1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 *************************************** 9 U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION 10 PUBLIC MEETING 11 DECEMBER 11, 2007 12 *************************************** 13 14 15 UNITED STATES ELECTION ASSISTANCE 16 COMMISSION PUBLIC MEETING was taken before 17 April C. Balcombe and Michelle Robertson, 18 Certified Shorthand Reporters in and for the 19 State of Texas, reported by computerized 20 stenotype machine at the Omni Austin Hotel 21 Downtown, 700 San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin, 22 Texas 78701, on December 11, 2007 commencing at 23 the hour of 8:30 a.m. 24 25 TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 2 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 >> DAVIDSON: Good morning, everybody, I 3 am going to call the meeting to order. I would 4 first like to everybody to please turn off your 5 cell phones or turn it off vibrate so it won't 6 interrupt the meeting. And I would like 7 everybody to please stand and we'll do the 8 Pledge of Allegiance. 9 >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the 10 United States of America and to the Republic 11 for which it stands, one nation, under God, 12 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 13 >> DAVIDSON: Thank you. Our acting chief 14 general Council, Galvin Gilmour, would you 15 please do the role call. 16 >> GILMOUR: Certainly. Please respond 17 verbally when I call your name. 18 Chair Donetta Davidson? 19 >> DAVIDSON: Present. 20 >> GILMOUR: Vice Chair Rosemary 21 Rodriguez? 22 >> RODRIGUEZ: Here. 23 >> GILMOUR: Commissioner Gracia Hillman. 24 >> HILLMAN: Here. 25 >> GILMOUR: Commissioner Carolyn Hunter? TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 3 1 >> HUNTER: Here. 2 >> GILMOUR: All of the Commissioners are 3 present. 4 >> DAVIDSON: Thank you very much. If you 5 would turn to Tab 1, the adoption of the agenda 6 is up next. 7 I move. I move for the adoption of the 8 agenda for today, December 11th, 2007. 9 Do we have a second? 10 >> HUNTER: Second. 11 >> DAVIDSON: All those in favor say 12 "aye." 13 >> Aye. 14 >> DAVIDSON: Any opposing? 15 All right. Moving on. We have the 16 minutes of the public meeting, and I would ask 17 if the commissioners have any changes or if 18 there is a motion to approve? 19 >> RODRIGUEZ: I move for adoption of the 20 minutes of the last meeting held on 21 November 13th, 2007. 22 >> DAVIDSON: Thank you very much. 23 Do we have a second? 24 >> HUNTER: Second. 25 >> DAVIDSON: I have a motion made and TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 4 1 seconded. Would everybody vote on the motion, 2 please, vote approving the minutes? Aye. 3 >> Aye. 4 >> DAVIDSON: Thank you. We know we want 5 to get done with our meeting right away, 6 because we have a lot scheduled for the day and 7 for this week to come. 8 But I want to take a moment and welcome 9 everybody and say good morning, and I wanted to 10 say, it is really great having you in Austin, 11 Texas, to be here with us this morning. 12 I want to thank our Standards Board and 13 our Board of Advisors members that are here 14 today in coming in early in taking part. And 15 we appreciate their continued hard work to 16 advise the commission. So welcome to 17 everybody. Thank you for being here. 18 Also, if you can see, we are using a 19 C.A.R.T. process here, which is also a 20 closed-caption service, to make sure we have 21 everything identified. 22 Anybody who is doing a presentation, would 23 you please make sure that you give your name, 24 and we have to be careful that we don't 25 interrupt each other, because if we speak over TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 5 1 each other, we will not get it captioned 2 correctly up on the board. 3 So saying that, we'll move on and we'll go 4 into old business -- or new business, I mean. 5 And we have the election of officers. 6 This is the last meeting that I will be serving 7 as Chair of the E.A.C. It has been a -- really 8 a great Chair year, and I think, as you will 9 see from the staff that is going to be doing 10 presentations, you'll see why I am so proud of 11 our staff and of the Commission. 12 But as we move forward, it is time to 13 elect a new Chair, and Vice Chair of the 14 Commission. 15 With that, I am going to open the floor 16 for the nomination of Chair, but I am going to 17 take the prerogative of -- since I am the 18 Chair, to nominate Rosemary Rodriguez for Chair 19 of the Commission. Are there any other 20 nominations for Chair of the Commission? 21 Seeing none, I would like to close the 22 nominations on the floor and call for a vote. 23 All those in favor for Rosemary Rodriguez 24 for Chair, please say "aye." 25 >> Aye. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 6 1 >> DAVIDSON: Opposed? 2 Congratulations, Commissioner Rodriguez. 3 I will now move forward, and the Chair 4 will open up the floor for Vice Chair of the 5 Commission. Are there any nominations for Vice 6 Chair? 7 Yes, Commissioner, Rodriguez? 8 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. I 9 would be very pleased to put nomination of seat 10 for Vice Chair of the Commission, Commissioner 11 Carolyn Hunter. 12 >> DAVIDSON: Are there any other 13 nominations? Seeing no other nominations, the 14 floor is closed on nominations. I will call 15 for a vote. All those in favor for 16 Commissioner Hunter as Vice Chair, please say 17 "aye." 18 >> Aye. 19 >> DAVIDSON: Opposed? 20 Well congratulations to both of you. 21 I am going to turn the floor over to each 22 one of them for their remarks. But before I 23 do, I would like to say a few words about each 24 one of them. 25 First and most important, Rosemary -- TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 7 1 congratulations, Commissioner Rodriguez -- she 2 is a fellow Coloradan, so you know that means a 3 great deal to me, and I know personally that 4 our Commission will be in good hands. 5 Prior to coming to the E.A.C., 6 Commissioner Rodriguez served in the great city 7 of Denver in several ways. I am going to name 8 the main ones: First, as city clerk and 9 recorder and then as -- in the city council, 10 and then finally, she served as president of 11 city council in 2005 and 2006. 12 In these roles, Commissioner Rodriguez 13 worked hard to help voters to register to vote, 14 making voting accessible to all citizens, and 15 to help assure that elections are accurate and 16 transparent. 17 Since coming to the E.A.C., she has 18 continued to focus on the same principles. She 19 has recently started a series of brown bag 20 lunches in order to allow an open dialogue 21 between E.A.C. and all of those who were 22 working to improve elections. 23 Also, Commissioner Rodriguez has focused 24 on ensuring that the E.A.C. continues to make 25 itself as open and transparent as possible. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 8 1 Commissioner Rodriguez, thank you for all 2 of your hard work, and I look forward to 3 working with you in the future. And I know 4 that our agency will be in good hands with you 5 as Chair. 6 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. 7 >> DAVIDSON: Commissioner Hunter, 8 Commissioner Hunter has worked with the states 9 on state laws and regulations as the Help 10 America Vote was implemented. 11 First, prior to coming to the E.A.C, 12 commissioner Hunter served as the deputy 13 director of the White House Office of Public 14 Liaison. And prior to that, she was an 15 Executive Officer for the Department of 16 Homeland Security. 17 Since coming to the E.A.C., Commissioner 18 Hunter has continued to work hard hand-in-hand 19 with the states and local officials in order to 20 ensure that they are able to best serve their 21 voters while meeting the laws of HAVA. 22 Congratulations, Commissioner Hunter. I 23 will give each one of you a time to have a bit 24 of a conversation. 25 So Commissioner Rodriguez, you're the new TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 9 1 Chair to be, so I will give you the opportunity 2 first. 3 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair, I 4 will be very brief because we have a meaty 5 agenda. 6 I look forward to the coming year. I've 7 learned a lot from each of my fellow 8 commissioners over the last year, and I know I 9 am prepared for 2008, look forward to it, and I 10 hope that -- hope that it will be a good year. 11 Thank you. 12 >> DAVIDSON: I am sure it will be. Thank 13 you. 14 Commissioner Hunter. 15 >> HUNTER: Thank you, Madam Chair, and I 16 look forward to serving with Rosemary 17 Rodriguez. We started the Commission on the 18 very same day, so it will be a lot of fun to 19 work together next year and thank you for Madam 20 Chairman, and Donetta Davidson, I have enjoyed 21 and look forward to another 2008 as well. 22 Thank you very much. 23 >> HILLMAN: Madam Chair -- you keep 24 rolling right along here -- and I want to take 25 this moment to thank you for your service this TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 10 1 year. It has been one heck of a year, one heck 2 of a roller-coaster ride. And you served us 3 well, and I appreciate very much what you have 4 done for E.A.C., as well as your hanging in 5 there with us. 6 And also, too, Commissioner Rodriguez, for 7 your service as Vice Chair and looking forward 8 to your service as Chair next year, and looking 9 forward to when we can hear, you know, sort of 10 about what the direction is and where you will 11 go, and to Commissioner Hunter as well, serving 12 as Vice Chair. Congratulations to both of you. 13 And just for the record, Madam Chair, when 14 will this take effect? 15 >> DAVIDSON: Commissioner Rodriguez, have 16 you exactly set the date for sure? I think -- 17 >> RODRIGUEZ: I haven't set the date. 18 The installation will be in conjunction with a 19 meeting of the commission in January, and I 20 will work with everybody on their agendas. It 21 has been hard for me to know what to do and not 22 jump the gun, and so I will start on that 23 immediately. 24 >> DAVIDSON: Thank you. Well, I do want 25 to say congratulations to both of you, and I am TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 11 1 looking forward to working with you. And I 2 think the four of us, we have a lot to do as we 3 well know. And working together and figure out 4 how we can work together and as always, we have 5 been in a learning process so it has been an 6 interesting year. Moving forward, as I said 7 earlier, this is the last meeting of 2007. And 8 so I ask for a report from the senior staff and 9 our director Tom Wilkey, and I will turn it 10 over to him to give the end of the year report 11 along with his senior staff. 12 >> WILKEY: Thank you, Madam Chair. I am 13 joined here today by three of our senior 14 program managers, Brian Hancock, Edgardo 15 Cortes, and Karen Lynn-Dyson, and they will be 16 sharing with me with great pride some of the 17 work that we have accomplished during 2007. 18 These include establishment of the federal 19 government's first voting systems certification 20 program, information distributed to assist 21 election officials in the administration of 22 elections, which was very well received. We 23 launched our language accessibility program. 24 We had two new commissioners join the EAC, and 25 we looked inward, working to make internal TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 12 1 changes to ensure efficiency and transparency. 2 Under voting system testing and 3 certification, Brian will go into detail in a 4 few minutes. But let me just go over a few of 5 the major milestones. We launched our full 6 certification program in January. We now have 7 four accredited test labs and we have 11 8 registered manufacturers. Eight voting systems 9 are currently being tested. We have also 10 launched the voting system report clearinghouse 11 which contains reports about voting systems 12 that have been conducted by state and local 13 officials. And of course, we have already 14 issued the -- through the TGDC the recommended 15 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, and they 16 are available during this public comment period 17 on our website, which I will be refer to often 18 EAC.gov. Under election assistance or 19 assistance for election officials, again you 20 will hear more about what we have done from 21 Brian, but I want to spend just a few minutes 22 discussing one of the most popular and 23 successful E.A.C. initiatives and everywhere I 24 go, I hear from election officials how pleased 25 they have been with this particular project. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 13 1 And that is our election management guidelines 2 program and the accompanying quick start 3 guides. 4 We issued this information to over 6,000 5 election officials throughout the country. 6 They include such issues as absentee testing -- 7 acceptance testing, absentee voting, and vote 8 by mail, our certification, contingency and 9 disaster planning, media and public relations, 10 manage and change, polling place and vote 11 centers, voting system security. Our research 12 director Karen Lynn-Dyson has also issued some 13 very valuable information to election 14 officials. She is going to discuss that in a 15 few minutes. But I want to recognize her 16 efforts in getting these valuable resources 17 out. 18 As all of you know, finding and keeping 19 poll workers continues to be a major challenge 20 throughout the nation. That is why we issued 21 the successful practices for poll worker 22 recruitment retention training in our guide 23 book for recruiting college poll workers. 24 Ballot design is also crucial in the successful 25 administration of elections, the effective TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 14 1 design of federal elections which covers not 2 only valid design but also polling place 3 signage. It also covers how to best serve 4 voters with limited English proficiency. 5 Karen has also issued the 2006 Uniform and 6 Overseas Assistance Voting Act survey. She 7 also convened a very productive conference 8 about how to better serve these voters. And of 9 course, she is responsible for the 2006 10 Election Day survey, which we will be 11 discussing later today. 12 One of the programs we have been very 13 pleased about is our language accessibility 14 program. This is another E.A.C. initiative we 15 are very proud of. Edgardo Cortes and Laiza 16 Otero oversaw the successful adoption of the 17 Spanish glossary of election terminology. The 18 first time this glossary has been updated since 19 1972. We have also translated the national 20 voter registration form into Spanish. Next on 21 the agenda is to issue a similar glossary in 22 five Asian languages as well as provide a 23 translation of the national forum. You will 24 hear more about this under our how to 25 management program from Edgardo. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 15 1 We of course welcomed two new 2 commissioners to the E.A.C. this year, Rosemary 3 Rodriguez and Carolyn Hunter. Both have 4 brought valuable knowledge and experience to 5 the E.A.C. It has been a smooth transition, I 6 know the staff has enjoyed working with both of 7 them, and we appreciate their support as well. 8 We have been looking inward, increasing 9 transparency and accountability. The E.A.C. 10 has produced a lot of valuable resources and 11 launched a very ambitious voting system program 12 this year. 13 But we have recognized the need to look 14 inward and make some changes. The E.A.C. has 15 received criticism over the way it handled some 16 of our research, and we have been accused of 17 not acting in a transparent manner. We take 18 this criticism very seriously. 19 That is why our Chair, with the support 20 all of all of the Commissioners, asked our 21 Inspector General to review the Vote Fraud and 22 Intimidation Research Project. We anxiously 23 await that report and will make whatever 24 changes are necessary. 25 The IG report will be made public and TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 16 1 provided to Congress. E.A.C. provided more 2 than 40,000 pages of documents to Congress 3 regarding this issue, and the Commission voted 4 to release all of them to the public. E.A.C. 5 also has a lot of work to do regarding our 6 internal procedures and policies. 7 We have already been working to properly 8 document our administrative procedures in the 9 Code of Federal Regulations. E.A.C. has 10 contracted with ICF International to assist in 11 the process and to establish an aggressive time 12 line to accomplish its administrative 13 regulation codes. 14 The following is a summary of the 15 activities undertaken to date. The E.A.C. 16 established a CFR site at 11 CFR, Chapter I-II 17 parts, 94 through 94-99. The E.A.C. has draft 18 organizational structure for its CFR site. 19 The E.A.C. staff and counsel are presently 20 reviewing and editing draft regulations in the 21 following areas: Freedom of Information Act, 22 Confidential Business Information and Trade 23 Secrets, Government and the Sunshine Act, 24 Federal Advisory Committees Act, Privacy Act, 25 Nondiscrimination of E.A.C. programs, grants TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 17 1 Management, Document and Witness Production in 2 Civil Litigation. 3 I will also include under this that staff 4 has been working with Council and others and 5 with our Inspector General on a new 6 organizational chart, which will be presented 7 to you in January for your approval. 8 After initial review, staff will present 9 the regulations for review and approval before 10 going through the federal regulatory process. 11 We have already made changes to increase 12 transparency which includes a very aggressive 13 notification program about developments and 14 updates voting system program, a newly designed 15 website that is updated daily, sometimes more 16 than once a day. We have already had 3,678,318 17 hits. Top page destinations include register 18 to vote, voting system testing and 19 certification and laboratory accreditation of 20 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines and the 21 Spanish glossary of election terms. The most 22 popular download was the National Voter 23 Registration form. 24 In addition to information about voting 25 systems and voting system test laboratories, TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 18 1 official minutes and agendas of registered 2 voters, public meeting and hearing schedules, 3 E.A.C. studies and research and more 4 information about election administration and 5 HAVA are all available at eac.gov. 6 It includes a foyer reading room which 7 provides direct access to the most frequently 8 requested documents, including the 40,000 pages 9 that we provided to Congress. Commissioner 10 Hillman spearheaded the establishment of a 11 virtual meeting room at the E.A.C. website in 12 which the public can observe draft documents as 13 well as the comments submitted by our advisory 14 and standard board members. 15 Vice Chair Rodriguez has made transparency 16 a top issue and priority. Her first statement 17 as commissioner addressed this very issue. She 18 also established the brown bag lunch meeting 19 program concept for the public to share ideas 20 and discuss issues with the commissioner. 21 Chair Davidson has established bipartisan 22 subcommittees to oversee budget, research in 23 the voter registration act. Commissioner 24 Hunter has also demonstrated her strong support 25 of operating transparently as evidenced by the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 19 1 posting of her proposed NVRA internal procedure 2 prior to the commission vote. 3 The commissioners have also insisted on 4 taking more votes in public instead of through 5 our tally vote process. Looking ahead, as we 6 move into 2008, the E.A.C. will focus even more 7 of its efforts to support election officials as 8 they prepare for a busy election year. Our 9 certification program will continue to 10 experience an increase in activity, and we will 11 continue to keep the public updated. We will 12 likely make tough calls in the future but we 13 have a responsibility to put voting systems 14 through a thorough and rigorous certification 15 process. We have an aggressive research 16 agenda, and we plan to increase our efforts to 17 provide a national clearinghouse of information 18 about election administration. 19 E.A.C. will continue to seek public input 20 into our activities through an accessible and 21 transparent process. Just as we have already 22 done for the transfer of the NVR regulations 23 and the draft VVSG. I must close by saying 24 that I am very proud of the E.A.C. staff. They 25 do a lot with very little. We have confidence TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 20 1 in them and I want them to know how much I 2 appreciate all that they do. Thank you very 3 much for this opportunity to address you. I am 4 now going to turn the next portion over to our 5 director of certification, Brian Hancock. 6 >> HANCOCK: Thank you, Mr. Wilkey, Madam 7 Chair, commissioners. This morning I am happy 8 to give you the year-end report for 2007 for 9 the testing and certification division. What I 10 would like to do is go through each of the four 11 functional areas within our division and give 12 you a little briefing on what went on this 13 year. 14 We will start with the management 15 guidelines portion of our program. Mr. Wilkey 16 certainly covered this, but I would like to 17 reiterate that we did release seven new quick 18 start guides this year and again, they were 19 voting systems certification, acceptance 20 testing, absentee voting and vote by mail, 21 contingency and disaster planning, media and 22 public relations, managing change in an 23 election office and polling place and vote 24 centers. 25 We are currently finalizing the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 21 1 accompanying chapters in the management 2 guidelines manual detailing more specifics in 3 all of these important areas. We believe these 4 will be ready for approval by the full 5 commission very early next year. I also wanted 6 to note that all of these documents, including 7 the manual, are available on the tables outside 8 of this room for any members of the audience 9 that would like to pick up one. So we 10 encourage you to do that. 11 Our next area within our division is the 12 laboratory accreditation program. This year, 13 as Mr. Wilkey noted, we accredited four voting 14 system test laboratories under our HAVA 15 mandated program, working in conjunction with 16 our partners at the National Voluntary 17 Laboratory Accreditation program, NVLAC at 18 NIST. These labs are iBeta Quality Assurance, 19 SysTest Laboratories, infoGard Laboratories, 20 and Wyle Laboratories. We expect to have other 21 laboratories be presented to the commission 22 from lab this year, and we will do our due 23 diligence looking at these labs and forward 24 them to the commission for a vote as we have in 25 the past. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 22 1 We have also spent considerable time this 2 year in conjunction with our general counsel's 3 office on developing our draft of the new 4 laboratory accreditation program manual. We 5 hope to have this manual posted, draft manual 6 posted on the E.A.C. website later this week 7 and the document will also be noticed in the 8 Federal Register for a 30-day public comment 9 period in conjunction with a 60-day public 10 comment period required under the Paperwork 11 Reduction Act. This is very similar in fact 12 exactly what we did where the testing and 13 certification program manual last year. 14 Let's move on to the testing certification 15 program. At the December 2006 E.A.C. public 16 meeting, the commissioners voted to adopt the 17 E.A.C. testing and certification program 18 manual, which I just spoke. This document 19 outlines and the detail E.A.C. process and 20 procedures for moving of voting system through 21 our certification program beginning with the 22 registration of a voting system manufacturer 23 and ending with a certified voting system 24 product. 25 Pursuant to the requirements of the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 23 1 manual, in 2007, the E.A.C. staff processed 2 eleven manufacturer registrations, eight 3 applications for testing voting systems, one of 4 which has since been terminated. We have 5 issued six interpretations of the 2002 6 Voluntary Voting System Standards or the 2005 7 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. We have 8 issued five notices of classification regarding 9 various aspects of our certification program 10 manual. We have drafted and released at least 11 ten notices of noncompliance and other 12 correspondence to either voting system 13 manufacturers or test laboratories. 14 In addition, the E.A.C. has posted test 15 plans and will of course post final test 16 reports on the E.A.C. website as well as any 17 other relevant information related to voting 18 systems and voting system testing. Finally, we 19 will talk a little bit about what we have done 20 on the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines this 21 year. 22 Technical Guidelines Development 23 Committee, TGDC, recommendations for the next 24 iteration of the Voluntary Voting System 25 Guidelines were received by the E.A.C. from our TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 24 1 partners at NIST on August 31st, 2007. 2 During September and October, the E.A.C. worked 3 to developed a plan for the public review and 4 ultimate adoption of these guidelines and to 5 develop an HTML version of the documents and a 6 web-based comment portal to provide easy access 7 for members of the public wishing to comment on 8 this document. 9 The initial public comment period began 10 with notice in the Federal Register on 11 November 6th, 2007. This 120-day public 12 comment period will end March 5th, 2008. 13 This initial phase is only the beginning of the 14 process for the adoption of the next iteration 15 of the guidelines. Work will continue well 16 into 2008 and likely into 2009 so that the 17 E.A.C. can receive as much input as possible 18 from all of our stakeholders both on the 19 current TGDC recommendations and later on the 20 E.A.C. draft of Volunteer Voting System 21 Guidelines. A full description of the process 22 for reviewing and adopting the guidelines for 23 the next iteration of the VVSG is available on 24 the E.A.C.'s website. 25 Finally, none of us here at this table TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 25 1 could succeed without the great assistance from 2 all the other staff members at the E.A.C. I 3 would like to particularly thank Laiza Otero 4 and Matt Masterson who have done excellent work 5 this year for the testing certification 6 program. With that, move to Edgardo. 7 >> CORTES: Good morning, Commissioners. 8 Thank you, Brian. I have a Power Point because 9 I have a couple of figures that I thought would 10 be helpful to have up for the public to see. 11 The Election Administration Support 12 Division had a very busy year this year. First 13 off, we have a couple of major program areas 14 that we are responsible for. Probably the 15 biggest is management of the HAVA payment and 16 this includes the whole gamut of oversight 17 functions from the distribution of the money to 18 resolving audits. 19 We also are responsible -- or the division 20 is responsible for National Registration Act 21 implementation. We have recently been tasked 22 and will be working with the other division in 23 the office of general counsel on the title 24 three voluntary guidance required under HAVA. 25 Tom mentioned and I will get into a little bit TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 26 1 more detail concerning the language 2 accessibility program, the Help America Vote 3 college program which includes grants which we 4 hope to have some funding from Congress this 5 coming year to give out more grants for that 6 program, the general E.A.C. poll worker program 7 and the national parent student mock election 8 grant program. 9 Start off with the oversight of HAVA 10 payments. One of the big things that we are 11 proud of this year is that we were able to 12 finally put together a big training session 13 during the NASS and NASED winter meetings 14 concerning allocable uses of and the accounting 15 for the funds the states received under 16 sections 101, 102, and 251. This training was 17 very well received by election officials. 18 There is a Power Point presentation of 19 that that is posted on our website. We also 20 this year, prior to the reporting deadlines, 21 put together a sample annual financial 22 reporting forms so that states could -- we were 23 still getting complaints that folks weren't 24 sure how to fill out and submit their annual 25 report properly so we took that on as a step to TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 27 1 give people the information they needed. And 2 again all those training materials are posted 3 on E.A.C.'s website. 4 Very big project this year for us was the 5 first report that E.A.C. has issued to Congress 6 on states' use of HAVA funds. This covered 7 Section 101 and 102 funds as of December 31st 8 of 2006 and Section 251 funds as of 9 September 30, 2006. 10 This report disclosed at approximately 11 $1.8 billion of HAVA funds had been spent, 12 about 1.3 billion was remaining, and that 13 states had -- as of the close of the reporting 14 period, states had earned approximately 15 152 million-dollar worth of interest on HAVA 16 funds. 17 And HAVA has set up a very unique program 18 for the federal government -- in the realm of 19 federal government funding where states 20 actually get to keep the interest, and it goes 21 back to supporting the HAVA programs. 22 We also have here -- I am not sure how 23 clearly it shows up for the audience -- but 24 here is a breakdown basically in terms of the 25 major categories that HAVA funds could be used TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 28 1 for. 2 I think the biggest thing here is that 3 over 75percent of the funds went to either the 4 purchase of new voting systems or the 5 implementation of the statewide voter 6 registration databases. 7 Those were the two big ticket items in 8 HAVA and the report that we are able to put 9 together based on the information provided by 10 the states shows what this really is what the 11 funds have been going for. 12 The category of improving administration 13 of federal elections, a lot of that was 14 training related to implementing these things, 15 so... 16 Also, this is a little bit updated list, 17 since we issued our report. We've had six 18 states so far, certified to the E.A.C., they 19 have complied with all of the requirements of 20 HAVA, Title III, and those are American Samoa, 21 Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, and 22 Pennsylvania. 23 We expect that in the coming year, we'll 24 probably be getting more certifications that 25 states have met the requirements of Title III. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 29 1 During fiscal year 2007, our division 2 issued 26 audit resolution reports. Nine of 3 those were for audits conducted by the office 4 of inspector general, and 17 were done under 5 the Single Audit Act. 6 Now, as you can see, over 10 million -- 7 under the office of the Inspector General 8 reports, over $10 million were repaid to state 9 election funds for questions of costs, for 10 missing state matching funds, and lost 11 interest. About 68,000 was repaid to the U.S. 12 Treasury for unallowable costs. 13 Again, under the single audits, about 1.3 14 million was paid to state election funds for 15 those reasons and 90,000 was repaid to the U.S. 16 Treasury. 17 The money that went back to state election 18 funds will be available obviously for those 19 states to be used towards HAVA programs in the 20 future. 21 One of the items that we're very proud of, 22 and Tom mentioned, and is our Language 23 Accessibility Program. We released in April of 24 this year our "Glossary of Key Election 25 Terminology in English and Spanish," and that's TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 30 1 a -- that stems from a publication that the 2 F.E.C. last published in 1979 and had not been 3 updated since then. 4 This glossary now contains 1,843 terms 5 dealing with election administration and has 6 been very well received by election officials 7 around the country. 8 When we go to the public meetings and we 9 have out the hard copies, they go pretty 10 quickly. It is also available for download on 11 our website. 12 One very exciting thing is that we will 13 add to the same -- the same 1,843 terms, we'll 14 have five additional glossaries coming out by 15 this coming summer, and those are in the five 16 Asian languages that are covered by the Voting 17 Rights Act. 18 That will be Chinese, Japanese, Korean, 19 Vietnamese, and Tagalog. We will also, in 20 connection with the Management Guidelines 21 Program, in the late spring, be starting work 22 on dealing with how election officials can deal 23 with getting information to nonwritten 24 languages. 25 You know, this -- actually Lyso Tharrell TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 31 1 [phonetic] who is under the testing and 2 certification program who does a lot of work on 3 the Language Accessibility Program. She is not 4 here today. She is actually in Arizona 5 attending an event dealing with providing 6 assistance to native Americans, so it is a very 7 exciting project that we have going on. 8 The last thing that I'll -- that I'll go 9 over are actions under the National Voter 10 Registration Act this year. Tom mentioned that 11 the National Voter Registration form is 12 actually the most downloaded document on our 13 website. And that is a consistent thing from 14 month to month, where it is the biggest 15 download. 16 We have prepared and presented information 17 on NVRA issues at every public meeting since 18 the September meeting. We also went through a 19 public comment period -- and I'll be talking 20 about this a little bit later in the meeting -- 21 but went through and recently finished a public 22 comment period on whether or not the Commission 23 should transfer the regulations which were 24 previously adopted by the F.E.C. 25 We've also provided the Commission with a TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 32 1 framework and time line for the NVRA 2 rule-making progress. Again, I'll be talking 3 about those issues a little bit later in 4 today's meetings. Those are the major 5 activities that went on this year. Thank you. 6 I will pass it on to Karen. 7 >> LYNN-DYSON: Good morning. I have a 8 number of slides here, because we did a lot in 9 the research department this year. I am going 10 to quickly go through them, and just highlight 11 the major projects and products, actually, that 12 came out of our work this year. 13 As, I know the Commissioners know, the 14 public, to refresh their memory, E.A.C.'s goal 15 is to satisfactorily conduct and report to 16 Congress the sorted research studies that are 17 described in HAVA approximately $1.1 million in 18 E.A.C.'s budget is to go to research studies 19 and surveys. 20 And the research work that I undertake 21 with our contractors results in guidance and 22 guidelines and identifying best practices and 23 collecting and disseminating key data the 24 conduct and administration of elections. 25 Thus far, we have completed or are in the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 33 1 process of completing 17 research projects. A 2 couple of following slides enumerate the 3 projects that we are presently undertaking or 4 have actually completed: The NVRA report for 5 2005, 2006, the UOCAVA survey report findings, 6 the 2006 election administration and voting 7 survey report key findings. And you'll be 8 hearing much more in a few moments about the 9 findings from the 2006 survey. 10 Tom mentioned earlier our considerable 11 work we did this year around the recruitment 12 training and retention of poll workers in the 13 form of the series of guidebooks that we 14 created. 15 He also mentioned our effective designs 16 for the administration of federal elections 17 work, and our UOCAVA study which culminated in 18 a conference this September. 19 We have coming in the next, really month 20 or so, the results of our -- and we will 21 present to the public, the results of our 22 first-time voters who register to vote by mail 23 study. 24 >> LYNN-DYSON: This September we have 25 upcoming in the next month or so the results of TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 34 1 our -- and we will present to the public the 2 results of our first-time voters who registered 3 to vote by mail study, our voter hot lines 4 report, our information website study, our free 5 absentee ballot posted return study, our 6 alternative voting methods study, and finally, 7 the ongoing work that we do under a three-year 8 contract with the National Academy of Sciences, 9 related to the ongoing implementation of 10 statewide voter registration databases. A 11 visual here you have of the first three big 12 studies that were done, and you will hear more 13 about again the Election Administration Voting 14 survey study that includes in it the NVRA 15 report that came out in June, the UOCAVA report 16 which came out in September. 17 I am going to skip over the -- quickly go 18 through the NVRA report, the findings 19 essentially. We found that there was an 20 increase in the number of persons registered to 21 vote from 2002 to 2006, but it was a decrease 22 from numbers reported in 2004. Our UOCAVA 23 report found that we are required by HAVA to 24 provide two basic numbers, that is the number 25 of UOCAVA votes cast and the number of votes TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 35 1 counted. You will see on the slide here that 2 we had almost a million UOCAVA absentee ballots 3 were requested and a little more than a 4 thousand UOCAVA ballots were cast or counted. 5 Kim Brace will talk a little bit more about 6 some of what we found in terms of reporting 7 these kinds of numbers and some of the 8 tremendous difficulties we have encountered in 9 collecting this information. 10 I will skip over the 2006 survey slide 11 since Kim will be talking about that in a few 12 minutes. Here again, a slide that kind of 13 captures the key studies and products which 14 came out of our work related to poll workers. 15 In July and in August distributed in our first 16 round of printing these guidebooks on 17 successful practices for recruiting and 18 training and retaining poll workers and in the 19 general public as well as college poll workers. 20 We also with that project, did a compendium of 21 state poll worker requirements which captured 22 the state laws and regulations related to poll 23 workers early last year. As you all know, in 24 the elections field that is somewhat of a 25 moving target. And we hope to continue to TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 36 1 update those statutes and those requirements in 2 the coming years. 3 We -- I am very excited to say that we are 4 on the second printing of these guide books and 5 I anticipate that the general poll worker guide 6 book, the compendium, and the college poll 7 worker guide book all in their second printing 8 will be distributed to over 6,000 jurisdictions 9 by the end of December. 10 You see in this slide the good work that 11 we did in our effective designs for the 12 administration of federal elections, quite a 13 mouthful project. This was a project which was 14 undertaken by the American Institution of 15 Graphic Art and its nonprofit affiliate Design 16 for Democracy. It resulted in a very, very 17 useful set of -- they like to call them 18 exhibits, products, if you will, related to 19 polling place signage and ballot designs. 20 There are actually some 600 polling place 21 signs, many of which are in Spanish and 22 Chinese, along with English. We have ballot 23 designs, as you can see from this slide, that 24 relate to optical scan, full face D.R.E., 25 rolling D.R.E., voting machines and this series TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 37 1 of CDs are also in their second printing and I 2 anticipate by the end of December over 5,000, 3 closer to 6,000 of those CD's will have been 4 distributed to election officials throughout 5 the country. 6 So they will have an opportunity to take 7 and use, we hope, liberally, the ballot design 8 prototypes and working with their vendors in 9 the polling place signs that their local 10 election officials can actually use directly. 11 And just have them printed. Our UOCAVA study 12 concluded its primary work in October until 13 which we had a series of case studies that were 14 done, as you can see by the slide, in the case 15 studies were done in Illinois, Florida, South 16 Carolina, and Montana. There are very good 17 series of best practices recommendations that 18 accompanied this study. The study also 19 included an international survey of over 5,000 20 UOVACA voters, and as you all know, the 21 commissioners know, they attended this 22 conference in late September in Washington in 23 which over 40 local election officials came 24 together and talked about serving UOCAVA 25 voters. I anticipate that work will be TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 38 1 available to the public in the early part of 2 2008. 3 In conclusion, we have a couple of studies 4 whose work has just been completed in the last 5 week or so actually. Our first time voters who 6 registered to vote by mail study, our voter 7 hotline study, our free absentee ballot posted 8 study and our alternative voting methods study. 9 All of these studies have components to them 10 which include national surveys of voters or 11 national surveys of government agencies in the 12 case of voter hotlines report, and focus groups 13 of voters, and my hope and my expectation is 14 that the results from these studies 15 particularly the alternative voting methods, 16 the first time voters who register to vote by 17 mail studies, and the free absentee ballot 18 posted studies, we will work closely with the 19 National Association Secretary's of State to 20 unveil the results of these important projects 21 at NASS's winter meeting taking place in 22 Washington. 23 So with that, I will just say that has 24 been an extremely busy year, and I look forward 25 very much to getting these projects and TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 39 1 products out in the public domain so that our 2 election officials have tools to conduct 3 effectively their work in the coming election 4 season. 5 >> DAVIDSON: Thank you very much. I 6 would like to say, extend a thank you to all of 7 senior staff, and also I would like to your 8 staff that is at home still working, I would 9 like to say thank you for all the hard work. 10 And one other thing I like the mention 11 because everything that you do goes out on our 12 website and the hard work that Jenny Layson and 13 Brian Whitener, meeting the needs of getting 14 everything out and trying to run, you know, 15 everything out and available and making us more 16 transparent, and I do want to thank them also. 17 They don't get the thanks that we need to be 18 given. But everybody in our organization 19 obviously works very hard and I do thank you. 20 Open it up now for questions. Commissioner 21 Hunter, do you have any questions you would 22 like to ask any of the panelists? 23 >> HUNTER: One comment for Brian Hancock 24 and then a really quick question. Brian, thank 25 you and thank you to Matt Masterson for putting TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 40 1 on the panel that is going to be conducted I 2 believe in this room today from 1:00 to 3 6:00 with most -- I believe all computer 4 scientists to discuss some of the security 5 aspects of the VVSG. And I believe you plan 6 similar kind of public forum to discuss with 7 different -- variety of different groups so I 8 appreciate your organizing that. 9 And one quick question for you was, you 10 characterized -- I think you said there were 11 ten reports from the certification program. I 12 am trying to remember what you exactly called 13 it. I wonder if you could characterize those 14 for us. Not list out each one. I think it was 15 called notice of noncompliance. If you could 16 characterize what types of issues have come up 17 in this report. 18 >> HANCOCK: Yes, Madam Commissioner. 19 That's correct, we had ten various types of 20 communication, essentially, with either voting 21 system manufacturers or test lab 22 representatives. 23 These came about from various means, 24 information that we received, information that 25 we perhaps have gotten from the test labs about TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 41 1 activities that might be going on during the 2 testing process that they found out that we 3 needed to ask some additional information of, 4 say, a manufacturer, you know, to see if, in 5 fact, they were following the procedures set 6 out in our Testing Certification Program 7 Manual, those types of things. 8 And they certainly varied. There was no 9 one consistent topic for all of those. There 10 are a number of different things. It is, as 11 you know, a very new program and we certainly 12 expect more questions in the future. 13 We expect us, our staff, to do continuous 14 clarifications, our Testing and Certification 15 Program Manual, as well as ongoing 16 interpretations of the VVSG. 17 And I think it is important to keep the 18 avenues of communication open. That is the way 19 we think that will improve the program, by 20 doing these types of things and getting 21 feedback from the manufacturers, the labs, and 22 frankly, from the election officials and the 23 general public as well. 24 >> HUNTER: Thank you very much. One last 25 comment on Edgardo Cortes' report -- thank you TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 42 1 very much for that. I had to laugh when you 2 said we had been talking about NVRA since 3 September, and will do so again today and 4 probably in January and maybe even in February. 5 So thank you for your patience on that. 6 I just wanted to publicly thank 7 Commissioner Hillman for her work on the report 8 that you referenced, the preparation of the 9 report to Congress on the states' use of HAVA 10 funds. I think it was a very useful report, 11 and it inspired a lot of good conversation 12 around the states. 13 The states, a lot of them, sent in amended 14 reports, and I think it was good thing. I 15 thank her for her leadership in working with 16 you on her committee to produce that report. 17 That's all I have, Madam Chair. 18 >> DAVIDSON: Commissioner Rodriguez? 19 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. 20 I don't have any questions, but a comment, 21 and I do think it is important to note that we 22 have not been at full staffing of the 23 organization and have been able to move a 24 number of important projects along. 25 And I just want to thank you -- take this TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 43 1 opportunity to thank all of you and your crews 2 for -- for moving things along with limited 3 staff. 4 I know we have authorization for 5 additional staff, and I hope that you-all get 6 staffed as soon as you can so you can continue 7 this remarkable work. 8 >> DAVIDSON: Commissioner Hillman? 9 >> HILLMAN: Thank you, let me just begin 10 by echoing Commissioner Rodriguez's comment. 11 To receive a report like this is very useful to 12 remind, I think, even the Commission of the 13 incredible work that we do. 14 We were, and have been since inception in 15 the unenviable position of having to construct 16 an agency, develop policy and procedures, and 17 execute at the same time. 18 We did not have a period of time in which 19 we could get organized and then start our work. 20 HAVA required that we begin our work 21 immediately from the day the first four 22 commissioners were appointed. And so I think 23 it is useful to take a step back and appreciate 24 all of the hard work that the agency has done. 25 And I do have a few quick questions, so TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 44 1 Mr. Executive Director, in your report, you 2 said when you talked about the internal 3 procedures and policies and the work that is 4 being done by ICF International, that E.A.C. 5 has established an aggressive time line. 6 Can you just remind me what the time line 7 is during which we will be able to actually 8 take action on the regulations and items that 9 you've listed? 10 >> WILKEY: Yes, Commissioner, I may have 11 to refer to counsel on this. Yes, Counsel has 12 indicated in my report, is reviewing a number 13 of the drafts as we speak, and I am going to 14 defer to him as to the time line, because I 15 believe that many of these things will have to 16 be put up -- out for public comment. Galvin? 17 >> GILMOUR: Well, as Mr. Wilkey noted, we 18 actually have a draft of each of the reports we 19 need. We got those very early last week. So 20 we are currently in the process. We are in the 21 process of a review of the procedures, first by 22 counsel, and then we'll have to send them out 23 to each of the staff members that which it 24 impact. 25 We want them to be able to make sure to TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 45 1 look at that and that the policies are useful 2 and reflect practices and so on. They are 3 going to review that. We are then going to go 4 back to the contractor and proceed through 5 there. 6 Each one, depending upon the specific 7 administrative procedure laid out, some have to 8 go through as a comment, and those comment 9 ranges minimum of 30 to 60 days, most of them I 10 think 60 days. 11 So there is a considerable amount of 12 process, anywhere between 120 to 210 days' 13 estimate at this point to getting towards the 14 process of completing that. 15 >> HILLMAN: Okay. Thank you. 16 For Mr. Hancock, in your report you talked 17 about the seven quick start guidelines, how 18 many total have we put out? Could you remind 19 me? 20 >> HANCOCK: I believe with the ones this 21 year, that will be 11 right now. I believe 22 that is correct. We will have additional ones 23 next year. The initial management guidelines 24 project is a three-year project, so we will be 25 coming out with some additional ones next year TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 46 1 as well. 2 >> HILLMAN: And under laboratory 3 accreditation, again, to remind me, you said we 4 accredited four test labs in 2007. Do we have 5 four total, or do we have more than four now? 6 >> HANCOCK: We have four total. 7 >> HILLMAN: Thank you. 8 And I think my next question is for -- I 9 don't remember whose report this is -- oh, 10 Edgardo Cortes -- compliance with HAVA, Title 11 III. 12 Can you just briefly say why only six out 13 of 55 states have submitted certifications? 14 >> CORTES: Well, let me back up. We are 15 not the agency that deals with compliance with 16 Title III. The Department of Justice actually 17 is charged with enforcing compliance with Title 18 III of HAVA. 19 These certifications stem from -- in the 20 use of the requirements payment funds. Those 21 funds have very limited usage in terms of -- 22 they can only be used for complying with the 23 requirements of Title III. 24 The only way to use it with other things 25 is the state has to certify to E.A.C. that they TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 47 1 have done one of two things: The first thing 2 they can certify is they won't use more than 3 what is known as the "minimum payment amount" 4 for other purposes, and that amount is -- it is 5 about $11.6 million, and it is the amount that 6 those minimally funded states received. 7 The other option is that they can certify 8 to the E.A.C. that they have met all of the 9 requirements of Title III, and therefore, any 10 remaining requirements payments they have can 11 be used for other purposes as to meet the 12 requirements. 13 As to why there are only six so far that 14 have certified that they met the requirements, 15 I am not sure. I think there is a variety of 16 reasons. 17 >> HILLMAN: Is certification required? 18 Are the states required to certify? 19 >> CORTES: If they wish to use 20 requirements payments money for something other 21 than Title III requirements, yes, it is 22 required. 23 >> HILLMAN: Is it something that E.A.C. 24 maybe needs to remind them, or do you think 25 states won't use those funds? I want to see TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 48 1 where we are in this. 2 >> CORTES: We have done a lot to remind 3 them. We have done it in our training earlier 4 this year, and have done it in our 5 conversations with the states when we're in 6 contact with them about use of funds. 7 But in terms of pushing states to do it, I 8 am not sure if there is anything we can do to 9 force states to do it. But we have reminded 10 them consistently that it is something, if they 11 wish to use requirement payments for these 12 other purposes, then they need to file 13 certification. It actually is an issue that 14 has come up in a handful of audits as well. 15 >> GILMOUR: It might be worth noting that 16 one of the charts that Mr. Cortes put out 17 demonstrated that the vast majority -- I think 18 over 75percent of the funding did go towards 19 Title III elements, purchasing voting systems 20 and the statewide databases. 21 And the reality is that number could 22 reflect the fact that states don't really need 23 to spend requirements payments on anything but 24 Title III requirements. 25 >> HILLMAN: That 75 percent wasn't of the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 49 1 vast amount of the monies granted from the 2 state so there is still that as of the report 3 that we submitted, we don't know the states 4 will spend, but I appreciate the comment but I 5 just hope we will keep an eye on it so that 6 states don't find themselves in positions of 7 having inadvertently spent the funds and not 8 understood the procedure they had to go 9 through. 10 And my last question is probably to the 11 Executive Director. It speaks a lot to our 12 research agenda, but it was something that and 13 I think Caroline, Commissioner Hunter will 14 agree with me that we were needing from the 15 report that while it is nice take a look back, 16 it would be useful to know what is in front of 17 us and so if a simple chart couldn't be done 18 listing all the HAVA mandated things E.A.C. has 19 to do and what is left to be done, particularly 20 in the research area. 21 Because that would have been my question, 22 and I am not going to ask that we spend the 23 time doing it now, but of all the research 24 things we have done and are on the way, what is 25 left? And that would address any other issue TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 50 1 because it is hard, and I know the staff 2 appreciate the brilliance of all four 3 commissioners and our ability to stay on temper 4 of every minutia and detail, but sometimes I do 5 get lost in terms of what we have done, what we 6 have accomplished, what we have completed and 7 what is in front of us. Thank you. 8 >> LYNN-DYSON: If I might just say, more 9 than happy to do that for Executive Director 10 Wilkey and for the commissioners and to let you 11 know that we have approximately half a dozen 12 studies which are described in HAVA and remain 13 to be completed. 14 >> HILLMAN: Thank you. 15 >> DAVIDSON: My only I guess two things. 16 Follow-up, Ms. Dyson, is any of those half a 17 dozen that is left is that part of what is 18 setting right now that we just delivered this 19 last week that our council was talking about or 20 is that six additional studies that haven't 21 been started? 22 >> LYNN-DYSON: Chair Davidson, that would 23 be six additional that have not been begun. 24 And approximately four of those six can be 25 found under section 241 of HAVA which are TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 51 1 described as, and I use this term very loosely, 2 possible optional studies. 3 >> DAVIDSON: So they not mandated as 4 optional studies? 5 >> LYNN-DYSON: That's -- 6 >> HUNTER: I would say that the studies 7 are required. E.A.C. can determine when the 8 studies would be done but they are required. 9 So I am trying to get a handle on the remaining 10 required activities that E.A.C. has to do under 11 HAVA so that we can have a sense of not only 12 budget but timeline issues. The only other 13 thing, Ms. Dyson, I would like for you, for the 14 audience, to explain a little bit of what an 15 alternative voting is. I think that that -- 16 sometimes that term is misleading, exactly what 17 it is. And you don't have to go great deal 18 into it, I just wanted a brief -- 19 >> LYNN-DYSON: Let me ask my trusty 20 friend to put the slide up. You will see from 21 this slide, in particular, Chair Davidson, the 22 bullets which describe the half a dozen or so 23 queries that were done on these particular 24 issues. Election day as a holiday. Weekend 25 voting, early voting, vote by mail, and vote TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 52 1 centers. 2 And Puerto Rico was used as an example of 3 how they handled as a territory, how they 4 handled alternative voting practices. So there 5 are some very interesting preliminary findings 6 I think in particular from this national survey 7 that was done of voters and their attitudes 8 about these different approaches, alternative 9 approaches to voting. 10 >> DAVIDSON: Okay. Thank you very much. 11 I think that concludes the report, and I do 12 appreciate it and thank you again, all the 13 staff for the hard work, and I think that we 14 have accomplished a great deal this past year. 15 Obviously, we have a lot more to do. But I do 16 thank each and every one of you. Thank you 17 very much. 18 And I think at this time because of the 19 fact that we need to set up and give a little 20 bit of a set up period, I am going to take a 21 ten-minute break, and then we will come back 22 and finish the meeting. 23 (Break) 24 >> DAVIDSON: If everybody would take 25 their seat. Okay. We are going to start back TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 53 1 up. And next we will have the presentation and 2 adoption of the 2006 Election Day survey. As 3 many of the election officials are aware, after 4 every federal election, the E.A.C. is mandated 5 by the Help America Vote to conduct election 6 day survey of UOCAVA, and we have conducted 7 surveys of other areas in the United States. 8 One of things I like to say is data is 9 powerful. And actual reliable data is vital in 10 understanding elections. Without the 11 participation of elections officials in surveys 12 like this, we are forced to turn to other 13 sources for data. I encourage all election 14 officials to participate in survey that good 15 reliable data exists concerning elections. As 16 in 2004, the E.A.C. to conduct the 2006 17 surveys. 18 Mr. Brace is one of leading experts in the 19 field of elections statistics. Joining 20 Mr. Brace is Karen Lynn-Dyson which is the 21 E.A.C. Director of Research. I want to thank 22 both of you for being here today, and we look 23 forward to your presentation about the 2006 24 Election Day survey. I want to turn it over 25 now to I think Kim, are you going to go first? TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 54 1 Kim Brace. No Karen is. All right. I was 2 wrong. Wrong guess. Turn it over to 3 Ms. Dyson. 4 >> LYNN-DYSON: Thank you. Commissioners, 5 Mr. Wilkey, and Deputy General Counsel Gilmour, 6 I come before the commission today with the 7 recommendation that it adopt, pending the 8 suggested edits, the 2006 Election 9 Administration and Voting Survey report. That 10 contains data gathered from the 55 states and 11 territories along with an analysis of these 12 data that was performed by the contractor, 13 Election Data Services and inside contractors 14 Clark Benson of Polidata, Incorporated and Paul 15 Gronke of Reed college. 16 This reports represents the culmination of 17 the work the E.A.C. began in June of 2005 to 18 create a survey that would be administered to 19 all 55 states and territories for the 2006 20 midterm general election. 21 The 2006 survey is the E.A.C.'s second 22 attempt to collect from each of the states and 23 territories, election data that HAVA requires 24 to be reported, along with additional types of 25 election administration data, that is of TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 55 1 particular interest to individuals and 2 organizations that track election data. 3 The process used to develop and vett the 4 2006 survey instrument included a number of 5 workshops and sessions held with election 6 officials, academics, and voter information 7 groups. This review also included an 8 opportunity for the public to review and 9 comment on the survey instrument once a draft 10 of the survey had been posted in the Federal 11 Register. A draft of the survey was made 12 available to state election officials in 13 May 2006; OMB granted final approval of the 14 survey in November 2006 and states were asked 15 to submit their 2006 election day survey data 16 by March 2007. 17 The process used to enter and verify the 18 election data states had collected for the 2006 19 survey was involved. E.A.C. staff, the 20 contractor responsible for operating the 21 web-based survey data collection process, 22 Humanitas, and the contractor responsible for 23 analyzing and verifying the states' data, 24 Election Data Services, worked intensively with 25 the states from March to September 2007 to try TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 56 1 and ensure the data collected was complete and 2 accurate. This was the E.A.C.'s attempt to 3 collect for the first time county level 4 election data from each of the states, a task 5 that was for E.A.C., its contractors, and 6 especially for the states, a monumental effort. 7 The election data which are presented in 8 this report should be viewed by the public as a 9 beginning effort on the part of the E.A.C. to 10 collect detailed elections information from 11 every state in order to provide a national 12 picture of key election statistics. The 13 process E.A.C. is using to try and collect 14 these data for each general and federal 15 election is an iterative one. Efforts are 16 already underway to improve the approach E.A.C. 17 will use to collect data for the 2008 Election 18 Administration and Voting Survey. 19 For 2008, I look forward to working 20 closely with all of the states and their staffs 21 to help ensure that the information E.A.C. is 22 required to collect and that states are 23 mandated to report is accomplished in a 24 reasonable and responsible fashion. 25 In closing, allow me to publicly TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 57 1 acknowledge my appreciation and thanks to all 2 of the states and their staff for their 3 enormous efforts to complete and respond to the 4 2006 election day survey. I recognize the 5 financial and staff limitations under which 6 election offices must operate and that the 7 effort that was required to complete this 8 survey was extraordinary. Thank you. 9 >> DAVIDSON: Mr. Brace. 10 >> BRACE: Madam Chairman, Commissioners, 11 I appreciate the opportunity to be before you 12 and to talk about the 2006 Election Day survey. 13 On behalf of our subcontractors and myself we 14 have spent a lot of time this year putting 15 together a lot of information, a lot of data 16 that was collected. 17 And like Karen, I also would like to thank 18 the states and local governments of this 19 country for assisting in this effort in getting 20 as much data as possible. I am going to go 21 through and talk a little bit about some of the 22 findings that we have had. But you can't start 23 a discussion about elections in this country 24 without looking at some basic election 25 administration facts. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 58 1 And the main thing is that size is an 2 important factor to remember. That over 3 one-third of the nation's counties have fewer 4 than 10,000 registered voters in each of them. 5 Very, very small. Over half of the nation's 6 counties have less than 16,000 registered 7 voters in them. 8 There is only 343 jurisdictions that have 9 more than 100,000 registered voters, and there 10 is only 14 counties in this country that have 11 more than a million voters. 12 The smallest county in this country is 13 right here in the state of Texas, Loving, 14 Texas, that has only 136 registered voters on 15 it. The largest is Los Angeles County with 16 3.9 million registered voters. 17 And it would like 930 of the smallest 18 counties in this country to make-up with what 19 Los Angeles deals with. So it is rather 20 phenomenal in terms of what goes on in this 21 country. 22 As far as the election process from a data 23 perspective for 2006, we were looking at total 24 population, we were looking at voting age 25 population, and citizenship voting age TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 59 1 population, registration and turnout. 2 And in each of these instances, the 3 numbers goes down in terms of the different 4 size of the electorate, as we get to each stage 5 of the process. 6 The demographics change at each stage of 7 this process, but it is truly a steppingstone 8 coming down of the stairs of democracy in 9 looking at participation. 10 Compared to 2004, you see in this graphic, 11 for the first three bars, the population, 12 voting age, and citizenship, that actually 13 there has been a slight increase since 2004 in 14 all three of those categories. 15 But of course, as it gets into specifics 16 of registration and turnout, the actual 17 mechanics of elections, you actually see a 18 decrease. 19 That is, of course, in a normal sense 20 going from a presidential election to an 21 off-year election, so you would see that kind 22 of a decrease in 2006. 23 As it relates to registration, not all 24 states report registration the same. There are 25 24 states in the District of Columbia that say TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 60 1 the active voters are the numbers that they 2 report for their registration. 3 Twenty-five states combine both the active 4 and inactive counts, and say that is the way 5 that they report their registration. 6 So there is a great dichotomy in this 7 country. One state, California, that -- we 8 were finding differences within the county 9 levels, in terms of how they report 10 registration. 11 In 2004, we saw that active -- you see 12 here in red, active; and inactive in green, and 13 then the states themselves in 2004, where it 14 was down at the local level, with the 15 break-aparts by the counties. 16 In 2006, it was different again. There 17 was similarities but there were some changes. 18 One of the most significant things in the 19 asterisk here in the chart shows where the 20 states -- there is about 10 of them that do not 21 report inactive registrations at all in terms 22 of their registration. 23 In many instances, those are the states 24 covered by statewide voter -- I am sorry -- by 25 election-day registration, and, therefore, tend TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 61 1 to be exempt under HAVA from requiring to 2 follow the inactive procedures in terms of 3 registration. 4 In terms of 2006, we -- as we noted 5 before, more than 12.1 million voters more than 6 2002. However, there was 3.3 million less than 7 2004. That's steppingstone effect again -- a 8 great deal of increase from 2002 to 2004, and 9 then after the presidential, comes down a 10 little bit. 11 The country continues to grow larger in 12 terms of population on the AP. But this 13 downturn in 2006, again, was the normal 14 decrease that happens after presidential 15 election. 16 As it relates to registration as a 17 percentage of voting age population, we simply 18 put together state-level data that shows the 19 northern part of this country has a higher 20 registration rate than elsewhere in the 21 country. In 2006, that is the same pattern we 22 have seen since we have been collecting data 23 back to 1948. 24 In terms of citizenship voting age 25 population, on the next graph, shows a similar TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 62 1 pattern but a little bit different and more 2 extreme in terms of out west, in terms of when 3 citizenship comes into being, you drop down in 4 terms of registration. And you see that in 5 Nevada and in Arizona. 6 When we looked at it on the next graphic, 7 we looked at that data -- 8 >> HILLMAN: I am sorry. I hate to 9 interrupt you, but your last comment makes me 10 very nervous, because out of context, it 11 doesn't sound right. 12 You said when citizenship comes into 13 being, the rate drops. Could you please 14 explain what you mean when you talk about the 15 total voting age population to the citizenship 16 age population so that it doesn't sound like 17 people who aren't citizens are voting in these 18 huge numbers on this chart? 19 >> BRACE: Yes. You're correct, Madam 20 Commissioner. 21 What I meant to say was that when you deal 22 with citizenship voting age population, there 23 is a lower number of people that fall into that 24 category, of citizenship voting age. And, 25 therefore, you find differences in terms of TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 63 1 registration rates. And this chart 2 demonstrates that. 3 We see, like we did in just total voting 4 age population, the west tends to have a lower 5 registration rate. And you see that both in 6 total voting age population, as well as 7 citizenship voting age population. And that's 8 what the data seems to indicate in terms of 9 registration rates. 10 >> HILLMAN: We'll come back to that, 11 because I am still unclear. 12 >> BRACE: Okay. No problem. 13 >> RODRIGUEZ: Is it because the 14 population -- the younger population, with a 15 higher percentage of noncitizens? 16 >> BRACE: Yes, you have a higher 17 percentage of noncitizens out west. 18 When we looked at -- down at the county 19 level, we see a great deal of differences 20 across the country looking at percent 21 registered of voting age population. 22 And we do have, in terms of data, when you 23 start putting data against each other, you 24 start seeing anomalies, and inevitably, we find 25 there are some counties in this country with TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 64 1 more than 100percent of their voting age 2 population registered. 3 They tend to be very small jurisdictions, 4 and it raises the question of whether or not 5 those small numbers are what is causing that 6 kind of a circumstance on that. 7 As its relates to turnout, as a percent of 8 registration -- 9 >> DAVIDSON: Can I also interrupt there? 10 >> BRACE: Yes. 11 >> DAVIDSON: I think one of the other 12 things -- another reason why there is more of a 13 percentage of people registered than what the 14 citizens -- than what is shown on the citizens 15 graph that is qualified to be registered is 16 because growth in states. 17 I know we experienced that in Colorado, 18 and -- a high growth, it was prior to the 19 census, and so, therefore, you can have that 20 happen, especially in small jurisdictions, 21 because it doesn't take many to get above those 22 numbers. 23 >> BRACE: That is precisely correct. 24 As it relates to turnout as a percent of 25 total registration, again, we looked across the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 65 1 country in terms of where there are higher 2 turnout as it relates to registration. 3 It appears that the higher turnout is out 4 to the west. And in Georgia, there was a hot 5 contest there, also, that raised their turnout 6 rates on that side. 7 In terms of how the votes are cast, where 8 do votes come from? The E.A.C. had identified 9 four possible sources of votes. Those that are 10 cast in a polling place, we found that there 11 was 78 percent of all of the votes cast came 12 from voting in a polling place, that is, on 13 election day. 14 There is another in absentees, there is 15 another almost 14 percent of the votes that 16 came from absentee ballots. And then in terms 17 of early votes, they contributed another 18 6.4 percent of the votes across the country and 19 provisional ballots added another percentage to 20 the total of all the votes that were coming 21 from around the country. But again, state 22 variation was great, as we looked around the 23 country. In the report, we have a graphic that 24 shows the source of the ballots across the 25 country. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 66 1 And if you look closely, you see in the 2 eastern part of the country, it is more heavily 3 tilted towards voting in the polling place, 4 going down south and then further out to the 5 west, early voting and absentee ballots become 6 more larger and an important part of the voting 7 process. And you see that in that graphic 8 there. 9 Specifically in terms of persons that 10 voted in a polling on election day, this 11 graphic shows the higher concentration in the 12 east on those that voted in a polling place on 13 election day. And as far as absentee ballots 14 go, the study ended up finding that there was 15 1.2 million absentee ballots were cast in 2006. 16 That amounted to about 6.5 percent of the 17 registered voters and it was, as I said before, 18 almost 14 percent of all the votes cast came 19 from absentee ballots. There were 10.6 percent 20 of those ballots that were cast that were 21 counted. So that makes 94 percent of those 22 ballots that were cast were ultimately counted, 23 according to the study. 24 The reason for rejecting absentee ballots, 25 the two largest ones we found was almost TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 67 1 40 percent of the absentee ballots came back as 2 undeliverable. This was a fact that came into 3 being in terms of this study but also 4 significantly in the UOCAVA study that we also 5 performed for the E.A.C. There were a large 6 amount of absentee ballots came back 7 undeliverable. The second largest category was 8 that they came back after the deadline of a 9 particular state, almost 20 percent of the 10 absentee ballots came back after the deadline. 11 As it relates to the states and what 12 percent of the total votes cast absentees, we 13 see the western tilt in this map and again, 14 anchored out in the state of Washington where 15 87 percent of their votes were cast via 16 absentee ballots. It is not in the polling 17 place. 18 And with vote by mail, it will go up even 19 more as it does in the state of Oregon. The 20 other category was early votes, what votes were 21 being cast early in the process before election 22 day. This is a phenomenon that started in the 23 state of Texas and Texas continues to be the 24 largest state in the nation with the highest 25 number of votes that were cast as early votes. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 68 1 Texas upwards of 45 percent of their votes were 2 cast before election day. 3 Nevada, Florida, and Tennessee are also 4 states where early votes are increasing and 5 growing source of the ballots that come out in 6 turn out to vote. As it relates to provisional 7 votes, over 790,000 persons sought to cast the 8 provisional ballot. That is about 1.3 percent 9 of all persons that went to the polling place, 10 because that is after all where they would find 11 themselves in the circumstance in need of 12 provision ballot. So it was about 1.3 percent 13 of people that went to the polls and about half 14 of -- this was in 2006, this was half the 15 amount this was cast in 2004. It was over 16 almost 1.5 million provisional ballots cast in 17 2004. Now it is 794,000. 18 Of that 794,000, 629,000 were actually 19 counted by the states. That is about 20 79 percent of the ballots that were cast were 21 ultimately counted. That was up from the 22 64.5 percent that was counted in 2004. So what 23 we are seeing in 2006 was a decrease in the 24 number of provisional ballots being cast. But 25 when they were cast, more of them were counted TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 69 1 in this time. Again, there is great variations 2 by state across the board. And I have got a 3 graphic on that in a second. The reason for 4 rejecting provisional ballots, the largest 5 group was ultimately when jurisdictions took 6 those ballots back to do the research as 7 required, 43, almost 44 percent, found that the 8 persons were simply not registered at the time 9 of the election. 10 The other large category was almost 11 16 percent noted that the provisional ballots 12 were cast in the wrong precinct and under their 13 state law, that meant that they were not 14 counted also. When we look at provisional, 15 what percent of the provisional ballots were 16 counted of cast? Some of the lowest 17 percentages are here down in the south. I 18 believe Texas is the lowest percentage. Again, 19 it means that we need to take more look at and 20 research in terms of what is causing this. But 21 we see kind of the mid point of the country 22 where the lowest percentages of provisional 23 ballots being cast are being counted of being 24 cast. 25 Provisional ballots, the implementation TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 70 1 varies by the laws implemented by the states. 2 As it relates to percent of polling place 3 votes, in states that allow voters to vote 4 anywhere in a jurisdiction, in a county or a 5 township, 2.3 percent of the ballots were being 6 cast as provisional. But when you looked at 7 states that required the persons to vote in 8 their own precinct, that amounted to only 9 eight-tenths of a percent of the overall 10 polling place votes being counted as 11 provisions, being cast as provisionals. 12 >> DAVIDSON: Can I interrupt? The one 13 question I would like to ask you, is that 2.3, 14 are you talking within the whole state or 15 within the county? 16 >> BRACE: These are state laws and so it 17 is the entire state that is considered whether 18 or not it is counted if you are in the polling 19 place or counted in the jurisdiction. 20 >> DAVIDSON: So there is a different 21 figure for those within counties? That is not 22 reported here? 23 >> BRACE: It will vary across the 24 individual state, and we can generate those 25 kind of graphics in addition. But yes, you are TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 71 1 correct. As it relates to the percent of 2 ballots that were counted, there is again a 3 difference. 4 In states that allow voters to vote 5 anywhere in the jurisdiction in the county or 6 the township, 84.9 percent of the ballots that 7 were cast were counted. On the flip side, in 8 the states that require persons to vote in 9 their own precinct, the amount that was counted 10 was only 71.8 percent. So there is a 11 difference in terms of how the provisional 12 ballots are implemented according to their 13 laws. As it relates to the procedures that 14 were done for the survey, just in conclusion, 15 there was a lot of time, as Karen had 16 identified, spent in trying to make sure the 17 data was correct and came into us properly. 18 At the very beginning we found all of 19 these states here where they instead of using 20 the web-based survey, that the E.A.C. put up, 21 they simply sent in their own spreadsheets and 22 the E.A.C. in terms of temporary workers as 23 well as staff on our staff, were responsible 24 for then data entering that information. 25 There were differences as we looked across TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 72 1 the various questions and how much response we 2 received. Here is a graphic here that looks at 3 how many jurisdictions provided us data on 4 in-person voting and voting at the polls. 5 We found that there were 608 counties in 6 the country that did not provide that data in 7 that instance, and there is different pockets, 8 depending upon different states. 9 As it relates to the least response that 10 we received was, in fact, asking the question 11 of: What was the undervote for federal 12 offices. And there, we found over two-thirds 13 of the jurisdictions were unable to provide 14 counts of undervotes, particularly for house 15 candidates in this instance. 16 So, each question varied, depending upon 17 the question and, therefore, as we were dealing 18 with the data and all of the data reports or 19 the tables that are in the final report, it 20 shows for each question how many jurisdictions 21 responded, and that is one of the key things in 22 analyzing and looking at the data in the 23 reports to keep in mind. 24 With that, I will be happy to answer your 25 questions. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 73 1 >> DAVIDSON: I thank both of your for 2 your presentation. And as they both have 3 said -- and I think I would really like to 4 stress to the public -- this is a very 5 difficult study to do. 6 And one of the reasons why it is so 7 difficult to make conclusions in the slides and 8 everything is because every state has a 9 different law. 10 And what means "provisional" in one state, 11 may not mean "provisional" in another. What 12 means "active" in one state, sometimes varies 13 in another state. 14 So I think -- I just want to make sure 15 that the audience is aware that this is a very 16 difficult process that we're in, in trying to 17 collect actual data and put it in statistics 18 that are shown. 19 And I do appreciate all of the hard work 20 that the staff and all of our contractors have 21 done, and it is not easy. 22 To that, I'll hope it up with questions 23 from -- 24 Commissioner Rodriguez, I'll let you go 25 first if you have questions for them. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 74 1 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you for your 2 presentation. 3 I don't have any questions on the data 4 that was presented right now. 5 >> DAVIDSON: Okay. Commissioner Hunter? 6 >> HUNTER: I, too, don't have any 7 specifics about the specific data. I was 8 interested in hearing more from both Karen and 9 Kim about the -- going forward. 10 I know Karen has been doing some work on 11 how we can improve the data collection and some 12 of the issues that came up with respect to this 13 year's survey, but I don't know. That might be 14 better to later to discuss that. 15 >> DAVIDSON: I think what I'll do is go 16 to Commissioner Hillman, and I'll come back and 17 allow you to ask those questions. 18 >> HILLMAN: Yes, thank you. 19 A couple of division, Ms. Lynn-Dyson, when 20 you made your remarks, you said it was the 21 second time that E.A.C. had implemented the 22 election day survey to collect the data. 23 And just for the record, I want to 24 establish that prior to E.A.C. moving to 25 collect this data, is this not the first time TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 75 1 that the federal government has sought to 2 collect this data? 3 I mean, I think we're all very familiar 4 with the Census Bureau reports on voter 5 registration and participation and turnout 6 rates and so on and so forth. 7 But with respect to drilling down to the 8 kind of data we're collecting, is this not the 9 first time the federal government is doing 10 this? 11 >> LYNN-DYSON: I defer to Mr. Brace who 12 has been in the business of collecting election 13 data for 30 years. 14 >> BRACE: You are correct in the vast 15 majority of the data items that are being 16 collected. 17 The only exception is, there was, from the 18 Federal Elections Commission, for the NVRA, 19 they started collecting data on registration 20 and NVRA practices back in 1993. 21 Again, those have been picked up now from 22 the study, and so that was the first study of 23 the three that we did as it relates to the 24 study. 25 But for the other two, you are correct, TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 76 1 this is the first time this has been done. 2 >> HILLMAN: Thank you. 3 Mr. Brace, you noted the dramatic increase 4 in registration from 2002 to 2006 as reported 5 in this survey. 6 Do you attribute that to the data 7 collection methodology we used, or was it, in 8 fact, in the United States, there was such a 9 huge increase in registration from 2002 to 10 2006, despite the fact that it fell slightly 11 from 2004, which is the normal results, a huge 12 increase from 2002 to 2006, and what would you 13 attribute that to as we are reporting it? 14 >> BRACE: I would agree with you. That 15 was because -- it was not because of the 16 methodology in terms of the data collection. 17 It was simply a fact that there were vast -- 18 larger number of persons registered. By the 19 time we got to 2006, most of that increases we 20 had noted took place between 2002 and 2004. 21 >> HILLMAN: So it was a leftover from 22 2004? 23 >> BRACE: Yes. 24 >> HILLMAN: Thank you. Now, to have our 25 conversation about total voting age population TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 77 1 and citizen voting age population, back in the 2 day, before you and I had gray hair, we were 3 all using census bureau data as a guide with 4 respect to levels of registration and turnout. 5 And that was based on total voting age 6 population -- all people in the United States 7 who were reported to be ages 18 and over. Is 8 that correct? 9 >> BRACE: That is voting age population. 10 >> HILLMAN: Voting age population. Okay. 11 So in the '80s and '90s, to the best of my 12 recollection, though we would acknowledge that 13 not everybody in the voting age population was 14 eligible to vote, those were the only numbers 15 that we had to work with as predictors and to 16 keep track of levels of participation. Is that 17 correct? 18 >> BRACE: That is correct. 19 >> HILLMAN: Then sometime around 2000 or 20 thereafter -- and I sort of lost track as to 21 when it happened -- people began talking about 22 citizenship voting age population to be able to 23 identify people who were eligible to register 24 and vote? 25 >> BRACE: That's correct. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 78 1 >> HILLMAN: Okay. So when you talk about 2 the differentiation between the numbers that 3 somebody would see when you look at percentages 4 against the VAP, total voting age population, 5 and you look at the numbers against the 6 citizenship voting age population, help me 7 understand, it does not mean that noncitizens 8 were participating, and, therefore, collected 9 in the total voting age population. That is 10 not why we're making the differentiation, is 11 it? 12 >> BRACE: No. That is correct. 13 What we are saying is that when you look 14 at total voting age population, it gives you 15 one mix of the potential of people that are 16 there that could vote. 17 Under most state laws, you have to be also 18 citizens, and so that pulls down the eligible 19 number of persons that could be voting. As you 20 get in with the -- in states that have larger 21 numbers of noncitizens in their populations, 22 that brings down those numbers even larger. 23 And so what -- what is important to take a 24 look at and be able to analyze and know both of 25 those numbers and see what impact they might TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 79 1 have in terms of the eligibility and how people 2 would, then, participate. 3 >> HILLMAN: And for the purposes of our 4 study report, we're dealing with federal 5 elections only. Right? 6 >> BRACE: That is correct. 7 >> HILLMAN: And so, therefore, we are 8 acknowledging that all persons participating in 9 the process have to be citizens? 10 >> BRACE: Yes. 11 >> HILLMAN: And so it is slightly 12 confusing as to why we are focusing on voting 13 age population that includes people who are not 14 eligible to vote. 15 I know why we're tracking the numbers and 16 it is sort of a leftover, and you have got this 17 overlapping. But for the purpose of tracking 18 the people who are eligible because they're 19 citizens and ages 18 and over, it is the 20 numbers captured under the citizen voting age 21 population. Is that correct? 22 >> BRACE: That is the ultimate. Now, 23 that still leaves out two other categories that 24 are still there. Most state laws prevent 25 persons voting if they are mentally TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 80 1 incompetent, as well as -- there is one other 2 category -- I can't remember. 3 >> HILLMAN: Felons? 4 >> BRACE: Felons, yes. 5 Both of those sets of data are basically 6 nonexistent. You don't really know either in 7 terms of those things. 8 >> HILLMAN: We're only talking about 9 eligible, in terms of meeting age and 10 citizenship requirements. 11 >> BRACE: That's correct. 12 >> HILLMAN: We're not talking about 13 eligible as it relates to each specific state? 14 >> BRACE: Yes, that's correct. 15 >> HILLMAN: Thank you. 16 And my last question -- and it doesn't 17 have to do with the E.A.C.'s report but just in 18 general, and it was triggered by the 19 provisional vote cast and count -- of the 20 people who -- of the people who thought they 21 were registered to vote, but it turns out they 22 weren't registered to vote, has any survey been 23 done that sort of captures why people thought 24 they were registered to vote when it turns out 25 they weren't? Because we're talking about TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 81 1 several hundred thousand people. 2 >> BRACE: Certainly we are, and that is a 3 very good point. We don't know. That is one 4 of the great questions and that is certainly 5 would be something that is potential for 6 research. We do know, you know, if we were to 7 work with different states or local 8 governments, to be able to go and take a look 9 at those provisional ballots and go back to 10 track down those people that thought they were 11 registered and were not to figure out why. It 12 is a very large category in that, as we have 13 noted. And it is rather significant. 14 >> HILLMAN: Thank you. 15 >> DAVIDSON: As we move forward, would 16 you like to go ahead and ask our questions. 17 How we are moving forward in the next year as 18 we look forward to collecting data in the 19 future? 20 >> HUNTER: Sure. As I mentioned before, 21 we acknowledge in the report, and we have done 22 so in other forums that there were problems 23 with the data collection and you know some of 24 it was based on the web-based surveys and some 25 states just don't collect the information as TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 82 1 much as they may want to, and they are not 2 required to collect it by any kind of law and 3 so their systems aren't set up to do. So I was 4 wondering if the two of you might provide us 5 with a little bit of an overview of the work 6 you have done recently to improve the data 7 collection. 8 >> LYNN-DYSON: I am happy to say and 9 report Commissioner Hunter that with Kim and 10 his subcontractors assistance, Clark Vincent 11 and Paul Gronke, we were able to undertake what 12 I thought was an incredibly important and 13 helpful series of teleconference calls last 14 week in which we were able to discuss with 15 43 -- 16 >> BRACE: 43 states. 17 >> LYNN-DYSON: 43 states, not only their 18 experiences with the -- their attempts to meet 19 the requirements and accommodate the E.A.C. and 20 its request for data for the 2006 survey 21 questions. And moving forward Kim will be 22 capturing what we heard in those 23 teleconferences, making a series of 24 recommendations to the E.A.C. about how best to 25 proceed. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 83 1 It is my expectation that in January, we 2 will work to develop a new request for quotes 3 to issue a contract in which the winning bidder 4 would work with us to develop a new survey 5 instrument, to identify the key data sets that 6 we wish to collect based upon what we heard in 7 last week's conference calls, we anticipate 8 that we are likely to develop a series of 9 templates in which states will, for 2008, be 10 given a choice of instruments that they can use 11 to actually report the data. 12 We are talking about for example Excel 13 spread sheets, Access spread sheets. And I 14 think it is important to note for the record as 15 I did in all of the conference calls, that as 16 you all well know, the public may not know this 17 as much, that we as an agency are required to 18 submit to the Paperwork Reduction Act and go 19 through a public vetting and hearing process 20 for our survey instrument. What that means for 21 us as an agency is that we must work very, very 22 quickly to get to the states as close to a mock 23 survey instrument and to the public get this 24 document out so that we can begin this OMB 25 clearance process, Paperwork Reduction Act TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 84 1 clearance process, which takes 120 days. 2 So we have expressed to the states that we 3 certainly expect and anticipate that they will 4 have a draft and an idea of what they will be 5 working with in January and that we -- it is 6 our sincere plan and hope that they will have 7 no later than May the finalized document. So 8 that is the outline of the plan beginning in 9 early January. 10 >> BRACE: I would add to that that when 11 we started our contract with you for the 2006 12 study, in May 3rd I believe it was, and we 13 began talking with the states and hearing some 14 of their English in terms of dealing with the 15 data, dealing with the web-based survey and all 16 of that, I became very much committed early on 17 to make sure that their views were 18 correspondingly transmitted to the E.A.C. 19 And I am very much thankful to the 20 commission for giving us the second contract to 21 implement that. And in doing the series of 22 five teleconferences that we did last week, 23 that some of you listened to and participated 24 in, and Karen ended up attending all five of 25 them. It was very informative in terms of the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 85 1 experiences that they went through. But also, 2 106 the differences that there are out there in 3 the states. 4 We are a nation of 50 states and that is 5 why we have 50 different election laws, and it 6 is important as we try to collect data that we 7 understand those differences. And I think that 8 started very much so in terms of these 9 teleconferences. 10 >> DAVIDSON: Okay. Thank you very much. 11 I appreciate that. Thank you. 12 All right. As we move forward, we have 13 the report in front of us for approval. I know 14 there has been some changes made that we have 15 in front of us here. How would you like to 16 proceed? Ms. Rodriguez. 17 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. 18 The process that we operate under is that we 19 post as soon as we adopt something, we post it 20 on the website. And so if Ms. Layson is here, 21 is she here? Any way, we post these things as 22 immediately as we adopt them. And there is a 23 great deal of interest in this product. 24 Yesterday I attended an election line 25 seminar on the 2008 election and a number of TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 86 1 reporters were looking forward to the release 2 of this report. I understand that you have 3 made some minor, very minor, edits to the 4 report that you gave the commission about ten 5 days ago. And I just wondered if you would put 6 in the record those edits. 7 I don't know if the commissioners will 8 have questions or anything, but if you would 9 put in the record those edits so that 10 Ms. Layson can post the report with the 11 additional information that it will be very 12 slightly revised. 13 >> DAVIDSON: Can I ask, when you say put 14 in the record, my hope is that we will take the 15 time now to go through them; is that what you 16 meant by putting in the record? 17 >> RODRIGUEZ: Yes. 18 >> DAVIDSON: Okay. Which one would you 19 like, Ms. Dyson, will you be leading this? 20 >> LYNN-DYSON: I am happy to do so. We 21 can begin with the letter to the public. 22 And -- 23 >> DAVIDSON: Can you do it -- 24 >> LYNN-DYSON: Quickly? 25 >> DAVIDSON: Yes. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 87 1 >> LYNN-DYSON: Essentially what we have 2 done in our letter to the public is we have 3 softened our seal in which we talk about how 4 invaluable this document is, and we just think 5 that it will help. 6 >> HILLMAN: Do you have a page number or 7 something? 8 >> LYNN-DYSON: Page one. 9 >> DAVIDSON: I think there is a year 10 change in the instruction. 11 >> LYNN-DYSON: No, that one has not 12 changed. 13 >> DAVIDSON: Sorry that I interrupted. 14 >> LYNN-DYSON: That is okay. In the 15 letter we also note that we have -- 16 >> HILLMAN: I am sorry, could you just 17 read the language that will be used. 18 >> LYNN-DYSON: Is that the way you would 19 like to proceed? Okay. Once again, in the 20 letter that you all issued to the public, you 21 are saying the information we collected will 22 help the American public better understand what 23 is happening throughout the country. 24 It originally read as the information we 25 collected is invaluable in helping the American TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 88 1 public better understand. We have now struck 2 from the letter the sentence the survey also 3 helps this agency meet its statutory 4 requirements to study various portions of the 5 election process and report to Congress. 6 Moving forward, Executive Summary, Page 3, 7 the language in the draft report reads: 8 "Persons have to be at least 18 years of age," 9 parens, "voting age population or VAP." Next 10 sentence, "Some states require those persons to 11 also be United States citizens." 12 The language now reads as one sentence: 13 "Persons have to be at least 18 years of age," 14 comma, "be United States' citizens, and," 15 comma, "some states prohibit felons and 16 mentally incompetent persons from 17 participating." 18 Down to the third paragraph in the 19 Executive Summary, there was an error -- 20 >> DAVIDSON: I am sorry. The one I am 21 looking at, say the "States' citizens," are we 22 just saying "be citizens"? 23 >> LYNN-DYSON: Yes, should be "United 24 States citizens" or can say "be citizens." 25 Moving down to the third paragraph, there TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 89 1 was an error. It should read, "the National 2 Voter Registration Act of 1993" and not 1992. 3 Moving to Page 4, the third full 4 paragraph, in the original draft text, the last 5 sentence -- last portion of that sentence read, 6 "states only require voters to cast their 7 ballots in their own overall jurisdiction for 8 the provisional ballot to be counted." 9 It now will read, "Only require voters to 10 cast their ballots in their own county or 11 township, for the provisional ballot to be 12 counted." 13 >> DAVIDSON: Would it not pertain to 14 cities? 15 >> HILLMAN: For example, it is my 16 understanding that cities, particularly in new 17 England and maybe Chicago and others administer 18 federal election? 19 >> BRACE: Yes, that is correct. We can 20 make that change, yes. 21 >> DAVIDSON: Go ahead, Commissioner 22 Rodriguez. 23 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. 24 In Colorado, you can cast your provisional 25 vote in your jurisdiction. So that TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 90 1 jurisdiction point would be correct for some 2 states. 3 >> BRACE: And in Colorado, jurisdiction 4 is defined as what? 5 >> RODRIGUEZ: Your voting district. 6 >> BRACE: Your precinct. 7 >> RODRIGUEZ: No, not your precinct. 8 Your district. 9 >> BRACE: Your district, okay. 10 >> RODRIGUEZ: So it is your -- I mean, I 11 could vote in a congressional district in a 12 county in which I did not reside if -- as long 13 as -- if as long as I were in that 14 congressional district. 15 >> BRACE: Okay. 16 >> HUNTER: I have a suggestion on 17 something that may clear this up a little bit. 18 Instead of saying -- instead of striking 19 "overall jurisdiction" and replacing it with 20 "county or township," one way, I think, to do 21 this would say, but "a smaller number of states 22 require voters" -- wait, excuse me, "a smaller 23 number of states do not require voters to cast 24 their ballots in their precinct for the 25 provisional ballot to be counted or partially TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 91 1 counted." 2 So we're drawing a distinction between 3 states that require you to vote within your 4 precinct and states that don't, because there 5 are so many varieties. 6 And Colorado is a good example of a state 7 you can vote just for president in any part of 8 the state, I think per commissioner Davidson's 9 order, when she was Secretary of State, but I 10 think that is a plainer way of saying it. 11 >> BRACE: Yes, I think that would be a 12 better way of saying it. 13 >> DAVIDSON: Did you get that language? 14 >> LYNN-DYSON: I did, Madam Chair. "But 15 a smaller number of states do not require 16 voters to cast their ballots in their precinct 17 for the provisional ballot to be counted." 18 >> HUNTER: Say that again. Sorry. 19 >> LYNN-DYSON: "Most states require to 20 have voted in their home precinct for their 21 vote to be counted, but a smaller number of 22 states do not require voters to cast their 23 ballots in their precinct for the provisional 24 ballot to be counted." 25 >> DAVIDSON: Or partially counted. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 92 1 >> HUNTER: I think I said "or partially 2 counted." 3 >> LYNN-DYSON: "To be counted or 4 partially counted." Okay. 5 And finally, on Page 5, Commissioners, 6 again recognizing the difficulty in the 7 iterative process we are going through in terms 8 of trying to create a good survey instrument, 9 this is the second report I am voting produced 10 by the E.A.C., the first, the 2004 report was 11 released in September 2005. Rather than 12 "significant improvements," we will say 13 "improvements, which are detailed below, were 14 made for the 2006 survey process." 15 >> DAVIDSON: With those changes read into 16 record, how would the Commissioners like to 17 proceed? Do I have a motion? 18 >> HUNTER: Okay. I move to adopt the 19 2006 Election Administration and Voting Survey 20 with the changes that were read into the 21 record. 22 >> DAVIDSON: I have a motion. 23 >> RODRIGUEZ: Second. 24 >> DAVIDSON: I have a motion and a second 25 to adopt the 2006 Election Administration and TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 93 1 Voting Survey with the changes that have been 2 read into the record. 3 With the motion and a second, I call for a 4 vote -- or is there any discussion? Excuse me. 5 Seeing no discussion, I'll call for a 6 vote. 7 All those in favor say "aye." 8 >> Aye. 9 >> DAVIDSON: Opposed? 10 Thank you very much. I appreciate it. 11 Job well done. 12 >> WILKEY: Madam Chair, just for purposes 13 of clarification, for our communication staff, 14 we did indicate to the media that we would 15 release these data sets today. 16 Since it appears we're only talking about 17 some minor language changes on the document, we 18 would like to move forward with doing that 19 release, if that is all right. 20 >> DAVIDSON: I see no problem with doing 21 that. I think the only thing you are going to 22 do is make a statement at the bottom or 23 something saying that there would be a few 24 changes in the -- you know, that have been read 25 into the record, minor changes, because I think TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 94 1 we all agree they were very minor. 2 >> WILKEY: Thank you, Madam Chair. 3 >> DAVIDSON: All right. Thank you very 4 much. I appreciate it. 5 We're going to take like a three, four 6 minute break, so don't run off. We're taking a 7 three to four minute break, so don't run very 8 far. 9 (Recess taken) 10 >> DAVIDSON: As soon as we have 11 Commissioner Hunter in the room, we'll get 12 started again. 13 All right. I am going to get started 14 again, and next on the agenda, you will notice 15 that it says, "Discussion of E.A.C. policy 16 regarding voting system reports," and I -- we 17 have, right now, two reports that has been 18 posted on our web, that is from California and 19 Kentucky as a part of the E.A.C. clearinghouse 20 function. 21 And Commissioner Hillman had requested to 22 discuss -- a discussion regard the E.A.C. 23 voting system reports clearinghouse policy. 24 I will turn it to you, Commissioner 25 Hillman. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 95 1 >> HILLMAN: Thank you. 2 In early August or late July -- I forget 3 exactly when -- E.A.C. adopted a policy where, 4 upon appropriate submission from a government, 5 either state or local government official 6 regarding a report on a voting system through 7 its clearinghouse responsibilities, E.A.C. 8 would post the reports. 9 By broadly stating government officials, 10 it could be any official, whether an attorney 11 general or possibly even, you know, a district 12 attorney or a state legislator. We would 13 receive the report, consider that it came from 14 an appropriate source and post it. 15 In the process of doing that, my -- my 16 concern, and I am urging the E.A.C., that we 17 adopt a procedure, if not part of the policy, 18 that we will notify the state -- the chief 19 state or the chief local election official when 20 a report has been received from an official 21 that is not the election official. 22 And I say that because HAVA requires 23 E.A.C. to work to improve the administration of 24 federal elections and we do that work with a 25 lot of our constituencies, but principally with TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 96 1 the election officials. 2 And I think it is E.A.C.'s responsibility 3 to make sure that election officials know that 4 a report about the voting system they have 5 responsibility for has been submitted to E.A.C. 6 and will be posted on E.A.C.'s website. We can 7 call it a courteous heads-up, if you will. 8 My concern that we don't have currently 9 written procedures to implement the policy, and 10 so I guess what I am encouraging is that we 11 quickly develop those procedures and that we 12 make it as a part of the ongoing procedure 13 that, whenever a report like that comes from an 14 official who is not the chief state or chief 15 local election official, that we would provide 16 them notification at the time that we receive 17 the report, so they will know that the report 18 is being posted. 19 >> DAVIDSON: Any other comments or 20 concerns? 21 None. We'll move on in our agenda. 22 >> HILLMAN: Before we move on, I saw a 23 nodding head from the executive director, but I 24 don't have any feedback whether I am talking 25 for the record, whether my colleagues agree on TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 97 1 that, or where we are on this. 2 >> WILKEY: I totally agree with you, 3 Commissioner. I think it is a great 4 suggestion. We want to put as many of these 5 reports up as we can. I think we took great 6 care when we adopted the initial policy to make 7 sure we included other people that may be 8 involved in the election process, such as the 9 attorney general or it could be a chairman of a 10 state legislative committee that deals with 11 elections. 12 But I think your comment is we will make 13 that a part of our procedure. I think my only 14 question will be, and we could have a further 15 discussion at the time -- at some other time, 16 if you wish, is that: If the jurisdiction that 17 is involved wants to make a comment, would that 18 comment also be posted along with that report? 19 Because that is likely to happen. 20 >> HILLMAN: Yeah, I don't -- you know, I 21 don't -- I mean, I would certainly hope so, but 22 I -- it is just not something that's come up 23 yet, and the question is how we anticipate -- 24 or how we develop a procedure around an 25 anticipated possible happening. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 98 1 So I would hope that E.A.C. would be 2 willing to allow the official who has the 3 responsibility for the voting system in 4 question to be able to respond. 5 And I am not at all suggesting the 6 procedure is a way to hold up or prevent the 7 posting of any reports, but rather, a 8 professional courtesy notification to the 9 officials. 10 >> WILKEY: Okay. We will proceed with 11 that recommendation. I think it is a good 12 recommendation, and then we will also have some 13 further discussion about how we will proceed 14 with what I just mentioned and go from there, 15 perhaps even into the next meeting. 16 >> DAVIDSON: Any other comments? 17 Yes, Commissioner Rodriguez? 18 >> RODRIGUEZ: Yes, thank you, Madam 19 Chair. 20 But Mr. Wilkey, only bring it to us if it 21 requires our action. That's all I ask. 22 >> WILKEY: So noted. 23 >> DAVIDSON: Now moving forward, Edgardo 24 Cortes. 25 >> CORTES: Good morning again, TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 99 1 Commissioners. There are two items up on the 2 agenda concerning the National Voter 3 Registration Act. The first one that I will be 4 talking about, I mentioned earlier, but on 5 December 3rd, we finished a public comment 6 period regarding whether or not the E.A.C. 7 should administratively transfer the 8 regulations, the NVRA regulations previously 9 adopted by the F.E.C. The agency that was 10 previously responsible for NVRA implementation. 11 I provided a memo to commissioners last 12 week summarizing the comments and have the 13 comments as an attachment as well as some other 14 information. That was posted on our website 15 and is still available on our website under 16 meeting materials. I will say that since 17 the -- since the September meeting, during 18 which the commissioners voted to have us do 19 that public comment period, we have done a 20 couple of steps to get to where we are today. 21 The first one, Mr. Wilkey mentioned, was that 22 we have established a code of federal 23 regulations site. In order to move the 24 regulations or transfer the regulations over we 25 need that site in place. We currently have a TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 100 1 draft organizational structure that is being 2 finalized and as Mr. Wilkey mentioned, it is in 3 title eleven, chapter two of the Code of 4 Federal Regulations. The NVRA regulations are 5 tentatively set to occupy parts 9430 and 9431 6 of that chapter. 7 Again, we received five comments during 8 the public comment period. They were provided 9 to the commissioners. The majority of them 10 were in support of the administrative transfer 11 with the note that of course there was an 12 expectation that as commissioners move forward 13 in amending those regulations that there would 14 be ample opportunity for public comment and 15 participation. 16 At this juncture the commissioners have in 17 consultation with the office general counsel, 18 we think there are two possibilities for the 19 commissioners to do at this point. The first 20 one would be to approve the administrative 21 transfer of those regulations and which case 22 the E.A.C. staff would coordinate with F.E.C. 23 to enter into joint rule making process. That 24 will require a extensive work with several 25 E.A.C. divisions as well as some folks on the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 101 1 F.E.C. side to draft that and get that into 2 place. 3 Once that joint rule making process has 4 been done and the note is published, those 5 regulations would become E.A.C.'s regulations. 6 At that point, the E.A.C. would need to enter 7 into a rule-making process to amend those 8 regulations. The reason I say this is because 9 the current or the NVRA regulations in the 10 F.E.C. past were passed prior to the passage of 11 HAVA, and there are several items that require 12 bringing the regulations into compliance with 13 the HAVA requirements. 14 The second option before the commission is 15 that the -- y'all would reject the 16 administrative transfer and the E.A.C. would 17 simply begin a full rule-making process to 18 develop NVRA regulations. So those are the two 19 items or the two possibilities before you this 20 morning. 21 >> DAVIDSON: Mr. Cortes, I appreciate you 22 explaining this to us and going through it, and 23 I think it is very important as we move forward 24 to be able to make NVRA compliant as we 25 obviously move forward and as HAVA requires, TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 102 1 they must end up at the E.A.C. So I am going 2 to open it up for a motion from the commission 3 to take action. So would one of you like to 4 make a motion on the -- how we move forward? 5 >> HILLMAN: Madam Chair, I would move 6 that the election, the U.S. Election Assistance 7 Commission approve the administrative transfer 8 as described by Mr. Cortes and provided. 9 >> RODRIGUEZ: Second. 10 >> DAVIDSON: We have a motion and a 11 second to approve the administrative transfer 12 of the rules from the F.E.C. to the E.A.C. 13 using the suggestions that you have in the 14 memo, which I believe is option one? 15 >> CORTES: Yes, ma'am. 16 >> DAVIDSON: Is there any discussion on 17 the matter? 18 >> HILLMAN: I would like to speak to the 19 motion. But let me just defer to what the 20 general counsel has to say. And then I will 21 speak to my motion. 22 >> GILMOUR: Based on the present motion, 23 I want to make sure that you are approving 24 staff of the executive director to take action 25 to transfer. We just want to make sure to the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 103 1 public that we are not suggesting that this 2 action results in the immediate transfer. 3 There are still procedures in place, and they 4 must be followed. I think that is understood 5 by everyone here. We want to make sure that 6 those words to include that. 7 >> DAVIDSON: I definitely appreciate 8 that. Thank you very much. 9 >> HILLMAN: I was -- I am pleased to make 10 the motion because I think that it is 11 critically important for the Election 12 Assistance Commission to be moving as quickly 13 as possible to engage the rule-making process 14 for our responsibility to the NVRA, the 15 National Voter Registration Act. 16 And as I understand it, following up on 17 the general counsel's technical correction of 18 what the motion would be, that we are just not 19 simply going to accept the transfer of the 20 regulations but that we will engage in a 21 full -- not fool -- full rule-making process to 22 amend the E.A.C.'s NVRA regulations to make 23 sure they are HAVA compliant and make any 24 changes that are determined appropriate by the 25 E.A.C. commissioners. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 104 1 In the meantime, we have some things 2 pending, and I am hoping that the commissioners 3 will be able to do two things. One, is to 4 identify those changes to the state specific 5 instructions, the process that we can agree on 6 now as temporary procedures through whatever 7 process we have to go through as quickly as 8 possible, and diligently work those things 9 where the commissioners may not be in agreement 10 on. But just encourage that we continue moving 11 this forward, and there will be lots of 12 discussions about NVRA but that we can get 13 procedures in place quickly. 14 >> DAVIDSON: We have a motion on the 15 floor to -- and a second. Commissioner 16 Rodriguez? 17 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. I 18 just want to take this opportunity to thank the 19 individuals and organizations even though one 20 of the comments wasn't particularly helpful for 21 the groups that are watching this process and 22 took the time to write thoughtful feedback and 23 reaction to the transfer. We -- this is going 24 to be a long process. 25 Just like every other process where you TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 105 1 make sure that you comply with every possible 2 regulation, but I am pleased that we have 3 agreed -- well, I will be pleased to support 4 the motion to start the process of working with 5 the F.E.C. to transfer the regulations. 6 >> DAVIDSON: Any other comments? Seeing 7 none, I will call for the vote. All those in 8 favor of starting the process of moving the 9 regulations over from the NVRA regulations from 10 the F.E.C. to the E.A.C. and taking option 11 really one and really outlines the steps that 12 has to be taken, say aye. 13 >> Aye. 14 >> DAVIDSON: Oppose? The motion is 15 carried. Okay. 16 Over the last few months -- 17 >> HILLMAN: I am sorry. May I just ask a 18 question in terms of the next two steps in 19 anticipated length of time now that the motion 20 is passed? 21 >> CORTES: Well, our next step will be 22 later this week we will contact F.E.C. They 23 actually have within their office of general 24 counsel have part of their legal team assigned 25 to working on regulations. Because they issue TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 106 1 other regulations as well. And so we will 2 contact them to see about the length of time 3 that it will take for us to get through this 4 process. 5 As I said, it will require development of 6 a Federal Register notice, that meets not only 7 Administrative Procedure Act but several other 8 requirements that are out there regarding the 9 administrative transfer of regulations. 10 So we'll begin working with them. I can't 11 give you a specific time line at this point, 12 obviously I want to get it done as quickly as 13 possible, but a lot of it will be dependent on 14 F.E.C. 15 >> GILMOUR: There are a number of 16 determinations that have to be made regarding a 17 variety of other statutes and executive orders 18 which we believe we have a good handle on, but 19 ultimately, we will have to rely on a number of 20 other entities whose activities are somewhat 21 beyond our control, but we will be pushing as a 22 team hard to get this done. 23 >> HILLMAN: In addition to the F.E.C., 24 what would another entities beyond our control 25 be? TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 107 1 >> GILMOUR: Depending upon some 2 determinations, a number of statutes, it could 3 be O.M.B. They have two different offices 4 there. There is OIRA and of course, the Paper 5 Reduction Act folks. There are some 6 determinations there, which unfortunately, I 7 think we have a handle on that, but because the 8 F.E.C. is exempt and we're not, there could be, 9 unfortunately, some more complicated issues 10 there, but our effort will be to proceed as 11 quickly as possible. 12 >> HILLMAN: Thank you. 13 >> DAVIDSON: Okay. As we move forward, 14 over the last few months, the Commission has 15 tried to reach consensus on the interim policy 16 of the process of states' requests. No 17 consensus has been reached at this time. 18 The ideal situation would have been first 19 that we had adopted an interim policy and then 20 applied it to the states' request, but we 21 cannot wait any longer. 22 We have specific requests from five states 23 to change the instructions on the form, and we 24 have a responsibility to the voters to make 25 sure that the national form is accurate and up TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 108 1 to date. 2 That is why I've called for the Commission 3 to vote on each request. The voters expect and 4 deserve leadership and action from the E.A.C. 5 on this issue, and they expect and they deserve 6 it now. 7 Every day that we do not make a decision, 8 we run the risk of disenfranchising voters. I 9 thank the E.A.C. staff for working with all of 10 us to try to reach consensus. You have done 11 your job, and now it is time for the 12 Commissioners to do our job. 13 Edgardo Cortes of the E.A.C., I would now 14 ask you to go through each one of the states' 15 requests separately, so it is not confusing for 16 the Commissioners, and we'll take a vote on 17 each one of them as we go through them. 18 Thank you. 19 >> CORTES: Thank you, Madam Chair. 20 Again, last week -- well during last 21 month's meeting, I presented a memo that 22 detailed requested changes from four states. 23 Early last week, we got an additional request 24 from the state of Delaware, and so I added that 25 to the memo and reissued it at the end of last TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 109 1 week on December 6th, so that was also posted 2 on our website under the materials for the 3 meeting. 4 Would you like me to read the specific 5 changes or detail what it is they're -- 6 >> DAVIDSON: I definitely feel the 7 Commissioners need to be aware of what they 8 were so that they -- they can vote and make 9 sure that they understand each and one of them. 10 >> CORTES: The first one I have here is 11 Rhode Island, and Rhode Island has requested a 12 change in the language and instructions for 13 number 9, which deal with their state 14 eligibility requirements. 15 In particular, we're looking at a change 16 previously. To register to vote in Rhode 17 Island, you had to be neither -- and this is 18 quoted in the memo, the exact language -- this 19 is what is currently on the form. 20 It said, "You must be neither serving a 21 sentence, including probation or parole for 22 which you are imprisoned upon final conviction 23 of a felony imposed on any date, nor serving 24 any sentence, whether incarcerated or 25 suspended, on probation or parole upon a TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 110 1 finally conviction of a felony committed after 2 November 5th, 1986." 3 Since that time -- in the past year, the 4 state of Rhode Island has amended their 5 constitution regarding that requirement, and 6 they now wish it to read -- and this is in 7 accordance with their state constitution -- 8 that "to register in Rhode Island you must not 9 currently be incarcerated in a correctional 10 facility due to a felony conviction," so that 11 is the specific change which they request. 12 >> DAVIDSON: All right. Do I hear a 13 motion? 14 >> HUNTER: I move to adopt that specific 15 change and reflect it in the state instructions 16 portion of the Federal Voter Registration form 17 under the state of Rhode Island. 18 >> DAVIDSON: Is there a second? 19 I will second it. 20 All those in favor of -- 21 >> HILLMAN: I would like to speak to the 22 motion, please. 23 >> DAVIDSON: All right. Is there any 24 discussion? 25 >> HILLMAN: Yes. On Friday of last week, TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 111 1 December 7th, I put before all of the 2 Commissioners and the senior staff a proposed 3 policy that would allow us to adopt 4 temporary -- a temporary policy and procedures 5 so that all requests from states for changes to 6 the state instruction portion of the Federal 7 Registration Form could be considered the same. 8 And I agree with you, Madam Chair, that 9 E.A.C. has a responsibility to the states and 10 to the voters of this country, but I also 11 believe that E.A.C. has a responsibility to 12 take actions under adoptive policy, and that to 13 take the requests state by state puts us in 14 jeopardy of, one, not having in place the 15 appropriate authority that we have been told 16 this year that we should have in place; and 17 two, that state requests would not be treated 18 the same. 19 And I think it is really important that, 20 when these decisions are made, we are making 21 them under policy. 22 >> DAVIDSON: Commissioner Hillman, I 23 agree with you, and I appreciate your hard 24 work, and I am sorry that it wasn't done 25 earlier, where we could amend our -- our TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 112 1 Federal Register notice to make sure that it 2 had been properly noticed on the agenda to be 3 discussed today, your procedure. 4 And I publicly will say that I support in 5 moving forward in a policy in working with all 6 of my fellow Commissioners in getting one 7 addressed. 8 But last month I was criticized for not 9 having addressed it with the Federal Register, 10 and I really had, and I feel that it is 11 important, as we move forward, trying to be 12 transparent, that we move forward and treat it 13 all the same. 14 And I realize we have all been very busy, 15 and I do look forward in working with you and 16 all of the others in trying to get to a 17 resolution. 18 But we are really close to the election -- 19 presidential elections that is right there upon 20 us. And we take -- we are right now in the 21 process of disenfranchising voters who could 22 possibly be voting and don't know what the 23 rules and regulations are for the states. 24 So that's why I took the urgent need to go 25 ahead and put them up for vote. I think we can TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 113 1 vote on them fairly, on each and every one of 2 them, as we move forward, and that we must do 3 so. 4 I noticed it. I even called the 5 Commissioners several weeks ago and let them 6 know that I intended to put it up this way so 7 that it was done in a public setting. 8 So is there any other discussion of the 9 manner? 10 Ms. Rodriguez? 11 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. I, 12 too, am abstaining from this vote absent a 13 policy with which we deal with the problem. 14 >> DAVIDSON: Then we'll proceed with the 15 vote, and then you can cast your vote as you 16 wish. 17 Would you take the roll? 18 >> GILMOUR: Commissioners, please state 19 your vote -- Commissioners, please state your 20 vote for the record after I call your name. 21 Commissioner Carolyn Hunter? 22 >> HUNTER: Aye. 23 >> GILMOUR: Commissioner Gracia Hillman? 24 >> HILLMAN: Abstain because we do not 25 have a policy. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 114 1 >> GILMOUR: Vice Chair Rosemary 2 Rodriguez? 3 >> RODRIGUEZ: Abstain. 4 >> GILMOUR: Chair Davidson? 5 >> DAVIDSON: Aye. 6 Would you continue on with Colorado, the 7 address change? 8 >> CORTES: Yes. 9 >> GILMOUR: Madam Chair, could you please 10 state for the record the results of the vote? 11 >> DAVIDSON: The record showed that there 12 was two yes votes and two that abstained, 13 because we did not have a policy. 14 >> CORTES: Yes, ma'am. 15 >> GILMOUR: Madam Chair, could you please 16 state for the record the results of the vote. 17 >> DAVIDSON: The record shows that there 18 was two yes votes and two that abstained 19 because we did not have a policy. 20 >> GILMOUR: And that motion will not 21 carry? 22 >> DAVIDSON: That's correct. 23 >> CORTES: Madam Chair, the second 24 request pending is from Colorado. They have 25 requested a change in their mailing address as TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 115 1 their -- since they have switched location, the 2 forwarding to -- mail forwarding from their 3 previous location has expired. The previous 4 mailing address was 1560 Broadway, Suite 200 in 5 Denver, Colorado. That address has been 6 changed to 1700 Broadway, Suite 270, Denver, 7 Colorado, and that is the change that the state 8 has requested. 9 >> DAVIDSON: Any discussion? Is there a 10 motion? I move that we changed the address for 11 Colorado. Is there a second? 12 >> HUNTER: Second. 13 >> DAVIDSON: Discussion? I will take a 14 vote. Roll call, please. 15 >> GILMOUR: Please state your vote for 16 the record after I call your name. 17 Commissioner Caroline Hunter? 18 >> HUNTER: Aye. 19 >> GILMOUR: Gracia Hillman? 20 >> HILLMAN: Abstain. 21 >> GILMOUR: Vice Chair Rosemary 22 Rodriguez? 23 >> RODRIGUEZ: Abstain. 24 >> GILMOUR: And chair Davidson. 25 >> DAVIDSON: Aye. Let the record show TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 116 1 there was two yeses, two abstains, so the 2 motion has failed. Continue. 3 >> CORTES: The next request is from 4 Delaware, it pertains to their registration 5 deadline. Previously their registration 6 deadline was 20 days prior to the general 7 election and 20 days prior to the primary 8 election. 9 They have since changed their state law, 10 and they have requested a change, the change 11 registration deadline to read, the fourth 12 Saturday before a primary or general election 13 and ten days before a special election. 14 >> DAVIDSON: Is there a motion to address 15 the issue from Delaware? 16 >> HUNTER: I move to make a change in the 17 state instructions for the registration 18 deadline for the state of Delaware. 19 >> DAVIDSON: I will second the motion. 20 And I see no discussion. Would you go ahead 21 and call roll please. 22 >> GILMOUR: Please state your name for 23 the record after I call your name. 24 Commissioner Caroline Hunter? 25 >> HUNTER: Aye. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 117 1 >> GILMOUR: Commissioner Gracia Hillman? 2 >> HILLMAN: Abstain. 3 >> GILMOUR: Vice Chair Rosemary 4 Rodriguez? 5 >> RODRIGUEZ: Abstain. 6 >> GILMOUR: Chair Davidson. 7 >> DAVIDSON: Aye. Let the record show 8 there are two ayes and two abstains so the 9 motion has failed. Edgardo, New Jersey I 10 believe is next. 11 >> CORTES: Yes, Madam Chair. New Jersey 12 has also requested a change to their voter 13 registration deadline information. Previously 14 or as listed currently in the form, the 15 registration deadline was 29 days before the 16 election. They have since changed their state 17 law and the registration deadline is now 21 18 days before the election. 19 >> DAVIDSON: Is there a motion? On the 20 New Jersey? 21 >> HUNTER: I move to amend the New Jersey 22 state instructions to reflect their new 23 registration deadline of 21 days before the 24 election. 25 >> DAVIDSON: I will second the motion. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 118 1 Discussion? Counsel, will you call the roll, 2 please. 3 >> GILMOUR: Please state your vote for 4 the record after I call your name. 5 Commissioner Caroline Hunter? 6 >> HUNTER: Aye. 7 >> GILMOUR: Commissioner Gracia Hillman? 8 >> HILLMAN: Abstain. 9 >> GILMOUR: Vice Chair Rosemary 10 Rodriguez? 11 >> RODRIGUEZ: Abstain. 12 >> GILMOUR: Chair Davidson. 13 >> DAVIDSON: Aye. Let the record show 14 that there are two who voted aye and two that 15 abstains. So the motion has failed. Last one. 16 >> CORTES: Yes, Madam Chair. Arizona has 17 requested the following change in the section 18 labeled I.D. number in their state 19 instructions. The big change here to know and 20 I can read the entire thing if you would like. 21 Essentially after the language with the I.D. 22 number, they have also asked the E.A.C. to 23 reflect on the form a new requirement which 24 they have listing documentation regarding 25 citizenship, and they have then a list of TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 119 1 acceptable documents to show a potential voter 2 citizenship. So that is the change. I can 3 read the entire thing if you would like. 4 >> DAVIDSON: I think that we have all 5 read it and at public meetings in the past. Is 6 there a motion to address the Arizona request? 7 >> HUNTER: I move to adopt the language 8 detailed in the memo by Mr. Cortes to properly 9 reflect the state law in Arizona regarding 10 eligibility to vote. 11 >> DAVIDSON: I second the motion. 12 Discussion? Counsel, would you call the roll, 13 please. 14 >> GILMOUR: Please state your vote for 15 the report after I call your name. 16 Commissioner Caroline Hunter. 17 >> HUNTER: Aye. 18 >> GILMOUR: Commissioner Gracia Hillman? 19 >> HILLMAN: Abstain. 20 >> GILMOUR: Vice chair Rosemary 21 Rodriguez? 22 >> RODRIGUEZ: Abstain. 23 >> GILMOUR: Chair Davidson. 24 >> DAVIDSON: Aye. And let the record 25 also be shown here that two voted aye, two TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 120 1 abstained. The motion has failed. Yes, go 2 right ahead, I don't know who was first but 3 okay, Commissioner Hunter. 4 >> HUNTER: Thank you, Madam Chair. I 5 would like to point out for the record, I 6 believe and Mr. Cortes can correct me if I am 7 wrong, that the E.A.C. has made changes to the 8 state instructions in the past since the 9 inception of the E.A.C. absent a policy. So 10 that is one comment I would like to make. 11 Another is, I proposed a policy as did 12 Commissioner Davidson in previous public 13 meetings on this subject, and you know, I 14 posted and it was discussed and it did not 15 pass. And as Commissioner Davidson pointed 16 out, everybody agrees that we should try to 17 come up with a policy that we can use in making 18 these kind of decisions but unfortunately 19 nobody has been able to come up with one that 20 can get three votes. 21 So one of things I plan to do at the next 22 public meeting is to reintroduce not my policy 23 again because it has already failed. But the 24 F.E.C. policy, that the F.E.C. used to deal 25 with this matter when they were still handling TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 121 1 the voter registration form, and especially 2 since we have now transferred the regulations 3 from the F.E.C., may be that is a policy we 4 could use at least in the interim until we come 5 up with another one. 6 So I plan to propose that at the next 7 public meeting, and I also plan to propose a 8 disclaimer to be added to the federal form to 9 note that the Election Assistance Commission 10 knows that the state instructions portion of 11 this form is inaccurate. And I think that is 12 irresponsible. I regret that we are in this 13 position. 14 But I think the public should be made 15 aware of that fact. And these are the only 16 five issues we know about. Mr. Cortes told us 17 in the last public meeting that there may be 18 other issues with the state instruction that we 19 are not aware of because I believe he, the way 20 he described it in the last meeting was he 21 doesn't have the adequate staff to go out there 22 and determine what the actual state instruction 23 should be in each state. And last time on the 24 record with all of this conversation in 25 previous meetings, but I do think that the TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 122 1 state instruction should properly reflect, you 2 know, the state law of the states. 3 The states obviously have a Constitutional 4 right to establish eligibility and the state 5 instruction portion is just a mechanism to 6 reflect to voters in that state what their 7 state law is. Thank you very much. 8 >> DAVIDSON: Commissioner Rodriguez? 9 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. 10 And I appreciate Commissioner Hunter's 11 frustration. But when the minutes we approved 12 earlier in this meeting, we approved that 13 discussion that we had last month about the 14 absence of the policy and Commissioner 15 Hillman's reluctance to vote on the state's 16 requests absent a policy. And she is not -- 17 commissioner Davidson and Hunter are not the 18 only ones that have proposed a policy. 19 Commissioner Hillman also did but it wasn't in 20 time for us to consider at this meeting. I do 21 want to note that for the record. 22 I am not taking a qualitative position on 23 any of the states' instructions. I wish we had 24 a policy so that we could adopt them. But the 25 fact that we, in the past, have made decisions TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 123 1 ad hoc doesn't to me be a good enough reason to 2 continue to do things ad hoc. 3 And so I commit to work with my colleagues 4 to try to come up with something that we all 5 agree on that may be the F.E.C. policy, I am 6 willing to consider that formally. 7 Commissioner Hillman suggested we might even 8 work with a facilitator to at least knock out 9 the areas that we can agree on. These are 10 very, in my opinion, some of the most important 11 issues that we are working on at the E.A.C. 12 But there should be an easy way for the simple 13 administrative changes to be reflected on the 14 form and in the state instructions. I just 15 simply will say again that I am not willing to 16 adopt them without an overarching policy. 17 >> DAVIDSON: Thank you. 18 >> HILLMAN: Let me also say that my 19 position has nothing to do with the proposed 20 changes submitted by the states but rather that 21 E.A.C. responsibly needs to be making decisions 22 under policies. As you noted, Madam Chair, you 23 would not support the policy proposal I put on 24 the table because it hadn't been noticed for 30 25 days. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 124 1 So I would submit that E.A.C. must make a 2 commitment to figure out what it is going to 3 put, notice the 30 days. We cannot wait until 4 our January meeting to find ourselves in a 5 position where we won't consider a proposed 6 policy because it hadn't been out for public 7 comment for 30 days. 8 Where we aren't going to consider a 9 proposed policy because it hadn't been out for 10 public comment for 30 days. Thirty-day public 11 comment, plus time for the staff to analyze 12 the -- to be brought back to the Commission for 13 discussion and consideration means minimally 45 14 days. So that means we are well into February. 15 So I would say, Commissioners, that we 16 have a responsibility. As we have a 17 responsibility to timely respond to matters 18 brought before us, we have a responsibility to 19 move post days to figure out a way that we can 20 agree on the things that we can move forward 21 with. When I put my proposed policy out, I 22 identified those things based on previous 23 conversations that I believed we could come on 24 agreement today if we put our minds to it, that 25 there are other components of the NVRA that we TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 125 1 don't have agreement on. 2 There are some things which E.A.C. has 3 little or no discretion because of the U.S. 4 Constitution or because of the requirements of 5 the National Voter Registration Act and the 6 Help America Vote Act. There are other things 7 where we don't agree as to what the extent of 8 the discretions are. 9 And I believe that it is our 10 responsibility to capture the things we can 11 agree on and move forward with those, and if 12 we're going to be consistent in this, then any 13 policy that comes before us for consideration 14 has to be noticed for 35 days, and let's just 15 accept that means we won't be discussing it 16 again until February 17 And the longer we wait to come up with a 18 proposed policy, the longer it is going to take 19 before we can move forward on these items. 20 Thank you. 21 >> HUNTER: Madam Chair, point of 22 clarification, I don't recall your saying 23 this -- maybe you did -- that we have a 30-day 24 requirement for any posting of policy. 25 That was not my understanding, and perhaps TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 126 1 the general counsel could speak to that. 2 >> GILMOUR: I don't think I understand, 3 either, what we're referencing. 4 >> HILLMAN: My comment is that whatever 5 we discuss at our public meetings and whatever 6 we take a vote on in our public meetings should 7 be in the Federal Register. It is not a 30-day 8 period for the Federal Register, I believe, 9 more like -- 10 >> GILMOUR: It is a one-week minimal time 11 period. 12 >> HILLMAN: Well, there seems to be the 13 confusion of two things. There is -- what I 14 heard you tell me earlier, was that the 15 proposed policy should be up for public comment 16 30 days before the Commissioners take it 17 under -- excuse me, this is something that 18 Commissioner Davidson shared with me. 19 I am perfectly willing to say if it is a 20 week out there for public comment, if it is 14 21 days, but we can't sometimes say it can be 22 three days or 14 days that we agree, that if 23 we're going to consider a policy proposal on 24 this issue, that the proposal itself be 25 available for public review and comment or not. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 127 1 I just want to get some clarification on that, 2 then. 3 If we're only talking about what is on the 4 agenda and materials made available for public 5 review, or are we talking about putting 6 something out for public comment? 7 >> DAVIDSON: My clarification -- and I am 8 sorry if I confused the issue -- is that I feel 9 that -- and in being transparent, as an agency, 10 we need to have anything that we discuss or a 11 vote that is taken at a meeting be on the 12 Federal Register and up on our website and 13 listed into our agenda. 14 That was what my concern was, is that it 15 had not been, I felt like, properly noticed to 16 the public because of the Federal Register and 17 because it wasn't on the agenda that had been 18 out for a week. 19 >> HILLMAN: Well, my request is in 20 response to Commissioner Hunter, that we not 21 just individually come in with proposals, but 22 that we make a commitment for the four of us, 23 whether it is through the assistance of a 24 mediator or somebody on staff or somehow, 25 because the four of us can't discuss this TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 128 1 unless it is at a public meeting, that we find 2 a way that we can agree on what will go in the 3 proposal so that we can move past where we are. 4 We have been here for 90 days and that is 89 5 days too long. 6 >> HUNTER: Of course I am willing to do 7 whatever it takes to come up with a policy, and 8 we can certainly talk two of us at a time, and 9 I think that is maybe something we also ought 10 to do more of. 11 >> DAVIDSON: I agree, that, number one, 12 we need to come up with a policy immediately, 13 as soon as we possibly can, so it can be 14 presented and voted on at the next meeting. 15 And I give my -- I plan on putting as much 16 as I possibly can. I will be talking with each 17 and everybody to see how they feel 18 individually. I mean, it does slow down our 19 process obviously because we can't sit down 20 together, and if we think a mediator to help us 21 come up with those and to record them -- I know 22 our staff is extremely busy, so maybe that is 23 the approach we need to take, that they can 24 work with two of us at a time and come up with 25 those. TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 129 1 But you've got my willingness to do that 2 along with -- I think everybody in the audience 3 has been made aware that all four of us are 4 committed to come up with a policy as quickly 5 as possible so that we can address the issues. 6 I am sorry to cut the meeting short, but 7 we are supposed to be out of the room about 8 five minutes ago. 9 So this concludes my last meeting, and I 10 do want to say thanks to my fellow 11 Commissioners. 12 >> GILMOUR: I am sorry to interrupt you. 13 I want it to be clear for the record that there 14 was no decision or vote just previously made. 15 >> DAVIDSON: That's right. 16 >> GILMOUR: The goal, of course, is to 17 move forward on this issue, as fast as we 18 possibly can, consistent with the requirements 19 for a public meeting. 20 >> DAVIDSON: That is correct. 21 As I started to say, I do want to thank my 22 fellow Commissioners. They have been very 23 supportive through my year as the Chair, and 24 I -- I thank the staff for their tireless and 25 their -- all of their work and how much their TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 130 1 efforts has meant to me in standing behind me 2 in trying to accomplish everything that they 3 have in presenting it. 4 So at this time, it is in order to have a 5 motion to adjourn the meeting. 6 >> HILLMAN: Madam Chair, I know we're in 7 a hurry to leave, but I just want to take a 8 point to acknowledge some literature that was 9 given to me just a minute ago at the beginning 10 of the meeting. 11 Pat McCarthy who was the Pierce County 12 Auditor in Washington state, are you still 13 here? Yes. Okay. 14 A year or so ago, I, in making speeches, 15 referred to poll workers as champions of 16 democracy. And in dialoguing with election 17 officials, encouraged them to do whatever they 18 could to highlight, thank, promote, call 19 attention to the incredible work that poll 20 workers do. 21 And Ms. McCarthy has gone ahead and taken 22 the term "champion of democracy" and uses it on 23 her literature to promote and highlight her 24 poll workers, and I am proudly wearing my 25 "champion of democracy" pin, and just as an TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 131 1 example that communication and exchanges of 2 ideas do work, and so I want to thank you for 3 that very much. 4 >> DAVIDSON: Any other comments? 5 >> RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Madam Chair. 6 I, too, want to thank you for your year as 7 Chair. It certainly made my transition to the 8 E.A.C. feel like a homecoming because we have 9 our shared Colorado roots and our shared home 10 sickness sometimes. 11 And you had, I think, an amazing year with 12 the movement of the Voluntary Voting System 13 Guidelines, the progress you've made in testing 14 and certification and in the leading, all of 15 the technology aspects and access to reliable 16 equipment, aspects of the E.A.C. and I 17 personally, too, want to thank you for a good 18 year. 19 >> DAVIDSON: Thank you very much. 20 Okay. Now we're ready for that motion to 21 adjourn. 22 >> RODRIGUEZ: So moved. 23 >> DAVIDSON: Second? 24 >> HILLMAN: Second. 25 >> DAVIDSON: All those in favor say TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 132 1 "aye." 2 >> Aye. 3 >> DAVIDSON: We are adjourned. Thank 4 you. 5 (Meeting adjourned) 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210 133 1 STATE OF TEXAS COUNTY OF TRAVIS 2 REPORTERS' CERTIFICATE 3 UNITED STATES ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION PUBLIC MEETING 4 DECEMBER 11, 2007 5 We, the undersigned Certified Shorthand 6 Reporters in and for the State of Texas, 7 certify that the above and foregoing 8 proceedings were taken down, as stated in the 9 caption, and reduced to typewriting under ou 10 direction, and that the foregoing represent a 11 true, correct, and complete transcript of the 12 said proceedings. 13 SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO under our hand and 14 seal of office on this the 23rd day of 15 December, 2007. 16 ________________________________ April C. Balcombe, CSR, CRR, CCP 17 Texas CSR 5752 Expiration: 12/31/09 18 TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street 19 Austin, Texas 78705 1-512-480-0210 20 21 _______________________________ 22 Michelle Robertson, CSR, RPR Texas CSR 4268 23 Expiration: 12/31/09 TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 24 310 East 34th Street Austin, Texas 78705 25 1-512-480-0210 TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING 310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas 78705 (512)480-0210