Welcome everyone to the May 21st, 2026.

Elections Commission meeting.

And we'll start off the meeting with a roll call.

Commissioner Belcher.

Commissioner Butter.

Commissioner Henderson.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Here.

Commissioner Moore.

Commissioner Fan.

Commissioner Britzi Hernandez.

Here.

Commissioner Seabrook.

Commissioner Barley.

Here.

Commissioner Wagner.

Here.

Commissioner Whitehurst.

Vice President of the Vote.

President Dieter.

Here.

Okay, so that makes seven here.

So we do have a quorum.

And before this meeting, Commissioner Seabrook, Whitehurst, and Ramon let me know that they were going to be out.

And I think we still may have someone else join us.

So I will ask if anyone has any agenda changes.

Seeing none.

Let's go to the approval of the meeting minutes.

Does anyone have any edits to the minutes?

All right.

So can I hear a motion?

So moved.

Second it.

Moved by Commissioner Lindsay, seconded by Varlick.

And since Commissioner Sam is not here, we don't have to do this by oral roll call, correct?

Uh Commissioner Fan just joined.

Oh, he did.

Okay, correct.

But he's not a vote keeper, yeah.

You can either still, if there's anyone appearing remotely, we have to do role verb by role.

Okay.

Could we please take a vote?

Uh Commissioner Butter.

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson.

Yes.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes.

Commissioner Resky Hernandez.

Yes.

Commissioner Barley.

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

President Peter.

Yes.

And that passes unanimously.

Okay, we'll move on to announcements.

Are there any announcements from staff?

Yes.

Okay.

This morning.

So what I wanted to do is show you actually something that we had mentioned we were adding to enhance the observer experience, which is our kiosks.

This is actually a room where we do process in.

We process the adjudication of ballots and we make a duplication of ballots.

And so can I walk over to one of the enhancements that I wanted to show you is our kiosks that we have here.

So observers will come in and we always want to make sure that they have procedures and we do have them on the wall.

But the kiosks now are interactive.

So if you touch on it, it'll show you the actual procedure for that process.

One of the items that we're going to add that we've actually started filming since the processing app are videos with an overview of the process so they can actually read the process procedures and actually see it in action.

So these are in every one of our processing areas.

I like a play-by-play our opening same here.

So this is one of the things that we've been wanting to uh bring forward for the observers to enhance their experience while they're here in the room.

Um, then we will touch the screen and see procedures and then also see some videos.

So information.

I just wanted to announce it.

Yes, we have a question from Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes.

Yeah, um, so what kind of feedback are you getting on on the kiosks?

I just started on the kiosks.

Just started.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, we actually haven't had anyone come in yet.

So as soon as they do, we want to get some few.

It will be their first.

Yeah, this is the first election when we actually have them.

Okay, great.

That was my hands.

Okay, and of course, anyone can stop by and view it in action.

We're all invited to participate in uh the process.

So are there any announcements from commissioners?

I'd just like to uh remind everyone about the importance of everyone attending so that we can meet our quorum.

Uh so I'm glad we're able to meet tonight.

So with that, we'll open it up, I'll close that item and open it up for public comments on agenda items.

Do we have any speakers?

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

No.

No public speakers.

Okay, um, I'll close public comment then.

And uh we need a we're gonna get a monthly update from the registrar of voters office.

Okay, so I'll start with um the June 2nd, uh statewide, statewide primary election.

Sorry, we're running two elections at one time.

So this is for the June 2nd third primary election.

And what we've enclosed in the report are important dates that we thought we could go over with you all, and these important dates are also located on our website.

I've provided a link.

Um, if you'd like to go to it and if we'll give you information um terms of what's in the voter information guide, um, what's in our direct mailer, it's all also included in those election materials.

So the first day of mailing voter information guides began on April 23rd.

The first day of mailing vote by mail ballots um began on May 4th.

The first day of early voting um also began on May 4th and continues through um June 1st, which is the Monday before the election, and that's in the registrar voters' offices when the early voting started on May 4th.

24-hour official draw boxes um were opened on May 4th.

The close of registration, which we just happened, which we call our 15-day close of registration, which we get an official count of the number of registered voters for the election, although you do know that voters can still register same day and vote same day under conditional voter registration.

So that was on May 18th.

The 10-day vote centers open on May 23rd, which is this Saturday, so we're neared up and ready for that.

Um, in Alameda County, there are 20 vote centers throughout the county that will be open starting on that Saturday, and then on May 30th, which is the following week, uh, we will have the remaining 80 vote centers open throughout the county for a total of 100.

And then again, our election day is Tuesday, June 2nd.

Okay, then moving on to the special uh 14th Congressional District primary election, which is on June 16th.

Um again, a port dates.

There's a link there where you can get the important dates, but also it's included in the voter guides and the um election materials to the voters who are eligible to vote in that election.

So the first day of mailing the voter information guides occurred on May 7th.

The first day of mailing vote by mail ballots was on May 18th, which just happened, and we know voters are receiving them.

Um the first day of early voting, May 4th, and that was at the Registrar of Voters' Office.

Uh, the 24-hour drop boxes opened on May 18th.

And I believe there's 28 of them that are throughout the 14th congressional district specifically.

And the close of registration, June 1st for that election, that's the 15-day close.

The 10-day vote centers will open on June 6th, and there will be seven of those throughout the 14th congressional district.

For the four-day vote centers, the following Saturday on June 13th, the additional seven will open for a total of 14 vote centers within that 14th congressional district.

And then election day is Tuesday, June 6th.

What I wanted to talk about now, if you don't have any questions about those important dates, is a little bit about the June 16th special election.

And so I brought some items here that I'll pass around for you guys so you can see while I hold up what they are and share.

Somebody can help me.

There's two.

So this way.

So what you're seeing is the voter information guide.

And what we wanted to do was make it very different from the June 2nd, as you can see.

They are very different.

Our typical voter guide covers.

We like to show if it's a special election things going on in the community or processing this year for this election.

We're showing pictures of our processing.

So we usually like to have a nice picture on here, something that's about the election.

But for this election, we wanted to make it very straightforward.

It's this is a separate election.

This is our direct messaging that we're using to voters, giving them the district, congressional district 14.

It's a special primary election, giving them the date.

And also at the bottom in red, we say a special election has been called to fill a vacancy in congressional district 14.

This is a separate election from the statewide direct primary election.

That's the messaging that we're carrying out in all the materials that are going out to the voters.

A direct mailer, their um what we call a vote by mail packet, which you all have seen when you get your ballot in the mail, it's in a wrap and your ballots are inside.

That's all the information that is part of the packet.

Um, and so we have that direct messaging within there also.

Another item, if you open the book that I wanted to show, was this is our traditional instructions and important items that we want voters to know, but what we added was a memo from the office, and this is letting the voter know why we're having this election, letting them also know that they would have received by now their June 2nd ballot.

They should have two if they have this.

Also letting them know just important items, try not to mix them, try not to use one envelope and another, and so on.

Although if they do, we're ready for it.

We have procedures in place to make sure that we, you know, catch those and we can um make sure that they get counted to the correct um election.

So we thought this was very informative for voters.

This is also within their vote by mail package to the voters.

Also, we added an additional page.

Again, this is a separate election.

We're letting them know why they are getting this.

Um, we're letting them know key dates and key processes for them, and also giving them information to contact us if they have any questions.

So we wanna make sure that they have all of the information.

What we've also done is they have their draw boxes.

We added that, their ballot, very different, and then that one page we added again in the back.

So if you didn't see it the first time, you're gonna see it again.

Just again explaining to them about the election.

So that's what we did this time around.

Um I brought this, sorry, only brought one set.

But this is the memo in the vote by mail package that duplicates the one that's in the voter guide.

So as they get their ballot, it's all in one.

Their envelopes have the direct messaging.

This is a separate election and calls out the election date.

So we're hoping with all of that, that they clearly get the um the messaging, but we are going to continue to have messaging on our website through social media.

All of our team members who are answering the phones have the information so they can answer the questions to the voters that are calling.

One item that I'll let you know about that we have on our website now is a special section when you go to our website and you go to our go page.

So it's acvote.org.go.

You can select more information on this election.

So what we have is actual maps for voters.

Because voters in this situation with the 10th, they may be in the 10th congressional and the 14th congressional, depending on the election, because the boundaries for the special election are pre-profit.

June 2nd is after when those lines were applied.

So we wanted to make sure that voters understood that.

So we put our heads together and we said, what could we do?

So we actually have maps that when you'll see if you're here, this is what we'll receive.

If you're here, this is what you'll receive, just so they have that information and they can see for themselves based on where they live, why they did not get one or they got both and vice versa.

And we also have a side-by-side comparison of the two voter guides on the page.

We also have a side-by-side comparison of the ballot return envelopes.

So we're hoping that it's enough information, but even so, if it's not, they can always contact our office.

The other team that we have out there passing on the knowledge and providing information to the voters is our lovely outreach team that's in back of us that'll be presenting later.

They're out in the community passing on the information so voters are aware of what and what.

Fantastic.

Any questions for Ms.

Carnegie?

I just have a question.

So I'm one of the people who big and I'm not going to verify my vote, but I got two envelopes I thought.

But this is the one that I've used, we have two.

So if I put two in one, you're saying, so don't come.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

And my other question is I saw when I was uh going through this that you guys have the mobile little man, is that for easy vote on the go?

Yeah.

Yes, that's a wonderful program.

I always promote that program.

We started it a few election cycles ago as a pilot program, and what it actually is is we found a need of voters who are confined to their home in a rehabilitation center, um, uh, are in a senior center in the hospital that would call us and say, I need help.

There's no one to get my ballot.

Um, can you help me?

Or my ballots at home and I'm in the hospital.

So we put our heads together and thought, what can we do?

Easy vote on the go.

So voters can actually sign up by appointment where our outreach team will go out to a team and they will help the voter.

So the voter can call in, make an appointment for an hour for two hours, and we actually go out and um pick up their ballots, and they go into us directly by our team, or we can give them a supplemental ballot because maybe they've spoiled it, maybe they've lost it, or maybe like I said, it's at their home.

Maybe they need help with someone giving them the voter guide.

We do that as well.

And it's really successful to the point we have to keep adding teets.

And we do that on election day.

So it's very successful.

Just to piggyback on your uh your on the go program.

Um there was someone who asked me today who has visual impairment and it's in real chair mount, and uh was wondering how she could get some help, you know, from the registrar's office.

So I did look in the voter guide, and there is an on the go.

Um called there's also an 800 number.

And so I started off with the 800 number because I wasn't exactly sure uh if I wanted to send her to the on-the-go program, and um it ends up.

I ended up giving her the on the go because I figured they would help her no matter what, right?

Whatever the need is, they can have her accept to um get them the access that they need absolutely because based off of our phone tree, sometimes voters don't, you know, you get frustrated with phone trees and they'll just hit a button and then you go to somebody, but all of our team members are trying to know.

Let me redirect you to the proper area so they can assist you.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, Commissioner Lindsay.

I was gonna say you guys are doing everything you possibly could, and I'm sure it won't work.

Um with uh not only the two elections on top, but then the the real kicker is the district changes on top of that.

You know, like come out and go home, you know.

You know, um, so I was really glad to hear that uh when they mess up because they will.

I mean, that maybe they're smart as a whatever, you know.

Um and get it out with her, right?

You know, so um, you know, so that that goes to show.

So I'm really glad I don't know how much extra work of you guys when that happens.

Is it a real big hassle or is it the openers when they are extracting ballots?

Um, they know exactly what to look for.

They're trained.

Um, these are the normal scenarios that you'll see.

I mean, they're trained to the point where um your uh return envelope has your signature on it so they're extracting those ballots from there.

That signature um side goes face down because we will not be able, we can't identify the voter and take their ballots out at the same time.

So that is something that we have to follow.

So they're trained to that degree, they're trained that if they they know what to expect in what envelope, and if something is irregular, you put everything back in that envelope, and you put it in the bin for us to do research on it's usually a red bin, and then from that point, it goes to a specialized team in our data entry area, and that's where they do the research.

I was gonna say because you actually have to record because she voted in both elections, like we have together, okay.

Okay, for purposes, I look at the annual, but I had to kind of take this one because it was like another 50.

But I think I can fix it.

I don't want y'all to have to turn me into what we start talking about.

Oh, you had you know, if it's closed and open, would that work?

Like if she re if she was to open it up and then put in this, I'm sure, and right extract and then send it in two envelopes.

Is that valid or is that gonna get right?

Because it's been opened and reclosed, so as long as it's sealed.

Okay, when we get it, yeah, because our automated machine um mills it where it slits the top, and then they're all put in bins after they go through the automated equipment to capture the image of the envelope with the signature is for our save checkers.

They're all put very neatly in those bins that are then transported to our opening in room 16, and that's where they take them out one by one, and they know what to look for as soon as anything is out of the ordinary, put that all back in that and put it in the envelope and put it in the bin.

And that's what they do.

And then like I said it goes to a team that does our signature verification and um that's when they can now take it apart and say okay Cynthia Cornejo has her June 2nd and her June 16th.

So we need to credit her for both elections because it's all done manually there because they can do it they have the research and they have the material in front of them.

So I'm not sure exactly why Commissioner Varlick decided to use one envelope because I'm my mother's daughter I would have thought oh I'll save the counties and post it of course and put it in one envelope what were you thinking no because you know I'm just gonna have to be at the beginning so when I got on the top of that writer not for today have a good right so I'm gonna bring it back like this is some of it and then this so I didn't know but some of it I thought okay this is just information like even a voter thicker right so after I until you tell me I wouldn't even look down to see that you want to say official data and then you have a lot of well maybe I don't have two envelopes no you how do we have to go I'm thinking about it now.

You know you guys have it covered with when people make human mistakes so I mean that's the most okay so this is your outer envelope that we sent it to you and this is your return envelope that you'll mail back to us for the June second on it.

Okay so you're good here but that does have to that's so you're not they'll handle it no problem okay so uh one thing is the June 2nd election is a longer ballot there's two cards two cards one ballot they're both 18 inches long the June 16th is eight and a half by those yeah I've got an email you want to buy it on the right office no problem but I think it's really helpful to share something like that because it's real life experiences and what voters actually look at you know when we get our packets what do we toss aside what do we read what do we look at so I think um I just commend the ROV's office for going out on a limb and doing uh whatever you can and um maybe after this election you'll learn something even if we always do so that that would be great.

Uh any other feedback before we move on to the next okay well then uh thank you Miss Cornejo let's go on to the ad hoc committee report starting off with voting participation which Commissioner Lindsay's going to give the report yeah Carl Carl could make it so he asked me if I could do the report there is it is on page seven of the agenda package.

The bottom line is the um we met with um a consultant who had access to PBI I don't know what it stands for but basically it has a whole bunch of information um and it puts together the census it puts together information for the registrar's office uh and another third source I forget what it was and then it's like really really sortable so all the questions we had uh we were able to answer we kept saying well what about you know what about like you know Latino voters of district seven you know and for each item they have um exactly what we needed which is what's the population what is the number of eligible voters what is the number of uh registered voters and how many people actually voted across they could break it down however you want?

Ethnicity, um age, um, I think right party, you know, you know, just almost you know if the if they have a left fingernail that's cracked, you know, I suspect it's a PBIs or it's really cool.

Um and so um we've actually got got a lot of the data we're looking for.

We still need more, we're gonna go back.

Um, but what really stood out um was um I mean the the single district that um really really stood out as district three in Oakland.

We didn't look at single districts in other in other cities, and we need to.

We can't just assume it's open, district three.

Um but uh but right now of the ones we know of Oakland District Three.

If you take all of the uh black voters uh black uh eligible voters in district three, only 40 percent are actually voted.

Um and when we looked, we saw that of black registered voters in district three, sixty-one percent, I believe is what it was are voting.

That ain't bad.

That's that's kind of in line with uh uh with city norms and stuff like that.

So a 60% turnout basically what people think of.

Um that's pretty good.

So then we looked at the number of registered voters relative to the eligible voters, and it's banned.

So it looks tentatively like a big voter registration effort, district three using community-based organizations, using you know, city council, you know, whatever's the city, you know, just whatever we can get, um, could you know really get those numbers up?

But we have to double-check it, right?

Because we haven't checked other districts and other cities yet.

Um, we didn't check it against age this time, uh, we didn't check it against gender this time.

There's more research that has to happen, but um there may be something here, like uh coordinating a big voter registration effort, uh, because of all, you know, if we were to register not just black folk, but if we registered another three thousand uh black folk, 16% of those are gonna vote.

That's pretty good, right?

That that's that's changing numbers.

Learning how to effectively get folk to vote is what the pilot project would be.

I give get folk to register to vote would be the pilot project because obviously a lot of people are not doing it, and we know from other research um some of the reasons for that.

Um but um uh but that's basically where we're at, and we just need before we're ready to come with a proposal, we need to really look at other populations and other districts, stuff like that.

Commissioner Utter.

Um, so I just wanted to follow up on your last statement.

So you chose district three because you thought that it would be one that had really low um turnout.

Is that correct?

Well, we thought it would be a different district, actually.

Uh, but when we got the actual numbers, right?

That was the one that jumped out at us, right?

Was that answer your question?

Yeah, and so you are looking at other districts as well.

Well, we looked at all, we looked at all Oakland districts.

Well, we didn't look, Oakley's not the only city in Albany County.

Register of voters has to serve everybody now.

So it's we we can't just move forward until we double check uh with with uh other cities and other uh districts.

So you're not limiting it just to well, we need to do a pilot project.

I see, um, and it has to be small enough where it's dual.

Um, and so and we need to see if it moves the needle.

We can't do the whole county.

You know, I mean, you know, so we need to see if we can find some methodologies that work.

Um, and then if it works, then maybe the next time we could if it can expand it, you know, and it's not all gonna be the register voters can't do it all.

It would be working with cities and uh with community-based organizations and media and whatever.

I think the registered voters office might be leading the effort, but I don't think they have staff to do all work that.

It's just I I'm we we're just assuming you don't have that staff.

It's gonna need to be a combined effort in order for us to for it to be effective.

So I have a question.

Um, so is the committee leaning towards increasing voter registration or getting the people who are registered to vote to vote?

So what we want to do, I think is it's the key number we're looking at.

No, no, no.

Sorry about that.

Sorry.

Um, just want to take that.

Um so I think that the first thing that we wanted to do is ensure that we understand the numbers, that we understand what they mean and how they are the numbers really impact the participation.

Well, what we learned along the way is that registration is also an issue, and it may be even a greater issue as we are doing more research.

Um, so over the next few months, what we're gonna do is ensure that we have a strong um, I guess data, like really strong data to show why this is important and what areas should be prioritize and eventually expand gradually.

So that could be an opportunity for us for growth, but we were actually surprised when we were looking at a data when someone who's actually explaining it and understands the data.

And so part of it was our understanding in the beginning was that maybe district six and seven, maybe the most came back then as far as participation or registration.

Well, we were, I was really shocked to see that it was actually district three, but we had someone that is actually guiding us through the information, which is something that we didn't have prior, and I'm I'm hopeful that in the next few weeks we'll have more opportunities to meet with the person who's helping us and create a really robust program that we can present.

Can you tell me what PBI stands for?

It's PDI.

It's it's uh it's PDI.

Uh, it's uh, it's like political.

Is that the name of the company that you went through?

Does this the software that is used to get the output?

But the data's from the data directly for a lot of it's political data.

The data is from yes, yeah.

The company that that contacts us is called political data.

Yeah, and maybe it's incorporated.

It's probably like that question came up in the meeting that we had, and and our expert was like been using it for years.

It goes, you know, like on those movies that go here's the result, which is super unrealistic.

That's exactly what she was doing.

Yeah, it was really amazing.

Yeah, um, and she didn't know what PDI's doing.

I really just says PDI.

Is political data something?

Incorporate the eyes were intelligent.

Oh, I'll tell you, it never does that.

But we're also looking at the census, right?

So what we're looking at is the registered voters and the people who are eligible to vote.

And those are two numbers that we were really amazed by just to see the number of people who are not registered who may be eligible.

And so there will be other opportunities to also meet with local organizations in this week three potentially.

If this is the district that we decide to vote to.

Okay.

So good work, you guys.

I think that's great progress.

Um, and as you tell, you know, you hone in um which direction you want to go.

Um, I'll repeat myself what I said a couple months ago to make it something small because you guys are an ad hoc committee, and so if you can accomplish something small but profound, it's you know, that's really good.

And then you can dissolve your committee, and so it's fine to tackle another small profound thing.

Or it's more expanded if it worked.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

You you asked um what's more important like getting people registered to vote or getting turnout improved.

We didn't care.

Um, it was what we really want is is the uh the ratio of voters to eligible voters.

And there's two steps there.

We they got a register and they got to vote.

Right.

Um, and so um if the data had been different, if we showed lots of registered voters, but people aren't turning out to actually vote, we would have gone in a different way, but we just looked at the data whereas, you know, of the seven Oakland districts.

Um, there are some there are some a couple of things, there are limitations of the data.

Um District six and district seven.

So Alley uh kind of gave us a definition, Allie and somebody else of deep East Oakland that we arrived at district six and seven.

Uh what is it west of uh 58?

Okay, because the problem is on one side of Faye Vini, you've got Hills and you know, fairly well to do folk, and on the other side of Father B, it ain't like that.

Um and so we could it may be that if we could somehow, I don't think I think it's beyond our capabilities.

Um it could be that district six is a seven, district six isn't seven, west of 580 would actually have had lower numbers, but there's we don't have the data, there's no way to test what we do, and we thought whatever we did had to be absolutely testable to see if it worked or not.

Um so um, so that's that's why I sort of suspect that the other thing is that a lot of this data goes across multiple years.

So the number of voters was from November 2024, the number of registered voters was from May of 2026.

They just got something you had just given out.

Um, and the number of eligible voters was from 2020 from the census, and so but it'll be the same thing when we analyze it afterwards anyway.

Um, so and it's a given the best you can do, and we don't want to let the um the good, what is it the perfect for the enemy of the good or something?

Fantastic.

Yes, I just wanted to add to like with the initial intent of of this ad hoc committee that I believe that there's a cultural component um that needs to be added for like the education, the outreach, and the retention of these voters.

Um, so I think we're still out on like what course of action we'll take, because that does play a major role in these specific areas for these specific individuals that we're discussing.

Good point.

Okay, any other questions?

We move on to the next committee.

Uh okay, that would be the youth participation.

Commissioner Varlic, thank you.

So we didn't really get a chance to meet, however, we've been kind of meeting online.

And um I go to be for us to gather from the ROV, the rest of the list of the schools that were visited um after our first meeting, a little bit over front areas where there were schools that were visited to teach them about the voter education, but others weren't listed.

But I know that um Cynthia and Hartine have fixed that.

So I'd like to get a list of all the schools that were visited over this year.

And then I would love to think that on what you uh excuse me, on what voter turnout is voter participation as well with their numbers because it would be nice to once you all new crunchy down to an age and further demographic creation, we can think about that and come up with some reasons why maybe some youth are not engaging that early voting registration and things like that.

The only other thing from me is that Commissioner Richie Hernandez has asked to join our video.

I know you've been doing great work for the committee.

And I'm not sure if Commissioner Butter wanted to add anything.

No, I think that's something.

So I don't know if we have to vote on that or yeah, you gotta make a motion, we gotta vote.

Well, first of all, does anyone have any questions for Commissioner Harley?

I was I mean, I was just gonna say let us know what data you want.

But if you Sasha knows what data you want, that's that's our conduit.

Yeah, we're gonna wait.

Okay, so I need a motion.

So I can move.

Uh I move that uh the commission approved.

Commissioner Ritzy Hernandez joining the youth participation, I believe.

I second.

Okay, it was um the motion was made by Commissioner Varleck and seconded by Commissioner Butter.

And let's take a vote.

Commissioner Butter.

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson, yes, Commissioner Lindsay, yes.

Commissioner Moore, yes, Commissioner Britsey Hernandez commissioner barley yes commissioner wagner yes commissioner are presenting yes great so i'm sure they welcome you to their committee all righty so the next uh ad hoc committee is budgeting for elections and commissioner wagner you have anything to say i don't have any news to report um commissioners lindsey or uh bent have anything you want to add sure it's nothing type do you want to go i have nothing to report that as well okay i mean we met uh one time with the uh registrar and sort of there the key person who does this got a complete um explanation as complete as they can make if you've had somebody explain like a very complicated spreadsheet to you with multiple pages and tabs and stuff um and uh they do their best add questions but still it's like okay you know there's some magic here that we don't quite get but we get the basic idea um and at the time we were asked um just to give feedback on the kind of wording that's gonna go to the uh city clerks and we got together the three of us talked about it thought the wording was fine um and especially uh Ty we were looking at him yeah um and you thought the wording would be very helpful um I would just say that um so that I see that at least I can't speak for the rest of the I see that kind of as step one um and then we want to look at we want to look deeper into um uh some of the reallocations that uh that are happening um you know kind of moving forward but there's no way um there was no way to move that fast in the situation with the department um it's just not possible for humans to do um so uh maybe for 2026 it might have to be for 2028 you know and then there's some stuff happening with the state organization also in this area so it's a uh it's gonna be an endeavor um but we do sort of see another phase coming up um but we we certainly don't want to bother the register's office until this uh I think it's a special elections is to bad um maybe we can start looking forward at that point or something but that's mostly that last part was me and not speaking for Ty or for Dave.

I think add to that um since we received your feedback that you were good with the additional information that information will now move forward on our website and on our election billing that goes out to the jurisdiction and have you guys met with the clerks yet to get no we will for a workshop that we will be doing um closer to the November it's usually in July ish before the nominations okay moving on to the next committee which is in procedures and um i will report on that um commissioner henderson and i decided to take an approach before we bring any specific recommendations to the commission we wanted to gather feedback for us to use before we um put any final uh touches on our proposal so there are a few things that are listed in your agenda packet, a few provisions that we wanted to get feedback on.

That's on pages eight and nine.

Um, so there were three meaty items that we felt was important to hear what you have to say.

The first one was public comment, the second one is the frequency of meetings, and then the third is the round act scenarios.

Um, and so uh I'll start off with public comment, and uh right now the uh the commission has not been following Rosenberg's rules of order in terms of um getting public comment because normally public comment is on each agenda item, and it wouldn't have to come before uh this commission to make a decision on this, but we actually included it in the rules.

So the point is is if we try it with the Rosenberg style, um, we can delete that provision in in the rules, and what we attached was how all these other jurisdictions do it, and they pretty much um subscribed also to the way that Rosenberg suggests doing it, so um that's kind of the main thing is um just deleting that language from the rules, and also uh we have um a time allocated.

Let's see.

Um we have a breakdown on how many minutes for you know, five or less, five or more, whatever.

And so I didn't know if we wanted to just entertain uh just sticking with three minutes to everything or two minutes for all public comment at the time, and it's always up to the chair to uh you know call for something different, and it's just one of those things that uh the chair can do this, but we we wrote it in the rules, so it's really um it becomes not discretionary but more uh, you know, necessary.

Um let's see what else.

You want to take up the public comment one first?

This is all part of the public comment.

Um whether it's the various cities and stuff, right?

Right.

So uh good point.

Besides, I can I can go on to the next subparts to that.

But the first one is would it be okay with the commission to eliminate um that language from the rules saying that uh agenda items are heard all at once together at the beginning, because we could hear them as the items are being brought up, like most jurisdictions do, and there's non-agenda items, so most of these jurisdictions hear non-agenda items at the very beginning of the meeting, so that we're not at the end of the meeting have to stop our discussion to find out if there's any public comment for non-agenda items.

So it's really separating agenda items from non-agenda items, and whether or not that should be all at once, or on each agenda item.

So feedback.

So do you have revised wordings that we need to look at?

It would be deleting one.

So it would be it would be deleting words that right now it says agenda and non-agenda items are heard collectively at the beginning of the meeting.

No wait, it says that's at the end of the meeting.

It says all agenda items, right?

Like, you look at our agenda packet, it currently says that um that all agenda items are heard collectively, Madam President.

Yeah, we're we're we're not doing that.

The biggest difference here is would we do it as each item is taken up?

Yes, and what we did was we copied the board of supervisors, you know, as a county body.

Um, but um I'm fine, you know.

Things have calmed down quite a bit.

Um, and um and on the commissions that I've been on for the city of Albany, uh, all do it as cities typically do it, uh, not as the county typically.

Um so um, you know, we did have a problem in Albany with one commission that I was on, where one member we have three minute rule.

One member would one member of the community whose name shall go unsaid, uh, would come up on every agenda item, every single agenda.

Um, and uh and would speak for three minutes, and if their time wasn't up, they would start repeating these.

Um, and then they actually went to city council and pulled the consent count and it pulled the entire consent count.

And this person was widely um, so but you know, I don't think that's a thread.

We could change the rules if that happened, we could agenda something.

Um, but that's the sort of problem we can get with that.

Um I personally think it will it would it would be fine, and we would change the wording of that section just to you know say what the you know what we're doing.

That's all right.

Shahir?

Uh Commissioner Fan wanted to say something.

Yes, Commissioner Pham.

Thank you.

Um I am in agreement that uh this can you know the chair should have discretion on the matters of each item?

Um I with for every jurisdiction I have worked in, it's always been natural for oral items that are not part of the agenda be discussed at the beginning, and then letter the public has every right to speak on every specific item, and that way it's actually if you think about it, that gives the ability for the uh presenter or the people who to speak at the public comment uh to get ready to present at that particular item versus beginning to speak at the beginning or later at the end.

They can time it accordingly, and also with regards to the chair.

If the chair sees that there is a lot of speaker cards for one particular item, for example, they can move that item up into the meeting so that way this that can be held at the beginning versus it being at whenever that meeting item is later on in the meeting itself.

So I'm actually in favor of just making sure that's uh conform to the rest of the other cities.

Anyone else have any feedback to offer the committee?

Do you have any strong feelings about it?

I guess I just have a question.

If we do it, if we start to think it after each agenda item does that mean that it will not be a time at the end of every meeting to ask for public comment again.

Correct.

Or that part would go away, which is actually kind of nice because it turned into a problem.

Right.

We didn't anticipate um right because we've actually heard people who talk at the end of the meeting to comment on what we said or did.

And that's not what it's meant to do, you know, for public comment.

So um, and it's easier for the I'm sorry, I was gonna say that it makes it easier for the commissioners uh to you know understand that this particular comment is for this particular item versus it being finding to delineate which items it for during this one whole section of public comment during the beginning of the meeting.

Chair does have to enforce that, yeah.

So if somebody gets up and they start talking about something else, you have to interrupt them, which is unfortunate, but you know, say that's not for this agenda item.

That's uh, right, and and it would be up to the chair's discretion.

If there are 50 people who want to speak on a non-agenda item at the beginning, the chair could always say we're gonna hear it for fit non-agenda items for 15 minutes, and we will take your names and we will call you at the end of the meeting, you know, which is what's in the list of options, too.

Um, but I don't anticipate that.

I think it worked for what we were doing so far at the at the beginning when our commission was first formed.

I think it worked well, but I think we're in a different place now.

So that's good.

Yes, Susan.

Um, so just one thing about like having all the comments at the same time at the beginning of the meeting, it's kind of easy for some for the public to know instead of guessing what time they need to show up for the meeting, like you know, what time you're gonna have that item on the agenda, is it gonna be at you know 4 30 or 5 30?

And so there's that.

I've seen and gone to enough public meetings where people have come with their children and sit for hours to get to the space where they want to make a public comment when it's on item at the bottom of the agenda.

Um, secondly, the other thing, the only thing about like the gonna have to figure out a way, most of our commenters are on Zoom, so are they gonna need to submit somehow a digital card with the number of agenda items so you can then make the decision, the discussion about okay, there's only gonna be two minutes for the you know, five minutes for this item, but we'll have 10 minutes to this item.

So that that unless you know what they're gonna talk about ahead of time, right?

Because I've been going and speaking and at meetings for most of my whole life, I know what that's like.

Um and I will say that um it's for a decision making body, it's sometimes nice to hear the comments before right before you make a decision rather than trying to figure out, and it's also the public is can spend time trying to talk about five items in three minutes, is kind of not fair, also to the public.

Um and I I think having the chair have discretion to um find out how many speakers they could change it.

I mean, I what I asked for you guys to think about was do we want to keep it at three minutes, three minutes, or do we want to change it all to two minutes unless the chair wants to do that?

Uh, does anybody have any strong feelings about that?

Yes, Jim.

I think it would be fine to just have it much simpler paragraph and plot paragraph at the top, you know, with a formula and stuff, you know.

Um so I think you know, just for the sake of simplicity, um, saying two minutes and then it's at the chair's discretion after that, two minutes is the default.

You could make it shorter.

50 people want to talk on one agenda item, 30 seconds each, maybe, you know, um, or whatever.

Um, and uh I mean if they're in person you can do cards and pick a subset of cards that you're allowed to do that uh when you know 500 people show up to a meeting and you want it's business, uh but um we're not in that sort of situation, but you know, um we aren't just city council, we aren't a county board of supervisors.

Our meetings are shorter, county board of supervisors, 12 14-hour meetings, it's insane.

It's you know, and council meetings could go to one in the morning easy.

Um, you city council a little county city, which is another meeting forever, the board councilmen staff gone.

Um, so it's pretty horrible.

Uh, I hate going to council meetings for that reason, um, anywhere.

But um, I was gonna say we could say um that we allow people at the beginning to do uh both the agenda items and non-agenda items if they want, and that way if somebody is in the situation where they only have some time, but then they're gonna get the kids to bed or you know, go to work or whatever it is, um, that they wouldn't have to wait around.

They could just say, you know, I want to give it a comment on this and such and you know, get out of here, um, and so that might help in that case.

The other thing is that we have two and a half hour meetings, so it's not quite as brutal as those other ones that we many of us have gone through to make a further comment.

Excuse me, to make a just to make a comment and you're waiting there for four hours.

It's it's terrible.

Um, my feedback would be to separate agenda from non-agenda items.

Yeah.

So it's fine.

I mean, because that's the hard part.

It's like as somebody trying to listen, is this agenda or is it non-agenda?

Yeah.

Um on your third bullet point.

Are you gonna go to that as a group or should I just give it back on the third bullet point?

Let me see.

Where am I?

Close this thing.

Page eight.

Um, the third bullet point.

It's about getting public comments into the packet.

Oh, yes, and minutes.

Yes.

I strongly, I would know it's written material.

Somebody sends an email to the elections commission.

Um, right now it's just us and a couple of staff people to get it.

Um it feels to me like we should be transparent with the uh with the public on that.

Um, those should get in the agenda packet attached to the agenda item if the folks can figure out where or other communications paper or something like that.

If not, um that is standard practice and uh brown act bodies, well, not commissions, but for uh cities and counties.

Um this is uh this is a commission that's kind of as higher profile than the vast majority of commissions, and so I think it would be a really good thing to do that.

Um I could say what union city does, but um every city has like rules about when it can get the packet and when it's gonna get like handed out at the meeting because it came out at uh, you know, whatever the rule is that staff needs, right?

You know, if it's uh maybe by noon or something, uh, then they can handle it if it comes in afternoon, it's not gonna get to the you know be available, you know.

Right, you're absolutely right.

I wrote down many jurisdictions also note that written public comments uh must be received by a certain time to be compiled on the agenda, but they will be posted online with the agenda packet if it's a little bit too late, but you don't want the city clerks to be posting something, you know.

No, no, each each city has its own rules that kind of works for staff, you know, it's it's the only way to do it.

Right.

Well, I will tell you, as a member of the public, I have learned so much by reading public comments, that can totally shift what I'm going to say at a meeting, it can shift my feelings about a topic, and plus I would also learn about the body that's making the decision.

I would know what they heard ahead of time.

So I do think it's really uh transparency issue.

The only thing I'll say is that this is not something that we can impose upon staff, right?

They have to agree to it, because they don't work for us, they work for the county, um, but we could, you know, we could, you know, if it's if staff agrees to it, then uh we could do something like that.

I think it would be a good good nice addition.

Right, you'll notice that it says pending on the ITD capabilities, whether they can do it and IT or or this department.

Yeah, I don't know.

Right.

Um, okay, so moving on to the frequency of meetings.

Um the county ordinance says that we shall meet monthly, and then it also adds, but no less than 10 times per year, recognizing that sometimes a meeting might be canceled for unforeseen circumstances, such as when a meeting falls on a holiday, like it did one month for us, it fell on Juneteenth.

Um, or if there's a lack of a quorum, or perhaps there's a bomb threat in the building and we can't get in.

God forbid, or whatever it is, the ordinance is written to give the commission some flexibility on that.

So I wouldn't be here today, other than the fact that we put in the rules and procedures that we are meeting 10 times a year with two months selected, and so if we had kept that silent, we wouldn't have to change the rules, but I wanted to get feedback on eliminating that phrase.

From the rules.

What phrase?

The phrase that says the commission will meet 10 times a year.

The rules actually say that.

And what do you want to replace over?

I don't want to replace it with anything.

No, that's our next agenda item.

What I'm saying is if we did not have that in our rules and procedures, we would have more flexibility.

I'm glad Commissioner Wagner understands what I'm saying.

By codifying what months we're taking off, it really, you know, codifying in our rules, I should say.

Um it just will allow us more flexibility for meeting, because it does say we meet monthly.

So I don't want to, you know, it's like it's not my decision to say we're not gonna meet for two months and pick out the two months.

It says that we shall meet monthly, but maybe this commission may decide not to meet a certain month, which would allow us all to vote on that and to have it be more of a fluid situation as opposed to a solid situation, which the next agenda item we we actually have to now take a vote to meet again.

So, yes, Commissioner Barlett.

I would just say after part ballot only because I couldn't plan ahead and I know that.

Okay, I know I don't have a commission in December.

If I could go out and do it, I know now I have to do this survey that I want to do, right?

So I think it kind of has people planning ahead, but how do we have to strong feeling either one?

Okay, yes, commission.

Okay.

Um with with one uh note that our rules are not laws, no, self-imposed, um, and um, so if we decided that for you know eight people said, by the way, I'm not gonna be able to come this July, but I could meet in August, right?

Then as long as we have sufficient warning, uh we could just pass a motion to to do that, right?

So, how do you reconcile uh the fact that our ordinance says we shall meet monthly?

The county ordinance, yes, the county ordinance.

I think that's the shall meet monthly.

Yeah, I think the intent of the board of supervisors, right?

What you look at when the wording is ambiguous.

Uh, I would say that the intent of the board of supervisors would would be exactly what we're doing.

We schedule 10 meetings, we expect to meet 10 times a month.

And if for some reason there isn't one, I don't think they meant we were gonna meet twice another month or meet in August or December.

I really don't think that's what it meant.

I think they expect us to meet 10 times a month, but we didn't meet once because of porn.

I really don't think they met, okay.

Now you have to do one in August or December or do two a month or something.

I don't think that's what they meant.

We could ask them, which is commonly done to ask whoever you know made the motion or whatever was your attend, but um that's what I would say.

Commissioner Wagner, uh, maybe I had a misunderstanding of the board's requirement was that I was assuming if the board required us to meet 10 times.

If we have this rule, you know, rules we're in an impossible situation where the board requires us to meet 10 times, but the rules don't give us the leeway to meet one extra month or something.

So maybe my comment is moved if uh the board rules don't require us to meet at least 10 times.

But if they do require us to meet at least these 10 times, we should probably give the chair the flexibility to call a meeting in June if needed to ensure we hit our 10.

We've done that so we already had that we met because we had to do a report called the next meeting we called a special meeting yeah which at a special meeting you can only hear one topic whether the special is nothing there's nothing that says it has to be a special meeting.

Well anyway I remind us I I just our attorney and I have had a discussion about this and um and I will let him speak for himself but I will tell you that I spoke to the author of the ordinance and the author said that he was surprised that there was any ambiguity about you shall meet monthly and he was he explained to me that they just decided that to put in that flexibility if a meeting had to be canceled for a certain reason.

But he said you can't get any clearer than uh you know you shall meet monthly and so when he worked with the board of supervisors on that there is no written legislative history on this it was really um supervisor Carson at the time and uh so that's not to say that we we can't do that on but I'm just letting you know the intention was we shall meet monthly so that's what what does that mean for the monthly yes Commissioner Pham.

I was going to mention if the if the ordinance states regular meeting or special meeting but it I'm assuming it now just states meetings correct.

Yes.

Okay.

Uh that shall is very strong in terms of what it means so basically that means we have to meet at least once a month um so I can't see how we can go uh get around with this the other part I would suggest that if we were to schedule any counsellations maybe in to help the public and also for the commission uh the the commission itself adopts a uh yearly calendar for the calendar for the next calendar year for 2027.

And when we come up as if we get closer to 20 uh as like a late summer early early fall so that way we know when those meetings are going to happen.

So I'll I'll briefly address the issue to ordinance.

So the language in the ordinance is not clear it says on the one hand the commission shall meet monthly and then it says they they will meet at least 10 times a year.

Regarding the comments about the author of the ordinance um a couple things one it's hard to say who the author of an ordinance is unless we're talking about a particular board member who said publicly that they've written it I'm not sure that the board of supervisors would agree that somebody else wrote it.

They might I don't know more importantly if we're looking at how a court would interpret a statute or an ordinance um the author's opinion is actually not considered unless it was stated as part of the public record when the entire body is considering an ordinance or a statute.

So the legislative history is is really limited to what was the discussion that was held in front of the entire body that that either voted for or against the statute and the reason for that is because whoever however a statute looks when it's initially drafted it often changes a lot over time the legislatures or the members of the board of supervisors will add things, delete things, and so it will change.

And so the legislative intent is really limited to the public discussion.

And so with with all respect to whoever drafted the ordinance, his opinion when it comes to the interpretation of the meaning of that ordinance is is not relevant in terms of the legal question.

Now, if you all decide you want to meet 12 times a year or 10 times a year, that is that is your prerogative as far as as uh the ordinance is concerned, but the ordinance leaves room for at least monthly or excuse me, monthly meetings and at least a 10.

Uh, and then just to Commissioner Fam's point, uh, I do think it is a pretty common practice if it's not stated in like a commission or committee's bylaws uh to have the commission or the body meet, or I should say consider a schedule at like the beginning of the year or the end of the year for the upcoming year, where they set out these are the the times that we'll have our regular meetings, and if something needs to change, then you would vote on it at a public meeting, and then perhaps even issue a revised schedule.

Thank you, Commissioner Lindsay.

So, Jason, is it your opinion, your legal opinion that uh we must mean either in August or December or have two meetings in another month that is that the legislative intent was that even if because of a bomb threat or lack of quorum or for any reason whatsoever, it just doesn't matter.

If you have 10 meetings scheduled, and one you cannot meet at, even though you intended to, that you must schedule another, or not.

The ordinance does say that you will meet at least 10 times a year.

Okay, we need to schedule another meeting.

And that implies calendar, for the reading, you know.

Yes, commissioner.

Then I support um our our chair's proposal for removing this language, or if we're not going to do that, at least remove the statement that we don't meet in June and December.

This I think we need to give our chair flexibility about how to address the situation if we have to one of the bees, yes.

Right, because that's that is an option that commissioner Pham and County Council said, is that if we remove it from the rules, we we might say we can review our calendar at the beginning of each year and decide something, you know, but but to choose for the next you know, 100 years, we're not meeting the those two months um for the next, it's like just we'd have to change our rules.

No, just make a motion.

We the the rules were made by us, yes.

And at any point, we could say we choose to meet in August this year, right?

No, but by majority vote, right?

No, I'm just saying what what I've heard is people like to know right now if they can do something in December.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, it's my experience that when people want to go on a vacation or when they want to do something, they're gonna go no matter what time of year, or if they have something.

My whole life, I've worked around Christmas, right?

I mean, it's just I don't say I'm taking off the month of December because there's a holiday, so that's a little foreign to me.

Um, and I know that there are bodies that like the board of supervisors who meet have meetings three times a week, and they have a grueling schedule, and so they chose they choose to take a month off for recess.

So I I understand all of that, but I think by just removing those two months from the rules, it will allow the commission to decide how it wants to handle with having to meet at least 10 times a month.

Okay, I just think because of what um my reaction and then saying the stated it, right?

Um, is that people is that if we do that, then we need to do what what uh Ty recommended, um, which is and Jason, which is maybe every January or every November or whatever, in our last meeting of the year, the first meeting of the next year, we set the calendars for next year.

So we can plan vacations and attend every single uh normal commission meeting, which is sort of what you promised to do when you join the commission.

Uh it's an implicit promise that you're gonna attend every one.

Um, and uh, but they can still do like because August, because I know that I have August off, right?

Looking forward to it.

Um, that means I can take actually almost a three month vacation, right?

If I had the money and interest in doing that, um, and so uh, you know, you leave the day after the July meeting, you come back the day before the you know, that's three months, you know.

So um, so I I would be fine with that with removing that if we say as part of we're replacing that, which would be in our internal rules that we're every January or every November.

Uh you know, we'll do the we'll do a calendar for the next year.

That's that's it's Commissioner Barland.

I agree with commissioner with that because I agree with like you know, you probably want to plan, but what I would want to act with the fitting that on what we're gonna wagner, but doesn't can't we do a special meeting right now with the I think we have to talk in person and for August with the Well, we're not necessarily going to do it in August.

It's a separate thing.

Right now, I I understand that it's nice to have a recess.

I mean, I I get that.

Um, it sounds like there's no one here other than Commissioner Fan who has an issue with the language the commission shall meet monthly.

Do I hear any interpretations on that?

I already said my interpretation, but I I'll defer to the turn.

You said that didn't that it was no problem for you when that minute I was just wondering.

Well, no, no, I what I said is it's ambiguous, and I did ambiguous about shall meet month because it has the modifier after it at least and trying to be able to do that.

But no more, okay.

When we name August December, it was it says the same intent of what you're trying to do, that people would know, yeah, of knock that off of any year.

Right.

It's and so we just want to make it so we do that, we do it every year instead.

Okay, so I hear you, I hear you because there's a qualifier, the shall is ambiguous.

Um, so that those two months were made by executive decision by President Lindsay.

We do oh we followed the county and we talked about it.

People agreed.

It doesn't matter.

Yeah, it doesn't matter.

We have an agreement.

Yeah, okay.

We have an agreement, I think.

Yeah, agreement.

Strike those two sentences.

The best thing is if we do vote, it's made by the full commission, what months, so yeah, okay.

So moving on to the brown act scenarios.

Um, probably the newer commissioners are better equipped to answer this, but our rules and procedures are fairly long.

There's a lot of pages, and it may be overwhelming.

And I think at the beginning, we added a lot of stuff in there about the Brown Act.

And um the one section right at the beginning, we say that um people are responsible for training themselves, and we give you videos and a link to go look at.

Um, we also encourage any commissioner that if you have any questions or concerns to reach out and ask about it.

Um, and then on top of that, we put recommended practices, the do's and don'ts, and then we have brown act scenarios.

I'm just wondering at this point, if we're able, do you think it's a good idea to take out a lot of the stuff on the Brown Act?

Does it cause more confusion?

Is it more overwhelming, or do you find it helpful?

I think it's fine.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Are you talking about section on the stuff on page 10 where it says recommended practices, or on page 11 where it says brown act questions and concerns?

There's there is section B6, then there's uh that talks about the brown act training, then there's brown act questions and concerns.

Oh, the whole section, then there's recommended practices, and then on top of it, we have an appendix.

And I didn't know, do we still need the appendix on top of those three other provisions?

I mean, maybe the new commissioners found the appendix helpful.

I don't know.

I just there's just a lot of stuff in the rules and procedures.

Could we do a round where we ask each person I think?

Sure.

Commissioner Henderson, we're gonna go around.

So we'll start with you about deleting the um round act scenarios.

Um well, I think we I when I you asked that this earlier, I thought that switching them out with the PowerPoint presentation, okay, but we could um it's we're gonna, but I'm fine either way.

I actually like having more information available so I can check things out first before I go bother somebody with a question as the experience in my office always is.

Commissioner Wagner, do you have an opinion?

Uh I didn't find them helpful and to me, it's a little lot for it to be in the rules, like it doesn't seem like this is rules, but whatever, I don't care.

It'll all work either way.

Okay, okay.

Commissioner Moore.

To include up.

Okay.

Commissioner Barlett.

Um, more and more.

So I think it's fine.

But somehow I might get bored about reading it from me.

You know, that's what it was.

Okay.

Commissioner Brittany or Nancy.

I mean it helpful.

I think it also, if I have questions, I have something to go back to reference to use as a reference.

Um, but I won't get you the okay.

Yeah, I wouldn't die on the hill, but I'd keep it for the reasons that people said that my experience, I mean it took me like a lot of years actually to be on commissions to and on the school board to actually kind of get at some of the scenarios and stuff like that.

Um, it's there's a lot in the roundhouse.

Um, and I think having some scenarios and having some information from people that they can use or not use um is is helpful.

Um when we drew this up originally, we said rules and procedures, not bylaws, not just rules, but rules and procedures, and maybe maybe we should add rules, procedures, recommendations, uh, or something, you know, because some of this isn't rules or procedures, they're recommendations.

Um, but um, but I would I would I would prefer to keep it.

I'm not gonna die on it, you know.

I don't know if you yeah, okay.

Well, our committee thanks you.

We it helps us before we start to decide what to do to get your feedback since it's going to affect every meeting that we attend.

So appreciate your your feedback on all of that.

So we can move on to the next item.

Yes.

So I have some suggested changes.

Oh, right.

And um I think either I should list what they are as quick as I can reasonably do that, um, and then maybe I could send the rest to you in writing on uh something like that, or um, but somehow we need to get them off my desk and into your hands.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I will I failed to say at the beginning that at this meeting we wanted to cover these three meety issues at the next meeting.

We're gonna just talk a lot of stuff is it's smaller, and we will open it up at the next meeting for things that might not get so we can make sure we're on time tonight.

Okay, okay, but thank you.

Um I failed to say that.

Um, okay.

So the next item on the agenda is scheduling another commission meeting because the ordinance says we can we have to meet at least 10 times a year.

So right now we have two months to choose from, there are pros and cons of both.

We can either choose to meet in August or December, um, and I will say uh and the ROV's office also has an opinion about what works for them, and um, and they said that we could even meet earlier in the month on either one of those months.

So if it's if it is in December, it doesn't have to be right near the holiday, um, and same for August.

Um so uh I will just remind everyone that this year we have a general election in November, a big general election, and we will have our post-election assessment to deal with the following month.

Um so that is one pro for meeting in December that we could actually start to work on that closer to when an election is over.

Um it's just easier for the ad hoc committee to gather feedback when it's right after an election, and um, and then in August, uh there the days are longer, you know.

People might already have um vacations planned in August.

I don't know.

Um, but the the pros there is maybe people you know would find that better.

And um, and Cynthia Canejo.

Do you have anything to add?

Yeah, yeah.

So I looked at the two months just at where we will be.

We do, well, I'm not gonna say we do if on uh June 16th.

Um no one receives a majority, there will be a special election in August.

So I've looked at the timing of that.

So it's on August 18th, it's scheduled for.

So we couldn't meet before that.

We would have to meet at the end of August.

So I would propose the 24th to the 28th, and then looking at December, again, we are looking at certifying the November general.

Um, in December on the 3rd.

So we wouldn't want to do anything until after we've certified.

So the month, I mean the week that I would propose for December would be the 7th of the 7th of the 11th.

Could we have two meetings in one month?

Meet twice in July.

If you're asking is it legal question?

Yes.

I just want to see if that's an option.

Yep.

Good question.

Since shall meet monthly.

You know, it's fluid.

We shall meet twice.

Sure, shall we do another go-round and see what we'll be preferred?

That's that's a great idea.

So um why don't we start off with Commissioner Butter, find out uh what your thoughts are?

Um, I would prefer that we meet in August and not in December.

Okay, all right.

Um I think anything works for me.

Um, because I don't tend to take a take vacations that are in a month, so you know, I go away for a few days, so I can always work around whatever the meetings are.

Okay.

Um I'll prefer August.

I'll like to say December off.

Okay.

What she said.

All right.

August.

Okay.

I'll work with one word for the rest of the.

Yeah, I won't be on the vision in December and August.

I'm gone, so I'll just say something.

Okay.

Well then.

So you would miss an August.

I would just be honest.

But you have a lot of other questions.

Barely.

But I won't be, yeah.

So you so everybody from show up.

So I mean not farm.

I misunderstood.

What did you mean?

Well, I was saying that our opposition is present today would have to show up in August or we wouldn't have a form again.

Right.

Well, we are missing four people.

Oh.

There's four of the people who are absent today.

So do I, because I don't really care.

I don't have a strong opinion, honestly.

You know, other than the post-election assessment, but we might have one with in August anyway.

So do I get the consensus that people would prefer to take off December?

Okay.

So then that means that we need to schedule a time to meet in August.

What was the dates to do?

Uh the week of the 24th.

So 24th 20.

What's the Thursday?

What is the Thursday?

The Thursday is the one Tuesday.

The 21st.

In August?

Yeah.

Oh.

The 27th.

Is that the 27th?

Oh, sorry, looking at price.

One, two, three.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So rather than be on August 20th, which would be our normal meeting date.

It would normally be on the 20th.

Right.

And the elections on the 18th of August.

So that's not a good week for tomorrow.

So now what we need to decide is I uh we can talk about it first.

Otherwise I'll entertain a motion.

I move I move that we move the August meeting to August 26th.

Okay, do I hear a second?

That kind of okay.

That was moved by Commissioner Butter and seconded by Barlett.

And so let's take a vote.

Commissioner Butter.

Yes.

Commissioner Henderson.

Commissioner Lindsay.

Yes.

Commissioner Moore.

Commissioner Whitzi Hernandez.

Yes.

Commissioner Barland?

Yes.

Commissioner Wagner.

Yes.

President Peter.

Yes.

So that passed unanimously.

We will meet on August 27th.

Okay, moving on to the next item.

We are going to talk about the two voter guides.

Commissioners were asked to bring their voter guides today if it they would find that helpful.

It looks like we may have a few extra sitting on the table.

I don't know if somebody wants to borrow one.

Did I not know?

Yeah.

Over here, but I have the uh and in a special.

Oh okay.

Well, what I really what was in my mind today was just talking about the June 2nd.

Um there was a photo in your agenda packet just to talk about these two voter guides.

And um the impetus of this discussion, honestly, is because I don't know what everyone else's practice is, but I tend to when I get my materials in the mail, I tend to throw them off to the side and throw everything in a packet until the day I'm ready to deal with it.

Um, the day that I'm ready to deal with it, I tend not to read much of what's in here because I'm a pretty I'm a seasoned voter, so I don't really look at all of it.

I will go directly to the candidate statement or to the um the ballot measures to propositions, whatever.

Um, but this time I I had a family member who called me up who wanted to ask me about something in particular in the voter guide, which led one thing led to another um that I realized that I didn't know about in the county guide.

We started talking about two of them, and um so I went out on a quest, and I probably asked about eight people about what's the difference between these two voter guides, and I will tell you almost everyone was not sure.

They kind of had an idea about the difference, but not exactly.

Um, and so they took some educated guesses, and when I did tell them a few things, they were surprised and didn't realize it.

Um, so I just thought this would be a really good topic for the registrar voters to go over because I guarantee you that I promise you are going to learn something from this today, um, because I just think that it's something that um we don't really talk about much.

So, with that, I'm going to turn this over to Cynthia Fernejo.

So there is the statewide voter information guide, and there is the local county voter information guide.

The statewide voter information guide is mailed to each household.

The local county voter information guide is sent out to every registered voter.

So there's a difference.

Um the state guide is published by the Secretary of State's office.

The local voter information guide county is um published by the registrar of voters' office.

There's that.

The statewide guide covers U.S.

national offices, president, U.S.

Senator, and state constitutional offices within the guide and propositions, and it also gives you candidate statements from state constitutional offices, state constitutional attorney general, state board legalization, controller, those are your state constitutional offices, versus your county guide covers.

Included would be local measures and candidate statements of qualifications for those offices that are covered within the county guide.

Those are the differences, the major differences between the two.

I hear over my course of time with the registrar of voters that people don't realize where this comes from, and they don't understand why they only get one versus with the county guide, there's more information, and it's more it's more towards their eligibility on what they have to vote on.

Versus this is one household, it's general because it's state, versus this guy is geared towards your residence address and all the contests that you're eligible to vote on, hence your sample ballot that is included.

There's your sample ballot that's included within the guide that is matching exactly what was mailed to you in your vote by mail package.

Wow.

Here it is.

This is specifically to what you receive in the mail.

The other information that's within here talks about accessibility programs, language programs, um that are offered by the county.

The state's guide is more general about where you can get information on this from your local county elections official.

It's a great source of information for state information, it really is.

And what are the differences?

So it's a good topic, it really is because people don't know.

People absolutely don't know.

That's the major differences between them.

I did want to say one thing.

We also offer for the county guide, the large print guide that we print for every eligible ballot, every ballot type, and it's just the duplicate, but it's in large print.

We started doing this a few election cycles ago, which was a suggestion from one of our um uh one of our partners uh within the um a CBO within the disability community.

So Cynthia, how does one give the large?

Uh you can request it in our office um to call us and we uh send them out to you.

Uh we also partner with a lot of the disability organizations and let them know that these are available as well, and that's all spelled out in the voter guide, they are how to get a large credit.

It's all in there, yeah.

So it's amazing.

Yes, Commissioner Lindsay.

A couple questions, one quick and one a little less quick, probably.

Um hopefully not too long.

Um would somebody get tagged in the database as, you know, like you get tagged, I prefer to galler or something.

I want my election materials at Tagalog.

Um, so would somebody get tagged as wanting their election materials in large print, or they have to separate requests.

It's a separate, it's it's not part of the state mandate.

Yeah, but for language preference, it is so we provide the county guides in five languages, which is the five percent or more.

So it's Tagalog, Spanish, Vietnamese, and um Chinese, any motion.

The other question was, I was why would you?

I think I have the answer.

I'm guessing.

So my guess is right.

Why would you know, suppose there's four voters, right?

I mean kids live with their parents a lot longer these days than they used to, um, and grandma might be there too.

In fact, I have a friend who would have five votes.

Yeah, so if they're all, I'm guessing the reason you're sending out individual ones is because of political parties and like county, Alameda County uh um whatever they call it, Central Committee for the Democratic Party or that's all inclusive within one.

We send one for a primary, so that's all included within one.

If it's just information and sample ballots, why wouldn't you want to send one per household and save all that money?

So the requirement is all registered voters receive one.

You can opt out as a registered voter, and we cover that also inside the voter guide to go green.

You can opt out to not receive a paper.

Oh, it's a state law, yes.

And Jim, just not everybody is a every house, is not a family.

Yeah, you would make a remake exhibit.

I was just thinking of saving a lot of money.

No, it's it's a valid question, but you also get voters within a household that may want it in a different language than another.

So there's all those different circumstances, so that's why it's provided.

But if I want to save the county some money, you can we don't really need two of them in my house.

You can opt out.

Oh, nice.

And then you can go on, you can go on to our website and go to your my voter profile and look at your voter guide online.

No, but I have I have one in writing right there.

But I mean if you opt out, you can see it online.

I would have opt out.

No, we would be, it would be just me opting out, and I would leave my husband as the we'd get one, right?

But we have people that would opt out regardless.

Okay, do you not read it online?

They don't want it.

So I I did notice one other difference, um, because it's something that I look at, is that I always look at the candidate statements, yeah.

So the county voter guide tells you that the candidate statements are printed at the candidates' expense.

The state voter guide, I went to look for my candidate and it wasn't there, and it's because they don't get to put in a candidate statement unless they agree to spending limits, so it's it's like so I had people looking for their candidates, who it wasn't there, but nobody read the fine print in here about that, so you immediately think, oh well, they didn't care enough to put in their own candidate statement.

I'm not voting for them.

Well, it's they do care, they just it's totally different.

So, but that's that's a big difference when you're expecting to read your candidate statement.

Um yeah, um, so Cynthia, there is a lot of overlap with the, and I'm just wondering what is required under a voter's choice act, uh, that's in here, and is there anything that's optional?

So, within the information, of course, the sample ballot, candidate statements, a list of the drop boxes, a list of where you can find the information for the vote centers is required within here.

Okay, um, and um information regarding the voter's choice act county, the other not quite because not because of the voters' choice act or a voter's choice act county, but there are requirements for language assistance, and we have a lot of languages, that's why you have the bulk of this, is in all the languages that we cover.

Also, there you have information regarding um voters with disabilities, that's required in here.

Voting instructions is required in here.

Um, all of the other items that you'll see, like the ballot drop stop tour, AC vote on the go are local programs that we offer to the county that we feel is important for the voters to know about.

Okay, I have one basic question.

The county voter guide says statewide direct primary, but the state voter guide doesn't have statewide, and it doesn't have direct.

So, I'm wondering what's the difference?

How come the county wants the state?

But the state does not say state.

If you go on the secretary state's website, you're gonna see statewide direct primary some in some places, and we always look at it before we name our book, and it's not.

Well, I don't want to say it's not consistent, but they do use different ways to name the elections.

So a direct primary primary is the exact same thing as a primary election, okay?

So, because of this, does do ROVs, such as yourself, do you ever make um recommendations to the Secretary of state's office on something like this?

It's like, uh, otherwise, do you guys have to say statewide direct?

We don't have to.

We, as other county election officials, go and take the lead from the secretary of state and name our guides as such.

We also look at neighboring counties to see how they're, especially if you see on the secretary of state's website.

Maybe it's named on one page this way and it's named on another page this way.

We'll go and look at surrounding counties.

Oh, statewide direct primary.

We're gonna go with it because that's what we saw on the um on the website, but I will also tell you this.

This for as long as I've known has been the name of the primary is a statewide direct primary.

Well, I just I just a second.

I just think having state on the county voter guide is could be confusing.

You know, statewide, so yes, I mean, I never even noticed that.

Of course, and I'm kind of into elections, so I'm guessing you'd have to look pretty close to notice that.

Um it was pretty clear to me that when I got the state one, it's all the state offices, and when I get the other one, it's stuff that's not state offices.

Um, it does have slightly different information in it, but one says it's coming from the Secretary of State, the other says it's coming from the county.

So to me, um, I like the county one better because it has like stuff that's closer to me, if that makes sense, you know.

Um but uh and there's so much coverage of the state offices anyway that um I don't feel like I need that information as badly as I need the local one.

So I I don't know about other people, but I read the local one a lot closer to reading the state one.

Well, let me just say that there are state offices in the county voter guide.

There are so the difference that Cynthia just explained is there's only constitutional offices, state constitutional offices in this voter guide, but there are state of the districts, yes, but I mean, but there are state offices in the government districts, so they they couldn't be in the state, but I'm just saying, you know, because we're talking it out.

The people was like, well, there's a state of my state thing, it's just it's intricate, yes.

Uh, just the point of order that Commissioner Morris.

She's uh she turned it in.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So we still have a four, thank goodness.

Okay, do yeah, that's right.

Okay, thank you.

Um did you want to add something to that?

Cornejo or not?

Well, it yeah, we cover or the law permits, we're talking about candidate statements of qualifications, um, or state legislative and um congressional candidates as an option to publish uh candidate statement of qualifications in a local guide because they are by districts versus the state constitutional are covered in the state voter information guide.

So um the the statewide candidates said pay for the one in the local guide, the statement?

The candidates who want to publish in here, yes, they would statewide candidates, uh any candidate, even local, yeah.

Yeah, no, I know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's only the constitutional offices that are in the state that have to meet a certain uh requirement for candidate statements.

Um I think I cut you off before you were able to ask.

Do you ever give the secretary of state in there?

Like if this commission ever had some suggestion when you talk to them, you could say I can pass it on.

Okay, absolutely.

Very good.

Did anyone else notice anything in the voter guides that you wanted to talk about?

Okay.

Well, I it was the first time I've ever in my life studied the voter guides.

I will tell you.

Um, and there is a lot of information in here.

I think there is some, some stuff that is overwhelming to me, you know, the party preference history for the last 10 years requires.

I know it's all required, but it is really difficult.

You know, I never look at any of that stuff.

Um, you know, there are pages.

I think uh this commission has requested that you guys talk about um vote now, vote early.

We've pushed you to push for people, it's in here, it's in there, it's almost in there too much.

Oh I think it's in there like three times, and I thought, geez, no good deed goes unpunished.

But there is a little repetition, I think, inside the voter guide that I thought if maybe we might be able to lose a few pages.

I don't know.

Um, but uh I I will say that, and um the one thing that I might find helpful in here, I mean, even if you worked collectively with the Secretary of State, is to tell the voter what's in here and what's not in here, you know.

It's like this is what's in this voter guide.

Um, the offices, the state constitutional offices are listed in your uh your other voter guide or whatever, but just to know what is and isn't in here.

Um maybe that might be something nice for our social media um to have like a you know, bullet on here, follow it on there.

Because after last thing, I even found Billboard when I was driving in telling us the vote firm.

So I think you guys are doing a great job.

I will tell you about the repetition a little bit.

Okay, so in making a book, um, each eight pages is a signature, so as long as you have eight and eight, it's so you can't have an odd number.

So that's why we call them filler pages.

So they'll come to me and they'll say, Cynthia, here's the pagination for the book, these are your mandatory pages, here is what we have extra that what point do you want to get across.

Okay, so we may only have a small number of uh filler pages to add, and if we are, we're going to add the vote now.

That's probably why you see it.

Well, speaking of page numbers, it was almost impossible for me to talk about this with someone else on the phone, because we couldn't say go to page nine.

There are no page numbers in the county voter guide.

So it was like, okay, no, it's it's a few more pages, but they aren't going to be the same because everybody's in different jurisdictions.

Unless you literally matched the exact 219 of the record.

So, unless the person lives very close to you, they're not going to be the same.

Well, I will say that other counties have page numbers, so I just for whatever that's worth.

Um it is possible, uh, so it's just something that we had a hard time if if people like to work collaborative collaboratively when you're voting, it's really a difficult situation, and um and this just happens to be from Santa Clara.

Um, but they actually said right on the cover.

What's in here?

What's in here?

So it was kind of helpful for whatever that's worth.

So that was something that stuck out from the very beginning because we were trying to compare notes.

Um, and in terms of how to fold your ballot, that's in here a couple times, and it's with our ballot on how to vote hold the ballot.

So I thought, do you guys get a lot of people who don't know how to hold their ballots?

That's why it's there.

And that's why there's a picture.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

So with that, let's let's move on to the next subject.

And that is I think that the next one is the general administration, which is really just an announcement.

It's something that the uh was on the consent calendar for the uh at the board of supervisors meeting that they uh gave the ROV permission to sign two agreements.

So I thought that uh Miss Corneo could explain what those two agreements were.

So simply um they are for reimbursement.

One is for voting system replacement, any type of equipment replacement.

Counties could get reimbursed for that if you enter into the agreement with the Secretary of State, which we did with board's approval for us to sign the agreements, and the second was for cybersecurity enhancements, and there's a host of um items that are um uh approved for us to get reimbursed, or a lot of counties may say, Oh, now we have money, so we can go ahead and increase this or that in terms of cybersecurity.

Um, so we went in to the board and received approval for both of the agreements, which um I did sign and sent to the Secretary of State.

So now we have a deadline in order to submit receipts for the items that qualify for reimbursement.

Reimbursement does not come off then, so when it does, we want to take full advantage.

Well, thank you.

Thank you for the transparency of all that.

So with that, let's move to the special report.

So we have our outreach team.

Um, Betty David is I believe going to give the presentation and after is also here um as part of our outreach coordinators.

Um Betty's uh does many presentations.

So the presentation that she's going to give today is on youth participation that was um uh given to our subcommittee or subcommittee for um voter and youth participation.

Good evening, everyone, respective commissioners.

Um it's a pleasure to uh be presented here in front of you all today and present our outreach efforts.

Uh the Alameda County um this one is the Alameda County Youth Voice Leadership Program launch plan.

This is a program that we feel would be a great effort to collaboratively working with our um schools as well as our uh youth ambassadors, such as some of the partners, the community partners that we've been working with during high school border education weeks.

So with this program, we think that this would really increase the voter participation as well as increase CD um voter education.

Our mission statement um for this is the Alameda County community engagement team is seeking to increase youth voter engagement by creating the AC Youth Voice Leadership Program to uh train and deputize students.

The AC vote uh the AC youth voice leaders are enabled to seek out um their peers to pre-register uh to vote as well as help recruit student election workers during the election cycle.

My favorite picture.

So obviously the uh goal here is empowering the students to become um future voters and civic leaders, engaging the students by building the school partnership.

Our team will partner with schools within Alameda County to select and train the selected AC youth voice leaders at each school.

As you've um gathered already, because the title for the um students will be called the AC Youth Voice Leaders, and the program itself is called the AC Youth Voice Leadership Program.

Um, again, the objective will be to train student leaders.

Uh they can be trained by in person as well as virtually.

Um we will activate youth voices by following training, we'll be deputized at the Renee C.

Davidson forecasts.

This is where they look at the small um oath, and we'll have like a small ceremony for them, uh, have some um certificates, that way they'll feel empowered and really part of the community, and um get some uh cool stuff that we have.

Um we're right now in the process of designing for them.

But ultimately cultivating civic ownership in communities, young people who experience a strong civic culture in school are significantly more likely to collaborate, problem solve, and drive meaningful change in their communities.

In the classroom, one in five youth who did not vote in 2022 reported lacking sufficient information about candidates and the voting process, so therefore the AC Youth Voice Leadership Program addresses this gap by equipping students with um the knowledge and opportunities to engage in hands-on civic learning and electoral participation.

Quick question.

Yes, the youth that said that what's that age group?

It's 16 and 17 years old since we are dealing with as well as the 18 uh who are eligible to vote.

Um, we do participate in the high school water education weeks, and our predominant um age group is the pre-registration that we're targeting at high school.

So we're dealing with freshmen, we're dealing with you know, um, some of those 16 and 17 years old, but definitely um the 18-year-olds are not as big on this number, it's 16 and 17.

I would say, freshmen can pre-register at age 16 or 17.

Okay, first 2014.

I'm sorry.

No, I think 14.

Okay, they do pre-register, they'll send in a voter registration form at 15 and I could send them database in the system.

And once they turn 18, they're eligible.

So, could a three-year-old do that?

Uh, I don't know about it.

We can say it there.

We get the question.

Some 15-year-old will do it.

It just stays in the system.

Okay, I don't think we have a storage big enough.

Yeah, I don't think to wait for those years.

Yeah, I just have one question.

Yes, what elections are we talking about for 2022?

I thought the implementation is gonna start and to wait for you.

The numbers that we are the pre-registration that was in 2016.

But the uh eligible, the actual, you're talking about the youth voting in Oakland and Berkeley USD.

That's obviously 2024.

But the data that I'm talking about was from 2022 that we collected.

Um, just based on that, we found out that the students wanted to participate in the election more, they wanted to um a lot of times they didn't even know that they can't uh use uh pencil or things of that nature.

So I think the uh the study showed when we were going into the schools and participating, a lot of the students were um not aware that their parents are even eligible.

There was a misunderstanding where people were under um the impression that uh students with a parents that are bilingual, uh, they were hesitant to vote.

So by us showing up to those places and asking those questions, they were able to open up to us and talking.

So this data is just really to talk about our personal experience when we were going to the schools and participating.

They that's the survey that we got that they were comfortable or they had you know trouble registering to vote.

Okay.

Okay.

If I could clarify, the pre-registration, this program is for pre-registration.

The um the other programs that we will um endorse or that we will um provide to the youth leaders, um, are to engage those students within their high schools to pre-register, but also not just pre-register.

If you're in Oakland Unified or Berkeley Unified, you can vote if you didn't know you could.

And then also that you could be a student poll worker and learn about civic engagement that way as well.

Because what we do know is it's lacking in high schools now in terms of being part of the curriculum.

I know when I went to high school, it was it's no longer.

I have a grandson that you know graduated, and it's not.

Um, to the degree I'll say that it is when I was there, even when my daughter was there, they taught it more about why you should vote, why it's important.

And I think we've also found it also depends on your teacher.

There are a lot of teachers as we go to the high schools that are just so pro they need to understand.

They need to know why it's important.

Um, and they need some history behind it because I think you also touched on Betty, or also finding students that are encouraged encouraging their parents to register, or if they're in a family where English is not their first language, um, but the parents are eligible to vote, they're helping the parents to do so because maybe it isn't their first language.

The um I'm a little shocked, um, because uh California state law I taught in high school for about 20 years, um, requires them to take a government class.

That's as senior year.

So that means there's 17 years old, probably at the beginning of that year, and 18 probably at the end of the year uh if they're seniors, um, and uh it's a little bizarre to me if a government teacher is not teaching them about registering to vote and getting them to register and vote.

You give 10 you give 10 kids 10 points right to register vote, they'll be all over that so fast that you don't, you know, it's like um, 10 points, you know, five minutes.

Um I'm just kind of that that blows me away if they're not doing that.

It it is it I would say from what I've heard in being in stakeholders' meetings in being, I just had a meeting with a representative from the county board of education also about we have to push this, we have to make it as more part of the curriculum so they get more of the education of how and why it matters to participate.

I'm not just booking it, it'd be a what it'd be a one-day.

Maybe if you guys send uh lesson plans, uh and have the principals like send out something sharply, um, you know, to the government teachers, because if they have a lesson plan for a day and then the principal is saying do this, I bet you they're doing.

I think it's also not to the degree that maybe a teacher would like to see it.

I know with your teacher in as you were and you're teaching your class, you're also following a required curriculum, and also how deep do you go into that?

Sure, I think is the difference.

So, what we're hearing is they have to really go in deep or make sure that they're covering their basis, but then are also trying to interject some of the additional information that is not part of that, and that's where we see we can help with that by being out there, and but not just from us, it's their peers, right?

You've got someone that I sit next to.

Hey, I'm a youth leader.

You want to register if you register, we pre-registered the vote yet.

That's what we're trying to do is from the inside and help.

And I know there are other counties that have these same programs.

I know Alameda Legal Women Voters has something similar within their unified school district that they do that now and it works.

So we're trying to make this countywide and engage now.

So yeah, so I'd like to follow up in Alameda City, it's actually the student, it's a student leadership group that organizes the registration for voting and they go into the classrooms and the legally with voters as well.

So it's really their peers encouraged them to register.

Yeah, I don't think it's that they're not getting it.

I think they're not getting it to the degree where it's syncing in.

And so we're hoping by having your friend be a youth leader and engage you, and then also having the buy-in, and sorry, maybe I don't want to, but having the buy-in as we did, as I met with um, you know, the member of the um representing the county board of education to help us get our feet in the doors with all the school districts.

Um, he says definitely it needs to be at that peer level because you know, they speak the same language, so and then the other thing we do in Alameda, and I think other uh communities might as well.

Um, when the students register or pre-register, they sign, they uh fill out a postcard, and then when they turn 18, it says congratulations, you're eligible to come.

Yeah, since we're a little short on time, I think that's what they're gonna finish.

So, as you can see, this is the merchandise that we are going to be right now.

Currently, it's being worked on with our digital uh team.

The ACU voice, uh the AC youth uh voice leaders uh will be given merchandise that they can use as symbol of pride.

Uh selecting the AC youth voice leaders, our team will be participating with high school staff such as college counselors, history, English, and government teachers to identify students who are interested in becoming part of the AC youth voice leadership program.

Teachers will be encouraged to give additional incentives, as uh Commissioner James mentioned within the program.

So we are definitely working with teachers, such as I know that I've got a great relationship with um Mr.

V in Berkeley High.

So he is pushing that.

Joshua Daniels, uh, who is also partnered and you mentioned um the county uh board of education or the education office, which is Chemaka.

So we just met um, I believe just two weeks ago, and so I do have to show him this uh slides so that he can get us um an opportunity to work with the teacher so that we can come up with the incentive program.

So uh our projectivity uh for this one was AC youth voice key milestones in April.

The uh there are two um months that are dedicated to the high school board education weeks, April as well as September.

Um introducing the program launch to schools, gathering interested students, give virtual class to prospective uh students, hold registration drive during high school or education weeks as an example for prospective AC youth voice leaders.

Uh deputize the youth voice leaders so they may go on to hold their own registration drives.

Unfortunately, we did not get a lot of participation during the April.

Uh, we did um reach out to the students, we did reach out to the schools, we worked with the teachers, and uh we did pass out obviously the uh student for worker applications.

We did get a good number of uh participation in that.

However, since this is a brand new program, it hasn't been really um launched, uh, we don't we're still working on some of the ironing out the details.

So I think in September, the we're projecting to send out the letters officially to the schools and working with the youth voice leaders to put the registration drive so that way they can in fact host their own registration drive during the September high school border education weeks.

So that's our projection.

Um lastly, of course, the program goals are for the community engagement team aims to grow the AC youth voice leadership program uh to include uh AC youth voice leaders from every major high school um within Alameda County to give students a greater sense of ownership and the voting process.

And we thank you for this presentation allowing me to really showcase our work.

Next time I would like to present a video to show you us in action, but definitely this is our program that we're working on, still ironing out some details.

Thank you.

Fantastic.

Any questions or comments?

Yes, do you also do colleges?

Okay, so you go to Google High School.

Yes, colleges as well as public.

Um are you going to government teachers also as a special group to kind of hit?

Yes, we do have assigned teachers, we do have uh at each school, they will assign us a particular person who's an organizer of that area.

So they we do work with that.

And then I assume it's out of scope at this point for young adults that are not in college, not in school, it's only right now, anyway.

It's a school program, exactly.

Yes, it is.

I'm done.

Yes, yeah, I heard a comment, just um, what is the relation or question?

What is the relationship between the program and other partners that are working on this locally?

Uh, particularly the Oakland Youth Global Coalition or the uh the youth coalition, and what is their partnership because I know that they have a very strong curriculum, they have very strong outreach student leaders that can be a very helpful space for this work.

So I'm wondering if there's a partnership and what that look like, and then last um there was a report that we actually created from the last election process, so I'm wondering if any of those recommendations or information was also added to this program.

Absolutely, Sophia.

Did you want to?

Yeah, so we definitely they're part of the stakeholders meetings that we attend monthly for the um uh Berkeley Unified and Open Unified, which has expanded um to a lot of interested other jurisdictions that might want to have youth voting, so the meeting is quite big now.

Um, but they are uh definitely involved, and I know when we were first launching um youth voting in the two jurisdictions, they played a major component, and we teamed up with them for outreach events and and still um do the same.

I'm probably gonna mispronounce his name.

I don't know, don't you?

Every time we talked about this, yes, I'm saying it wrong, and actually, Lucas is so funny.

When I saw him for the first time on the meeting, I went and I did a double take as I said, is that Joe Bond?

He looks like a former team member of ours, could be a twin brother, and I literally had to do a double take.

And I did see a man at an event one time, and I had to tell him, and he goes, We all have a twin out there somewhere.

I know, I guess so because you guys are identical, but yes, we do partner with them.

I agree.

They have a strong standing in the community.

Um, and they were definitely one that I sent Let's Latch on.

I've had separate meetings with um him to discuss what we could do movie quote.

Also, a couple of other partners that I would like to give a shout out to the legal services with CRISPRs with children.

That's a really good one that we've partnered with Ian at the rising sun.

Um, also the kids first in Else.

Yeah, so those are great partnerships, and there are so many that I can't even name at the moment.

And I will just um give a shout out to Allie.

Oh, yes, and got us in touch with the local for the NAACP, yes.

Which really helps.

And we did partner during the Tennyson High, yes.

So we were there.

So yeah, yep.

So we're slowly getting our way in, but it is going to take, you know, fortifying the partnerships that we have with the local organizations because they already have their foot in the door and they have the trust.

And that's what we need to think about.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you for being patient with the end of the meeting.

So do we have any public comment first?

If you would like to make a public comment on agendas or non-agendized item, please raise your hands.

Okay, well, with that, I will adjourn the meeting at 6 38.