going to get the monthly update from the registrar of voters, for which may address um the issue that was just brought up.

Uh in public comment.

First, I'll start out with the um update that's in the agenda.

Okay, which goes to the June 2nd 2026 direct primary election.

I have important dates listed that I'll just read off, but it's part of the agenda.

First day of mailing voter information guides is April 23rd.

First day of mailing vote by mail ballots to voters is May 4th.

First day of early voting is also May 4th.

Our 24-hour drop boxes begin open at on May 4th, 2026.

And the close of registration is May 18, 2026.

I'll keep adding the dates as we go forward and get closer to the election so it's more current as we go along.

There are eight ballot measures on this ballot card, and I've listed them here.

On Saturday, we will be sending out all the military and overseas ballots.

It's a federal requirement.

So we will be doing that by Saturday.

We are finalizing testing of some of our online tools.

And the one is called the remote accessible vote by mail or RAVBM.

What it does is it allows a voter with a disability to download their ballot, mark it, and print it.

They have to print it and then mail it to us.

And we ask them to use the return envelope of the VBM that was sent to them.

And a voters do utilize the service quite a bit.

And it's really helpful to voters from what we understand.

And a lot of other voters use it as well, just to be able to have something more accessible to them, especially if they're confined to their home.

It's another way for them to have access.

So we have completed that.

And I believe we are 100% of all of our vote centers.

There's 100 vote centers throughout the county.

And we have secured that.

For our outreach and education update included in the agenda, we have the most recent schedule from our outreach team.

Sorry, it's quite extensive, but it's it's big.

Right now, our team has actively been working with the Secretary of State and the high schools for voter education weeks, which runs April 13th through April 24th.

So we're actively in the high schools, um pre-registering the youth and providing um voter education to them.

Specifically in Berkeley and Oakland, discussing these voting and how they'll be getting the ballot in the mail for the November general.

And that's for that election.

So I'll go over just some information that we have on the um special 14th congressional primary election.

Um and the election dates I want to give.

So the special election for the primary is June 16th.

If no one gets 50% plus one in the primary, then they will go the two talk will go to the general election, which has been called for August 18th.

So currently we are in the signatures and loop period.

That started on 414 and runs through tomorrow.

And a signature in lieu is basically a way to offset someone's filing fee for running for office.

So for this office, I believe it's 1,740 to run for office.

Now, if you want to offset that, you can collect which is optional, these signatures in lieu of your filing fee.

And each signature has a dollar value.

Because this whole election process in terms of filing for um candidacy has been condensed because of the short time frame.

Um the value of that signature is higher.

this office I believe it's 1,740 um to run for office now if you want to offset that you can collect which is optional these signatures in lieu of your filing fee and each signature has a dollar value because this whole election process in terms of filing for um candidacy has been condensed because of the short time frame um the value of that signature is higher i believe it's a hundred and forty three signatures are needed to offset that complete filing fee and each dollar each signature is a little over 12 dollars i believe per signature so if someone were to get 143 ballot signatures in lieu there is no filing for them um the election official is the state everything's payable to the state for the candidates okay um another item that i wanted to make sure that we addressed especially based off of what the caller said i just before here i'm sorry that's why i was late i was on the phone with our printer looking at ways for us to be able to identify our outer envelopes for this election and the return envelopes um for the voters in the 14th congressional district because we thought of that we don't want any confusion the everything for the june second is done we now have to look at what can we do differently to identify to the voters that are in this district that here's a ballot so we were putting special messaging on the outside of the outer envelope that's the one that you get when you get your ballot and then on the return envelope which is the um envelope which ballots it and you return back to it so there's going to be distinct messaging that's clear visible um that tells them this is for the special 14th congressional district election and um we're also for our purposes we are um putting a special colored marking on the envelope to distinguish for our team members this is for the special election and we've done this um we've had elections overlap because they've been called so close and so this is something that of course as soon as we heard or there was a possibility we jumped to action to get involved with our printers with all of our vendors to make sure that we've covered the basis okay are you finished with your presentation okay I'll open it up for questions and uh commissioner butter so um uh cynthia do you are are you thinking about um other kinds of publicity that will go out to the community um in the voter guides we have special pages that will be included to again remind voters you have two ballots you've received one for the June 2nd direct primary election and one for the special so they have they know that they have two because we thought of voters doing exactly what that voter said and even if they do we have remedies for that when we extract ballots that was my question one other vote is there some kind of text that you could send to us that we could send out to our organizations that whatever we can give you the messaging then I would be very well we can do that yes Commissioner Lindsay yeah so this has happened before that's funny because I don't remember it but you know you've lived it um so um I'm curious when it's happened before how many I mean you know to your memory um you know how much confusion was there even though you did everything you could and then

Okay, fantastic.

We have a little technical difficulty there, but it's um been fixed.

And Commissioner Lindsay, did you want to finish what you were saying?

Oh, I guess I'll re-ask the question, which is just uh how many even when you do all this stuff, I assume some people will be confused.

Has it been how much of a problem has it been in the past?

You have no control over this.

You didn't set the dates for, but you know, you're just trying to deal with it.

But how much confusion has there been in the past and what and how do you guys remedy it?

So we haven't had a situation where there's been a vacancy and it's been called so you know quickly.

What we've had is where time frames overlap.

Um, specifically, I think the one was when Congressman Delhomes retired, and um elected officials who were in state legislative seats ran for all of those other seats and it created this this dominoes of that when we had three elections going within two months of each other.

It was just it was really crazy, but that's when we first said, okay, we have to be able for us and the voters be able to isolate identify um the different ballots that were coming in, and that's where we first started using the color coding, um, messaging on the envelopes, and then where we also exercise this when we first ran RCB elections in 2010.

We did the same thing because voters um were getting it in three cities, we wanted to make sure that we identify the different um ballots items coming in for ourselves, but we also put messaging on the outer envelopes just to let the voters know a little bit more of what they would get in the package.

So we have gone through this before.

Um, I think there is confusion.

Um, that's why we're very good.

Our team at messaging through all different types of platforms.

We know what voters see what they look at.

So their packaging that they're going to get in their package will identify that first with the outer envelope, the the return envelope with the inserts that they have in their ballot, clearly identifying not only that this is a different, but also to remember your June 2nd ballot.

Um, and then our social media.

Um, we have marketing campaigns that we um tie in for the multi-languages.

So we have the plan that is set, it's just a condensed time frame.

Okay, commissioner Henderson and then Commissioner Wagner.

So a couple questions.

Um for those two special elections, the June and the August elections, will it be in-person voting?

Yes, it will be throughout the county again.

The governor did not call it all male ballot election.

It is a traditional election with mail ballots to every voter and in-person voting.

Yes.

And then secondly, on the um the remote accessible vote by mail ballots.

Um when are those going to be ready?

Which so they're ready at 29 days, just as when the ballots get mailed.

Oh, so they're gonna be active in June plenary.

And so um where would I I could share the send it to you?

Yeah, it'll be great.

Um so uh you were talking about distinguishing the ballots between June 2nd and June 16th.

June 2nd, obviously that's all right and printed up and done.

So uh have you guys decided as register of voters decided in what manner is going to distinguish a ballot from the June 2nd ballot or June 16th, and if so, what is that gonna look like?

So I identified that we will have on the outer envelope messaging that tops tells the voter this isn't a separate ballot card.

This is for this uh special 14th congressional um special election on the outer in a different color on the return, it will say the same for them.

They'll get messaging within their packaging.

So when you all get your ballot in the mail, you and you take it out and it's in a wrap, right?

The wrap consists of instructions.

We will have more instructions on that to identify to the voters.

There's voting instructions.

So we are going to blast them with information so they know this is separate, but that they also have to vote their other ballot.

They have to.

All right, and that's consistent with your pass with the registrar's past practice.

It's all about messaging and making sure that we can identify that they're different, but we also know that there are voters that are going to do you know different things, but we get that now.

You have voters that may, you know, as a family, you sit at the table and you mark your ballot, and then somebody may have somebody else's envelope.

So we get those back, and those we have to message um alert the voters that your signature didn't match because every envelope is tied to that voter.

There's a voter right now the envelope.

And so when we go to match the signatures, if they don't match, then we have to put it aside and by law, we have to notify the voter.

And a lot of times you'll have spouses, you'll have children, you'll have because they vote.

So we have all of these in place to address any of the challenges or possible questions from the voters.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, Commissioner Barlet.

Hello, so I know we had extensive discussion a couple of meetings back about the register registrar update on folks online, ask them when accounting and starting and stuff.

So is that gonna happen for vote elections now?

We already update voters by um the messaging.

Um they can subscribe online to get a text or an email.

So that is up and running and will be for this these two elections.

Thank you.

Okay, and let the record show that Commissioner Whitehurst is here with us now.

Okay.

Um, and I hope to see on my local television um news that this is covered.

Um, so I'll be I'll be paying attention.

I trust that the registrar voter is going to inform the media.

Um all righty.

So with that, we'll close the monthly update and move to the regular agenda items for the ad hoc committee reports.

And we will start off with the November 2025 post-election assessment.

And the commission um at the last meeting charged me to make some edits to the draft and to send it to the board of supervisors, and I did that, and it is attached to the committee report.

And um, I'd like you to know that we did hear back from two supervisors.

Um Supervisor Marquez and Supervisor Bass both thanked us, you know, for our invaluable contributions and our work.

And Supervisor Bath even added that she was looking forward to the June and November assessment.

So I just think it's important that we know how important these assessments are.

Um, which is just to put on everybody's radar because it's coming up.

I got my first mailer in the mail, and so I think if all the commissioners could just try to pay attention to everything in the process and keep little notes to yourselves so that when we're um if you see something that might help the registrar voters improve anything, um, or notice something that's really good that you want to make sure we include, just keep a running list because uh we'll be doing another post assessment um before you know it.

So uh just wanted to remind everybody of that.

And um Karen, did you want to add anything on behalf of your commission?

Okay, so what's on the agenda is to um disband the commission.

So um I mean the subcommittee.

Yes, not not up.

Um, because the work is done as far as unless any of the subcommittee members think that you have more to do.

everybody of that and um Karen did you want to add anything on behalf of your commission okay so what's on the agenda is to um disband the commission so um i mean the subcommittee yes not not up um because the work is done as far as unless any of the subcommittee members think that you have more to do um so i will um could i get a motion for that to disband the committee so i'll move um motion to disband the november 2025 post election assessment okay it's that's by commissioner barlett and seconded by David has hand up yeah also usually okay commissioner sieve rut okay let's take a vote commissioner butter yes commissioner anderson yes commissioner lindsey yes commissioner war yes commissioner yes commissioner seabrough yes commissioner barlett yes commissioner wagner yes commissioner whitehurst yes vice president remote yes president eater yes okay that passes unanimous unanimously thank you very much to the committee and let's move on to the voting participation committee and uh commissioner seabrook would you be giving your report so we we continue to meet we've I think the last meeting we we've met twice we now have a database where we can actually get usable information that's um we're starting to dig into it with the help of uh commissioner hernandez has been very very helpful so we have a meeting set up in May to actually our in-person meeting with to go through and kind of do a fine tool detail of the data that we will we want to pull so we're moving forward we're still um still meeting still working and analyze starting to analyze actual real data and what is it called the PDI in the the database the database called PDI that we're pulling down okay any comments questions yes I'll just say that we were getting pretty frustrated uh before that happened like we just couldn't move forward um and so we're really grateful that that that we got that information um so and then we can start to move forward great super relieved yeah as we say okay uh moving on to the youth participation committee sure so um we were able to meet with the ROV and staff for um on March 25th regarding youth voting and we received a wonderful presentation from Ms.

Cornejo's staff regarding their efforts to engage the youth um in our county and to register them to vote um commissioner butter took great notes so I'm actually using your work product right now um and Commissioner Whitehurst also attended and I I don't know if you all want to add anything about the efforts that we were asking about with the NAACP and then we have Alameda um with the legal women voters who already kind of have um programs that they would like to coordinate with the ROV's office so that was discussed and we talked about the April 2026 high school education week which we already went over and then we're going to be I guess kind of assisting in making sure we follow up to see about the ROV's plans to identify one to two student leaders in each high school who will be deputized and able to register voters so I'm hoping we can have another meeting on so all righty yes and I'll just add um today was a great day at McClendon's high school of already uh noted that that I was there um and it was was excellent maybe a bit of news coverage because there were a couple of okay I just want to thank you all for helping us with your ideas and giving us your input and partnerships that we've already been able to act on I wanted thank you um Commissioner Whitehurst for getting us involved with climbings high school that was huge for us and then um commissioner barlett I want to let you know because we were at Henderson High School oh great that's amazing so um it's definitely helped us to forge those partnerships that were a little more difficult to get into um and we were able to do that and our outreach team was very excited um you know they're always excited for high school voter education weeks but you know to have the strong partnership is really been um beneficial to us and um commissioner butter we plan on working with the Al B Elite so we can incorporate our leadership program um so it's one effort.

And Commissioner Butter, we plan on working with the Al via.

So we can incorporate our leadership program.

So it's one effort.

Yes, Commissioner Butter.

Yeah.

I would be Cornejo's presentation to the youth participation committee was really good.

Is it possible that the commission could get a copy of that presentation?

So I mean the PowerPoint.

Yes.

Or we could do a presentation.

I think that would be, I would suggest that at the next meeting we actually do have the staff.

Do the presentation.

Because we're a bit further now, right?

We want to um reach out now to the administrators in the high schools and be able to launch this with them first.

Um and um then move forward and um formalize that.

Great.

Please send me an email so that I don't forget exactly what it is you'd like agenda.

Well, I think they're kind of suggesting it'd be the special report.

Yeah, no, I meant the topic itself or left.

Yeah.

So it just helpful to me.

Otherwise, we're gonna do what we've done in the past, going, what was that again?

You wanted um that would be great.

Um all right, can we move to the next committee, which is budgeting for elections and good work by the way, youth participation committee.

I'm glad that things are moving right along.

And the voting participation, we're doing, you know, we're making headway on numerous uh accounts.

So okay, budgeting for elections.

And Commissioner Wagner.

Thanks.

So uh this commission uh subcommittee is just getting started.

Um, and we're looking at um how the cost allocations um for the cost of uh elections and operations are distributed among the county and the jurisdictions.

Um this commission's received some concerns and communications about that topic.

Um so the uh this the place we're starting at is for the subcommittee members to understand better the model of how that's working.

And um uh we've started that work um uh in uh coordination and collaboration with the registrar of voters' office.

So uh just yesterday uh the registrar of Frenejo and her team uh gave us a uh great overview of how that uh cost allocation um uh is is done.

Uh very thorough, um, very helpful to us in understanding how that works.

So what we're at the stage right now of learning how the current processes worked.

Um I have no like actions or or uh you know requests for actions or or recommendations to the commission at this time, but but some of the things that I've learned um from this so far is that the uh the costs of um running the election are are split between the county and the jurisdictions.

Um and there's a formula for doing that based on the number of registered registered voters, number of registered voters in the county, the number of registered voters in each jurisdiction.

Um that for instance, I believe this is for the general 2024 election, for example, the the costs were around 21 million dollars, of which uh the county paid for about eight million and the jurisdictions paid for a little over 13.

Um one of the things uh we learned is that the generally speaking, the costs are uh borne by jurisdictions in proportion to the number of registered voters.

Uh, but there's a few special cases that can cause uh those costs to increase, for instance, to be um uh one of those one of those is uh jurisdiction that has uh five or more measures.

Um they will be allocated two shares of cost instead of one, which means their cost can double.

Another is um rank choice voting and uh youth voting.

The the cost of a ranked choice voting and youth voting are accounted for separately.

The cost for ranked choice voting are shared among the RCB jurisdictions and the cost for youth voting or shared among the youth voting jurisdictions.

So um we're learning how this works.

I am anticipating that a kind of a short-term goal for this subcommittee might be to work together with the registrar of voters to um ensure that for the for the jurisdictions in the the cities that it's predictable what the election costs.

They have some predictability, they're not big surprises.

And um uh we learned uh that the register of voters is working on improvements to the uh communications to help provide greater uh uh predictability and understanding to the city clerks and the jurisdictions, and that that looks really positive.

Um so I'm expecting some improvements there, and then um uh it's not clear what the medium or longer term goals might be, but um, those might include looking at um the costs of uh rank choice voting, the costs uh of these uh extra increased charges for jurisdictions of four or more measures potentially uh so we'll keep working on this, and I'll uh report back to you when we have more concrete.

Right.

Any comments, questions?

Well, yes, Commissioner Lindsay and Commissioner Buck Butter.

Um we we were asked to to review and see if um proposed wording worked.

Um you know, if we thought that it would it would help, and um uh commissioner Pham said he thought that would really help city clerks what they're proposing for the um uh to put it in writing for the uh for the city clerks, and presumably for other jurisdictions, whatever the equivalent of a city clerk is.

I don't even know how that works, but district secretaries administrators um and so we're pretty uh we're pretty happy with that with the short-term situation and then the longer term one is is uh as you said look looking at um, you know, looking at how how costs that are reallocated if you have five or more measures or RCV or use voting, um what those formulas are and how it could perhaps be possibly more equivalent, um, which is a harder problem.

Um but right now they they can't possibly do this.

Um that's um it's just impossible.

They need to at least get through June before we can you know start to talk about it.

Um it seems to me anyway.

But the subcommittee can work on it.

So that's just my you know, just yeah, my little admin's for clarification.

Commissioner Butter.

Yeah, I think that the the work of the um what do you call the committee?

Which of elections, uh budget for elections committee, um, is really important because as communities start to consider um youth voting or um rent choice voting, um, they need to know what to expect.

I mean, it all sounds like this is a great thing, but the cities need to know what the the costs are going to be if they implement or when they implement this.

So I think whatever models you can come up with to help communities and cities plan ahead is really important.

Okay, thank you for all your work.

That was a lot of information you gathered.

Um the next item on the agenda is contracts over a hundred thousand dollars.

Um this is returning to the commission because in October um we had asked the registrar to bring us a list of contracts over a hundred thousand dollars.

Um, as the agenda says, including the name of the vendor, um and the contractual obligations.

I couldn't quite remember exactly why we had asked to do this.

Fortunately, Vice President Ramon remembered, so uh he's going to tell us, and then uh Commissioner Lindsay may want to add something too because he was there, but yes.

Um, you know, we we had a discussion about it, and we have a vague recollection because it was so long ago that this was a request for um more transparency about the source of the cost for registrar for the registrar of voters and uh what its commitments were contractually to outside vendors.

And so this dovetails into our last conversation about costs of budgeting, and this uh just provides uh this is a delivery of that earlier promise last fall of a request for transparency from the public.

So we've delivered on that.

Any contract that's got a value of over 100,000 is now available here and attached to its agenda.

Um there are only three of them.

Um there is one particularly large one, which I'm sure has subparts and is much more complex than just what's shown there on the line item, but at least uh the public uh can very easily access who this is in what amount and also the term of the contract.

So um uh this is just a delivery of an earlier promise.

Thank you.

And um, Chris Cornejo, would you like to add anything to this to explain anything or does it speak for itself?

Or does it speak for itself?

I could well I can give a little bit more information about what each are, if you'd like, maybe other than what's listed.

Sure.

Okay.

So run vet, um, the system we use is called VIMS.

And that's actually the election management system.

And they are also certified with the Secretary of State because the Secretary of State is the official folder of all voter roles for the state of health.

So this system is integrated with the Secretary of State's database.

So not only does it hold voter roles, it also holds our data in terms of setting up elections.

Um voters who are allocated to eligible voting districts, voting history.

It's a complete election management system.

And we've had um this for quite some time, this contract with this vendor.

Liberty Vote, formerly known as Dominion, is our voting system.

So it is our voting ballot design, and it's our tabulation system.

So all of the equipment in terms of that are at the vote centers on the ballot marking devices, the um ballot on demand printers, um, the high pro scanners that are where we run the actual ballots through for scanning for tabulation, our adjudication workstations.

That's all encompassed within this voting system.

Netfile is our e-file campaign that's online, which allows um candidates and committees to file their campaign finance reporting online, and it's housed there for the public.

Okay, questions.

Commissioner Butter and then Commissioner Lindsay.

So I had a question, for example, with Liberty Vote, the 23 million.

That's not that you pay them 23 million, but it's based upon the services they provide on a yearly basis or election basis, or how's that work?

So the contract was paid, but we pay yearly annual licensing for the system itself.

So that's this is the total number, the total amount of the contract.

It's two years.

Yeah, it's 10 years.

Well, I'm sorry, I'm confused.

So 23,726,560.

And eight cents and eight cents.

Is that the total meant to be paid to Liberty Vote, or is there additional licensing fees that have to be paid on top of that?

There are additional annual licensing fees that are paid on top of that on top of that.

And how much is that per year?

I think we just had an increase 1.2.

I can double check for you.

I don't want to give you a number and not show you.

So it's approximately 1.2 million.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

And is that based upon the number of elections that they expect that we will do?

And the software that we use for the system, it also includes brand choice voting.

It's it's all of everything, all software that we have in the licensing for that software is what we're paying for.

No, it's not perfect.

It's just so that means that if you annualize roughly um forget inflation, it's about the the initial thing you paid, was it comes out annualized to be about 2.4 million dollars per year.

And then on top of that, there's about 1.2 per year ish.

Um so it costs us, the taxpayers, et cetera, about 3.6 million per year per Liberty vote, roughly.

So let me just give you more information about why this, how we set this up.

So when um we were looking at a new voting system, because the system that we had before was becoming legacy, we had to look at any voting system.

Um, and of all the voting systems that were out there that we did quite a lot of research.

I mean, literally went to so many fairs, a lot of us to Southern California within Northern California because all the vendors want you to see their product, want you to test their product.

So we did a lot of analysis on it.

Um the Dominion system was the one that we thought would carry us further for the 10 years.

Um the other thing was it offered off-the-shelf products, not something that was just um you know, you had to get it, it was made by, you know, like we had before, we had printers, um, and the cost was higher versus just being able to get something off the shelf that was certified because everything has to be certified by the federal government and the state in order for it to be a certified system in California.

Um the other thing was it offered off the shelf products, not something that was just um you know, you had to get it, it was made by you know, like we had before, we had printers, um and the cost was higher versus just being able to get something off the shelf that was certified because everything has to be certified by the federal government and the state in order for it to be a certified system in California, and this was the best system for us.

But when we were buying this equipment, we also set up with the city clerks and all the other jurisdictions what we call a capital fund.

So in the billing and when we were talking to the subcommittee yesterday, that's something that we pointed out.

So um since 2017, um, we have a 85 cent charge per registered voter that's added to the jurisdiction's election bill that helps build up this fund for licensing costs for any equipment that we may need to replace.

We can go directly to that source um over time rather than trying to pay for something in such a large scale, you know, at one time.

And um, we actually modeled this after another county, Contra Costa County has this.

And since we did it and Contra Costa did it, there's other counties now that have adopted this because it's a better plan overall fiscally for counties and the jurisdiction that use the equipment.

Yeah, I've got no criticism of fitted boards.

Any take yeah, um, so it's 3.6 million dollars, but it's coming from the capital fund, is what you're saying.

Yes, any annual licensing fees and any purchase of equipment comes from that from that fund.

And just support a new voting system 10 years down the road, if we had to purchase it says 29, it's the contracts through 2029, so it's not so far.

No, it's not.

Um so and yeah, I heard it too for some total.

I heard it too.

I think here just can't see us.

Okay, we got a little momentary uh delay because of technical difficulties, but it's all under control.

So we're gonna continue our conversation on the contracts with vendors over 100,000.

Well, last question.

Yeah, what about the poll pads?

That was purchased out of the capital fund.

Oh, that's purchased out of the capital fund, but is it the one of these vendors?

Yeah, we don't have a contract with them.

Oh say like this.

That was a purchase with the company.

Would you say that again?

Yeah, so we purchased the poll pads through a vendor called knowing.

Kn O W I N K.

No E.

And it was under 100,000.

So it's not a s I'm done.

Okay.

Commissioner Ramel.

Yeah, sorry.

Uh the you said it was what 85 cents per voter, and then is that right?

Correct.

And then where does how's that cost get distributed or how do they uh how's that get paid for the so when a jurisdiction is billed, it could be a city, a school district, or a special district, those are the other jurisdictions we conduct elections for as part of their billing.

You'll see a separate line item that says capital fund that itemizes it at 85 cents per registered voter, and then they'll get a total at the end, and then that is included in their total bill.

Okay, so it's the jurisdiction itself that's holding the election gets charged that amount at 85 cents per voter.

Yeah, it's for eligible voters or anyone who or for participation.

Yeah, thank you.

Commissioner Butter.

So I had a fun question.

So for example, in Alameda, we have school board elections and we have city elections.

So the voters would be the same for for both.

So would the school board get charged the 85 cents and the city clerk?

So Alan Media Unified is separate.

So they would get charged their separate jurisdiction.

So I would my vote would be 85 cents twice.

And across the street, your neighbor be on a different precinct.

And so all of those different ballot faces or ballot cards have to be um designed have to be translated.

So you know, there are different.

And and sometimes when I remember something that I've seen other people go, oh, really?

I didn't know that.

I think it's I think it's informative for you guys because I know 30 years ago when I first went into the department, I had no food until I started working in the department.

My eyes just opened so big.

I could I had no idea.

Commissioner Barlack.

I don't know, I'm curious.

So um 85 cents vote.

So the provisional ballots, which I believe we do allow when you go in on a day of and register, they don't get charged then since the is the 15 days before.

No, no, no.

It's total cost.

We cannot conduct election billing until three months after the election because we need all actual costs for that election.

And it takes vendors and you know, all of the work that we do in terms of getting all the exact billing to get an actual cost, and then we process so it encompasses everything.

Okay.

Okay, moving right along.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Renago, for that uh clarification of all of that.

That was informative.

Um the next item on the agenda is rules and procedures.

And um everyone on this commission got a copy of the rules and procedures when they first um were appointed to this commission, they were adopted in November of 2024, and some of the document uh needs to be updated, and um so today we're going to consider forming an ad hoc committee to work on that.

Um I am volunteering to work on it um myself, and do I have anyone who would also like to be on it?

Great, and Commissioner Henderson will be on it right now.

Okay, well, with that, we need a vote to set up a new ad hoc committee of Commissioner Henderson and President Dieter.

Could I entertain a motion for that?

I'll move.

Okay, second.

We've got Ramon who made first and Barlick who made the second.

And could we please take a vote?

Commissioner Butter?

Yes, Commissioner Henderson, yes, commissioner Research Thank you, and yes, yes.

Commissioner C Hernandez, yes, Commissioner Seabrook, yes, Commissioner Barley?

Yes, Commissioner Wagner, stain.

Commissioner Whitehurst, yes.

White President Vote?

Yes.

President Dieter.

Yes.

And is it appropriate for me to ask you uh why Commissioner Wagner and State?

I'm sorry, I just spaced out and I missed the description of the committee charge.

No problem.

We won't take it personally.

Okay, so um that passes.

Um before we close the site, yes.

So I have one or two suggestions of changes we could make, maybe more than one or two.

Yeah.

Um would you mind letting the committee know?

Yeah.

And I mean, if I do that outside of a meeting, then that makes me part of the Brown Act group, which is not really a problem.

So I'd be part of the Brian Act group, but not part of the what if I just sent it to her um information.

Would I still be part of a brown discussion?

I mean, I think the safer option would be to make sure that that counting you as part of the Brown Act group.

So that as long as we're under a majority of people involved in the discussion, then it's fine.

It doesn't create a problem unless you have a whole bunch of more people.

Yeah.

It just might be better rather than taking time here because the question is if other people want to do it too, we would start needing to do it here.

Okay.

So we should see if other, you know, if that's going to be a problem or not.

Well, if it's okay with you, I'd like to first just discuss it with the ad hoc committee, and we can always bring it up at the next meeting.

Yeah.

If people wanted to weigh in on things, but there are we need to decide what procedure we want to do on this.

So all right, so hold that thought.

So I should hold on to the stuff until you talk.

Yes.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you.

Because I I will know that when I was um the vice president working with President Lindsay at the time, we discovered things together that needed to be updated.

So we were taking notes along the way.

So some of the work has already been done, thank goodness.

So uh very good.

Okay.

Um now we also um need to select a liaison to help on board new commissioners.

Most of you um have gone through this.

Somebody has reached out to you, like me, giving you some information and being available for any questions so that it makes a transition on to the um commission a little bit easier, and I am going to step down from that role.

Um, because I'm the president now.

Um, and so we need to select a new one.

And I do know that Commissioner Lindsay uh is throwing his hat in the ring for that.

Is there anyone else who would like to uh throw their hat in the ring?

And another possibility is we could have two people do, right?

It doesn't have to be just one, but you know, or we could share the responsibility or something like that if somebody else is interested.

Having that interested, I just wanted to, I guess, second the nomination.

Okay, so who did the first?

If you did the second, who who made the the I think you want to make the motion.

Oh, yes, okay.

Okay, I'll make Commissioner Barlick makes a motion and do I get a second?

Okay, Commissioner Hernandez.

Okay, so let's take a vote.

Uh could you repeat the wording of that motion?

To um to select Commissioner Lindsay to become the new liaison of the commission.

Does that work, Commissioner Barlic for your motion?

Yeah, okay.

Yes, Commissioner Anderson.

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes.

Commissioner Board, yes.

Commissioner Bitzi ornettes.

Yes.

Commissioner Seabler.

Yes.

Commissioner Barlett.

Yeah.

Yes.

Commissioner Likers.

Vice President Both.

Yes.

President here.

Yes.

Thank you, Commissioner Lindsay, for stepping up to the flight.

Uh I really appreciate when people come on commission and it's helpful when somebody has coffee with them.

Okay.

Fantastic.

Okay.

Now we've got a special report from the ROV, which has been continued upon a few occasions.

Um I'm glad we are getting to it.

It's it's to review some of the new laws that will impact the ROV uh this year in 2026.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Cornejo.

We'll start with uh on your list first, and is it's included in your agenda.

A B1392.

It's the voter registration, elect elected officials and candidates.

Oh no, it froze.

So I'll let everybody get the video froze.

Yes, and we'll the video froze, but the audio.

Wow.

I'll just say all week.

I don't know if it's just being in the basement level.

We have been having problems in the office with this all of a sudden your computer just freezes.

Oh.

And so yeah, I don't know.

I was gonna suggest when she saw that.

You know, there's somebody could know the answer then.

It's it's hard to say someone.

Oh, we look at the entire legislative record.

Yeah, it's something.

Okay.

Okay.

We are back on the air after technical difficulties.

So with that, we are beginning our uh presentation from the ROV on the new laws.

So we'll start with AB 1392, which is titled voter registration elected officials and candidates, which really doesn't give you any really idea of what it is, but I'm going to try and summarize it for you.

Um there is a confidential voter status that has been in effect for quite some time and it's primarily for the safe at home program or domestic violence.

Um the legislature uh decided to add to that elected officials and any candidate qualified candidates who are running for office at the time that they're running.

So it also gives them a confidential status as well, which basically means their information is not on any public role, it's not on a voter list, it's protected within our database with very limited access.

Um, and if they one of the things is um an elected official or a candidate can opt out because it's an automatic status.

So our um team had to go through because we you know monitor elected officials, not just at the county level, but at every level, and if they're registered in our county, that's where the status had to be applied.

Um, and that's what we did.

We send out we sent out a letter that was provided by the Secretary of State to inform candidates and elected officials that they now had a new status, but also to make sure that they understand that if they were to go to vote center vote, they would not be on the list.

Uh so we wanted to do everything that we could to make sure that the elected officials were informed, um, and actually with their ballot um that they will be receiving um in the mail.

We also have included or including another reminder to them about that they are confidential, that they can opt out, that if they do go to a vote center, that they will not be on the voter rolls, they could still vote, they'll vote provisionally, it'll come back to us, we'll do the research and see that they are confidential and be able to process their their ballot.

So in a nutshell, that's what it is.

Um, in terms of going over this, I think I will open it up for questions right after you explain something, and then we can move along.

So that way it's it's yeah, okay.

Uh Commissioner Butter, and then who down there had their hand up?

We're just asking the building.

Oh, okay.

Um this includes judges as well.

Yes.

Okay.

All right, continue, please.

Okay.

SB 398.

It's elections, crimes, payment based on voting or voter registration.

questions right after you explain something and then we can move along so that way it's it's yeah okay uh commissioner butter and then and who down there had their hand up we're just asking the building oh okay um this includes judges as well yes okay all right continue please okay SB 398 it's elections crimes payment based on voting or voter registration so it's now punishable by fine um of up to 10,000 dollars and imprisonment um for up to three years or both for a for a person knowingly or willingly pay or offer to pay money or offer to pay money or other valuable consideration to another person with an intent to induce the person to vote or to register to vote or where the payment is contingent upon whether the person voted or the person's voter registration stats.

Okay this this is uh an interesting one commissioner lindsay I think I know where this came from which is a certain very famous very rich person shenanigans about getting people to register vote and vote for certain people that are presidents of the United States now um it I've often thought that if we uh did something like reward people with a lottery ticket or something to register thank you for registering to vote have a lottery ticket or they come to vote you know have a lottery ticket or discounts at Walmart or something that it you know might help well that ain't happening um not not with this law so you know anyway it is what it is I just it caused me to my clever idea of having Walmart discounts if you vote in the waste basket Commissioner Barley.

I was gonna say the same thing I'm just nervous um about what other valuable consideration means.

Well like for example if you had like a pre-victory party or something I say hey you know come have a drink come eat is that considered so be a violation of this so the election officials were asking for more clarification on this and the bill does outline some of that um in the bill it may not be exactly what you're looking for in terms of really spelling out you can do this you can do that that is in violation of this um any types of complaints about violation or voter fraud goes directly to the secretary of state they have a unit that investigates these types of um complaints and I know they do they did they do I mean yes my guess is if you have a victory party that ain't getting yeah yeah I mean it's pretty clear what they're aiming at here so I mean in my opinion yeah yeah yes Commissioner Moore um my question is this is will this affect like programs that um because I know there's a couple of programs that buzz from you know lower socioeconomic communities like provide ride service to to voting to city council meetings to like just all kinds of stuff right and I know that those programs are often sometimes subsidized and they do assist with like grocery cards or uh that kind of thing and so I'm wondering if those communities are going to be impacted by this is there any clarification on like what is in terms for us yeah we're not an investigative agency that register our voters if we do get any types of questions like that for clarification we would definitely direct them to the secretary of state's office or the actual authors of the bills um to provide clarification um it's understandable what you're saying I just don't know exactly you know what would be something that would be considered an offense okay I'm just trying to get clarification on that sort of unsatisfactory response to would be like those types of of organizations would probably need to consult their own legal counsel.

Yeah I'm just flagging that right just to piggyback on on that statement I can remember oh it was you know 20 years ago when one candidate offered to pay for free chicken dinners to remember that um to uh uh register to vote come out to vote um so it just it also makes me curious if today that would be illegal um we used to do I mean with high school students if you're offering pizza for some like say a voter registration say they're confive times 10 of the high school kids will come something if you're offering a piece of pizza um and so I shamelessly did that when I was running an account high school academy get kids to come and learn about it um yeah so the schools would probably say no until they hear different because schools are like insanely defensive phenomenon so my my hunch is that if somebody caught contacted ROV to say I know something that has it you guys would say you're not an investigative agency and you suggest that they we would direct them to that proper authority and we do get that so we do okay very good Irene and

Um the schools would probably say no until they hear different because schools are like insanely defensive.

Phenomenal.

So my my hunch is that if somebody caught contacted ROV to say I know something that has it, you guys would say you're not an investigative agency, and you suggest that they we would direct them to that proper authority.

And we do get that.

So we do.

Okay, very good.

Irene, and uh yes, oh just the quick thing I just looked at the legislation and the first thing, one of the first things that says is this section does not apply to any of the following and A is transportation to or from a voting location.

So no, but it's not really that to clarify, that's not what I said.

I said that it will disproportionately will it disproportionately affect these individuals that patronize those types of programs because they receive like oftentimes when they ride like a service, they will receive like a 25 dollar grocery card or you know, just some.

I mean, I don't know if that could be really considered a vi a bribe, but it's a lifeline for some individuals and families in Alameda County.

So that's my question.

So not around for the actual okay, you can continue.

A V287 elections polling place and vote centers.

So it requires public buildings to be available for use of polling places or vote centers, which includes storage um areas and accessible parking for votes.

Any questions on this?

Accessible parking for for uh for voters with disabilities and for public and for public buildings, like it's a required now it is it's saying that they should know what is the definition of public building, like state, federal in Albani County.

Well, there are a lot of there could be a library, there could be a veterans hall, schools, schools, definitely.

We use schools for vote centers or uh push it as state and federal public buildings or yeah, so it's public.

And is this gonna generally uh go under um yeah?

And unreal civil rights act and the ADA.

So the ADA is the primary law and we're civilized.

I understand that's fair, right?

So any any place of a public accommodation, this law is gonna apply to.

So anything that's open up to the public for service, they're gonna have to comply with those requirements.

If if they're used for falling place or votes, I think yes.

Yeah, yes.

So they then so if you have like a precinct that let's say a private home, for instance, it has to be accessible and it has to provide accessible parking.

Yeah, I understand that.

I understand the ADA law.

Um, my question was state and federal public buildings or one or the other.

That's all I wanted to know.

I know about BDA.

I'll look it up for you.

Ah, good question.

Yes, can we thank you?

I'm sorry, this because I know you guys have like this, I don't know.

But when Dr.

Weber was talking to us about her journey, she said that her home was a polling center.

So does that still exist?

So we are no longer polling place based.

We're under the voters' choice act.

So we have vote centers that have to have a certain amount of space.

So we don't have homes any longer, unless there is a home.

And inside, but at one place, garages were huge.

Um, you know, we're wider used in.

I mean, when I started, it was a lot of garages, you know, and um so now it's um bigger locations.

I'll tell you when we go out and survey a location.

There the report is just I I forget how many pages it is now, but it's a lot of pages because they have to um you know, ramps that may be needed for accessibility, accessible parking, um, how many parking spaces, um uh wheelchair access for the doorways, all of that has to be surveyed.

Um, so this was a very good thing for us as election officials, especially for schools.

Well, my question had to do with storage space.

Well, we may add that.

We because you need storage space for all the supplies and equipment, and it has to be locked.

And this was probably this was, I believe, as the association, one of the items that we wanted added was storage space and parking.

Oh, so this is probably at the request of election officials.

Yeah, okay.

And you know, sometimes it's it's heard delivered.

Okay, moving right along to the next okay, AB 1072 election ballot mistakes.

So it requires the Secretary of State in conjunction with the county elections official to develop uniform standards and guidelines for voters to correct mistakes on their ballots.

So it's clear instructions within the materials that are provided to the voters.

So as I said, in when you get your ballot, there's voting instructions.

Um a lot of times you'll see an X, don't do it this way, do it this way.

So then they have clear instructions how to mark a ballot um correctly within the voter guide um online.

So it was just um making sure that the election officials and the secretary of state monitored that we do have clear instructions to those.

Is this another item that was requested by election officials?

It smells like it to me.

We've always signed it.

Yeah, but it is a good thing.

Oh sorry, was that it?

Okay, AB5 elections official canvas requires that all ballots be counted by E plus 13, and that's the result of the of that county release.

Sorry, requires that all ballots be counted by E plus 13.

So that's 13 days after the election, and that the results of that count be released, exclusions, ballots requiring duplication, vote by mail, forwarded by another county, provisional ballots, ballots in the cure process, CBR same day voter registration ballots, and vote by mail ballots received after um E plus Ford.

So basically, what this is it um allows an election official a certain amount of time to be able to count all the ballots received as long as they're postmarked on or before election.

And then they all have to be counted by 13 days after the election, with the exception of these categories here.

So I can go into a little bit of what some of these categories are if you'd like.

So ballots require duplication.

Sometimes ballots come in and they're torn.

Sometimes ballots come in and they have coffee or food, and they cannot go through our voting equipment.

So we have teams, and they're actually in this room that remake ballots.

They duplicate them, and there's teams of two, because we have to make sure that there are two so they can see what is being done and they agree on the voting pattern and the intent of the voter.

Um VBMs forwarded by another county.

So another law is um a voter, maybe on vacation and they're not in their county of residence, and they drop it in one of our draw boxes.

We keep all other counties um ballots uh segregated, and we contact the county, and this is something that all counties do, and we coordinate either sending them to them or literally we pick up.

We'll drop off and we'll pick up, and it's a really good program.

Uh provisional ballots, that's when um someone may be um like a confidential voter now, and they go and they have to vote provisionally because they're not on the voters, and it just requires more research to be done at our level.

Um, ballots in the cure process.

I think I mentioned earlier about you know, teams of voters, families voting on the table, and they mix up their envelopes, and that envelope is specific to you.

It has your voter ID.

So when it comes back, we have to verify your signature with what we have on file.

And if it doesn't match, we have to set it aside and contact the voter to cure the ballot.

So that's that.

Um, same day voter registration.

So there it's always been a 15-day close of registration, but when um this law changed, it allows for same day voter registration.

So you can go to a vote center, come to our office and actually register that date and vote that day.

Okay.

And um vote by mail ballots received after E plus four.

Again, it's the grace period as long as it's postmarked on or before election.

Okay, Commissioner Lindsay.

Yeah, I have this is the one that I had most questions, but the most two.

Um one question is what's changing here?

What was the old?

So you we didn't have where all the ballots had to be counted by E plus 13.

That was E plus 30?

14.

No, it used to be.

So it used to be before you certified the election, so to speak.

It was about a month.

Yeah.

So it's requiring country.

Oh, use this.

Okay.

Um, that do you think that'll present a problem for the for your office or no?

Okay.

Um and the second thing is when you do release these results, is it going to say something like here are the results with this many ballots still uncounted because of these items, you know, because of yes.

So there's an unprocessed ballot report that's required by law that we have to send to the Secretary of State.

And within that um FOSS ballot report, you'll have these categories listed.

And we've we've done this now.

I think we start in 2024, um, with directly linking our um to the Secretary of State's website, and on the Secretary of Wakep State's website, they literally have all of the categories also spelled out by county.

So people have to click the right.

You just click on the link and it'll take you directly to the Secretary of State's website where that unprocessed ballot report accounting is there.

I get it.

I have a fear.

So let me tell you my fear and hopefully it's unfounded.

Um the people see, oh, here's the election results.

Right.

But they don't click on that link and realize that it's not really.

You know, because there's there's 5,000 on processed ballots or something in close election, or you know.

Correct.

That's my fear.

But our results also tell you that it's an update until we get to the final or maybe it doesn't include on process ballots or something.

That could be number one.

Right, just to piggyback on what Commissioner Lindsay said.

The commission talked about that in past election assessments where it says 100% of the vote, and we're yeah, yeah.

And um, so we had requested people think you're cheating, you know.

Yeah, it's like it's really 100% reporting on the night of the election precincts reporting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so I know that the um the ROV is going to be changing that.

So I'm looking forward to seeing the next election.

That so yes, Commissioner.

Anyone else?

Well, that was very informative.

So I think I have one.

Sorry.

I mean, it was very important.

Yeah, but still is okay.

AB 827 voting signature verification.

So this reduces those deadlines for a regularly scheduled statewide election to no later than 14 calendar days after the election for the elections official to provide notice and no later than 5 p.m.

22 calendar days after the election for the voter to verify their signature.

So let me stop here.

So in the previous uh bill, I talked about curing ballots.

That's what this pertains to.

We as election officials um have to notify voters when their ballots um need curing by certain deadlines.

This new law stipulates some of the changes in the notification based off of the previous law.

And um, so typically, um, just to kind of generalize it.

Um, when we see that a voter's uh signature or it needs to be cured, we automatically send out a notice.

We work it because the sooner that we can let a voter know, the earlier we can get it back.

And um also we just don't mail the form letter.

If there's an email on file, we email them, we send them a letter.

If there's a telephone number on file, we also phone them.

So we use every form of communication that we have in our in their voter record to contact them, and we just don't send it once.

We do it periodically.

This is saying exactly when you have to do it.

So we do more than this now, and then the the legal limit has changed for the amount of days that we have to send it to them, the first notice, and then there's another notice that has to be sent.

Once we say we're going to certify the election, they have days before to make sure that they get that cured ballot to us.

So legally, we have to send two notices to them.

We try and do more.

I just wanted to kind of summarize it for you guys because when you read through this, it can get a little convoluted in how it's spelled out.

Okay.

And again, I have a question about how it works.

So it says that you can use the mail draft box to receive the form.

So like if it was my form, I can just target it as a graph box.

Any other feedback?

Okay.

We can move.

We're making really good time tonight, everyone compared to my first two meetings that I chair.

So I'm patting myself on the back.

Okay, so are there any public comments that are if you would like to make a public comment on agendas or non-agendized items, please raise your hand now.

No.

Yeah, one.

Okay.

Are you guys online?

Oh, on the audience.

Okay, so we have one public comment.

And could you call that speaker?

Please identify yourself.

Three minutes.

Steve Cheston, you're about three minutes.

Yeah, Steve Chesson, uh, California's for electoral reform.

I just want to thank uh the staff.

I apologize for not uh remembering your name, but uh you address the concerns that I raised at the beginning of this meeting.

And I really appreciate your thorough answer.

And I I look forward to uh your implementing that solution that you described.

Thank you very much.

Is that the last public comment?

Well, that was a very nice way to end the meeting.

Um did you want to say something?

Yes, I just wanted to um let everyone know that um our firm is um we do a uh political education um conference.

Um, it's called Quest for Democracy.

We do it every year.

Um, it's about uh I don't know, between 500 and a thousand individuals, and we basically take them inside the state capitol and teach them how their ideas become law.

Um, and they get to speak with legislators and and the like.

And you know, of course, everyone is invited.

If you guys are curious at all, I have a link.

Um guys, anybody that would be interested can come up.

It's pretty boring, but I think it's exciting because it gives the public a chance to like really be informed and meet the people that are you know doing their best every day to uh ensure that their needs are met when it comes to you know laws and policy and the way that it affects our entire state and community.

And when yeah, um, this will be May 2nd to the 4th.

Um, and so uh yeah.

Everyone is invited.

Um, if you guys would like link, I anybody can.

All righty.

So I will adjourn this meeting at 5 40 p.m.

Right.