IDAHO ASSOCIATION OF COUNTY RECORDERS AND CLERKS
Sharon Widner, President Susan R. Petersen, Vice President
Washington County Clerk Latah County Clerk
(208) 414-2092 (208) 882-8580
Sara J. Staub, Secretary/Treasurer Robin Christensen, IAC Board Representative
Bingham County Clerk Clearwater County Clerk
(208) 782-3160 (208) 476-5615
Minutes of the February 6, 2007 Meeting
IAC Mid-Winter Conference, Boise, Idaho
Welcome/General Business
Meeting was called to order by President Sharon Widner at 10:15 a.m.
Pledge of Allegiance was led by Sara Staub, Secretary/Treasurer
Invocation by Ronald Longmore, Bonneville County Clerk
Minutes of the IACRC Annual Meeting held in Burley September 21, 2006, were approved.
Roll Call -- Elected Clerks: Dave Navarro, Ada County; Sherry Ward, Adams County; Dale Hatch, Bannock County; Kerry Haddock, Bear Lake County; J. Michele Reynolds, Benewah County; Sara Staub, Bingham County; Constance Swearingen, Boise County; Marie Scott, Bonner County; Ron Longmore, Bonneville County; Glenda Poston, Boundary County; Trilby McAfee, Butte County; Rollie Bennett, Camas County; William Hurst, Canyon County; Veda Mascarenas, Caribou County; Larry Mickelsen, Cassia County; Lisa Black, Clark County; Robin Christensen, Clearwater County; Barbara Breedlove, Custer County; Marsa Grimmett, Elmore County; Elliot Larsen, Franklin County; Abbie Mace, Fremont County; Shelly Gannon, Gem County; Denise Gill, Gooding County; Rose Gehring, Idaho County; Christine Boulter, Jefferson County; Dan English, Kootenai County; Cathy Larson, Lewis County; Liz Kime, Lincoln County; Marilyn Rasmussen, Madison County; Duane Smith, Minidoka County; Patty Weeks, Nez Perce County; Shirlee Blaisdell, Oneida County; Charlotte Sherburn, Owyhee County; Betty Dressen, Payette County; Peggy DeLange-White, Shoshone County; Mary Lou Hansen, Teton County; Kristina Glascock, Twin Falls County; Archie Banbury, Jr., Valley County; and Sharon Widner, Washington County Clerk. Guests: Ben Ysursa, Secretary of State, Tim Hurst, Chief Deputy, Secretary of State’s Office; Jim Mairs, Elections, Secretary of State’s Office; Patty O’Conner, Minnesota Taxpayer Services; Lou Ditier and Katie Tate from ES&S. Clerks from 39 of the 44 counties were present.
Special Recognition
President Widner thanked Abbie Mace for her presentation before the House State Affairs Committee on Vote By Mail. She represented the Clerks and the IAC well!
Ada County Clerk Dave Navarro was also recognized for receipt of the Kramer Award by the Supreme Court on Monday.
Ben Ysursa, Secretary of State:
Ben Ysursa commended Abbie Mace for her good job before the legislature on Vote By Mail. He said that there is still a lot of work to do but this was a good first step.
Ben reported that the 2006 election was good so far as procedure goes and reminded the Clerks of the March 7 deadline to complete their purge.
He expressed concern on the effect of Vote By Mail on same day registration and on our exempt status under NVRA. The question is whether we would be limiting same day registration with Vote By Mail.
Other areas covered by Ben:
ES&S 650 counter had some problems in the General Election that he is concerned about. ES&S is to make improvements and re-certify in mid-March.
Ben gave the AutoMARKS in General Election a grade of D-. The main focus on election day should be taking care of 99% of the voters; the AutoMARKS make that very difficult.
Patty O’Conner was asked how the AutoMARKS worked for them in Minnesota. She said they had some equipment failure but they had extra machines to replace the ones that failed.
Closed Primary Bill – Republican Party endorsed. The bill came up on February 5 for print hearing; not printed. There is a Federal case now in Virginia on the constitutionality of closed primaries.
Tim Hurst, Chief Deputy, Secretary of State:
We have a Users Group for Statewide Voter Registration in place. There is one representative from each IAC District in the group. Any recommendations should go to person from your district. They are:
District I – Diedee Baird, Kootenai County Elections
District II – Julie Latham, Nez Perce County Elections
District III -- Peggy Pinkal, Adams County Elections
District IV – Larry Haycock, Twin Falls County Elections
District V -- Peg Jardine, Bannock County Elections
District VI – Lori Beard – Fremont County Elections
All -- JoMeta Spencer, Ada County Elections
Tim went over legislation proposed for election procedures and clean-up. These are:
Requiring any candidate for president not placed on the ballot by the Secretary of State to file a declaration and $1,000 filing fee no later than 50 days before the primary.
Eliminating the requirement for the name and address of person delivering an absentee ballot, to the courthouse for someone else.
Allowing central count counties to hold absentee ballots at the courthouse until tabulated instead of sending them to the polls on election day. Absentee ballot would need to be time and date stamped.
Deleting reference to the second poll book at the ballot can, however, the judge is still required to record and proclaim that the elector has voted.
Voter allowed to put ballot in ballot can.
Changing electioneering prohibition to make it more clear; only one distance – 100 feet.
Repeal code sections that have been declared unconstitutional:
Term limits pledge and information on ballot of support for congressional term limits
amendment.
Requirement that petition signatures be from 22 counties.
Clarifying numbering of all issues on the ballot. (This would eliminate confusion like there was in the general election with H.J.R. No. 2 and Proposition No. 2.)
Changes on initiative petitions – unconstitutional wording.
Allowing voters to be designated as ongoing absentee voter status.
HB 47 – Urban Renewal District – Election of Board Members, to comply with Title 34.
HB 84 -- Community College Bill – District Elections, to be conducted according to Title 34 by County Clerks; now under school consolidation elections.
HB 94 – Vote by Mail
HB 95 – Rusche’s bill that would lift limits on mail ballot precincts.
The question was asked as to whether Idaho might change the 30-day residency for voter registration to 3 months residency like driver’s license. Tim said that they were not looking to do anything on this and Ben mentioned that it would be unconstitutional; it is the same all over the country.
Jim Mairs, Elections, Secretary of State:
Jim thanked everyone for their hard work and asked that those thanks be passed on to our election staffs.
He mentioned that we must give AutoMARKS their due but they should not overtake elections.
The difficulty that Ada County had with AutoMARKS was a simple oversight. They trained people from BSU to take care of machines. There was one item missing from the checklist that caused the problems. Jim said that they will work to make things more efficient. Upgrade should fix problems.
ES&S will pay for upgrades.
The question was asked if it would be possible to have AutoMARKS ready for courthouse absentee voting. Jim did not know if that would be possible.
Lou Didier, ES&S and Katie Tate, ES&S
Expressed desire to work with the counties and to work through any existing problems. He introduced Katie Tate, Project Manager for ES&S. She will be our contact here in Idaho and will try to visit every county.
He said that it was an idea from Idaho that the pronunciation of candidates names be put on CDs prepared by the counties. They will give counties the tools to do that.
Lou advised that if counties are thinking of getting equipment, that it is important to get a demonstration and make sure there is a clear understanding of the equipment and what it can do. He said to be sure that there is a volume test on site.
Lou suggested on purchase of 650 that contract include language that ES&S upgrade to green light standards on technology changes. Also include in contract that a staff member from ES&S be at first election using counter.
More Unity on Line training opportunities will be available, possibly Wednesdays and Thursdays, and counties can avail themselves of as many training sessions as they would like.
Questions directed at Lou included one from Marie Scott, who uses a 150. She wanted to know how long they will maintain that model. Lou said that it will be good for as long as she wants to use it and the State will allow it. It would be a stand alone version and would not be 05 compliant.
Abbie Mace asked what they will do to avoid problems like they had in Bannock County. Lou said that they will be testing and have people on your staff testing. She also asked what the time line would be to replace. Lou said about 6 to 8 weeks after demonstration.
Dan English asked how Washington has done on the 650 and Lou said that they have done very well.
Dan suggested that counties go through a small election cycle first so that they can feel more comfortable for a bigger election.
Kristina Glascock said that she put a service call in a month ago and has still not received a call back. Lou said that Katie will take care of that. Kristina also asked if we will be able to use the same ballots for AutoMARK and optical scan. Lou said that as long as the dimensions are the same, it should work.
Katie Tate:
She said that her goal is to get to know everyone in each county and go over questions and concerns. Go through her directly with any concerns on ES&S equipment. She will e-mail each county with contact information.
E-recording:
President Widner encouraged members to stop by the Simplifile booth which will be up tomorrow. Washington County has been doing the e-recording for a week and it is going very well.
Draft of Legislation on Records from Supreme Court:
President Widner passed out an e-mail with proposed legislation on public records pertaining to active or former judges.
Passport Issue:
Ron Longmore brought up a passport incident in Bonneville County that he thought would be of interest to the clerks. He had a young man apply for a passport and his application was rejected because his photo identification was too recent. They sent a comprehensive questionnaire to the man to fill out and return. Ron called the passport office and discussed it with them and they said that they had to handle it the way they did because he had gotten a new drivers license and used that for photo identification and it was too recent. Ron handed out the letter received by the man and the questionnaire that was attached. He said that even though he told the passport agency representative that he knew the man personally and had known him since he was very young, they said he had to fill out the additional information. It was suggested that Ron have this discussion with his congressional representative.
Regarding passport fees, Rose Gehring reminded everyone that we need to fight any attempt to reduce Clerk’s fees on passports.
Charge for Images:
Elliott Larsen led a discussion on the need for a procedure for determining what actual costs are in producing images. Elliott said that he would like to see a standard fee for all counties. Dan English mentioned that in his county he charges $.05 per image but could possibly justify $.10 per image. Because of the large volume in his office, he feels that the $.05 is fair but other counties would have a different situation.
Marie Scott said that one problem is whether we are charging under the Public Records Law or the Recording Law. The AG’s office has waffled on this. Under Recording Law, the fee is $1.00 per page.
Duane Smith brought up digital mapping system fees. It is hard to determine costs.
Marie Scott made a motion that the IACRC use the fee set in the Recording Section of the Idaho Code when we set fees rather than the public records section.
Rose Gehring seconded the motion.
The motion failed.
President Widner asked that the Recording Committee research the issue, including charges for maps.
Charge for Alpha List and Poll Books:
Rose Gehring asked if any of the counties charge other taxing districts for alpha lists and poll books for their election. There was a mixed response. Sharon suggested that this question be put to all the clerks in a survey. Assigned to Patty Weeks.
Travel Expenses for Oregon Secretary of State:
President Widner asked for approval for the IACRC to pay travel expenses for the Oregon Secretary of State to come to Boise and appear before the legislature on Vote By Mail.
Dan English moved that travel expenses for the Oregon Secretary of State, including meals and room, be paid by the IACRC, so that he can testify before the legislature on Vote By Mail.
Trilby McAfee seconded the motion. There was no discussion. Motion passed.
1099 Audits:
Charlotte Sherburn mentioned that the IRS is auditing Idaho counties on 1099s. Each vendor needs to have a W-9 filed with the County. They are also checking out employee use of vehicles and employee use of county cell phones as fringe benefits. She wanted counties to be aware. It appears as though they are targeting the smaller counties first.
Recess:
The meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m. and will reconvene at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 8, 2007.
Minutes of the February 8, 2007 Meeting