* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Holton
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
Title
The Baltimore City Council Task Force To Secure the Integrity of Baltimore City Elections
FOR the purpose of establishing a task force to ensure the validity of the 2007 Mayoral and future elections by evaluating the accessability, geographic placement, and number of polling places throughout the City; assessing the efficacy and timing of the current educational program for election judges; and performing a comprehensive fiscal and operational audit of the Baltimore City electoral process.
Body Recitals
Following the fiasco of the 2006 primary election, in which major mistakes affected the electoral process across the entire state, the Maryland State Election Administrator ordered the subdivisions in which the most egregious violations occurred, Baltimore City, and Montgomery, Prince Georges, and Anne Arundel county local election boards, to immediately submit remedy plans to ensure that the general election would run smoothly and accurately reflect the will of the people.
As further indemnity against a botched election, the Maryland General Assembly leadership directed the Office of Legislative Audits (OLA) to identify the problems encountered by the 4 jurisdictions during the primary election. In response, the Office issued weekly reports analyzing the correction action plans proposed to correct significant deficiencies, monitoring the implementation of the corrective actions, and reviewing the efforts of the State Board of Elections( SBE) to help ensure that noted statewide problems were not repeated during the November 7, 2006 general election.
In Baltimore City, it was reported that SBE requested specific corrective action be taken in 10 areas that generally addressed: identifying current judges deemed unfit; recruiting new judges; training of new judges and refresher training of retained judges; documenting the competency of judges to be used in the general election; and ensuring that all judges are given an assignment for Election Day. At the September 19, 2006 hearing, senior local board staff was unable to provide the City Council with satisfactory answers to election day problems.
The meeting with the City Council was on September 25 and 27, 2006 by equally unsatisfactory sessions with OLA staff where specific documentation was not available, including: a list of 183 judges who did not show up for the election and were sent letters
concerning their no-show; the number of judges that will need to be recruited; the communication log of complaints received from voters or recorded by judges during the primary; details or contact information about offers from Baltimore City government and the University of Maryland Law School to recruit election judges; and plans for training judges.
By the 6th and final report of the Office of Legislative Audits, dated November 2, 2006, the Baltimore City Board of Elections had addressed many of the problems that had affected the electoral process in the City as follows:
* "According to SBE, as of November 2, 2006, all local boards had received the full allotment of their requested quantity of paper ballots to be used as absentee, provisional and/or contingency ballots. However, some local boards report having run low on certain ballot styles and will need to photocopy ballots to cover any shortages.
$ The unanticipated volume of absentee ballot requests has generally caused delays in mailing of absentee ballots at certain local boards. As of the morning of November 2, there were approximately 186,000 voters Statewide that had requested an absentee ballot and approximately 62,000 completed ballots had been returned. At the 4 local boards that were being monitored, approximately 84,000 ballots had been requested and approximately 24,500 had been returned.
$ As of today, the local boards have completed required pre-election testing of electronic voting equipment..SBE's procedures require it to select one voting machine from each of the 24 locals and subject the machines to testing during the General Election. SBE advised that due to staffing issues, it planned on limiting this testing to one unit from only 6 of the 24 local boards. Therefore, SBE will not be in compliance with its procedures.
$ Although Baltimore City and Montgomery County are still attempting to recruit Republican judges, for all practical purposes, recruitment should be considered concluded. Both the City and Montgomery County advised that they have an adequate number of judges for the election and can place at least one Republican judge in each precinct. Baltimore City has not yet filled all chief judge positions, although efforts continue.
$ Training will continue through November 6th in several local boards for technicians, judges, and chief judges, based on established training schedules and curriculum. The quality of training provided in Baltimore City has been uneven, with more people showing up for certain training classes than anticipated, possibly impacting the effectiveness of the instruction.
$ As issue not identified during the Primary Election, but which might become significant after the General Election, is the accounting and handling of absentee ballots. Although State Regulations prescribe certain controls and processing steps to be followed by the local boards, we believe some proactive monitoring of this issue by SBE, prior to election, would be appropriate. For example, SBE does not intend to determine whether each local board has adequately planned to handle an unprecedented volume of absentee ballots."
Fortunately, 8 weeks after a disastrous election that brought unwanted national attention to the electoral process in Maryland, the November 7th General Election was comparatively glitch free thanks to the intervention of the State and the dedication of the local Baltimore City Board of Elections. However, the information contained in the report of the OLA and first-hand accounts of Baltimore City voters, indicate that Baltimore City can not proceed as if the problems that nearly brought our electoral process to standstill have all been addressed nor can we assume that even if the process were totally error-free that it addresses the needs of the constituency.
The The Machinery of Democracy: Voting System Security, Accessibility, Usability, and Cost, a voting technology assessment project of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, finds that there has been surprisingly little empirical study of voting systems in the areas of security, accessibility, usability, and cost...Advocates urge security measures that provide questionable security value; jurisdictions purchase accessible voting machines that do not fully address the needs of their disabled communities; counties make decisions about ballot design and instruction language without performing usability testing to avoid voter confusion and mistake; and state and local election officials often purchase voting machines by looking almost exclusively at initial costs, with little regard for long-term costs, which will almost always make up the vast majority of the voting system's total cost.
To ensure that future elections truly reflect the will of the populace, it is necessary to continue to monitor the progress of the Baltimore City Board of Elections in instituting a remedy plan and, additionally, to take proactive measures to address the needs of our diverse population that includes persons of all ages, physical abilities, and those for whom English is not their native language.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That this Body establishes an Ad Hoc Committee to ensure the validity of the 2007 Mayoral and future elections by evaluating the accessability, geographic placement, and number of polling places throughout the City; assessing the efficacy and timing of the current educational program for election judges; and performing a comprehensive fiscal and operational audit of the Baltimore City electoral process.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the membership of the Baltimore City Council Task Force to Secure the Integrity of Baltimore City Elections will include, but not be limited to, representatives of:
$ Baltimore City Council
$ Mayor's Office
$ Baltimore City Senate and House Delegations to the Maryland General Assembly
$ Baltimore City Board of Elections
$ Commission on Aging and Retirement Education
$ NAACP
$ Commission on Disabilities
$ Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods Hispanic Liaison
$ Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods Korean Liaison
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to.
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