Board of Elections Supervisors

Approved: 09/05/24 Board of Election Supervisors City Hall - Community Room July 15, 2024 7:00 p.m. Draft Minutes Member District Present Absent 1. Mary Barnes X 2. Frank Cifaldi X 3. Lynea Cooper-Pitts X 4. Susan Huemmrich X 5. Tonia James X 6. Ruth Murphy 2 X Also present: Janeen Miller, City Clerk; Yvette Allen, Assistant City Clerk; Joi Woods, Contract Secretary. Call to Order Susan Huemmrich called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 1. Approval of the Agenda A motion was made by Frank Cifaldi and seconded by Mary Barnes to approve the meeting agenda as written. The motion passed 5-0-0. 2. Approval of the June 6, 2024 Minutes A motion was made by Tonia James and seconded by Ruth Murphy to approve the June 6, 2024 minutes with amendments. The motion passed 5-0-0. 3. Introduction of members of the Board of Election Supervisors Board members introduced themselves and shared brief bios. 4. Agenda Roadmap The Agenda Roadmap is a working document designed to organize priorities to ensure that election recommendations and processes are established in accordance with the City Charter. A. All BOES members received a copy of the Agenda Roadmap for the November 2025 Election. B. The BOES is scheduled to present a presentation to the Mayor and Council on September 17th on Ranked Choice Voting and other election related matters for the 2025 City Election. 1  C. How RCV works: Allows voters to rank candidate choices in order of preference. Instead of just choosing who you want to win, you fill out the ballot saying who is your first choice, second choice, or third choice (or more as needed) for each position. The candidate with the majority (more than 50%) of first-choice votes wins outright. If no candidate gets a majority of first-choice votes, then it triggers a new counting process. The candidate who did the worst is eliminated, and that candidate’s voters’ ballots are redistributed to their second-choice pick. Example: If you ranked the losing candidate as your first choice, and the candidate is eliminated, your vote still counts, it moves to your second-choice candidate. That process continues until there is a candidate who has the majority of votes. At this time, the City’s winning candidate is the one with the highest number of votes (if there are more than two candidates, the winner may not receive the majority of the votes, just the highest number of votes). With RCV, the winning candidates almost always end up with a majority of the votes. Ruth Murphy researched past city elections and found that there was only one district where the City could have benefited from RCV. Most districts only have two candidates running for office. Ruth stated that a voter must know all the candidates in their district before you vote with RCV. The previous BOES researched, discussed, and does not support implementation of Ranked Choice Voting due to several concerns: • No proof it will increase the number of candidates or increase voter turnout • Concern about equity or Concern about the complexity of the process that would need to be followed especially in a race where two candidates are selected • Concern about the difficulty of explaining it to voters • Ballot exhaustion • People may think we are manipulating their votes • Too much trouble; not worth the cost • Need to know all of the candidates equally in order to rank them, and not all voters will take the time to do that • If Council is interested in pursuing it despite the BOES recommendation, consider placing it on the ballot as an advisory question BOES discussed that it’s Council’s goal to increase voter turnout, not necessarily to switch our style of voting. The November 2025 Agenda Roadmap outlines several items that need to be reviewed and discussed so that we know the process prior to the election. The BOES recommends items for the Council’s approval. Regarding the 2023 Election, the previous BOES found that there is no data showing that early voting increased voter participation/turnout and it’s expensive. Having two days of early voting in addition to election day didn’t make any difference in the voter turnout. 2 Permanent Vote By Mail List (PVBM): Ballots were mailed to voters who are on the PVBM and we received a 49.4% return rate. If a ballot was mailed to a voter and they showed up at the polls, they had to vote by provisional ballot. The entire BOES must be present the entire day on Election day, Canvas day and Processing day and a quorum must be met on all early voting days. We would also need someone from the BOES to help collect ballots from the four ballot boxes and post office box. 5. Draft Report for Mayor and City Council The BOES is scheduled to meet with Council on September 17th to report on Rank Choice Voting, discussion on other related election related matters such as the method of the election, 16/17-year-olds voting in City elections, and Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. The BOES reviewed and discussed the draft report. Ms. Miller stated that the yellow highlighted items are things that need to be added and the green highlighted items are for the attachments. The board discussed points to present to the Mayor and City Council: Preliminary discussion of the 2025 election: BOES was sent the video on the January 16th debrief of the 2023 election. At the debrief M&C requested that we standardize and simplify our elections – go with a method that works and stick with it. The council is very interested in a budget for a true vote by mail (VBM) election where a ballot is automatically mailed to the registered voter without receiving an application. The BOES would like to know if the Council is willing to seriously consider a true Vote By Mail election so we can factor this into our plans when we return in February with our recommendations for the November 2025 election. The report needs to show that VBM increases voter participation and include a draft budget of a VBM election vs. the 2023 election. For a VBM election, we will still have an election day at one location in order for voters who choose to vote in person or if someone didn’t receive a ballot. The Board discussed voter fraud with VBM. The voter must sign the VMB ballot envelope for the ballot to be accepted by BOES. The report to the council should include answers regarding voter fraud. Links could also be included in the report so that the Council could research VBM. Tonia will see if she can get the cost of what the states pay for a ballot. Election Guard Pilot : Used in the 2023 election which was used for the 3rd time in the election. Janeen suggested that we reach out to them to see if they would be willing to work our election in 2025. The BOES will reach out to Election Guard and other companies that can provide the voter with the results of their vote. Ballot Scout (ballot tracking data): Used in our 2023 election so that the voter can track their ballot in the USPS system. Each ballot envelope has a barcode that is scanned throughout the ballot’s journey. Voters can sign up for tracking of their ballot envelope. 3 The BOES would like a system that shows the status of the voter’s ballot. An easy way the voter could look up if their vote counted fully or partial. BOES would like an end-to-end ballot tracking. If a ballot is rejected, the voter is contacted, and they have a certain time frame to cure their ballot. IE: failed to sign their ballot envelope. UMD Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement: Several BOES members and Yvette will meet with Sam Novey soon to discuss how to get students involved in College Park elections, having a place in Stamp Student Union to advertise the City election, and information on candidates running for office and candidate campaign signs. 16/17-year-old voters: Council took a straw vote to decide if they would like to have additional discussion on 16/17-year-olds voting in the elections. The council needs to know if BOES can do this and how it would work. When we request our voter rolls from the County, we request that 16/17-year-olds be added to the list. We need to have a heavy public service push letting 16/17 know that they must register to vote and have strong advertising. Each member should take an assignment for the report and be ready to report at the August meeting. 6. New Business 2024 Upcoming Meetings: August 1 September 5 (September 17 report to Mayor and Council, report needs to be completed by September 12th) October 3 November 7 – Virtual Meeting December 5 – Virtual Meeting Each member should take an assignment for the report. 7. Thanks and farewell to Janeen Miller. Members and staff thanked Janeen Miller for her service. Ms. Miller reflected on her tenure. 8. Adjournment – A motion was made by Ruth Murphy and seconded by Mary Barnes motioned to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed 5-0-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:53 p.m. 4