Board of Election Commissioners of the City of Chicago met Sept. 12.
Here is the minutes provided by the Commissioners:
Board Members:
Marisel A. Hernandez, Chairwoman
William J. Kresse, Commissioner/Secretary
Jonathan T. Swain, Commissioner
Staff:
Lance Gough, Executive Director
Adam W. Lasker, General Counsel
James P. Allen, Communications Director [absent]
Peter Peso, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer
Lore! Blameuser, Manager-Purchasing
Bill Perez, Coordinator Hispanic Outreach
Geneva Morris, Videographer
Gary Rycyzyn, Consultant
Irish Sheehy
Guests:
Helene Gabelnick, League of Women Voters of Chicago
Matthew T. Davis
Olga Pribyl, Equip for Equality
Waldeep Shah, Dominion Voting
Sandy Hed, Election Works
Don Olson
Judd Ryan, ES&S
I. Call to Order: The Chairwoman called the meeting to order at: The meeting was called to order at 9:09 a.m.
II. Roll Call: Chairwoman Marisel A. Hernandez, Commissioner William J. Kresse and Commissioner Jonathan T. Swain were each present.
III. Consideration of Agenda: The agenda was accepted as presented.
IV. Approval of Minutes:
A. Minutes of the Regular Board Meeting of August 8 2017
Commissioner Swain made a motion to approve the Minutes of the Regular Board Meeting of August 8, 2017. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Kresse and was passed by unanimous vote of the Board Minutes of Regular Board Meeting September 12. 2017
V. Executive Director's Report
Executive Director Gough reported that people have begun circulating petitions. Groups have come In to check petitions on the 6*^ floor. The Board has been asked for extended hours on evenings and weekends. The groups have been told that they must request this at least 24 hours ahead of time.
Mr. Gough had given the Board members a copy of a letter dated August 4*^ that had been sent to elected officials about polling place accessibility. Mr. Gough will be meeting with all of them Individually to get the needed Information. We need to have the Information before meeting with Fleet and Facility Management (2FM).
Also with 2FM is our contract for the warehouse, which Is expiring. Moving out during the 2018 election would be a disaster so Mr. Gough suggests that we move out after the 2019 elections once the equipment is In the precincts. We then return the equipment to the new location. This would save us moving costs. As such, we would like to extend our contract a couple of years, however the City Is talking about selling that building. By law the City has to find us a new location, as such, Mr. Gough Is working with 2FM on that.
We are waiting for the proposals from several companies regarding reviewing our internal procedures. A copy was provided to the Board Members. Once Mr. Gough receives those responses he will pass them onto the Board members.
On Wednesday at 11:00 we have Pre-bidders meeting to discuss our cartage for the upcoming elections.
Working on phase 1 and phase 2 of the voting equipment RFP, we have received proposals from 5 companies (SmartMatIc, ES&S, Dominion Voting, Hart Interclvic, and Clear Ballot). We are assembling a committee to review the proposals. There are 2 more phases, and Mr. Gough will keep the Board apprised. Mr. Gough hopes to meet elected officials before our budget meeting In October with the City Council.
On Saturday, Communications Director Allen and Mr. Gough went to Operation PUSH and appeared on their broadcast, speaking about Automatic Voter Registration (AVR). We are going to have to meet with the State Board of Elections and the Secretary of State's Office regarding AVR. Mr. Gough volunteered our agency to work with the Secretary of State's office and the State Board of Elections. The Board will send out information re Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) for overseas and military voting. Mr. Gough will submit a report to the Board later today.
Commissioner Kresse Inquired regarding AVR regulations or policies from the State Board of Elections. Mr. Gough hopes to have some information to provide the Board members in the near future.
A. Assistant Executive Director - None.
B. Communications Director
Communications Director Allen commented on AVR, noting that there is much confusion about AVR. This is because AVR only affects people as they update or apply for their driver's licenses or State ID. AVR won't be fully implemented for 3-4 years.
Regarding the mall canvass, we are in the process of preparing the second mailing. Over 170,000 "forwardable" second notices will be mailed.
We conduct canvasses on an annual basis, even though the law only requires us to do it every 2 years.
Board members have been shown a news release on resources we have available for campaigns. We will release that shortly.
Update on the electronic poll books/data exposure. The data was on a server in a rather obscure location. The data had partial social security numbers, not full ones. The results of preliminary investigation into the computer log found only 5 IP address accessing that server, and these were all people who worked with ES&S. Other than Chris Vickery, the security expert who discovered the flaw and alerted us to it, there does not appear to be anyone outside ES&S who accessed that server.
General Counsel Adam Lasker is working with the ES&S attorneys on a legal notice to the Public
General discussion ensued between the Board members, Mr. Allen and Mr. Gough regarding AVR and the data exposure.
Mr. Gough asked Olga Pribyl, Vice President of Pribyl Law and Equip for Equality to provide the Board with a quick overview of Equip for Equality's status on the Polling Place Accessibility project. She reported:
• A National Organization recognized the Board of Elections, the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Equip for Equality for their partnership and collaboration in this project. Chicago is the national model for such a project.
• Reviewed and finalized approximately 1400 polling place surveys from November and turned those into the DoJ in early July.
• There were about 200 polling places that needed to be surveyed, as these weren't done on Election Day. These were completed and the data was turned in to the DoJ and the Board of Elections.
• The DoJ is now requiring photographs of barriers, so Equip for Equality is now doing that, and will do so with all new surveys in the future.
• Equip for Equality also reviewed all of the surveys and made recommendations for Identified barriers. Equip for Equality is in the process of finalizing that and will have all of its recommendations by October.
• Finally, Equip for Equality is developing a digital survey tool so that future surveys can be done electronically. Surveyors will be able to use Smart phones or tablets to collect the data, along with being able to access old surveys. It hopes to be able to use this tool for the March Primary.
Mr. Gough stated that once the Board gets all the recommendations he will meet with 2FM, the Park District, and the Chicago Board of.Education to see what we can do to make these poliing places accessible. We should be in good shape for the Primary and very good shape for the General election.
VI. Old Business
A. Infrastructure Projects and Changes in Election Administration - nothing more to report
B. Eiectronic Poii Books - nothing more to report
C. Voting Equipment - nothing more to report
D. Legislation
General Counsel Adam Lasker had a few updates:
There was a Constitutional Amendment Bill dealing with Constitutional amendment referenda notices. The Governor has issued an amendatory veto
A second notice of referenda bill has become law, Pubiic Act 100-298. Now we have to post notice of any questions that will be on the ballot no more than 60 days, and no fewer than 10 days, before an election.
Another Bill the Governor vetoed was the County Reapportionment bill, which does not directly impact us.
Nursing Home Grace Period Registration has become a law, Public Act 100-0442 now allows for Grace Period registration to take place at Nursing Homes where voting occurs.
VII. New Business
There are two Agreements between the Board and SKU Corporation on the agenda, the first (which is in two parts) involves New Developments, while the second involves Support and Maintenance services.
Mr. Lasker explained that for several years the Board has had Agreements SKU Corporation. SKU has developed our main database of voter registration files, Chicago poii worker interface to the internet and various other programs.
For some time. Board staff have discussed the possibility of replacing the AskED, the Election Day help line/help desk program, because of its expense. The Board's license with AskED is due to expire in the near future. SKU officials believe that they can develop an in- house version for a one-time payment for development and implementation. The one-time payment would be less than what the Board would normally spend for one year of the AskEd program. The ongoing maintenance and support costs for the in-house program would be Included in the second contract being considered today, which is a contract for all ongoing maintenance and service for the various systems SKU has developed for the Board.
The second part of the New Developments contract would be for the development of a case management system for the cases that the Election Board adjudicates when it sits as an Electoral Board. Currently the Board has been attempting to manage these cases by using spreadsheets for which there is a lot of redundancy in data entry..An in-house electronic case management program would make it much easier to manage the often heavy caseload handled on an expedited schedule.
Discussion with the Commissioners and the Board Staff ensued.
A. Professional Services Agreement (New Developments) Between the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago and SKU Corporation: $100,000; August 2017- July 2018
Commissioner Kresse made a motion to approve the Professional Services Agreement (New Developments) Between the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago and SKU Corporation for $100,000, paid in 17 even monthly installments, August 1,2017- December 31,2018. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Swain, and the motion was approved by a 3:0 vote of the Board.
B. Professional Services Agreement (Support and Maintenance) Between the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago and SKU Corporation: $529,000; $23,000/month; 2017-2019
Commissioner Swain made a motion to approve the Professional Services Agreement (Support and Maintenance) Between the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago and SKU Corporation for $529,000, to be paid in 23 month installments of $23,000 for a term of August 1,2017-June 30,2019 for the purpose of ongoing support and maintenance of the Board's electronic systems and programs including VRXG, ChiPollWorker.com, the investigative Portal, Early Voting, Election Helpdesk, and the Electoral Board case management. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion, and the motion was approved by a unanimous vote of the Board.
VIII. Legal Report;
Mr. Lasker requested that the Board adjourn to Executive Session to discuss a pending lawsuit.
IX. Financial Report: None
X. Public Comment: None
Executive Session: A motion to enter into closed Executive Session for the purpose of discussing pending litigation as allowed by Section 2{C)(ix} of the Open Meetings Act and for the purpose of discussing security procedures, and the use of Board personnel and equipment to respond to an actual response to personal safety or public property as allowed by Section 2(C){viii) of the Open Meetings Act, and to discuss pending litigation as allowed by Section 2(c){ll) of the Illinois Open Meetings Act was made by Commissioner Swain, seconded by Commissioner Kresse and approved by unanimous vote of the Board.
The Board entered into closed Executive Session at 9:48 a.m.
The Board reconvened the open Board meeting at 10:41 a.m. The Chairwoman announced that no formal action was taken during closed Executive Session
XI. Adjournment
Commissioner Kresse moved to adjourn until Tuesday September 19th at 9:00 a.m. Commissioner Swain seconded the motion and the motion passed by a 3:0 vote of the Board
The meeting was adjourned at 10:42 a.m.
https://app.chicagoelections.com/documents/general/BoardMeetingMinutes-2017-09-12.pdf
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