January 14th, 2005 ERC DRAFT Minutes

DRAFT

MINUTES OF MEETING OF

BOULDER COUNTY ELECTION REVIEW COMMITTEE

1. Call to Order. The meeting of the Boulder County Election Review Committee was held on January 14, 2005 at 1:00 p.m. in the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s office and was called to order by Richard N. Lyons, Chairman.

2. Roll Call and Introductions. The meeting was attended by the following Committee Members: Richard Lyons, Tom Davidson, Hillary Hall, Jay Harbour, Richard Harris, Michael Taylor, Paul Tiger and Drew Durham. Also present were Joanna Macy, recording secretary and at the request of the Committee, Linda Salas, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder and staff and Linda Herod from Hart/InterCivic.

Mr. David Leeds and Ms. Linda Flack’s absences were excused.

3. Presentations and Demonstrations by Boulder County Clerk and Recorder and Staff.

The matter of ballots was discussed and the importance of scanners’ ability to read bar codes. If bar code cannot be read or sequential number or page number is out of order, scanner indicates “rejected ballot”. Problems were with precinct ballots preprinted by EagleDirect. There were no problems with primary ballots which were printed “on demand”. These ballots were printed specific to election information and there were no excess ballots. Linda Herod, representative from Hart/InterCivic attended the meeting. She was asked several technical questions which she deferred to a more technical representative who would attend a future meeting.

The ballots were packaged and the number of ballots within package was shown on front of package. Often the count was incorrect with less ballots than indicated on the front; and in one instance two packages were printed of the same ballots. When duplicate ballots were found, replacement ballots were printed. Ms. Salas was asked, “How much time would be required to manually create ballots when there were duplicates?” She said 15 to 20 minutes per ballot.

When the bar code cannot be read, the system tells you “rejected ballot”. There were problems with almost 13,000 preprinted ballots. Bar code is used to set up target area. There were no problems with on demand ballots. EagleDirect was selected to print ballots based on bid price and availability. Printing was delayed by 10 days due to the Nadar issue.

Counting was delayed from beginning. Early voter and absentee ballots are normally counted by Election Day but this was not completed until several days after the election. Other problems creating delays were due to provisional ballots. There were about 3,000 and approximately 500 were rejected. If a voter’s qualification cannot be verified at the polls, but voter insists he is qualified to vote, he is given a “provisional ballot”. Information has to be verified which requires checking database at the Secretary of State’s office, Boulder County or motor vehicle records. If voter is in incorrect precinct only the presidential vote counts.

If the provisional vote is rejected, voter will be notified. Handling provisional ballots requires about 30 minutes per ballot. Question was asked regarding the difference in the provisional ballots and the response was that the envelopes are different. Question asked if ratio for early, absentee and provisional voters was similar to other counties – the answer was unknown.

Linda Herod was asked if the 20% give around the bar code, stretching of bar code and smudging of ballots have been problems with other users. Her answer was “no”. The Committee was advised that EagleDirect did exercise quality control and that Kodak checked scanners and all equipment.

Copies of voter ballots showing barcode mis-locations, irregular location of printing and smudging were given to the Committee and attached to Minutes as EXHIBIT 3 and EXHIBIT 4. Ballots were on 11 x 17 paper. The water mark and Clerk and Recorder’s signature are added to paper first; then the ballots are printed.

Linda Herod was asked if Hart had some form of troubleshooting when selling software. She said “yes”, however they have not had this problem elsewhere. The scanning process was demonstrated by Patty Stahl and Tim Hansford.

It was mentioned that the scanner was idle while trying to resolve issues of damaged or non-legible ballots. Linda Herod said it was important to keep scanners running. Training for handling damaged ballots is necessary.

The scanner will reject ballot when the box is not in the proper location on the ballot or when box is not filled in. When rejected there is no count and these were kept separate and later had to be reviewed to resolve issues. A 200 ballot batch took 3 hours to resolve. When scanning is finished images are stored in computer.

Linda Herod was asked to email the Committee possible dates a representative could come before the Committee. At such time the Committee would request instructions for Resolution Teams and info regarding the Ballot Now System.

4. Meetings.

Discussion was held concerning meeting dates and time. Motion was made by Tom Davidson, seconded by Richard Harris that meetings continue to be at 1:00 p.m. each Friday at either the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s Office or the office of the County Commissioners according to room availability. Chairman will prepare and email Agenda for meeting to be held January 21, 2005.

5. Minutes.

Secretary was asked to change work history shown for Mr. Harris, Mr. Tiger and Mr. Harbour shown in the January 6th Minutes. Motion made by Hillary Hall, seconded by Tom Davidson to accept Minutes as corrected.

6. Attendees.

Chairman recognized Neal McBurnett and Peter Richards who wished to address the Committee. The Committee was advised there was no notification in the Boulder paper relative to the meetings. The Chairman regretted it was necessary to close the meeting due to commitments of its members and asked that issues for the committee be deferred to the next meeting.

7. Adjournment.

Motion to adjourn was made by Jay Harbour, seconded by Richard Harris. Motion carried. Meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

_______________________________ Recording Secretary

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