Hartford County ROVAC Minutes for September 25, 2012
Meeting called to order by Chairperson Darlene Burrell at 9:30 am.
Chairperson Darlene Burrell began the meeting by passing around a sign in sheet and confirmation of contact information, and a ROVAC survey sheet of newspapers used for notices.
Secretary’s Report by Laura Wolfe noted one amendment to the March County Minutes. Our Ways and Means county representative should read Laura Hunt, not Laura Wolfe. Motion was made by Marie Fox and seconded by Betty Fournier to approve the March County Minutes as amended. Motion passed unanimously. Motion was made by Ed Malczyk to accept the June County minutes as amended and seconded by Laura Hunt. Motion passed unanimously.
Conference Committee Report by Linda Cultera reported that Judi Beaudreau has been elected Chairperson of that committee and that two meetings were held for the fall 2012 conference. The committee members helped plan the meals and suggested topics for the conference. Unfortunately, not all of the chosen topics were able to be presented. Questions were asked about future conference options and several suggestions were agreed upon. Hartford County members would prefer choosing central locations for future conventions, and minimizing the number of days of classes and to consider having the SOTS and ROVAC share one long day of classes instead of two days of classes. The Spring 2013 ROVAC conference will be held in Cromwell, date unknown. No committee meeting dates scheduled yet.
Education Committee Report by Sue Burnham reported that Judi Beaudreau has been elected Chairperson of the committee. Hartford County members suggested that in future planning, rather than duplicate subject matter, the SOTS and ROVAC review class content and then jointly teach classes. It is believed that the Education Committee members should be preparing class subject and material months before conference. It would also be useful for topics to concentrate on areas that the SOTS has identified historically as common issues of concern. No future committee meeting date has been set.
Certification Committee Report by Barbara Brenneman reported that they are drafting a certification course that needs to be jointly created and approved by SEEC, the SOTS, and ROVAC. This joint effort is complicated, their work is largely statute driven and they are attempting to follow the model of Town Clerk certification as a guide. Regional training locations were discussed, but cost is an issue, and an online format is being considered.
Credentials Committee has not met, only meets during voting years.
Ways and Means Committee was reported by temporary member, Laura Wolfe. Peter Gostin, as the Vice President of ROVAC, was automatically made chairperson per the bylaws. The committee held an online discussion of raffle plans through a series of emails, where choices of prizes and ticket prices were made. Committee members helped sell raffle tickets at the conference. Laura Hunt is the Hartford County Representative for this committee.
Handbook Committee Report by Darlene Burrell reported that she has been appointed chairperson of the committee and that the members have been meeting monthly. The Voter Registration section of the handbook has been completed. It will be posted on the ROVAC website and will be e-mailed to ROVAC members. Darlene noted a few highlights: Registrars may accept voter registration applications for any CT town resident. Out of town applicants are to be given a signed and dated receipt. Registrar is to mark the application with date received and identify who accepted the application; then send application to appropriate town’s registrar.
At 10:00 am the County meeting was suspended for our guest speakers from the SOTS (James Spallone, Lewis Button, Peggy Reeves and Ted Bromley).
Peggy Reeves began by addressing the currently discussed topic of cross town voter registrations and agreed that there is a need to create a receipt for the voter, and providing a time/date stamp on the receipt would be useful to document that the registration deadlines were met. It was also noted that libraries can not accept in person registrations, the cards they collect are considered mail in. Making a copy of cards before forwarding them to the appropriate town would also be a good idea.
If a voter registration card is received without a signature, date, checked US Citizen or other critical element, make a copy of the card before mailing back the original to the voter (so they can finish filling it out).
For first time asterisk voters (those who have not previously proven ID) the ID they produce needs to verify name and residence. A passport is not an acceptable ID because it does not show voter’s address. Either form of Connecticut Driver's License, gold star or Not for Federal Identification are valid to prove identity.
SOTS Deputy James Spallone thanked the ROVAC county membership, noting that election law is complex and vital, and the Secretary of the State's staff really appreciates the opportunity to discuss it at county meetings. Denise Merrill has visited Registrars in 25 towns and hopes to visit all 169 Connecticut towns to gain useful feedback. The next newsletter should be coming out today, and newsletters will now be posted on the SOTS website. Their staff is working on improving the email delivery system, possibly using Swiftpage to improve service. Regarding the lawsuit information recently sent, it was for informational purposes only. The list of Registrar duties for the November election will be resent. Election night reporting had some success, and the hope is to make the process easier, as well as more efficient. Questions were raised on the difficulties of implementation, especially for towns with multiple polling sites. By sending the numbers directly from the polling sites immediately to SOTS, the hope is to improve accuracy as well as the speed of reporting. It was noted that Head moderators can review the data before it is sent and make corrections if needed. Some towns elected to send the data from the Registrars office instead of the polling site.
Attorney Lewis Button overviewed the emergency plan regulation which will be implemented this year. The proposed SOTS draft template of an emergency election plan for statewide use has been approved by the attorney general's office and as of 9/25/2012 the state legislative regulations review committee, so within 6 months of it's adoption – ie. 3/25/2012, it will become by default the town plan for any town that has not locally approved an alternate emergency plan. A three person team of the two Registrars and the Town Clerk are in charge of deciding whether to use the state template or create a local version, which must then be approved by their local governing board. He reviewed the eight elements specified by statute that must be included but noted that the new draft template has 34 sections covering a wider range of disaster planning and preparation issues. All towns are being urged to have some contingency plans in place for the November 6th election. It was noted that Farmington had a judge intervene to allow changing their polling sites, consolidated to one site during the November 2011 election. It was recommended that towns that use schools have a planning meeting with their Superintendent to go over contingency plans such as lock downs and perhaps having a no school policy on Election days.
Two upcoming events were noted, a postal webinar with USPS and a Registrar conference call with the SOTS are planned, emails with details were sent.
Attorney Ted Bromley answered several questions. State statutes only recognize active and inactive voter registration lists. Please follow state record retention guidelines and get required permission to destroy purged records. In most cases voter application cards must be kept for five years after being removed from active status. Except for former voters who were moved to off status because of death are purged after one year.
Ballot order had not been determined as of 9/25, still in court at the time of our meeting.
Presidential ballots that will be supplied by the SOTS must be hand counted. Towns may order machine readable ballots at their own expense.
The laminated posters for voter rights, ID, etc. that are required at polling sites have their dimensions determined by statute, smaller versions may not be used.
For assessing the mandated yearly ten hours of Registrar education, the time spent at county meetings listening to SOTS staff speakers does count toward the ten hours.
If a voter, after being checked in, decides not to vote and returns their ballot, that ballot should be spoiled and proper notation made by moderator. Any discrepancy between cross off and counted ballots should be documented at the end of the night. Never include a voter's name in regard to spoiled or abandoned ballots. If the voter puts a blank ballot into the machine, upon rejection, the voter should place it in the auxiliary bin if they choose not to make any changes.
A minimum of four memory cards are going to be required by the SOTS for every polling place, to ensure that card issues are minimized. A separate memory card will not be needed to count absentee ballot or Presidential ballots unless desired.
Very Important, polling place totals must be reported by District per statute. It is required information for the Town Clerk's reports.
The cross endorsed calculation widget is available on the SOTS website, but an email with directions for moderators will also be sent.
At 12pm the Hartford County ROVAC meeting was reconvened.
Chairperson Darlene Burrell explained that our Legislative Committee Representative (small town) Sue Larson was elected as chairperson of the committee. Therefore, there was an opening for the position. Karen Cortez was suggested by Sue Larson and the group unanimously approved the appointment..
Darlene explained that the new bylaws include the position of Treasurer to the County Board. Sue Larsen moved that we open the floor to nominations and Janet Viggiano seconded. Motion was unanimously passed. Sue Larsen nominated Susan Burham and moved to put the nomination to a vote, Janet Viggiano seconded. Nomination passed unanimously.
Chairperson Darlene Burrell opened up the idea of whether or not to have a coffee fund so that coffee could be provided for future county meetings. The subject is to be discussed at the next meeting.
Legislative Committee Report by Sue Larsen noted that their committee is meeting on the first Thursday of each month in Middlefield Town Hall at 10 am, and invited any interested Registrars to join them. She mentioned that Denise has asked the Legislative Committee to wait until after the November election to discuss the implementation of EDR and on line voter registration.
Technology Committee Report by Ann Kilby reported that Matt Waggner was elected chairperson of the committee. Ann was unable to attend the last meeting, but did attend a demonstration of the Election Night Reporting program and noted that the August results are still being reviewed. No future meeting date has been set.
The next county meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 in Wethersfield at 9:30 am.
Rich Contrastano, Canton Deputy and video producer expressed an interest in making a video to promote ROVAC to be posted on the ROVAC website or on DVD? Darlene is going to share the offer with the ROVAC board.
Chairperson Darlene Burrell shared information from Peter Gostin regarding the possibility of having a county website. The membership was asked if there was an interest and Carol Hurley volunteered to look further into it.
The 5th District was required to hold an unprecedented second primary on October 2nd by court order, but Anita Mips assured everyone Windsor did not need any extra help. She shared that getting ballots and memory cards on short notice, while not cheap because of the extra shipping charges, was done quickly.
Chairperson Darlene Burrell reminded everyone to try and participate in the upcoming stress test next week.
Sue Burnham moved to close the meeting, Maureen Wolf seconded. Motion was passed unanimously.
Respectfully submitted by Laura Wolfe, Hartford County Secretary