Chicago City Wire

Board of Election Commissioners of the City of Chicago met Feb. 13.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

I. Call to Order: the meeting was called to order at 9:33 a.m.

II. Roll Call: all members of the Board were present.

III. Consideration of Agenda: Agenda was accepted as presented.

IV. Reorganization

A. Election of Chairperson: Commissioner Swain nominated Commissioner Marisel A. Hernandez as Chairperson of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. The nomination was seconded by Commissioner Kresse and passed by unanimous vote of the Board. Marisel A. Hernandez was elected Chairwoman of the Board.

B. Election of Secretary: Commissioner Swain moved to nominate Commissioner William J. Kresse as Secretary of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Chairwoman Hernandez seconded the motion. The Board voted unanimously to elect William J. Kresse Secretary of the Board.

C. Adoption of By Laws: There was no change to the By Laws. Commissioner Kresse moved to adopt the By Laws, Commissioner Swain seconded the motion and the By Laws were adopted by a 3:0 vote of the Board.

V. Approval of Minutes:

A. Minutes of the Reguiar Board Meeting of January 9, 2018. A motion to approve the Minutes of the Reguiar Board Meeting of January 9, 2018 was made by Commissioner Swain and seconded by Commissioner Kresse. The minutes were approved by unanimous vote of the Board.

B. Minutes of the Special Board Meeting of January 16, 2018. A motion to approve the Minutes of the Reguiar Board Meeting of January 16, 2018 was made by Commissioner Swain and seconded by Commissioner Kresse. The minutes were approved by unanimous vote of the Board.

VI. Executive Director's Report

• Mr. Gough congratulated Chairwoman Hernandez on her re-election.

• Mr. Gough reported on the 16 W Adams new Early Voting space

o The electricians have finished,

o The furniture and equipment needs to be moved in.

o Dean Ftikas did a great job with the City Electricians to get everything together,

o The site will be up and running as soon as we have a ballot

• On Wednesday, February 7^^ Communications Director Allen and Mr. Gough traveled to Springfield in regards to House Bill 4469, a bill concerning voting in the jail. There was a press conference at which several State Representatives and Senators indicated that they would support the bill. Mr. Gough believes that the bill will pass.

• The pretrial detainee packets are ready to go to Cook County Jail, as they were put together over the past weekend.

• The warehouse is up and running. They worked this past weekend as well.

• There are some issues because we do not have a ballot yet.

Mr. Gough called upon Ms. Tracy Hartlieb of Equip for Equality to give a status report.

Ms. Hartlieb reported that:

Since the last Board meeting Mr. Gough and some other people from the Board of Elections met with Equip for Equality and with the Department of Justice to give an update on the accessibility issues at polling places. For the March 20**^ election we aim to be working toward implementing some temporary remedies at polling places across the City

• Equip for Equality is working with Board data entry operators on the 6^^ floor who are inputting data from the 2016 election into the new survey system. This information on polling place accessibility can be used in the future for analysis.

• Commissioner Kresse asked if the data collection app was up and running. Ms. Hartlieb stated that it is not, but that it will be in March. Equip for Equality will be training hundreds of volunteers in the use of the new application starting February 26th.

A. Assistant Executive Director

Assistant Executive Director Charles Holiday reported:

• Mr. Holiday congratulated the Chairwoman and Secretary on their new appointments.

• Board staff just finished processing 120,000 ERIC address changes

• Board staff is propping various envelopes for Grace Period, Election Day and Early Voting to be sent to the warehouse for delivery

• Specimen Non-partisan and Republican ballots will be delivered this week.

• In the final stages of finalizing the e-poll books; testing final updates of ez roster, central point and bridge point. During all the updates we are testing to make sure that 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the November General Election can vote in March.

• Getting signage for the start of Grace Period next week.

B. Communications Director

• Communications Director Jim Allen distributed 4 mockups of Early Voting ads to be published soon to emphasize the new "Super site" at 16 w Adams. The ads will start running later this week.

• Later this week we're scheduled to cut the file for the mass mailings for the first bi-lingual and quad-lingual mailings. Quad-lingual mailings go to any precinct where there is Chinese and/or Hindi language requirement in terms of language assistance and the bi-lingual goes to all other voters in all other precincts. The first file will be cut around February 14^^. With the goal of having the first mailing hit on March 1, right before Early Voting in the wards begins on March 5.

• Signage, forms, envelopes, banners, and other printing materials that Mr. Holiday referenced are coming together. We have essentially two Jobs leftbanners for the Early Voting sites of March 5 and 1 envelope.

• Discussion then ensued with the Commissioners regarding the ad samples and other publicity regarding the new Supersite at 16 W. Adams.

VII. Old Business

A. Infrastructure Projects and Changes in Election Administration: ongoing.

B. Electronic Pol! Books: ES&S Representative Judd Ryan was called upon to provide status of this project. Mr. Ryan pointed out that Mr. Holiday already touched on things proceeding at the warehouse. Everything seems to be on track. Plan to do an initial data file cut around February 26th.

Commission Swain asked whether there were any new items being worked on with the e-poll books. Mr. Ryan said that there were some new request from the Board. They finished the development on those in the summer and then did a mock eiectlon around the middie of November. The mock election was compieted and iocked down in November. Currentiy we are in the process of instaliing the new version and loading the roster to ali of the books now.

Mr. Aiien explained that one of the key items that they adjusted was to reduce user error when checking in voters

Commissioner Kresse had Mr. Ryan confirm that with all of these changes ES&S is keeping security in mind. Mr. Ryan confirmed that and pointed out that everything is encrypted; Social Security numbers and other information are secured.

C. Voting Equipment: continuing in the evaluation process

D. Legislation

General Counsel Adam Lasker reported:

• That in addition to the biil that Mr. Gough spoke on regarding pretrlai detainees, there Is another bill that would automatically register people leaving incarceration. 

• There is a bill proposed that would allow 16 and 17-year olds to register to vote, with the registration held in abeyance until they are old enough to vote. 

• Another bill has been introduced that would require schools to close if they are a polling place. • Another bill would withdraw iilinois from participation in Cross-check and would have ERIC be our only voter information sharing system. 

• House Bill 2401 would implement a voter ID law to require people to use IDs in the polls. The Secretary of State would design a new ID for voting only. It would be used for people who do not have a driver's license or state ID. There apparently would still be a fee for this ID, which could be waived. But every voter would be required to present a government photo identification at the polls. 

• Commissioner Swain asked what the time frame was for the Board to render an opinion on these bills. Mr. Lasker indicated that he wasn't sure. He will send the bills to the Board for its review and opinion. 

• Mr. Lasker congratulated Chairwoman Hernandez and Secretary Kresse on their re-election and congratulated Commissioner Swain on his reappointment to the Board.

VIII. New Business

A. Approve contract for Absentee and Provisional Ballot Fulfillment, 2018 Primary Election with 3X Data Corporation.

Mr. Gough summarized this item. They have already begun to set up for our mailing. They are just waiting for us to get the ballot finalized. Absentee ballot fulfillment is $96,430, Provisional Ballot fulfillment is $57,268, for a total cost of this contract is $153,698. We have used 3X Data for this kind of work many times. Their work has been very satisfactory. This is for the Primary only.

Commissioner Kresse moved to approve the contract with 3X Data Corporation for the period of January 30, 2018 through March 31, 2018 in the amount of $153,698 for Absentee and Provisional Ballot Fulfillment. Commissioner Swain seconded the motion. The contract was approved by unanimous vote of the Board.

B. Approve contract for Laptop Lease, 2018 Primary Election with Meeting Tomorrow, Inc.

Mr. Gough summarized this contract and provided some background. This is the same company that we leased from before. It is for 200 laptops. The Laptops are for use in Early Voting, Election Central and elsewhere in the Board's 69 W. Washington offices. Software is included, but we add some of our own software. Commissioner Swain asked whether these laptops are checked for malware and viruses before we add our software on top of the baseline software. Mr. Gough assured him that our staff, internally, checks the laptops for everything before loading our software onto them, before they are put into service. Our software is added by our staff, and the laptops are wiped clean before returning them to the vendor.

Commissioner Swain moved to enter into a contract with Meeting Tomorrow Inc. for the term of January 30, 2018 through April 6, 2018 in the amount of $29,534.25 for laptop lease for the 2018 Primary election. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. Motion passed and the contract was approved by 3:0 vote of the Board.

IX. Legal Report

General Counsel Lasker reported:

• Board personnel will be meeting with the FBI to get some assistance on protecting our systems.

• Mr. Lasker was proud to report that none of the Board's Electoral Board cases were appealed to the Circuit Court. Obviously the State Board and the County Electoral Board have had some cases appealed to the Court.

• We are in the Appellate Court right now on the case of a purported write-in candidate who failed to file a declaration with our office. The Election Code states that we are only allowed to count the write-in votes for candidates that do file with us. A second candidate has filed an Amicus Brief to try to join in at the Appellate Court level. Briefing was completed as of yesterday. We should get a ruling soon.

• We need to have an executive session to discuss other litigation.

X. Financial Report: none

XI. Public Comment: None

XII. Executive Session: A motion to enter Into Executive Session for the purpose of discussing litigation as allowed by section 2(c)ll of the Open Meetings Act was made by Commissioner Swain, seconded by Commissioner Kresse and passed by unanimous vote of the Board. Executive Session was entered into at 10:00 a.m.

The Board returned to Open Session at 10:54 a.m. The Board took no action In Executive Session.

XIII. Adjournment: Commissioner Swain made a motion to adjourn until the next Regular Board meeting on February 27, 2018, or sooner by call of the Chair. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. The motion was passed by 3:0 vote of the Board. The meeting adjourned at 10:55 a.m.