Chicago City Wire

Board of Election Commissioners of the City of Chicago met April 24.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

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

Charles Holiday, Assistant Executive Director

James P. Allen, Communications Director

Gary Rycyzyn, Consultant

Trupti Patel

Geneva Morris, Videographer

Irish Sheehy

Guests:

Judd Ryan, ES&S

Helene Gabelnick, League of Women Voters of Chicago

C. Betty Magness, Rainbow PUSH Coalition

Waldeep Singh, Dominion

I. Call to Order: The Chairwoman called the meeting to order at. 9:38 a.m.

II. Roll Call: All Board members were present

III. Consideration of Agenda: Commissioner Swain moved to table, until the next meeting, the contract for Server Virtualization and Back-Up and Disaster Recovery with CDW Government LLC. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. The motion was passed by unanimous vote of the Board.

No other changes to the agenda were proposed.

IV. Approval of Minutes: No Minutes were presented for approval.

V. Executive Director's Report (Mr. Lance Gough)

• On Wednesday, April 18th the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (BAG) held their Standards Board Meeting. Mr. Gough is a member of the EAC's Standards Board. They discussed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and recent appropriation of $380 million in federal funding. Mr. Gough plans to meet with Board staff to work out a schedule of how to spend the Board's allocation of these funds and put that in writing for Board consideration and approval.

• On Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Board staff will have a debriefing meeting to discuss the use of Chicago's $3 million portion of the HAVA appropriation. The Board has 5 years to spend the monies, which is similar to previous HAVA funds we've been awarded. We already have a separate checking account set up to keep the HAVA funding separate. Mr. Gough hopes to have the plan to the Board in the next week because the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) wants to know when we want those funds.

•Mr. Gough was a panelist at the EAC Standards Board Meeting's panel discussion "Election Cybersecurity Update from the Perspective of Local Election Officials."

•General Counsel Adam Lasker, Communications Director Jim Allen and Mr. Gough gave a presentation as part of the Continuing Legal Education program at the National Bar Association's Annual meeting. The subjects addressed were Voter empowerment, pretrial detainees, voter registration and voter ID laws. The Board had been asked to participate by Judge Freddrenna Lyie. Mr. Gough was the panel moderator; the panel included Mr. Allen and Mr. Lasker, along with Khadine Bennet of the ACLU and Ami Gandhi of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. Mr. Gough said that he received rave reviews on the panel presentation, and on what the Board has done. Trish Sheehy worked with the panel members and helped prepare the PowerPoint, material distribution and panel setup.

o Mr. Lasker noted that it was good program. The audience was well engaged. We heard later that our session was the only session that had a real dialog and got the crowd into the conversation.

o Mr. Allen said it was a great freewheeling exchange, including good dialog about City Key.

•We have been working on an intergovernmental agreement with the County Clerk's Office for an Election Information Security Officer. This item is going before the County Board tomorrow. Hopefully, it will pass because this position would be a great help to both this Board and the County. Mr. Gough will be attending the County Board meeting.

•Illinois State Board of Election Commissioner Casandra Watson contacted Mr. Gough about the ISBE conducting an Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) public meeting in Chicago. The Board will host this hearing here, next month. Mr. Gough is working with Dustin Schultz from ISBE to put together a program.

Chairwoman Hernandez said that it is great that others recognize what we already knew, that the Chicago Board Is at the forefront of election administration. When we give these presentations, we are not only being informative, but we show everyone where we are making strides in areas in which other agencies haven't even begun to work.

A. Assistant Executive Director (Mr. Charles Holiday)

• Post-election reports have been sent to ISBE including: The 2 a.m. Report (list of precincts that had not reported by 2:00 a.m. Election Night), The Obvious Discrepancies and 5% Audit Tabulation Report, and Post-election Survey Reports (vote totals for: Grace Period, Early Voting, Vote by Mail, Election Day and Military). Illinois Voter Registration System (IVRS) In Trust report, which is a report of all IVRS users in our office with their secure token keys

• Yesterday, our warehouse staff along with ES&S completed copying log files from all e-poll books used for the Election.

• Last week we had a debriefing with the Receiving Station and Remote Site supervisors on the return of election materials on Election Night from the Judges of Election.

• We've started scanning ballot applications to capture images

B. Communications Director (Mr. Jim Allen)

• The Chairwoman and Mr. Allen went to Hubbard High school last week to meet with seniors and juniors. Many of them were already registered to vote, but about 75 registered on-site and which are now being processed.

• We Began "flipping web pages" with content for November and preparing translations for 2019

• We're getting daily requests from media regarding the 2019 election, on such topics as the calendar, candidates, when the filings will begin, and voter history records.

• Staff will meet this morning to begin putting together the specifications for signage, envelopes, forms, and banners and all the printing that's going to be needed. This is will be for an Invitation for Bid (IFB).

• The Tribune ran an editorial over the weekend about shortening the Early Voting time frame. 40 days before an April 2019 election would be before the February 2009 election. Hopefully state legislators will take this up.

Mr. Gough added to his report that we have lost the 16 W Adams Early Voting Supersite. The Board will need to find another site for the November Early Voting sSupersite, but we are having difficulties. This ballot is too large to conduct Early Voting in the lower level of 69 W. Washington. The 15 W Washington site (that the Board used for Early Voting in 2016 hasn't built out yet. Mr. Gough will talk to Walgreens and the people who have leased that site from Walgreens about the Board using it again.

As we will continue to have this problem. Commissioner Swain suggested that we look into creating space, possibly to find open space such and adding a permanent structure or semi-permanent structure. Mr. Gough stated that they have been looking into such options. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Kresse added that this is yet another reason to for reforming the time frame for Early Voting.

VI. Old Business

A. Infrastructure Projects and Changes in Election Administration: we are currently working on this.

B. Electronic Poll Books: Judd Ryan of ES&S stated that we have completed downloading logs from this past election. Mr. Ryan said that Mr. Allen had presented ES&S with some suggestions for modifying the Media View.

C. Voting Equipment: Mr. Gough stated that the Board needs to get back to considering new voting equipment in the next couple of weeks

D. Legislation: Mr. Lasker reported that we are following the bill that deals with both registration of pretrial detainees, and providing information to people as they are leaving the jail. This has gone through the Elections and Campaign Finance committees where it was passed unanimously, 14:0. It's picking up bi-partisan support and is scheduled for a 2nd reading on the House floor.

Several other bills that we've been tracking have been sent back to the Rules Committee, including the House Bill that would have election authorities stop using Cross-Check, and only use the ERIC system. The House Bill has gone back to Rules, but the Senate bill is going back to the floor for a second reading.

The Bills on closing schools on Election Day has been sent back to the Rules Committee. Same with the Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) extension bill and the changes to Write-In Candidates bill.

VII. New Business:

A. Approval of contract for Server Virtualization and Back-Up and Disaster Recovery with CDW Government LLC. This item has been postponed for a future meeting.

B. Adoption of Local Option Guidelines for the 2018 General Election:

Mr. Lasker explained that every cycle the Board reviews and approves the Guidelines for Local Option Referenda petitions and procedures. The Guidelines tend to be a popular document. Mr. Lasker updated the 2016 version. There have been no recent substantive changes to the law {it's an old law) But Mr. Lasker did add the General Assembly's website as a source for obtaining relevant statutes because previously it only referenced the Cook County Law Library. Additionally, Mr. Lasker changed the name of the White Sox stadium to Guaranteed Rate Field. The dates and deadlines have also been updated for the November 2018 election.

Commissioner Swain moved to adopt the Local Option Guidelines for the 2018 General Election. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. The Board adopted the Guidelines by unanimous vote.

C. Resolution authorizing disposal of election materials pursuant to the Illinois Local Records Act and Election Code for: Special Primary Election (2nd Congressional Dist.), Feb. 26, 2013; Special Election (2nd Congressional Dist.), April 9, 2013; and General Election, Nov. 4, 2014.

Mr. Lasker stated that our warehouse has requested that we open some space to store the current (March 2018) materials, so we need to clear out some of the older election materials. State statute requires us to retain all of the paper election materials for 22 months. We are beyond the 22 months for the 3 elections listed above for which materials are still being stored at the warehouse. There is no pending litigation on these elections. Therefore the resolution, if approved today, would allow the disposal of election materials pursuant to the Illinois Local Records Act and Election Code for: Special Primary Election (2nd Congressional Dist.), Feb. 26, 2013; Special Election (2nd Congressional Dist.), April 9, 2013; and General Election, Nov. 4, 2014.

Commissioner Kresse moved to approve the resolution. Commissioner Swain seconded the motion and the Board approved the resolution by a 3:0 vote of the Board. (The Resolution was signed in open session)

Viil. Legal Report

• Mr. Lasker introduced the new Law Clerk, Trupti Patel to the Board.

IX. Financial Report

A. Balance Sheet and Voucher Listings for the City of Chicago - 2018 Appropriation -18- 03 dated April 24, 2018 in the amount of $952,495.72 Commissioner Swain moved to approve Balance Sheet and Voucher Listings for the City of Chicago - 2018 Appropriation -18-03 dated April 24,2018. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. The motion was passed by unanimous vote of the Board

B. Balance Sheet and Voucher Listings for the County of Cook - 2018 Appropriation -18- 03 dated April 24, 2018 in the amount of $4,654,000.20: Commissioner Kresse made a motion to approve Balance Sheet and Voucher Listings for the County of Cook - 2018 Appropriation -18-03 dated April 24, 2018. Commissioner Swain seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a 3:0 vote of the Board.

X. Public Comment None

Xi. Executive Session None

XII. Adjournment: Commissioner Swain moved to adjourn until the next Regular Board Meeting of May 8, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. Commissioner Kresse seconded the motion. The motion was passed by unanimous vote of the Board. The Board adjourned at 10:02 a.m.

https://app.chicagoelections.com/documents/general/BoardMeetingMinutes-2018-04-24.pdf