1 1 MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS 2 * * * * 3 Wednesday, September 25, 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 DEBORAH MURCHISON, Election and Voter Registration TIM DOWLING, Documents 13 JOSEPH LYNCH, Election Material GREGORY IRVING, Data Support Supervisor 14 GREGG KRAVITZ SETH BLUESTEIN 15 JOSEPH DeFELICE, Republican City Committee BRIAN BARRY, Committee of Seventy 16 ANNIE HAVEY 17 HELD AT: Delaware and Spring Garden Streets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 18 REPORTED BY: 19 Renée Helmar, Shorthand Reporter 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: Good morning, everyone. 4 (Whereupon, there was a 5 collective response.) 6 MR. CHAIRMAN: Today is Wednesday, September 25th. 7 The Sunshine Meeting is now in session. 8 Are there any public comments? 9 Okay. Yes, Joe. 10 MR. DeFELICE: I'll speak briefly. 11 Joe DeFelice, Republican City Committee. 12 I just want to commend you guys on the Web site. 13 And I believe it's the new Citizens Guide, as well. 14 I think, you know, you're, kind of, filling a void 15 where, I think, the Committee of Seventy filled that void 16 for a number of years. And I feel with the new Web site and 17 with the guide we're able to now get things that we used to 18 have to go outside of our government for. 19 So, I just want to commend you for that. Thank 20 you. 21 MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much, Joe. 22 COMMISSIONER SINGER: What is the Citizen Guide 23 you're referring to exactly? 24 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Something that my office 3 1 put together and posted. 2 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Okay. 3 MR. DeFELICE: Yeah. I wasn't sure -- I didn't 4 know whether it was from all of you guys or Commissioner 5 Schmidt, but I received a Citizens Guide yesterday, and -- 6 COMMISSIONER SINGER: I would love to see it. 7 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. 8 MR. DeFELICE: Thank you. 9 MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Joe. 10 Old business? 11 (Whereupon, there was no 12 response.) 13 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Gary Ferris. 14 MR. FERRIS: Good morning, Commissioners. 15 The only thing that I have, we are working on two 16 polling places that have refused the use of their building. 17 There's, like, two that we haven't gotten an answer on. 18 We're working on backups for those. 19 We will also be having hearings for polling place 20 changes on October 9th, here in this courtroom, at 1 p.m., 21 and the following week, the 16th, will be the final day that 22 Commissioners can hear any type of polling place changes on 23 that day. 24 So, as soon as I get a list together, which I hope 4 1 to have in the next day or two, I'll get that up to the 2 three offices and let you know which ones they're going to 3 be, okay. 4 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Thank you very much. 5 John Day, please. 6 MR. DAY: Right now we've finished up the PM test 7 on the machines and started laying out all the supplies. We 8 laid out the RTC bags, all the red and yellow seals, we're 9 closing the polls at night. 10 Now, today, we started putting on the padlocks to 11 open the polls and closed poll seals. We'll be recording 12 them. 13 And probably Thursday or Friday we'll start 14 putting in the new paper tapes and putting the times in. 15 We'll be ready for the split tests, what; next week, Joe? 16 MR. LYNCH: I'll try to get it, hopefully, this 17 week. 18 MR. DAY: This weekend? 19 MR. LYNCH: Hopefully. 20 MR. DAY: But we are right on schedule. 21 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Ms. Murchison. 22 MS. MURCHISON: Good morning, Commissioners. 23 Last week our schools were at Delaware and Spring 24 Garden, at this location. 5 1 We had 154 turn out. 2 This week we're doing dual schools, South Philly 3 High and we're doing the old Cardinal Dougherty. 4 We had a few kinks in the system, but everything 5 is going good at the locations. Everybody is fine. 6 That's all I have. 7 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Tim Dowling, please. 8 MR. DOWLING: Absentee ballot applications are 9 coming in very slow. 10 As of yesterday we only received 158 applications. 11 We sent 109 down to Greg. He's already sent them up, and 12 they're already labeled. And we're just waiting for the 13 ballot. 14 Once the ballot is generated and Joe gets me MVB, 15 we'll be sending them out in mass. 16 And the only other thing is, reiterated, bilingual 17 training for interpreters will be held on October 12th, here 18 at Delaware Avenue, sixth floor. 19 That's it. 20 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. All right. Thank you. 21 Joe Lynch, please. 22 MR. LYNCH: Good morning, Commissioners. 23 We're currently working on getting all the 24 election -- preparing the election materials. And we're 6 1 also working feverishly on the absentee database so we can 2 get an absentee over to Timmy before he has a coronary. 3 MR. DOWLING: Thanks, Joe. 4 MR. LYNCH: We're working on it, buddy. 5 And once we get that, we can get that to Timmy. 6 The database for the machines is done. 7 I got a sample ballot if the Commissioners want to 8 take a look at it and sign off on it. We can go ahead and 9 Garrett Dietz can give us an export and we can do a split 10 test. 11 Rich Vito worked on -- is working on the split 12 test sheet so we can, hopefully, by the weekend, John can 13 start working on the split test. 14 But if you guys approve this ballot, we can move 15 forward with that. 16 And we were thrown back in time with the 17 additional candidate on Common Pleas Court. We had to have 18 everything renumbered, so that threw us back a couple of 19 days. And, then, also, having a Libertarian candidate added 20 the other day threw us back, too. So we're working on that. 21 (Whereupon, a sample ballot was 22 displayed.) 23 MR. LYNCH: But if you notice, I have a sample of 24 all the third parties. So if you notice, this goes one, 7 1 two, three, six, because there's a Green Party, which is in 2 four, column four, Independents in column five, and Modern 3 Whig is column six. And then you have no affiliation in 4 column seven. 5 So, they're being -- this column (indicating) 6 being utilized somewhere else; you know what I mean? 7 So, it has to be six, and then the number down 8 here will be six. So it will go, you know, 114, 214 and 9 then 614. 10 So, if anybody ever questions that, that's because 11 that's being utilized somewhere else in a different 12 division. 13 And it's a shame because, it is only for judges of 14 elections or inspectors where it's being utilized, where the 15 change is. 16 And then once we do finish the audio, we would be 17 able to put the Spanish translation for write-in candidates, 18 so that's why it is not in there yet. 19 COMMISSIONER SCHMIDT: Okay. 20 MR. LYNCH: I hear crickets. 21 MR. CHAIRMAN: Well, we have everybody for 22 retention on there. 23 MR. LYNCH: Yeah. 24 They are all on there. 8 1 If you guys sign off on that, we can send the 2 split tests up to John and he can get working on it. 3 COMMISSIONER SINGER: After the meeting, what you 4 said about waiting to put the Spanish in because we're 5 waiting for somebody else -- 6 MR. LYNCH: Yes. 7 The Spanish just for the write-ins, we can't link 8 them until the audio is done. 9 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Okay. 10 MR. LYNCH: So, we're working on the audio now. 11 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Okay. Thanks. 12 MR. LYNCH: All right. 13 COMMISSIONER SINGER: Yes. 14 MR. LYNCH: And, also, Commissioners, we're also 15 accepting any requests for Watcher Certificates, even though 16 we don't have Watchers yet, if somebody wants to submit 17 their requests to us, we can start looking them up and make 18 sure that people are registered to vote or registered in 19 their division. And once the books come in we can start 20 writing them up. 21 MR. IRVING: Is there a ballot question on there? 22 MR. LYNCH: Yes. 23 Okay. That's it. 24 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. We're going to move right 9 1 along. 2 Greg Irving, please. 3 MR. IRVING: Good morning, Commissioners. 4 The two data units downstairs, imaging the 5 electronic ones, they received over 7400 applications in 6 this week. And they have about 400 left to process. 7 The State was backlogged on their deceased 8 listings, the department notices on the Department of 9 Health, so we got hit with about 4500 of those, okay. And 10 they promptly removed all those people from the records, 11 okay. 12 Paper applications, we've had about 830 -- an 13 increase of 830. And we probably have about 300 of those 14 remain to process. 15 As Tim Dowling stated earlier, absentee ballots 16 are slow. We sent up 109 to him. We have 50 which we'll be 17 sending up to him tomorrow morning once they're processed 18 this afternoon. 19 The bulk of the staff are still working on filing 20 applications and pulling old applications out, removing 21 deceased from the paper record files as well. 22 We have people which we're sending out 23 continuously on machine demos. 24 We just did one last night in the 59th Ward. We 10 1 have one coming up on Saturday in the 2nd Ward. We're 2 sending out two-man teams to do those, okay. 3 And last night they were really receptive to the 4 one in the 59th Ward. 5 The guys had plenty of questions from the group up 6 there. 7 There was a lot of poll workers, but mainly it was 8 committee people and people who are associated with helping 9 ward leaders out. 10 Other than that, that's about where we are work 11 wise, okay. 12 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. Well, thank you, Greg. 13 MR. IRVING: You're welcome. 14 MR. CHAIRMAN: New business? 15 MR. VOIGT: I just have a report. The Court Order 16 establishing the dates for the appointment of election board 17 workers, along with the assignment of judges, should be 18 issued within the next day or two. 19 Apparently, Judge Dembe will be unavailable for 20 assignment for either the appointment of election board 21 members or for service on Election Day. 22 She'll be in Germany, so, therefore -- and this 23 will be the last election where she will be president judge. 24 Her term ends December 1. 11 1 So, that Order should come out in the next day or 2 so, and we will know who has been assigned. We know the 3 approximate dates, the agreement between our office and the 4 court as to the timing of the hearings for the appointment 5 of board members stands as it was before last spring's 6 primary. 7 That is, it's two weeks in advance of Election 8 Day, so we have that additional week to notify all the 9 parties of who has been appointed to serve on the election 10 board and as minority inspectors. 11 And as soon as we have that Order issues, copies 12 will be distributed to all the interested parties. 13 That's it. 14 MR. CHAIRMAN: Okay. This meeting is adjourned to 15 the call of the Chair. Thank you. 16 (Whereupon, the proceeding was 17 adjourned at approximately 11:15 18 a.m.) 19 20 21 22 23 24 12 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