October 20, 2008

 

MEETING OF THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS

751 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, Maryland

 

In Attendance:

 

                                    Board Members:

 

                                    Samuel Statland, President

                                    John Sullivan, Vice President

                                    Nancy Dacek, Secretary           

                                    Nahid Khozeimeh

                                    Jerrold Garson

                                    Rosalyn Pelles

                                    Lucia Nazarian

 

 

Staff:

Margaret Jurgensen, Director

Sara Harris, Deputy Election Director

Leslie Hatch, Election Judge Coordinator

Betty Ann Lucey, Registration Manager

Christine Rzeszut, Polling Place CoordinatorOperations

Gilberto Zelaya, Outreach Coordinator

Kevin Karpinski, Council

Marjorie Roher, Administrative Specialist

Renee Adams, Election Aide

 

Guests:

Bryan Hunt, Office of Management and Budget

Mark Posner, Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee

Barbara Sanders, League of Women Voters of Montgomery County

Jeanne Toungara 

 

                         

Convene Meeting and Declare Quorum Present

            Mr. Statland called the meeting to order at 2:33 p.m. and declared a quorum present.

 

Approval of September 22, 2008 Minutes

 

Minutes from the September 22, 2008, meeting were distributed for review. A minor revision was requested by the Board.  A motion was made by Mrs. Dacek to approve the September 22, 2008, minutes as amended.  The motion was seconded by Mr. Sullivan and carried unanimously.

 

Additions/Changes to the Agenda

 

            There were no addition/changes to the agenda. 

 

Special Executive Session

 

The Board members met to discuss the performance of an election judge who had requested the opportunity to meet withmet before the Board.

 

A motion was made by Mr. Garson to adjourn the Executive Session and reconvene in regular session.  The motion was seconded by Mr. Sullivan and carried unanimously, with the Board reconvening in regular session at 2:48 p.m.

 

A motion was made by Mrs. Decek to reassign an election judge to a different precinct. The motion was seconded by Mr. Garson and carried unanimously.

 

Election Director Status Reports

 

State Board of Elections

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that the Montgomery County Board staff submitted the deployment plan of election related equipment, election judges and supporting staff for the November election. She reported that the Montgomery County Board will deploy all voting units and electronic poll books leaving 50 voting units and 60 electronic poll books for emergency deployment for the precincts. Projections of the number of registered voters are estimated to be 553,700. The DRE deployment in precincts with high elderly/special needs populations will be 1:175 and the balance of the community will be 1:185. The ratio of the electronic poll book to voters is 1:750705, the state allocation formula calls for 1:1000. The deployment of equipment allows for everything to be in place the night before the election, allows election judges to test the electronic poll books with the access cards and time for the Board to deploy replacement EPB equipment on Monday night or Tuesday morning before the polling places open on November 4, 2008.

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that the Montgomery County plan submitted for equipment quantity allows for the following:

 

•           Site visit and consultation with Chief Election Judges by a Board member or staff to confirm need for additional unit as opposed to poor line management or under-utilization of staff or equipment. Line management has been the problem in the past.

•           Authorization is identifiable/auditable.

•           BoE staff will prepare and deploy additional EPBs as needed.

•           BoE staff will prepare and deploy additional DREs needed.

•           The unit is assigned to the precinct and does not create a new accounting center, adding unnecessaryunneeded confusion on the night of the Election.

•           State Spare Unit Deployment (SUD) cancan not be accumulated via modem. The added effect can confuse Judges because State has no training procedures in place for election judges.

•           Training is in place and the State plan was received too late for uniform implementation county wide including the importance of consistency in election judge training.

•           SUD saves only every 20 minutes. A unit can be in place in 60 minutes after Board confirmation of necessity.

•           Deployment of 140 to 150 units on Election Day in this community with traffic issues is unrealistic. Preferred is to get the units out as part of original planned deployment and layout provided to all Chief Election Judges.

 

Ms. Jurgensen stated that staff has determined that our assignment of units now will allow the election judges to set up the room properly. She explained that this permits for the modem transmission of results at the end of the night, an effort to have 66% of results reporting by the close of the 11:00 pm local news cast. Ms. Jurgensen stated that this is a cultural requirement for this community and failure to provide such has had negative consequences in the past. Mr. Sullivan questioned the deployment of voting units and Ms. Jurgensen stated that she will look at ratio for the possibility of sending out additional pollbooks.

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that adjustments were made on October 15 because the voting population had increased by at least 200 persons in some polling places. She statedstaed that Touchscreen machinestouchscreens were added to the following precincts:

 

Precinct 2-6 Cedarbrook Community Church Clarksburg

Precinct 5-2 Green Castle Elementary Silver Spring

Precinct 9-8 Seneca Valley High School

Precinct 13-47 NOAANOAH Silver Spring

Precinct 13-55 Strathmore Elementary School Silver Spring

 

Polling Place Supplies Verification Plan

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that sheit was transmitted to the State Board the requirements of the critical polling places supplies check list and verification for Montgomery County Board of Elections to perform prior to election judge pick-up scheduled for October 30, 2008 at 5:00 p.m.

 

SBE/LBE Security Plan Review

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that the Security Planit was reviewed with the State Board of Elections representative Michael Kortum. the security plan in place for the Board Emergency plans for polling places and  instructions provided to the election judges were contained in the Chief Judge Toolkit. She informedInformed Mr. Kortum that polling place facility information is provided to Homeland Security, Police, and Fire/Rescue for the safety of voters and all election personnel.

 

Conference Calls with SBE

 

•           Reviewed MDVoters processing procedures for voter applications

•           Reviewed questions regarding absentee voting

•           Reviewed voting system security issues and required documentation

•           Reviewed delivery of SBE required deliverables and verification of same

•           Review critical dates for Election

 

1.         October 21- last night at 11:30 pm to process voter applications

2.         October 22 - commence download of precinct registers from MD Voters

3.         October 22 - L&A completion and public testing of DRE and Optical Scanner final preparation.

4.         October 23 -commence creation of master card for electronic poll books

5.         October 29 -Delivery of election equipment.

 

 

*** Mr. Zelaya entered meeting at 3:04 p.m.***

 

Election Judge Update

 

            Ms. Jurgensen reported that the County Executive will be sending a second call for volunteers to fill ten vacancies for technicians in the county. She stated that if they are not recruited by October 21, 2008, then election judges will be fully responsible just as they were in the February primary election. Ms. Jurgensen noted that for the primary election, the Board of Elections had 6 technicians assigned only to precincts with two new Chief Judges. She stated that the opportunity provided to the Board to conduct four elections prior to this election does not require the Board to place new chief judges into any precincts. The current chief judges have all had recent experience in opening the units. Ms. Jurgensen reported that Future Voter Initiative students remain a highly popular program and the vacancies are in the Silver Spring area to date. She noted that no further applications are being accepted.

 

Ms. Jurgensen stated that Greeter positions are available for approximately 15 persons. The staff decided to purchase disposable phones for Greeters with 60 minutes to assist voters who appear at incorrect polling places. She stated each volunteer will also have a street directory and precinct register to use to get the voter to the correct location or verify they are in the correct location. Ms. Jurgensen reported that Greeters will be at each polling place from 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m., and then will be dismissed.

 

            Ms. Jurgensen reported that Roamer positions are filled and will serve as line managers, technical support and runners for extra equipment or supplies in polling places on their route. She stated that 5 runners for polling place supply delivery on Election Day have been recruited. Ms. Jurgensen explained that the County Executive is recruiting 25 drivers from the ranks of the administration for delivery of needed items at 5:30 a.m. Routes wereroutes developed by the Department of Technology Services, GIS section. She stated that the Department of General Services will have drivers for delivery of any critical items on Monday evening and a box truck to move voting units if necessary.

 

 

Budget

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that the Preliminary Budget for upcoming budget year will be discussed in Executive Session. She stated that year to date, the Board has not received billing for 2008 special elections from SBE. Ms. Jurgensen reported that staff is  working overtime to process all voter applications, absentee requests and election judge recruiting; the result is a budget deficit in personnel line item. Ms. Roher reported that the latest FY08 spreadsheet is provided in the packet which covers the period through September 30. She explained there are only three areas where we are showing a deficit:

 

•           Part-time Salaries/Seasonal Temporary Employees

•           Communication Circuits - -due to purchase orders for wiring the Gaithersburg facility. A supplemental will be requested to recoup these funds.

•           Other Books, Videos, and Subscriptions - -due to the editing and creating of various videos/PSAs for the General Election.

 

Ms. Roher stated that the FY10 budget will be discussed in Executive Session.

 

Facility Issues

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that an emergency generator will be delivered to the Board of Elections on September 24, 2008. She stated that Board of Elections staff and Board members will be assigned polling place routes to confirm phones are plugged into jacks, voting units set up on legs and daisy-chained and the EPBs have been set up and turned on to confirm functionality. Ms. Jurgensen stated that election night tents set-ups are scheduled for Monday, November 3, and removed Wednesday, November 5.

 

Ms. Roher stated that the Rockville facility has few maintenance issues and are all being resolved. She stated that the server room in the basement was cleaned Saturday in preparation for the Public Testing and the entire warehouse will be cleaned once all equipment is deployed. Ms. Roher reported that the Gaithersburg facility lease is still not signed. She explained that the last word was received Thursday or Friday when it was returned to Leasing Services for a couple of minor changes. Ms. Roher stated that once those changes are made it will be returned to the County Attorney’s Office for approval and signature; however, we have been told that leases are only reviewed on Wednesdays and Fridays so we are most likely looking at another week prior to approval. She stated that she anticipates a move date of late May or early June.

 

Voter Registration

 

 Ms. Jurgensen thanked Mrs. Lucey for her efforts. She explained that Voter Registration staff is working overtime until Tuesday, October 21, 2008, until 11:30 p.m. which is the SBE deadline to have all voter applications entered into MDVoters database. She stated that the sample ballot voter file was pulled for the vendor on Sunday, October 19 at 2:00p.m. She stated that the file will be readied and then prepared by vendor for

USPS carrier route walk sequence order. Ms. Jurgensen stated that the goal is to affix addresses on the sample ballots on October 22, 2008, and deliverdelivered to USPS by October 24 to place in mail stream for delivery to voters.

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that on October 14, 2008 (voter registration deadline), we had approximately 1500 persons walk in and register to vote. of present their completed registration. She noted that the next day we received five bags of mail so October 15 was spent sorting all mail. Ms. Jurgensen reported that staff processed, since October 16, 2008, 12,210 voter registration applications and anticipates processing another 3000 documents. She noted there were 554,012 and 38,914 absentee applications processed as of October 19 at close of business.

 

Board Attorney Report

 

            Mr. Karpinski briefed the Board on the lawsuit by Citizens for Responsible Government and forwarded legislative changes.

 

New Business

 

Report on Election Preparations

 

            Ms. Jurgensen discussed important dates for Board requirements.

 

            Voting Units

 

            Ms. Jurgensen reported that unit preparation is 100% complete and the staff has identified 35 units that may be deployed on Election Day. She stated that this will allow additional units to be available for deployment on Election Day from our reserve units. Ms. Jurgensen noted that we have submitted our DRE allocations and database to the SBE as of 10:00 a.m. this morning (October 20).

 

The precincts that were chosen by the Board for verification as well as the 10% validation of Election Day voting units are: 04-30,04-15,04-34,05-14,06-01,07-03,07-09,07-11,07-13,07-31,07-32,08-03,08-12,09-17,09-20,10-02,10-04,10-05,10-12,13-03,13-11,13-14,13-42,13-58.

 

Electronic Pollbooks and Printers

 

Ms. Jurgensen reported that the EPBs and printers are being charged at this time. She stated that the data is expected to be uploaded beginning on October 23, 2008, for the precinct poll books. Ms. Jurgensen noted that the SBE and PremierPrimier have made arrangements to have additional EPBs available in the state for deployment on Election Day in case of emergency. She explained that these units are available to be deployed after we have sent out all our reserve EPBs. Ms. Jurgensen noted that Montgomery County will have 55 units in our reserve and Premier will have an additional 50 units delivered for use on Election Day but no printers. Ms. Jurgensen explained color coded bags and important dates.

 

Election Task Force

 

Ms. Jurgensen explained the duties and assignments of the Election Task Force to the Board.

 

General Election Media

 

Ms. Roher stated that the signs are posted on Ride-On buses. She stated that the Election Day schedule has been created for all groups and have been provided with credentials and a set of media/visitor guidelines. Mr. Sullivan suggested changing website to add media schedule. Ms. Roher reported that a copy of the schedule will be provided to each Board Member on November 3. She noted that she will be contacting each Board Member at 6 a.m. on Election Day to verify that cell phones are working properly. Ms. Roher explained that phone should be kept on in the event that she has to contact Board Members. Mr. Statland thanked Ms. Roher for the wonderful Press Releases.

 

 

Report on the Executive Session

 

At 4:12 p.m. the Board met in Executive Session pursuant to State Government Article, Sections10-508(a), and 10-508(a)(13), to address ballots, FY10 Operating Budget,  in addition to reviewing minutes from a previous Executive Session.

 

The Montgomery County Board of Elections met in closed session on this date. The following members of the Board and staff were in attendance: Samuel L. Statland, Nancy Dacek, John J. Sullivan, Nahid Khozeimeh, Jerrold Garson, Rosalyn Pelles, Lucia Nazarian, Margaret A. Jurgensen, Sara Harris, Kevin Karpinski, Rosalyn Pelles, Marjorie Roher, and Renee Adams.

 

Ballots

 

The Board discussed the perforation of the Ballots.

 

FY10 Operating Budget

 

            Ms. Roher discussed the FY10 Budget spreadsheet with the Board.  The Board concurred with the spreadsheet and requested that Ms. Roher move forward with the budget submission.

 

Executive Session Minutes

 

Ms. Roher distributed minutes from the September 22, 2008, Executive Session for review.

 

There were no other items discussed in Executive Session.

 

A motion was made by Mr. Garson to adjourn the Executive Session and reconvene in regular session.  The motion was seconded by Mr. Sullivan and carried unanimously, with the Board reconvening in regular session at 5:00 p.m.

 

 

Executive Session Minutes

 

A motion was made by Ms. Dacek to approve the Executive Minutes from the September 22, 2008, meeting as submitted.  The motion was seconded by Mr. Garson and carried unanimously. 

 

 

Future Meetings

 

A.        October 22, 2008 - Public Testing – 10 a.m.

B.         October 30, 2008 –Supply Inspection -5:00 p.m.

C.         October 30, 2008 - 3:00 p.m. -  Media Briefing

D.        November 3, 2008 - Phone Check

E.         November 4, 2008 – Election Day

F.         November 6, 2008 – 10:00 a.m. –  Absentee Canvass through November 11

G.         November 10, 2008 – 10:00 a.m. –  Provisional Canvass through November 21

H.        November 14, 2008 – 10:00 a.m. – Absentee 2 Canvass through November 16

I.          December 8, 2008 – Tentative

J.          January 19, 2009

 

 

Adjournment

 

            With no further business, a motion was made by Mr. Garson to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Mr. Sullivan and carried unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 5: 01 p.m.

                                                                                   

                                                                                                Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

                                                                                                Marjorie M. Roher

                                                                                                Administrative Specialist

 

APPROVED BY THE BOARD:

 

Approved 1/26/09

 

Jerrold S. Garson

Board President