1 1 MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS 2 * * * * 3 Wednesday, October 9, 2013 4 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 5 * * * * 6 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: ANTHONY CLARK, Chairman 7 AL SCHMIDT, Vice Chairman STEPHANIE SINGER, Commissioner 8 CARLA MOSS, Deputy Commissioner DON GARECHT, Deputy Commissioner 9 DENNIS LEE, Deputy Commissioner 10 PRESENT: FRED VOIGT, Legal Counsel 11 GARY FERRIS, Poll Material Supervisor JOHN DAY, Warehouse Supervisor 12 GREGORY IRVING, Data Support Supervisor TIM DOWLING, Documents 13 JOSEPH LYNCH, Election Material SETH BLUESTEIN 14 GREGG KRAVITZ BRIAN BARRY, Committee of Seventy 15 HELD AT: Delaware and Spring Garden Streets 16 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 17 REPORTED BY: Renée Helmar, Shorthand Reporter. 18 19 * * * * 20 21 CLASS ACT COURT REPORTING AGENCY 22 Registered Professional Reporters 1420 Walnut Street 133 Gaither Drive 23 Suite 1201 Suite H Philadelphia, PA 19102 Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054 24 (215) 928-9760 (856) 235-5108 2 1 CONTINUED 2 THOMASENI COX, Democratic Party, 2nd Ward SUZANNE HANEY, Republican 2nd Ward Leader 3 MARK IGOE, Majority Leader, 41;17 WILLIAM MORRIS, 42;18 4 DAWN ROBINSON, 42;7 GENE CELLA, 26;13 5 LEONARD FILIPOWICZ, Majority Leader, 26;13 JOHN SABATINA, 56th Ward Leader 6 KEN BODE, 56;7 LAURA C. DIJOLS 7 JUANITA V. QUI, 2;9 LEE QUI, 2;19 8 BERNELL WORRELL, 2;20 KELLY MURPHY, 2;20 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 3 1 (Whereupon, the proceeding began 2 at approximately 11:00 a.m.) 3 MR. CHAIRMAN: Good morning. 4 (Whereupon, there was a 5 collective response.) 6 MR. CHAIRMAN: Today is Wednesday, October 9th, 7 2013. The Sunshine Meeting is now in session. 8 Are there any public comments? 9 (Whereupon, there was no 10 response.) 11 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Old business? 12 (Whereupon, there was no 13 response.) 14 MR. CHAIRMAN: Gary Ferris. 15 MR. FERRIS: Good morning, Commissioners. 16 As you know, this afternoon at one o'clock we'll 17 be holding hearings for polling place changes in this room. 18 There's approximately, what was it; 23. About 23 19 of them. 20 The next set will be next Wednesday, which is the 21 last day the Commissioners can hear any polling place 22 changes. So there is a set for next Wednesday, also, at one 23 o'clock. 24 I will get that list up to you as soon as I get 4 1 that finished up, and get the copies of the surveys up to 2 you for that, also. 3 Other than that, we're moving ahead with getting 4 ready to get all our modification items and make sure the 5 printouts are ready for the truckers to pick up next week. 6 MR. VOIGT: Hearings on the 16th. 7 MR. FERRIS: Next Wednesday, the 16th, at 1:00, 8 yes. 9 That is all. 10 MR. CHAIRMAN: John Day, please. 11 Thank you. 12 MR. DAY: We're in the process of doing our final 13 test. We have all the even cartridges done. They're all in 14 the machines. All the ballots are printed. They're all in 15 the machines. 16 We have tested up to the 30th Ward, about, on the 17 even machines. We have five wards done on the odd machine 18 of cartridges. 19 So, we are right on schedule. Everything is going 20 good. 21 And the 25th of October is going to be the open 22 house for the inspection of the voting machines. 23 MR. VOIGT: Ten o'clock. 24 MR. DAY: Ten o'clock, yes. 5 1 MR. CHAIRMAN: All right, John Day. Thank you. 2 Penny Murchison, please. 3 MR. IRVING: She's downstairs -- excuse me, 4 Commissioners. 5 Good morning. 6 She's downstairs working on something, and I don't 7 have her numbers here, she did give them to me, but I left 8 them -- I believe, roughly, they're at Masterman School this 9 week. Last week Archbishop Ryan. 10 They did 468 -- they had 468 poll workers came in. 11 Everything is going smoothly with that. 12 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Tim Dowling, please. 13 MR. DOWLING: As of yesterday, we received 441 14 applications for absentee ballot. We've also mailed out 15 already to the military, civilian overseas and military 16 remote isolated, civilian remote isolated 4310 ballots. 17 Of all those totals, we have received 41 back so 18 far. 19 Bilingual interpreter training is Saturday. 20 The assignments have been sent out for their times 21 to come. 22 I'm expecting a little over a hundred people to 23 come for refresher training. 24 And Campaign Finance Cycle Five Report is due by 6 1 October 25th, at 5:00. And the next day, starting 2 October 22nd (sic), all candidates are required to do their 3 24 hour of reporting of $500 or more which they receive. 4 And that runs up to Election Day. 5 And that's all I have. 6 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Tim, did you say 41 ballots 7 have been returned? 8 MR. DOWLING: Correct. 9 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Of the 441 absentee total, 10 or from the entire -- 11 MR. DOWLING: Well, we received 441 applications 12 so far. 13 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Applications. 14 MR. DOWLING: But the military and the civilian 15 overseas we've mailed out 4310 ballots. 16 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: And of those, 41 have come 17 back? 18 MR. DOWLING: Out of the whole ball of wax, yeah, 19 41 so far. 20 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Thank you. 21 MR. DOWLING: That will pick up. Not much. But 22 it'll pick up. 23 MR. CHAIRMAN: All right. Going on down the line, 24 Joe Lynch, please. 7 1 MR. LYNCH: Good morning, Commissioners. 2 Last Thursday we started printing provisional 3 ballots. We're still printing them. 4 Sample ballots were delivered this past Monday. I 5 have a crew working on them. And they're available to the 6 public if anybody wants them. 7 The remaining boxes came yesterday. We'll start 8 working on them. We actually started working on them today. 9 And we're slowly getting requests for Watcher 10 Certificates. So if anyone wants to put a request in, we'll 11 take them. We got the books in, so... 12 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Is that it, Joe? 13 MR. LYNCH: Yeah. 14 That's it. 15 MR. CHAIRMAN: All right. Greg Irving, please. 16 MR. IRVING: Good morning again, Commissioners. 17 As you all know, Monday was the close of 18 registration. We were open until midnight. 19 And during the course to today we had 743 20 applications submitted to the office by way of either the 21 mail or people who dropped them off in person or 22 organizations in person, okay. 23 The following day, on Tuesday, October 8th, we 24 received, through the mail, timely postmarks, 255 more 8 1 applications. And we're still taking timely postmarks now. 2 The State dumped 2896 applications into the SURE 3 System for us to process. Those are all processed now, 4 okay. We probably have less than a hundred applications 5 from the close to -- paper documents, to process. 6 All the absentee applications which Tim Dowling 7 submitted to our office are completed except for about 50 of 8 them. We're sending down 131 of them today with labels so 9 he can mail those out. 10 Our -- we plan on closing our files over the 11 weekend so we can begin production of the tapes from the 12 street -- for the CDs of the street lists, for the 13 production of the street lists, okay. With Monday being the 14 holiday, that means the vendor will pick those up probably 15 on Tuesday. 16 And they start submitting -- there's a quick 17 turnaround with those. They'll start having those come in, 18 in wards, by the 15th, which is -- excuse, the 17th, which 19 is Wednesday, okay. 20 They're scheduled to have them completed on 21 Sunday, and begin distribution Monday. So that would be 22 the -- actually, it would be the Tuesday, the 22nd, the 23 street list will be ready for pick up from the general 24 public. 9 1 We're continuously working on filing and removing 2 applications out of the cabinets. 3 And that concludes everything -- oh, on another 4 note, I want to -- Commissioner Singer, Chief Deputy Carla 5 Moss, Seth Bluestein hiding over there, I want to thank you 6 guys, along with Joe Lynch, Gary Ferris, and I hope I didn't 7 forget anyone else. We had a session in here during the 8 week where we worked on enhancements and improvements to the 9 Poll Worker Guide. 10 It was a very fruitful meeting, okay. We came 11 with a lot of ideas and suggestions, which we're going to 12 start to put in production. 13 I believe, Chief Deputy Bluestein is heading that 14 up. It should be pretty darn good for the voter, okay. It 15 should help them out. Make them more aware of things. And 16 we're going to add more to it as we continue to go along. 17 Thank you, everyone. 18 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Is that it? 19 MR. IRVING: Yes, sir. 20 MR. CHAIRMAN: All right. Any new business? 21 MR. FERRIS: Yes. 22 Commissioner, I'd like to add something. 23 This week myself and Ms. Murchison got some phone 24 calls from people who were questioning about write-in 10 1 campaigns. 2 Apparently, the Republican Party is sending out 3 letters to the minority inspectors who did not file for 4 positions to perform a write-in campaign to get on, you 5 know -- to put themselves on the ballot -- 6 MR. CHAIRMAN: Right. 7 MR. FERRIS: -- so they're elected. 8 And I know there was some concern, that Joe wanted 9 to know where -- or what divisions might have write-in 10 campaigns. So if we could possibly get someone to monitor 11 those divisions. 12 So, if you could reach out possibly. 13 I was hoping that Joe DeFelice would be here today 14 so we could touch base with him. 15 So, if you could reach out to him and possibly -- 16 maybe get a list of who he sent those letters to. 17 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: You mean monitoring, as 18 in -- 19 MR. LYNCH: Well, not just -- to keep a technician 20 in that area, that's all. Not monitoring, just keep a 21 technician close by, because they're going to have problems. 22 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Because there's going to be 23 more write ins. 24 MR. LYNCH: Yeah. 11 1 They always turn into a problem, push the door up, 2 the machine gets jammed, all that. The alarm, reset it. 3 At least if they're in the area, you know -- 4 MR. DAY: They can stop in periodically during the 5 day to make sure that everything is working right. 6 MR. CHAIRMAN: Sounds good. 7 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Thank you. 8 MR. CHAIRMAN: All right. Thank you very much. 9 This meeting is adjourned to the call of the 10 Chair. Thank you. One o'clock this afternoon for poll 11 workers. 12 (Whereupon, there was a brief 13 recess.) 14 (Whereupon, the hearing 15 reconvened at approximately 1:00 16 p.m.) 17 MR. CHAIRMAN: Good afternoon. Today is 18 October 9th. 19 We are going to open this meeting concerning the 20 polling place changes by the Justice Department. And we'll 21 take, of course, some of your recommendations. 22 For the record, I am Anthony Clark, City 23 Commissioner Chairman. This person next to me is 24 Commissioner Al Schmidt, Vice Chairman of the Commissioners. 12 1 And, of course, we have with us Commissioner Stephanie 2 Singer. 3 We want to begin this meeting and open this 4 meeting with our person Gary Ferris, who's going to call 5 your polling places off. 6 Okay. Gary. 7 MR. FERRIS: First thing we're going to do is the 8 2nd Ward. I'm going to read all four changes in the 2nd 9 Ward off first, and then you can come up and present your 10 testimony. 11 MS. HANEY: We're not the Justice Department. 12 MR. FERRIS: Let me call them off, and then I 13 will -- these are all -- these are all changes, a 14 combination of Justice Department and ward leader requests, 15 okay. 16 All right. So, the first one would be for the 2nd 17 Ward; 9th Division, moving the polling place from 11th and 18 Catherine, the Palumbo School, to 12th and Carpenter, the 19 Hawthorne Rec Center. 20 The request is from Ed Nesmith, the Democratic 21 ward leader. 22 The second change is for the 2nd Ward; 19th 23 Division, moving the polling place from 11th and Catherine, 24 the Palumbo School, to 12th and Carpenter, the Hawthorne Rec 13 1 Center. 2 The request is also from Ed Nesmith, the 3 Democratic ward leader. 4 The third request is for the 2nd Ward; 20th 5 Division, moving the polling place from 711 South Broad 6 Street, the firehouse, to 12th and Carpenter, the Hawthorne 7 Rec Center. 8 The request is from Ed Nesmith, the Democratic 9 ward leader. 10 And the fourth request is for the 2nd Ward; 21st 11 Division, moving the polling place from 711 South Broad 12 Street, the firehouse, to 12th and Carpenter, the Hawthorne 13 Rec Center. 14 Anyone that is here for the 2nd Ward come forward 15 and present your testimony. Please give your name to the 16 stenographer before you give your testimony. 17 MS. COX: Hi. I'm Thomaseni Cox, the 2nd Ward 18 office manager. And I'm here for 2;19 and 2;21. 19 MS. HANEY: I'm Suzanne Haney. I'm the 2nd Ward 20 leader. 21 I'm here for all four, 9, 19, 20 and 21. And we 22 have two witnesses for 9, and we have written statements 23 which we're also going to be submitting, and testimony for 24 people who aren't able to attend. 14 1 MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. 2 MS. HANEY: Thank you. 3 MR. CHAIRMAN: Do you want to start? 4 MS. COX: Me? 5 MR. FERRIS: Yeah. 6 Whoever wants to go first. 7 MS. COX: We wanted the divisions to be moved. 8 One reason was -- from the fire station, it was 9 cold. That was one of the issues. And the other issue was, 10 two of them are there, 20 and 21; am I correct? 11 MR. FERRIS: Correct. 12 MS. COX: 2;19 had wanted to move, but here's what 13 changed. They went to Hawthorne, they looked at the 14 recreation center and now they do not want to move. 15 We met with -- I spoke with the fire -- fire chief 16 at 711 South Broad Street. He assured me that he will make 17 all the accommodations so we won't have that problem again. 18 So, actually, 2;9, 2;19, 2;20 and 2;21 prefer to 19 stay at their places, if possible. 20 MS. HANEY: So we don't have a hearing. 21 MS. COX: We have to come and say it. 22 MS. HANEY: We concur. And we want to thank you. 23 And I should add -- 24 MR. FERRIS: Excuse me, are you the one -- are you 15 1 the one that initiated the move -- 2 MS. COX: Yes. 3 MR. FERRIS: -- through the Democratic ward 4 leader? 5 MS. COX: Yes. 6 MR. FERRIS: Okay. Just so they know. 7 MS. COX: Yes. 8 I work directly for Ed Nesmith as the office 9 manager. 10 MR. FERRIS: Okay. 11 MS. HANEY: And I want to say, also, that the 12 firehouse, we had people speak to the firehouse, also. 13 MS. COX: Yes. 14 He was very accommodating. 15 MS. HANEY: And, also -- 16 MS. COX: Yes. 17 MS. HANEY: -- they have said that they will 18 arrange to use the parking lot next door upon having the 19 hearing -- 20 MR. VOIGT: Excuse me. So you are withdrawing 21 your request? 22 MS. COX: I'm withdrawing the request. 23 MR. VOIGT: All of them? 24 MS. COX: Yes. 16 1 MR. VOIGT: All of them? 2 MS. COX: All four. 3 MR. VOIGT: All four? 4 MS. COX: Yes. 5 MR. VOIGT: Thank you very much. 6 MS. HANEY: Thank you. 7 MS. COX: We're done? 8 MR. VOIGT: You're done. 9 MS. COX: Thank you. 10 MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. 11 MR. VOIGT: Thank you. 12 (Whereupon, documents were 13 signed by the Commissioners.) 14 MR. FERRIS: Okay. The next one is going to be 15 for the 41st Ward; 17 Division, moving the polling place 16 from 4900 Longshore Avenue to 7001 Torresdale Avenue, Holy 17 Innocents Saint Paul's. 18 The reason is handicapped accessibility. 19 And this is from the Department of Justice Federal 20 Guidelines. 21 MR. CHAIRMAN: Do you want to state your name for 22 the record? 23 MR. IGOE: Mark Igoe; I'm the majority leader of 24 the 41st Ward; 17th Division. 17 1 I'm not aware of -- of any of this. Nobody had 2 said -- all I know is, I got a phone call that I was the 3 majority leader and to come down here for a meeting. 4 And the -- and the only time -- about five years 5 ago they measured the doorway. Nobody ever said anything to 6 us. 7 We got handicapped accessible -- we got two ramps. 8 And there is only two people in the whole ward that use the 9 ramps. 10 And they never said nothing to us. 11 MR. CHAIRMAN: Gary. 12 MR. FERRIS: Okay. Your site has two steps that 13 are seven inches tall. So your wooden ramps do not cover -- 14 do not meet the ADA Federal Guidelines with that. 15 Any ramp over six feet long needs handrails built 16 to it and must meet the certain specifications. 17 So, that's why those two wooden ramps do not 18 make -- 19 MR. IGOE: This is the first -- this is the first 20 that anybody brought it to our attention. 21 MR. FERRIS: The letter was sent to the ward 22 leader. And I know that the people out there were told, 23 too, when they went, so... 24 So, that's -- I mean -- 18 1 MR. IGOE: I'm the scapegoat. 2 MR. FERRIS: That's the reason why the move is put 3 in from the Department of Justice, so... 4 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Is there anything else? 5 MR. CHAIRMAN: He wanted to know if -- the Vice 6 Chairman wanted to know, was there any other information 7 available in terms of you stating you wanted it there? 8 Are you here to protest the move or not? 9 MR. IGOE: No. 10 MR. CHAIRMAN: No, okay. 11 MR. IGOE: It don't make no difference to me. 12 (Whereupon, there was collective 13 laughter.) 14 MR. CHAIRMAN: Well, thank you very much. 15 Okay. Okay. All right. 16 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I would motion that we -- 17 that we accept -- 18 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: -- for handicapped 20 accessibility. 21 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I second the motion. 22 MR. CHAIRMAN: I also second. 23 MR. FERRIS: So the new polling place for 41;17 24 will be at Holy Innocents Saint Paul's at 7001 Torresdale 19 1 Avenue. 2 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. We are approving that. 3 (Whereupon, documents were 4 signed by the Commissioners.) 5 MR. IGOE: It is closer to my house anyway. 6 MR. FERRIS: Okay. Thank you very much for 7 coming. 8 MR. IGOE: Thank you. 9 MR. CHAIRMAN: You're welcome. 10 MR. FERRIS: Okay. The next one is going to be 11 for 42;18. 12 MR. MORRIS: William Morris. 13 MR. FERRIS: Are you from 42;18? 14 MR. MORRIS: 42;22. 15 MR. FERRIS: Is that where you're from? 16 MR. MORRIS: Well, yes. In a way. 17 MR. FERRIS: Well, if you're here for 42;22 -- 18 MR. MORRIS: 42;22. 19 MR. FERRIS: That's the one you're here for, okay. 20 MR. MORRIS: I think that's it. 21 MR. FERRIS: Well, we have several. 22 Okay, 42;22, okay, that proposal is to move the 23 polling place from the Feltonville Intermediate School at B 24 and Wyoming to the Wyoming Library at B and Wyoming. 20 1 This change is because we used to vote at the 2 library, last election the elevator was broken so they moved 3 it to this school for one election. Now that the elevator 4 has been repaired -- 5 MR. MORRIS: Right. 6 MR. FERRIS: -- the ward leader has put in a 7 request to go back to the library. 8 MR. MORRIS: Right. 9 MR. FERRIS: Okay. 10 MR. MORRIS: That's okay. Yeah. 11 MR. FERRIS: You're okay with it? 12 MR. MORRIS: Yeah. No problem. 13 MR. FERRIS: Okay. 14 MR. MORRIS: Any other 42s down there? 15 MR. FERRIS: Yeah. 16 There's about eight of them. 17 You're here for them all? 18 MR. MORRIS: Well, I'm here. 19 MR. FERRIS: Okay. All right. Let's go through 20 the 42s. 21 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Should we vote on these one 22 at a time or -- 23 MR. FERRIS: Yeah. 24 Okay. So, 42;3, the request is to move the 21 1 polling place from 210 East Courtland Street to 169 West 2 Wyoming Avenue, the Bethel Worship Center. 3 The reason is voter convenience into an accessible 4 building. 5 The request is from the Democratic Ward Leader, 6 Elaine Tomlin. 7 MS. ROBINSON: You said 07? 8 MR. FERRIS: Three. 9 MS. ROBINSON: I'm here 42;07. 10 MR. FERRIS: Okay. So there is no opposition to 11 that one. 12 (Whereupon, documents are signed 13 by the Commissioners.) 14 MR. FERRIS: So that has been approved. 15 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 16 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 17 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 18 MR. FERRIS: The next one is 42;6, moving the 19 polling place from B and Wyoming, the Feltonville 20 Intermediate School, back to B and Wyoming Avenue, the 21 Wyoming Branch Library. 22 The reason is the same as the 22nd, that the 23 elevator is now working, so the ward leader wants to move 24 the division back into the library. 22 1 There's no opposition to that one. 2 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 3 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 4 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 5 MR. FERRIS: Okay. The next is for 42;8. And 6 that is moving the polling place from 210 East Courtland 7 Street, the Feltonville Arts and Sciences -- sorry about 8 that, 42;7, the move is to move it out of 210 East Courtland 9 Street, the Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences, into 10 169 West Wyoming Avenue, the Bethel Worship Center. 11 The reason is to move it back into the division 12 into an accessible building. 13 And the request is from the Democratic Ward Leader 14 Elaine Tomlin. 15 MS. ROBINSON: Yes. 16 MR. FERRIS: State your name. 17 MS. ROBINSON: I'm Dawn Robinson. I'm judge of 18 election. I have been since 1999. 19 And I'm actually here to support the move because, 20 we saw a decline when we went to the school, and we're very 21 happy that it is coming back, you know, closer to the, you 22 know, neighbors. 23 MR. CHAIRMAN: So you are supporting it? 24 MS. ROBINSON: I'm here to support it, yes. 23 1 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. There is no opposition? 2 MS. ROBINSON: No opposition. 3 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 4 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 5 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 6 MS. ROBINSON: Very good, okay. 7 MR. FERRIS: Thank you for coming. 8 MS. ROBINSON: Thank you. 9 MR. FERRIS: The next one is 42;8, moving the 10 polling place from 210 East Courtland Street, the 11 Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences, to B and Wyoming 12 Avenue, the Feltonville Intermediate School. 13 The reason is voter convenience into an accessible 14 building. 15 And the request is from Elaine Tomlin, the 16 Democratic ward leader. 17 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 18 MR. FERRIS: There is no opposition to that one. 19 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 20 MR. FERRIS: The next one is 42;9. The request is 21 to move the polling place from Rising Sun and Rockland 22 Street, the Feltonville School, to 169 West Wyoming Avenue, 23 the Bethel Worship Center. 24 The reason is handicapped accessibility. 24 1 And this is a request from the Department of 2 Justice to follow the Federal ADA Guidelines. 3 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Is there any opposition? 4 MR. FERRIS: No. 5 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 6 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 7 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 8 MR. FERRIS: The next one is 42;11, moving the 9 polling place from Rising Sun and Rockland Street, the 10 Feltonville School, to B and Wyoming, the Feltonville 11 Intermediate School. 12 The reason is handicapped accessibility. 13 And the request is from the Department of Justice 14 following the Federal ADA Guidelines. 15 There is no opposition to that one. 16 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 17 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 18 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 19 MR. FERRIS: The next one is 42;22 -- we did that 20 one already. 21 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 22 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 23 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 24 That's it. 25 1 MR. FERRIS: Okay. That's it for 42. Thank you 2 for coming. 3 Okay. The next one is going to be for the 26th 4 Ward; 13th Division, okay. 5 The request is to move the polling place from 20th 6 and Shunk Streets, the Donatucci Library, to 22nd and Ritner 7 Streets, the GAMP School. 8 The reason is handicapped accessibility. 9 And the request is from the Department of Justice 10 to follow the Federal ADA Guidelines. 11 MR. CELLA: Gene Cella, first name G-E-N-E, last 12 name C-E-L-L-A. And I'm the judge of elections. 13 We actually have two divisions in it's present 14 location, and our primary problem there was, you know, we 15 were worried about some seniors. 16 There were seven to ten steps going down -- 17 actually, we're in the basement. 18 So, you come in off of 20th Street and down the 19 steps there. 20 Seniors had a hard time, some of them, getting 21 down there, so we had to assist them down there to -- to get 22 to the polling place. 23 MR. VOIGT: Are you in favor of the change? 24 MR. CELLA: Yeah. 26 1 I'm in favor of it. 2 MR. VOIGT: Okay. 3 MR. CELLA: The question that I have is, Stephanie 4 and I were communicating through e-mail, I don't know if Mr. 5 Donatucci knows about the change. 6 MR. FERRIS: Yes. 7 MR. CHAIRMAN: He does. 8 MR. CELLA: Okay. 9 MR. FERRIS: Yes. 10 Ward leaders and ward chairs have been notified. 11 MR. CELLA: Okay. 12 MR. FERRIS: And they were going to notify Guy 13 Servalli. He knows about it. 14 MR. CELLA: Yeah. 15 MR. FERRIS: And Mr. Donatucci knows, also. 16 They were hand delivered letters and we've spoken 17 to them. So they do know. 18 MR. CELLA: Okay. Great. 19 And I guess the facility, we're going to be 20 informed about checking out the facility? 21 MR. FERRIS: You'll all be -- at GAMP School 22 you'll all be in the cafeteria. 23 MR. CELLA: Okay. 24 MR. FERRIS: Okay. There's two divisions in there 27 1 now, and the two new divisions everyone will be in their own 2 corner. 3 MR. FILIPOWICZ: So we have four divisions? 4 MR. FERRIS: Yes. 5 MR. FILIPOWICZ: When will that take effect? 6 MR. FERRIS: This election. 7 MR. FILIPOWICZ: This election coming up now? 8 MR. FERRIS: Yes. 9 We will post signs, the Commissioners are going to 10 send out notices to all your registered voters in those 11 divisions. And if you would like to hang additional signs 12 you can get them on the fifth floor in our office, also. 13 MR. FILIPOWICZ: Sure. 14 LEONARD F-I-L-I-P-O-W-I-C-Z, the majority leader. 15 MR. VOIGT: Thank you, gentlemen. 16 MR. CELLA: Okay. Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: The Republican ward leader 18 is also in favor. 19 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 20 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 21 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 22 MR. FERRIS: Okay. And the next one is for 26;14, 23 which is also the same move, moving it from 20th and Shunk, 24 the Donatucci Library, to 22nd and Ritner, the GAMP School. 28 1 The reason is handicapped accessibility. 2 And the request is from the Department of Justice, 3 following Federal ADA Guidelines. 4 And there is no opposition to that one. 5 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 6 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote in favor. 7 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote in favor. 8 MR. FERRIS: The next one will be 56;07. 9 MR. SABATINA: Good afternoon. John Sabatina, 10 Ward Leader of 56th Ward. 11 MR. BODE: Ken Bode, of the 7th division. 12 MR. FERRIS: Okay. This request for 56;7, is to 13 move the polling place from Bingham and Bleigh Streets, the 14 Crossan School, to 1013 Cottman Avenue, the Immanuel 15 Lutheran Church. 16 The reason is handicapped accessibility. 17 And the request is from the Department of Justice, 18 to follow the Federal ADA Guidelines. 19 MR. SABATINA: Mr. Bode is very familiar with the 20 layout, tells me that it is basically two landings, and I 21 believe you could put a ramp in there to accommodate the 22 handicapped. 23 MR. FERRIS: There are five steps down. There is 24 no way that a ramp could work. You would have to have a 29 1 ramp custom built. You can't just put a ramp in. 2 Anything over one step needs a custom built ramp 3 with handrails. It has to follow the ADA Guidelines 4 according to the Department of Justice. 5 MR. BODE: Yet, the school operates on a daily 6 basis with handicapped children there. There is no problem 7 there? 8 MR. FERRIS: That's -- 9 MR. BODE: Also, parking at the curb, where you 10 want to move it to, is a very high area, Five Points, where 11 there is no parking because of bus stops for four 12 intersections at that location. 13 So, I would say that your location is not 14 acceptable to the public. For the people who are not 15 handicapped, it is an inconvenience to them, also, that 16 location. 17 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. We'll take that under 18 advisement. 19 MR. VOIGT: Understand, the requirements the 20 Justice Department imposes on us are not of our making. 21 MR. BODE: I understand that, but I'm just giving 22 you facts, sir. 23 MR. VOIGT: Understand. I understand. 24 MR. BODE: Absolutely. 30 1 MR. VOIGT: I want you to understand -- 2 MR. BODE: I understand clearly. 3 MR. VOIGT: -- the requirements that they are 4 imposing on us are mandated by law. 5 MR. BODE: No. 6 I understand clearly. 7 But I'm giving you a reflection of -- 8 MR. VOIGT: I appreciate that. 9 MR. BODE: -- what's going on -- 10 MR. VOIGT: Right. Right. 11 MR. BODE: -- at that location. How inconvenient 12 it would be to the 700 voters in that location. 13 And the fact is, that as a committee person for 35 14 years there, I'm well versed of who is handicapped in that 15 area. And I give them all the necessary equipment as far as 16 absentee ballots. And I have never had a problem with 17 anybody coming to the polling place ever asking for 18 assistance getting down the steps because, they are the ones 19 that never come there because they get the absentee ballots. 20 That's all. 21 MR. VOIGT: Thank you. 22 MR. BODE: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I also vote that we take it 24 under advisement. 31 1 MR. CHAIRMAN: Yeah. 2 I do as well. 3 And, also, is there any other location in that 4 division? 5 MR. BODE: That's open for -- 6 MR. CHAIRMAN: Yeah. 7 That would be -- 8 MR. BODE: That's the problem. 9 MR. CHAIRMAN: Right. 10 MR. BODE: For as long as I have been living 11 there, which is 40 years, no. 12 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. 13 MR. VOIGT: Thank you. 14 MR. BODE: Okay. Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Thank you for your service 16 as a committee person and being involved in elections. 17 MR. BODE: Not a problem. Thank you. 18 MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you. 19 MR. FERRIS: Okay. Let's go back to 3;3. The 20 request is to move the polling place from 6250 Walnut 21 Street, the Walnut Park Plaza, to 6212 Walnut Street, the 22 Walnut Care Pavilion. 23 The reason is to move it back after construction 24 was done at the original location. 32 1 And the request is from the Democratic Ward 2 Leader, Anthony Williams. 3 No opposition to that. 4 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote to approve. 5 I voted to approve, there is no opposition on that 6 one. 7 MR. CHAIRMAN: I approve. 8 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I approve. 9 MR. FERRIS: Okay. The next request is for 3;4, 10 also the same request, to move the polling place from 6250 11 Walnut Street, the Walnut Park Plaza, to 6212 Walnut Street, 12 the Walnut Care Pavilion. 13 And the reason was to move it back after 14 construction. 15 And the request is from Anthony Williams, the 16 Democratic ward leader. 17 There is no opposition to that. 18 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: The Republican ward leader 19 is also in favor. 20 MR. CHAIRMAN: I'm in favor. 21 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote in favor. 22 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I'm in favor. 23 MR. FERRIS: Okay. The next one is the 4th Ward; 24 4th Division. The ward leader has asked to give him until 33 1 Friday to find a different location. 2 He's looking for a different location, so we ask 3 that you take that under advisement until Friday. 4 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. We'll take it under 5 advisement. 6 MR. FERRIS: And you can either sign it Friday or 7 next Wednesday. 8 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I agree. 9 MR. FERRIS: 41;12, the request is for -- to move 10 the polling place out of Glenloch and Disston Streets, the 11 Disston Rec Center, into 7001 Torresdale Avenue, the Holy 12 Innocents Saint Paul's Church. 13 The reason is handicapped accessibility. 14 And the request is from the Department of Justice 15 to follow Federal ADA Guidelines. 16 And there is no opposition that we know of. 17 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: I vote to approve. 18 MR. CHAIRMAN: I approve. 19 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I approve. 20 MR. FERRIS: And the next one is 59;11. The 21 request is to move the polling place from Washington Lane 22 and Musgrave Streets, the Roosevelt School, to 6320 Chew 23 Avenue, the Awbury View Apartments. 24 The reason is handicapped accessibility. 34 1 And the request is from the Department of Justice 2 to follow Federal ADA Guidelines. 3 MR. CHAIRMAN: I approve. 4 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: The Republican ward leader 5 opposes, but it is handicapped inaccessible, so I vote to 6 approve. 7 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I approve. 8 MR. FERRIS: And for the record, that one has, 9 like, five steps down, so it is totally inaccessible. 10 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Completely. 11 MR. FERRIS: Right. 12 The next one is 65;6. And the request is to move 13 the polling place from Ashburner and State Road, from the 14 Streets Department Training Center, to 8100 Torresdale 15 Avenue, the New Foundations Charter School. 16 The reason is voter convenience and into an 17 accessible building. 18 And the request is from the Democratic ward 19 leader. 20 There is no opposition. 21 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: 65;6? 22 MR. FERRIS: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: The Republican ward leader 24 is also in favor. 35 1 I vote to approve. 2 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote to approve. 3 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote to approve. 4 MR. FERRIS: The next one is 65;9, the same move, 5 to move the polling place from Ashburner and State Roads, to 6 Streets Department Training Center, to 8001 Torresdale 7 Avenue, the New Foundations Charter School. 8 And the reason is also voter convenience and into 9 an accessible building. 10 And the request is from the Democratic Committee 11 Person Steven Gregorski, and the Democratic ward leader. 12 There is no opposition to that. 13 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: The Republican ward leader 14 also agrees. 15 I vote to approve. 16 MR. CHAIRMAN: I vote to approve. 17 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I vote to approve. 18 MR. FERRIS: That is everything. 19 Are there any that you would like to -- that you 20 have taken under advisement you would like to rule on now? 21 So, we will vote on the others next Wednesday with 22 the other ones I have next Wednesday. 23 MR. CHAIRMAN: All right. This meeting is 24 adjourned to the call of the Chair. 36 1 (Whereupon, the proceeding was 2 adjourned at approximately 1:35 3 p.m.) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 37 1 C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 I, RENÉE HELMAR, a Shorthand Reporter, and 4 Notary, Public, certify that the foregoing is a true 5 and accurate transcript of the proceedings which 6 were held at the time, place and on the date herein 7 before set forth. 8 I further certify that I am neither 9 attorney, nor counsel for, nor related to or 10 employed by, any of the parties to the action in 11 which these proceedings were taken, and further that 12 I am not a relative or employee of any attorney or 13 counsel employed in this action, nor am I 14 financially interested in this case. 15 16 17 18 19 Renée Helmar 20 Shorthand Reporter 21 22 23 24