| Citizens for Verifiable Voting | April 15th, 2005 Minutes |
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MINUTES OF MEETING OF APRIL 15, 2005 BOULDER COUNTY ELECTION REVIEW COMMITTEE
1. Call to Order, Roll Call
The meeting of the Boulder County Election Review Committee was held on APRIL 15, 2005, at 1:00 p.m. in County Commissioners’ Conference Room in the Boulder County Court House. The meeting was called to order by Tom Davisdon, Vice Chairman, at 1:15 p.m.
The meeting was attended, at roll call, by the following Committee Members: Richard Harris, Hillary Hall, Michael Taylor, Jay Harbour, Tom Davidson and Linda Flack. Also present were Linda Salas, Patty Stolz, Tim Hansford, Nancy Jo Wurl, Josh Liss and members of the public.
Richard Lyons was excused from the meeting. Paul Tiger arrived at 1:40. David Leeds did not attend the meeting. There was no representative of the office of Secretary of State.
2. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting Corrections to the minutes of the April 8 meeting were recorded and approved by unanimous vote on a motion made by Mr. Harbour and seconded by Mr. Harris.
3. Public Comment
Joe Pezzilo spoke regarding the Committee preliminary recommendation for the purchase of precinct scanners. He expressed his belief that “Throwing more money at the Hart system will not solve the problem.” He stated that a simple method is needed to carry out elections. He pointed out that other counties, using simpler systems, reported the results of elections much earlier than did Boulder County.
Ms. Salas introduced Josh Liss as the newly appointed Elections Coordinator. He is former Assistant Director of Elections, to work with counties, in the office of the Secretary of State.
4. Other pending business, including but not limited to
Mr. Davidson raised the issue of numerous e-mails that have been received from members of the public regarding the work of the Committee and invited discussion as to whether or not these communications should be entered into public record. After discussion the decision, by consensus, was to create a file in the record titled “E-mail Communications” and enter the file, containing all e-mail communications, as an exhibit.
5. Board listing and prioritization of causes and other factors for delays, including recommendations.
Mr. Davidson presented a document containing preliminary Printing Narrative by Mr. Taylor and Recommendation by Mr. Davidson, for review by Committee members. Ms. Hall recorded changes as they were agreed upon and were displayed on the screen.
After Ms. Salas was asked to clarify a point in the recommendation, Ms. Hall raised the issue of input for the report coming from outside of the Committee. Mr. Davidson stated that input could be suggested on language of an issue, but not on content.
Discussion and debate took place regarding pre-qualification of ballot printers and how to assure that all requirements are specified and are met. Also concern was addressed about the accuracy of the files that determine the specifications for ballots.
After discussion and revision of the printing recommendations, Mr. Harris moved and Mr. Harbour seconded a motion to approve the recommendations generated by Mr. Davidson regarding Printing of Ballots. Motion passed with unanimous vote.
The document, as approved is as follows:
(Please See Attachment)
Review and revision of the draft narrative document for printing was carried out.
Mr. Tiger stressed his belief that it is important to include statistics for comments in the report whenever possible.
Ms. Flack moved and Mr. Harbour seconded a motion to approve the draft narrative for the Printing of Ballots category, generated by Michael Taylor. Motion passed with unanimous vote.
The document, as approved is as follows:
(Please See Attachment)
Mr. Harris stated that an e-mail he forwarded from Spencer Havlick, which was sent to Committee members, was intended only for Mr. Lyons and Ms. Salas. Mr. Havlick’s letter referred to an issue that occurred in the 2003 election.
Mr. Havlick expressed his concern that a large number of absentee ballots, that were requested, were not mailed overseas. According to Mr. Havlick, the number was stated by Elections office to be between 70 and 2000.
Ms. Salas stated that the number 2000 referred to the unused ballots in the same box as the unmailed ballots. She also stated that 70 overseas ballots had been pulled and were misplaced by a contractor; the error had occurred in the 2003 election. Mr. Hansford stated that he had looked into the situation and found that 17 overseas ballots and 6 military ballots had been involved. He stated that, since that time, the process for mailing ballots has been changed. Mail-in and absentee ballots are separated.
Mr. Davidson introduced a document generated by Ms. Flack, Draft Recommendation – Planning, Staffing & Education, to be considered, revised and approved.
A debate took place about vote centers and about recommending additional staff in the elections office.
Mr. Harbour moved and Mr. Taylor seconded a motion to approve the draft recommendation for Planning, Staffing and Education category generated by Ms. Flack. Motion passed unanimously.
The document, as approved is as follows:
(Please See Attachment)
Responsibilities for generating draft documents was reviewed:
Introduction narrative Mr. Lyons Executive summary Mr. Lyons External factors beyond the control of County Clerk
Recommendation and Narrative, Mr. Tiger
Physical Facilities
Recommendation Ms. Hall Narrative Mr. Harbour
Hart Ballot Now system,
Recommendation has been adopted Narrative Mr. Harris
Ballot Printing
Recommendation and narrative have been adopted.
Ms. Hall suggested that the documents might be sent to the editor as they are approved, to facilitate production of the final report.
Mr. Davidson suggested the possibility of the Committee meeting on a Saturday in order to complete preliminary drafts of the report. It was agreed to meet on Friday, April 22, from 1 to 5 p.m. and to hold another meeting on Saturday, April 23, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Mr. Tiger will arrange for space for both meetings. Mr. Davidson suggested that renting meeting space in a hotel would be appropriate, if necessary.
6. Additional Public Comments, time permitting
No members of the public were present at this time.
7. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m. on unanimous approval of a motion made by Mr. Harbour and seconded by Ms. Harris.
______________________________ Recording Secretary
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