1 1 MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS 2 * * * * 3 Wednesday, October 23, 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 LAURA C. DIJOLS 14 GREGG KRAVITZ SETH BLUESTEIN 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 (Whereupon, the proceeding began 2 at approximately 11:00 a.m.) 3 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Good morning, everyone. 4 (Whereupon, there was a 5 collective response.) 6 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Today is Wednesday, 7 October 23rd, 2013. The Sunshine Meeting now is in session. 8 Are there any public comments? 9 (Whereupon, there was no 10 response.) 11 MR. VOIGT: Yes, ma'am? 12 MS. DIJOLS: Good morning. 13 MR. VOIGT: Good morning. 14 MS. DIJOLS: My name is Laura C. Dijols, and I 15 just wanted to thank you for the PA Transparency Web site. 16 It is wonderful, I'm enjoying it and there is a lot of 17 information. Thank you. 18 MR. CHAIRMAN: You're welcome. 19 Any old business? 20 (Whereupon, there was no 21 response.) 22 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. We're going right -- we're 23 going to go right ahead. Gary Ferris, please. 24 MR. FERRIS: Good morning, Commissioners. 3 1 We're progressing as normal. 2 We're finishing up on the items that I 3 have to send upstairs for Joe to pack, such as the 4 doorbells and the polling place handicapped 5 accessibility signs. 6 The truckers will start delivering on 7 Friday. 8 As you know, they have the printouts and 9 we're ready to go. They've already set up some 10 schedules and have been calling me with, you know, 11 any missing numbers, stuff like that. 12 So, we're on schedule ready to go. 13 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Sounds good. 14 John Day, please. 15 MR. DAY: Right now we got 2500 of the machines 16 all closed up. We got about 2000 of them picked up, 17 covered, ready to go. 18 And as Gary said, the truckers already 19 faxed over a list. The forklifts were delivered 20 today. 21 So, everything should be ready by Friday 22 morning. 23 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: And there was no stickering 24 or anything in this election; right? 4 1 MR. DAY: No. 2 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: No last minute -- 3 MR. VOIGT: No Court Orders. 4 MR. DAY: No. 5 Not yet. 6 On Friday -- 7 MR. VOIGT: John, have you heard anything from the 8 Committee of Seventy about the -- 9 MR. DAY: Yes. 10 They sent over a list. They said they 11 were going to bring about five people over on 12 Friday. 13 MR. VOIGT: All right. That public inspection is 14 at 10:00. Starting promptly at 10:00 on Friday at 4700 15 Wissahickon Avenue. 16 MR. DAY: That's it. 17 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Is that it, John? 18 MR. DAY: Yes. 19 MR. CHAIRMAN: All right. Ms. Murchison, please. 20 MR. IRVING: Ms. Murchison is not in today. She 21 has a family member having a medical procedure, so she 22 escorted them there today, okay. 23 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. 24 MR. IRVING: The school seminars ended with the 5 1 last session being held at Northeast Public High School. 2 And during the course of the week they had 3 560 people come in for the election board training. 4 And the next ones are scheduled for the 5 weekend prior to the election, but the Saturday 6 being here, and Saturday also at the old Cardinal 7 Dougherty, whatever the name of it is now, de 8 Hostos. 9 COMMISSIONER SINGER: De Hostos. 10 MR. IRVING: Thank you. 11 Okay. And Sunday is South Philadelphia 12 High School. 13 That's all that she has. 14 MR. CHAIRMAN: All right. Tim Dowling, please. 15 MR. DOWLING: As of yesterday we received 987 16 absentee ballot applications. Up until yesterday we've 17 mailed out 4,671 ballots. And as of yesterday we've 18 received 438 back in the mail. 19 The deadline to apply for an absentee 20 ballot is the 29th, by 5:00. 21 Civilian overseas and military ballots 22 have been going out. Well -- already sent out and 23 we're getting drips and drabs of them in. 24 All civilian absentee ballots are due by 6 1 5:00, November 1st. 2 Civilian and military overseas ballots 3 must be postmarked the day before the election. And 4 they have seven days, up until the seventh day after 5 the election to get that back in our office. 6 Alternative ballots have until the close 7 of the polls to get back to us. 8 I'm working on the bilingual assignments. 9 Hopefully, I will be getting them out in the mail 10 this weekend. 11 Campaign Finance Cycle Five Report, Second 12 Friday Pre-General for all candidates on the ballot 13 is due 10/25, which is Friday, by 5:00. And the day 14 after that is when the 24-hour reporting kicks in 15 where they can fax or e-mail the information to me. 16 And that's all I have. 17 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. All right. Greg Irving, 18 please. 19 MR. IRVING: Good morning, again, Commissioners. 20 Since last meeting we processed about 350 21 new applications. 22 Most of those applications, they were 23 transferred in from the State through other 24 counties, okay, which are timely. 7 1 We've processed about 73 appeals, which 2 came in throughout the course of the week up until 3 the deadline, which was the 21st, okay. 4 Our Poll Books have been printed, and 5 we're expecting our first delivery of our Poll Books 6 today. All our street lists were sent to us in a 7 timely fashion in accordance with State Regs. And 8 they're out for the general public. 9 Right now I have a group of people 10 starting to paste the labels, the polling place 11 change on the polling place change cards, okay. We 12 want to mail those out on Monday. That will be a 13 full eight days prior to the election. So that will 14 give ample time for people to receive them and know 15 where their new polling place is. 16 There were two divisions where there were 17 changes they're going to court on. We pulled those 18 cards out so they won't be mailed, okay. 19 Other than that, that's about all we have 20 today, Commissioners. 21 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Sounds good. 22 Any new business -- oh, Joe, I'm sorry. 23 MR. LYNCH: Good morning, Commissioners. 24 Like Greg said, all the admission slips 8 1 citywide were delivered today about an hour ago. 2 And we should be getting a partial delivery of Poll 3 Books starting today. And I'll probably start 4 packing tomorrow, because I'm waiting for a couple 5 of things from Gary. 6 Yesterday Rich and Garrett had the 7 employees doing RTC tests where they go around to 8 the different RTC centers and do a test. And they 9 were very successful in doing that. 10 So far 45 Democratic Wards have not 11 requested any watchers, and 55 Republican Wards 12 haven't requested any watchers. So it's kind of 13 slow on the Watcher Requests. 14 And that should be it. 15 Like I said, tomorrow I'll probably start 16 packing, probably around noon to start. 17 MR. CHAIRMAN: That sounds good. 18 MR. LYNCH: All right. That's it. 19 MR. CHAIRMAN: Any new business? 20 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Are we going to have an 21 Executive Session? 22 MR. CHAIRMAN: Yes. 23 That's coming right after this. 24 We'll have an Executive Session concerning 9 1 personnel issues. 2 This meeting is now adjourned to the call 3 of the Chair. Thank you. 4 (Whereupon, the proceeding was 5 adjourned at approximately 11:10 6 a.m.) 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 10 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