[Tseng]: Committee into order. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll?
[SPEAKER_07]: Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro. Present. Councilor Scarpelli. Here. Council President Bears.
[Tseng]: Present present five in five present non absent. The meeting is called to order. Uh this meeting will take place at seven p.m. in the city council chamber. Second floor. We have zoom link. Um the action item on today's agenda is paper 23-474 offered by Council President Bears the 2023 met on this once before, just to determine a future path forward. In previous Council meetings, other Councilors, such as Councilor Scarpelli, have put on the agenda that this Governance Committee conduct more oversight of the Elections Department, of our new Elections Department, following what we've heard from previous city elections. I have invited the members of the Elections Commission as well as Chief of Staff, Ina Nazarian, to this meeting today. Our Chief of Staff has been helping out with the Elections Department for the Presidential Preference Primary held earlier this month. And so, before I start, do any of you have any questions? Seeing none, if the Chief of Staff would want to come up and address the Council, or if any election commissioners want to address the Council to introduce remarks, I'd be happy to recognize you. Madam Chief of Staff.
[Nazarian]: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly would defer to the Elections Commission members who are on the Zoom call to start out if they would like.
[Tseng]: Great. Thank you. Any, are there any elections commissioners on the Zoom call who would like to say anything, introduce their remarks to us? Seeing none, I know, so yes, Councilor Riveras?
[Bears]: I was, I missed, you went quickly through the introduction. I maybe missed my opportunity to jump in as the person who introduced the paper. So I apologize for that. But as you did know, Councilor Scarpelli and myself and I believe other councillors in November, Councilor Morell, Councilor Caraviello, we did introduce a number of papers regarding the issues that had gone on with the municipal election of 2023. Procedural errors that occurred prior to the counting of the votes and how those were disseminated to the public and what the responses and solutions to those were going to be and kind of what the accountability system was going to be. And, you know, that was even resolution submitted before the recount, which occurred, which did, of course, affirm the results. But the underlying issue of when we have procedural errors, what is the protocol of the elections department? in clearly notifying everyone and being very transparent an error occurred. This is how the error happened. We've identified the issue. This is how we're going to rectify it in the future so it doesn't happen again. That was really what I think was the main concern of all involved, was making sure that there was that openness about issues happening and making sure that there was clear understanding about addressing them in the future. And, you know, we continued to kind of have issues. really through earlier this year, then obviously there was a staffing change in the office. And I would say that since then, when there have been errors, we have received very clear reporting of this was the issue. This is how we identified it. This is the solution that we're putting into place. We did also receive the report that we requested and we have discussed it in council in January. going over the 2023 election, and that was from the elections manager at the time. And I do appreciate the elections commission chair also submitting his own report as an addendum to that, that really, I think, got into some of the deeper details. and the procedural fixes that need to go into effect. I think one thing that we do need to note across this whole question is we have more complicated elections than we've ever had before. We have many elections every year, generally at least two elections every year. And with the new laws at the state level with the Votes Act and the permanent mail voting, early voting, very extensive, of course, coming up this year for our presidential election. I think there's 14 days of early voting. And of course, polling location issues, et cetera, et cetera. We have running elections in the city has never been more logistically complicated, requiring more resources and more staff, including full-time staff and part-time staff. And I think it's really important to recognize that. I think the question, at least that I had was, One, do we have the staffing levels needed to succeed in these roles? Especially, do we have the staffing levels needed to succeed without elections commissioners who really are not supposed to be doing day-to-day work, who had been doing more, I think, than the general that. Um assessment is of what elections commission should be doing. They should be reviewing the results and approving things and addressing procedural issues outlined by state law. So you know that really is to me the, um. First question, and then I think we also quite frankly had a question of did we have staff in place who we felt, um, was doing the job and meeting the meeting the moment. I think that's in the past, so we don't need to the elections commission and from the chief of staff. Um. To have a fully staffed elections office full time. Um and make sure that we have the election staff and on the part time basis, our wardens are elections official officers at the polling places, folks to staff early voting people working on the on the mail balloting, um, to do the job effectively. And I know that in this case, the past that because of the departure of a member of the staff that the chief of staff was doing the bulk of that work. And obviously that's not a sustainable model. We need staff in the elections department to do that. those are kind of just that's kind of my general framing on all of this. I do want to acknowledge some significant improvements and when I did issues are identified that we did receive clear reporting on that. And there was public discussion about it, which is important. And I also want to note that we as a council did pass a resolution and I have had conversations with the chief of staff to really clarify that there is an elections department in the city of Medford that is staffed by staff members. that is separate from the Elections Commission, just like the Board of Registrars was different than the people in the Registrar and Voters Office. And it's important to understand, we don't call the Water and Sewer Department the Water and Sewer Commission. We call it the Water and Sewer Department, and there's a Water and Sewer Commission that oversees it, but then there's the actual staffing of that. So I think just updating our nomenclature, signage, et cetera, in physical form and digital form to make it clear, there's an Elections Department, there's a staff member of that elections department who runs it, there are other staff members within that department, both full-time and part-time, and they're the ones who manage the elections is really key. So thank you, Chair Tsang.
[Tseng]: I saw Councilor Scarpelli's hand, and there was a hand on Zoom, but I'll, from Commissioner Bell, go to the Council first.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. Mr. Chair, I think this, You know, first, I think the Election Commission does the best they can. I think that, you know, Henry and his team try to stand above it all, but there are some huge deficiencies that were realized in November and then magnified again for the federal elections past March, which I think that brings me to my conclusion that, you know, appreciate the reports, but reports mean nothing when the same thing keeps happening over and over again. I feel that this council should ask the administration or demand that the administration call for an outside audit to come in and audit and educate our election department and commission and support. the, you know, the counting of the ballots, the process of that, the counting of the ballots, the voting process that's in place and the lack of education for our poll workers and the lack of guidance of understanding what their jobs and roles are done on a person to person basis and polling location, polling location basis is very different and it opens up an avenue for distrust and for confusion. Again, let me repeat, most importantly, it's not the poll workers' fault. The poll workers' fault are doing exactly what they know what to do. They haven't been trained, they haven't been vetted properly to make sure that they're given the tools to succeed, and I think that's been a huge problem. I think that we, as a council, asked, oh God, years ago, to look at our voting list and to eliminate all of the people that are in the election list and clean that up. And we can't do that. And you're having households receiving ballots when they don't even live there anymore. We have people that, are on the voter registration list when you go into vote and you're seeing people that moved out of your own neighborhood when you look down 10, 15 years ago. You see voters, Medford voters that have passed on that are off in heaven and still are on a voting list. There's a lot that can be done to help our poll workers. And one thing we need to do, unless we try to get ahead of it right now, I think we'll never catch up. I think we need to put some funding and some support to this venture right now, before the federal election, to make sure that we have crossed our T's and dotted our I's in this community. whatever we saw in November, whatever we saw in November, in our elections in November, we saw some we witnessed some similar issues that happened in March. And I said this before the November elections, I said, please, perception is reality. Whatever we need to do, whatever this council needs to do, let's help the administration give them what they need to make sure that this doesn't happen again. And they're happening again. So I'm sure you've heard all the rumors about, you know, who's come into the city, the investigations that are going on in the city, you know, different different federal departments talking to people interviewing people. It's, it's, it's, it's scary. for the fact that one of these days something's gonna happen and we're gonna be left holding the bag. Because listen, we know what's going on. We know there are issues. We know that there are serious issues as a council, we know. So I think we need to give the commission the tools that they need in the election department, the staffing and the tools they need to properly educate to properly inform to properly hold an election and making sure we're giving them all the tools possible. And I think one of the biggest things you start with first is looking at our role looking at our people that are on the on the election roll. See, see if they're even living here. See if they passed away. Because what is it they're saying is 45 registered 45,000 registered voters 42,000. I don't see that. I don't see that at all. I think there's a big piece that, you know, you have election workers going through numbers. You have, you know, poll workers going through numbers that aren't even there. And then that causes more issues because, you know, you heard what happened in November. You had more line, you had a bigger line of people waiting in a separate line because they were told that they weren't registered voters when you had former city councilors that were told that. So it's not, this isn't good. So I think that we need to, as the reports, we appreciate the report that came back, we understand and we see some of the inequities, but what I don't see is a clear path to fixing this. If tonight's tonight's meeting was to hear what they were going to say, and see what the administration is going to say, see what happened. And then I hope at the end of this, that we have a clear vision of what we need to do. So this doesn't happen at the presidential election. It's very simple. You know, I would ask the chief of staff, how often do you see a chief of staff running an election? That doesn't look good. that just doesn't look good. Whether whether there's nothing there or something there, it just doesn't look good. Not having a chief of staff running your elections. It's it's it's it speaks volumes and where we are and we need to we need to figure this out before the next election. So I appreciate Mr. Chair for letting me share my opinions. But as for one, I'll be one council that will support any endeavor that will lend support to the commission and the election department to make sure they have all the tools possible that the same issues don't happen again. Ballots going out when they shouldn't. Too many ballots going to people's homes. Election numbers not being tabulated in the proper timeline. Numbers that not not being released in a proper timeline, poll workers that don't understand the protocol from one polling station to another. It's it's that. Like I said, it leads to. Perception being reality, and that's it. I don't want that to happen. So thank you.
[Tseng]: Um I think I saw a Councilor bears his hand. Did I see Councilor Collins's hand to so go in that order.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to say that I agree with some of what was said. I mean, there are. Procedure There were We got a report back, again, from the elections commission, from the chief of staff to the elections commission to the city council about the Super Tuesday primary. There was a signage issue at the Roberts School. Site visits were made. There were not further complaints after signage was remedied. There was election results subsequent to the closure of the polls. you know, what Councilor Schapiro is talking about with the central tabulation system. You know, I have had conversations with the Elections Commission, and it's right in here, that the file download was slow, and that may be a technology issue going on when doing central tabulation. And, you know, There was an issue with 77 ballots in post-election tabulation, where there's a communication with the elections division of the Secretary of State's office. But I have communicated personally with the elections division of the Secretary of State's office. I communicate with them before the November election, after the November election, sometimes this year as well. They did not come in here and look at anything. They did not come in and say that there was a broken system of any kind. We had a recount run by some of the most respected legal counsel on the petitioner side, as well as on the city side. And while issues were identified, those issues were not determinative of the outcome. And certainly, I think the point is we need to address issues like this, right? We need to make sure that the process is up to snuff, that the staff is there. I think on that's the one piece of this that we all agree on, but the idea of, you know, investigatory issues into like large scale problems here, the secretary of state's office and the elections division has not made that determination, has been asked to make that determination and has declined to make that determination. So I am interested in hearing what is our plans on staffing and financial resources for the elections department going forward. I completely do agree that there needs to be. I'm a full time elections department director, and as this council has said multiple times, I do not believe, and this council has voted multiple times to say that we do not believe that 2.5 FTE in that office is sufficient. We do not have the authority to increase any line item in the budget whatsoever, including that line item, but we have said many times in the past that it doesn't seem like the two and a half that. I don't think that F T is sufficient, but I will. Stop there, and I'm interested to hear from our elections commissioners and our chief of staff about what the plan is around staffing that office getting the open positions filled as well as if there are additional changes coming down to make sure that staffing and training are that this it's from my observation in my conversations with the election staff members at all levels, this past March election was much smoother than the November election.
[Tseng]: Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, Chair Sang. I appreciate the, you know, I I'm glad that we have the opportunity to continue this conversation. I think for myself, my concerns also center around what this council has been talking about for months since before, you know, the March and the November 2023 election, which is the under-resourcing and under-capacity of our elections department. It's true of any department, and it's not specific or personal to anybody who's been involved in elections in Medford, that when there's not enough people on the case, things will fall through the cracks. I believe we did see that with November. We saw that less with March, and that's a positive thing. But I'm still really concerned. Of course, we have our chief of staff filling the role of the executive in that office right now, and we've seen transparency and communication increase from that department during that time. But obviously, everybody's extremely aware, I'm sure, most of all the chief of staff, that that's glaringly, obviously, not a permanent solution. I've made it really clear a lot of times, I think that that should be a director level position, especially this year, but every year we need the best possible candidate running elections in the city of Medford. I've said it many times before, I think that this is a department that needs to have more than two and a half full-time employees. When any department is stretched that thin and tasked with so much, things fall through the cracks. I don't think that it is a symptom of a properly resourced, you know, professional level, municipal level elections department to be it a state capacity wise where we're wrangling signage on an election day. And that's absolutely not a criticism of any person or involved or any system leading up to the March election, but rather this is, if this is the level of capacity that the elections department is at, to me, that is a resources and staffing issue. And I was happy to see that that was responded to very quickly. The issue was rectified, but our Medford deserves an elections department that has tackled the issue of keeping signage organized and is proceeding along to, you know, are we keeping our softwares modernized so that, you know, for example, files don't download as quickly as they need to. We should be at a level of resources and staffing where we can be a proactive elections department, as opposed to one that occasionally has to put out fires when there are really much more consequential things to be doing. So I absolutely would echo my fellow Councilors in saying whatever proposals the Elections Department and the Elections Commission has for identifying and prescribing and improving on current systems and identifying and improving on past problems, I'm eager to stand in support of those ideas. But my highest priority is getting to a place where we can elevate the to a director level position. I think that's really what's needed and taking a hard look at how many part time and full time employees does is really required for an elections department in a city of 60,000. Thank you.
[Tseng]: Thank you. I know Councilors have asked for comments from the chief of staff in the Elections Commission. But before I move on, are there any other comments from Councilors? seeing none. Um, I see, um, Henry Moore and one of our election commissioners hands raised on zoom. I will recognize him. I think you're already a co host. I think he can unmute. Commit Commissioner Miller. And can you unmute yourself on zoom?
[SPEAKER_07]: I'll just ask them to unmute.
[Tseng]: As we wait for Chairman Warren to unmute himself. Councilor Laming?
[Leming]: Sure, I just, just to be clear, I'm not a voting member of this committee, so I don't think that my, I didn't want to prioritize my comments, but while we have a pause here, I'd just like to point out that I think when we say under-resource and under-staffing, I would just like to say that it's not just about the number of staff there, just backing up the conversations that we had about the finance department. This is also partially an issue of software. A few weeks ago, I went to the, you know, there was like a had like an hour to go before a city council meeting. So, some of the people working the elections there decided to show me what their day to day was like, and they showed me the software that they're using to enter. Voter information into their computers and it was a ridiculously slow process given the resources that they had and this was something that absolutely necessarily had to be done. So that's so be able to invest not just in more staff members, but in an updated infrastructure that would allow the existing staff members to do their jobs more efficiently would also be very critical for this. I would also like to echo what my colleague Councilor Scarpelli was saying about the idea that the 42,000 voters that the city currently has on its registered voter list is very likely not up to date. I looked at it myself. There were former roommates that I'd had that moved out of the city years ago on it. But again, I think that we should be we shouldn't necessarily be blaming the elections department for not doing um uh for deprioritizing tasks that aren't uh aren't necessary for the for the next election but i do i fully agree that there are a lot of things that need to be updated in terms of data so thank you yes just on this question of inactive voters and the size of the voter registration list i just think it's important to note that one
[Bears]: the voter registration, the RIS system is maintained by the Secretary of State's office, not by the city of Medford. And two, if someone moves within the state and re-registers to vote within the state, then that pings within. But if you had a roommate who moved out of the state and they never re-registered in Massachusetts, they're gonna be in that system. The catch, the back catch to that is the census and inactivation system. So when Councilor Scarpelli was mentioning there were people being put in a line to say you're an inactive voter, that's because they didn't fill out their city census form, or their city census form did not arrive at City Hall. Maybe they did fill it out, it didn't arrive. I can't speak to the Postal Service. I have had some things disappear in the mail lately. That is the catch, essentially the secondary system for addressing that issue. And there have been some questions around that, but that does generally happen. And I know that the census is an intense amount of work for that office. So I just wanted to put that, the city census, which is very different from the federal census. But I just wanted to put that out there, because I think we would see that there is a very well, as best as possibly can be, the thing that we control is the city census. And when you look at the, role of who is active and inactive that is a much more culled list it is there's you know generally 20 to 25,000 active voters in the city who are returning a city census during federal elections like and honestly quite frankly some of this is cyclical and due to turnout right we have around 30 to 35 percent turnout in municipal elections that's generally consistent although it's a since 2015 is much higher. It used to be between 20 to 30 percent, so that's actually better. But in any case, you have 30 to 35 percent turnout in a municipal election, 50 to 60 percent turnout in a state general election, the off year, the 20, you know, 22, 26, the gubernatorial election. And then in a presidential general, you have 70% to 80% turnout. So if you have people who are coming out in the federal presidential and then not voting again for four years, they're dropping off. They're staying registered, but they're dropping off of the active voter list. That's why even then the active voter list is in that 20,000 range. That's also people who are turning back in the city census. So I think where there's a desire for this to be perfect, and I certainly support it, The pieces of it that are within our hands generally seem to be going relatively well. It can always be improved. I'm sure there's a way to do the city census better. I don't know that the state allows us to do it other than the paper way that we do it. But it's that 42,000 registered voter number has a lot of, there are a lot of reasons that number exists and some of them don't have anything to do with Medford whatsoever. And I just think that's important to put out there. I think it'd be great if it was a little lower and a little more accurate, because then we can say we have higher turnout, but, you know. No, thank you for clarifying, Council President Bears.
[Tseng]: I saw Councilor Lazzaro' hand.
[Lazzaro]: Sort of to piggyback off what President Bears was saying, there are a lot of rules that the state sets for elections that I think it's valuable for us to keep in mind that Um, I'm not sure it's as necessary for us to try to be purging the voter rolls as much as it is that we can, um, help voters who want to vote on the day that they're there, even if they may be inactive in that moment, but they're living in Medford and they, uh, are able to get a provisional ballot. You know, these are the things that I, I worked, I worked the polls in 2020. Um, and I. observed a lot of that because a lot of people were very interested in voting at that time who may have been remiss on a few of their forms, but it was very important to them to vote in that election. So what I saw then when I was working there was that we had a lot of election workers kind of showing up. It was like the height of COVID. Everybody had masks on and was sanitizing. I was like running back and forth and sanitizing everything. And it was really amazing what our election workers were able to do and what our election staff was able to do. And I think if we can keep supporting this office, and this department, and this commission, then we can keep being able to pull that stuff off. But I don't think that... There are some things that happen at the state level, like what President Bears was talking about, where there are policies that, like, if you don't fill out your census, you get kind of, like, placed on a list, and then it's not as easy for you to vote in future elections, which I'm not sure that's something that we would, I mean, the lists get really funky and weird because of those policies, and I don't know that any of that is either here nor there. But what we want to be able to do is say, our city is ready to deal with that craziness on the day. And the more ready we are, the better. And the more support we can offer, the better. And pulling people off of the lists wouldn't be the highest priority, I think.
[Tseng]: Thank you all.
[Scarpelli]: Yes, sure. Councilor Caraviello? We wouldn't know, to my fellow councilors that I've mentioned, but we wouldn't know, but that will, from what I hear is when I've talked to different elections commissions and other communities, this is just a basic fundamental process that could be done with a consultant that can come in and do that. And that would eliminate that question. Again, like I said, perception's reality. We all see it. That's something that might not be a priority, but it's a piece that needs to be cleaned up. So thank you.
[Tseng]: Okay. I think Commissioner Malorin's audio is working now, so I'll ask him to speak if no other councillors have questions.
[Henry Milorin]: I thank you, Councilor Tseng, and thank you to all the councillors. I heard a lot being said there, but I always said the same way. to really understand what's involved in an election, is to be a part of the workers. If you never work an election, you don't know what's involved. There's a lot. You may be elected, but I'm not taking away your knowledge or understanding of what's going on. So, let's go back to, back to 2023. 2023, We want a transition of a new department, new commission. We want a new employee on board. I don't, I don't enjoy putting anybody under the bus. I enjoy somebody to be, you know, loyal to, to me. Tell me the truth. Okay. Because unless you tell me the truth, I won't be able to help you. uh in the past we conducted because council Scott barely mentioned that so many times here it's not a question we do not train the poll workers is the question here in place would have been did we okay prior to the 2023 election because 2021, 2022, I was a part of this organization. Maybe I was appointed as a commissioner in 2022. But prior to that, I was a poll worker. I've done it all. I lift boxes, and there's a lot I've done. We used to squeeze at least two election training for poll workers. And we broke our training, two training, for the warden and clerk and two training for the inspectors. Would that help if you look at, I said that in a way people think it's a little sensitive, but I can say it because I'm a, one of the senior citizen, a guy like me, if you tell me something three, four months before take place, I'll probably forget. But if you tell me two weeks before, even you guys who are elected officials knows well that elections are run within two weeks of the date. It will stay in your mind. In 2023, there was an election, training was conducted. It was a lot of pressure. We did it. I, as a, not as a chairman, I, as a citizen, was not happy. with that election training. I don't think it was done well. I don't think it fit the purpose, which caused an impact on the date of the election of November 2023. We had poll workers that did took action that weren't supposed to be taken, which caused the number on the memory card to zero and wipe out the whole day of election. We know that happened. But we took corrective action. We took correct measure. When people are saying that recent election proved to everyone in the city of Medford that it wasn't the case of 2023, we actually, we say what we were gonna, we did what we said we were gonna do. Yes, the The result came in a little bit late, but the city council must realize Medford is as the equipment that we use in the election. They are as old as Medford. You have a laptop that is not up to date. I don't think I will even play any game on that thing. You don't have the application, the Microsoft Excel application that you need to download the data from the high-speed tabulator. When you're trying to download a volume of data from a laptop to a home drive, it takes forever. It's like Henry Malone going to church, okay? Twice. It's slow. Very slow. But I don't that now we realize what was missing and this is something we're in the middle of budget and that's something I and I will always take my hat in front of uh communicated effectively with me and understood what was going on. I'm not putting anybody else down because you know, this is not my style. Okay. Uh and and I don't stop early. We'll love that. You know, you know, you you were my friend before Zach, you know that. So, don't worry. It's not going to go anywhere. So, the thing we have to communication. I'm not going to touch about staffing because I will defer that when the time comes for the you know, chief of staff to speak about that because we're doing as best we can to see uh within the next 160 days, we have somebody on. We have, we have the staff in place to do the work. people listening. People listening is confusing in the city of Medford because people keep referring to them as caucus. Others refer to them as uh confirmation of uh residents or address. In today's world of because you guys talk about other uh communities. If there's one person who works with other communities, his name is Henry Miller and because that's I go all over, I do election in Randolph, I do election in Brockton, I do election in Boston, I do election in Springfield, and so on to name a few, okay? Today as well, people receive a lot of information, and it happened recently. I was at the city of Medford, and we will, during this past election, during March, And someone mentioned to me about registration of voters. And I tried to explain it to them how people receive multiple voter registration. We get it from MassHealth. We get it from IMV. We get it from limit. It's everywhere. That same day I got home, my wife My wife, who's an active voter, never miss an election, okay? Even when she was working in Washington, will fly in to vote in Medford. Receive at least three on the same day. My son, Reginald, who is a disabled citizen, received four that same day, okay? So, this thing happen. And I heard one of the council mentioned the fact about inactive. You know, it's fair because Councilor Scapelli mentioned a former city councilor who happened to be my friend too. Who happened to insult a friend of mine at that polling location. Because if I walk, I go to a bank every day and at one point someone asked me for an ID, the best I can do is pull that ID and say there it is, okay? If I sent you the street listing which is what you call a local census, if you fail to turn it back to the, send it back to the registry of God at the time or to the election commission now, we will send you a second notification. We'll send you up to three notification to tell you what X, we did, we sent it to you, you didn't read, we never got it back. But after the third one, what you do, you become inactive. Being inactive, and I will say it again for people, does not stop you from voting. The idea of no one, no one ever should ever be uh prevented from exercising their civic obligation which is to vote but there are ways of doing it if you come to me you say you voted because right now we're conducting and to find out someone who lives here and we're trying to find out whether that person is registered in new hampshire we don't know that because new hampshire doesn't have uh an agreement with the state of Massachusetts to share database, okay? That has nothing to do with the process. Do we have the best process around? No, we don't. But every day we, just like I said back in November, I believe I sent this on the council's meeting of January 23rd, 2024. I sent a report that was first. the attendance of our commissioners, which I sent, and it's part of, it's fair. I sent a personal after action report from that election of November 23, detailing, just like it says, okay, what is our mission? What we were expected to do? What didn't we do to cause the issue? And what will we be doing moving forward to prevent that from ever repeating itself? I said it before, any election without irregularities is not an election, it's a selection. Because anytime you have human doing transaction with document, with manual, there will always be an issue. The idea is to recognize what took place and make action of it. We talk about memory card. One of the thing I did on the last election this March 5th, I created a document to track down how fast am I, we are receiving in the vault, how fast we receiving the memory card that we need to get our unofficial result. Well, it started, we closed the poll at 8 p.m. We didn't have to do additional ballot depositing because we closed all the poll. The last group of four. I receive it was 859. That number strike in my head. I don't have the report in front of me but I remember the first one came in at 834. The last group, we had four two runners, two commissioners and we had uh and I believe uh commissioner Aaron D Benedito is on the call. She was one of the commissioners I know the last one came back to me at eight fifty-nine. We talk about nine o'clock almost an hour after the polls close. We were lucky we both we shared this unofficial report at ten thirty-eight PM on March 5th. That's a huge improvement from two key personnel in the election department. I heard the chief of staff, the chief of staff to me, because there's a lot of things, I heard that, I allowed a lot of things to happen because she was there to be our eyes, the eyes of the commissioners, the eyes of guiding people to make sure It looks like it better be done at 8 o'clock. When we say we're going to do 10 days from such a date, we have to do it because I heard one commissioner mentioned there's so many laws, so many chapters in the Massachusetts General Law that guide the process that tells us what to do, when to do it, how to do it. We need to follow it. I said before, I will say it again. The idea of running right now, we're in the process of getting our election ready. We have to get our calendar ready. We have to get our place ready. I've worked close with the City Council to find out when we were on the verge of displacing people from Ward 4, Precinct 2, which is Walking Court. which we didn't know. Already, already we are in that process. We will be able to use that in September. We don't know yet but I was curious to find out if we don't start now, I don't need to go and try to give a false breath, you know, not to know exactly where we're going to go. So, there's a lot. We are out there doing, downloading the high-speed tabulator. It takes longer. And I was there telling people, it's 40% done. It's 45% done. All that thing is slow. It's 50. I was counting the percentage. You think the people of Medford will give you the respect to say, OK, this is not you. It is a machine. And the person that was doing it knew it was a machine. You know, I was told that I'm in violation of election law. I said, then if I do, sue me, you know, because I don't see any election violation there. I'm seeing a machine that is older than Henry Malone, okay, that I didn't purchase for the city of Medford. We didn't know that exists. Now we know it exists. We know what to do with it. When I have my computer every year, I get that upgraded. This is not up to the commission. This is not up to the council. It's the council who will present that to the commission and see. You can give us all the stuff that we need. We will work it. If we don't have enough staff to work, we're going to make it. The idea is to get a clear and first election. And I can go back to 2022, because Councilor Zach was on a call with me. I made a call which may have saved a more issue. I was in front of election manager who probably never, ever summarized the result of an election. It was close to twelve thirty in the morning and I made a call. I said, whatever we have today, we're going to stop and we're going to come back the next day and get it right because no matter what we put out, it's going to be an issue and that was the right call. When I checked with the state, the state said, you make the right call. Apparently, the council didn't like it. It's fair, fair game. Apparently, the the citizen didn't like it. It's frame work of election. That's what we need to take in consideration. Because I don't think anybody wants it to run any better than I do. Because not because I'm a chair of that commission, because I am Henry Malone. People knows who lives in the city.
[Nazarian]: So I, again, I'm happy to answer any questions. I'll try not to go down any rabbit holes, but I, those are my comments.
[Tseng]: Councilor Leming, did you have any follow-up questions as of right now?
[Leming]: Mainly I'd like to just know what, how the search for a new election manager is going.
[Nazarian]: I would say it's going good. I always treat these search processes as confidential because there's just a lot of best practices in terms of like I'm not gonna I wouldn't stand before this committee and state the number of applicants were interviewing. I wouldn't state the number of applicants that applied for the position. It's just it's in the industry. It is really considered a confidential process. So, but I will say I'm feeling very positively about it.
[Tseng]: I know I recognized Councilor Collins earlier and then Councilor Bears. Okay, Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you. I just had two quick questions on the timeline. Sounds like the pool is good and you're not gonna get into specifics, I respect that, but hopefully within four to six weeks there'd be someone
[Nazarian]: That would certainly be my hope.
[Bears]: OK. And the halftime position, I know we've had some applicants, some hiring rounds, some non-hirings eventually. How are we there? Do we have applicants? Do we have someone in that position?
[Nazarian]: Yeah, I think that I need to check with our human resources office about the next steps. But it's my understanding we're ready to move to a second meeting. It's not really formal when it's we set up a formal interview committee, usually with, you know, full-time, you know, but it all depends and varies.
[Bears]: And this- But there's people in the pipeline for the half-time position.
[Nazarian]: Yeah, it's more of a, I think the next step on this one is more of a meeting and a, you know, kind of a validation, so to speak, but then we're ready to move forward. Okay. Hopefully, so.
[Tseng]: Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, Chair Stang. Thank you so much for being here to speak to this and for, you know, all of the very obviously extra work you've been doing over the past several months to fill this gap in the elections department. I think the council really sees that, and speaking as one councillor, it's really appreciated, and I hope that this additional labor is over for you soon. No specific questions to the chief of staff at this point, but just, you know, to further echo my, I'm really happy to hear that. I think it's obviously totally sensible that, you know, priority number one is filling that role. Everything else flows from that, right? And it strikes me that, you know, I tend to look at most of the issues that we have to collaborate on in the city as, you know, a problem or perhaps a potential solution of, project management. This certainly seems like one you need to find that person through whom policy updates and further staffing evaluations and the work of the department will flow through. And so it's good to hear that that's being prioritized. I know that's a priority that this council shares. And then just to take it back to the big picture, I again want to sort of reaffirm, you know, in my perspective, what this conversation is and what it isn't. You know, I'll speak only for myself, but I know that every city councilor, you know, sees the hard work that's put in by the Elections Commission, and that has never been in doubt. And I think when we talk about having support and having resources and having bandwidth, it's about resiliency. And, you know, I think if, you know, if all the population of Medford stepped up in the way that our elections commissioners and that team does so reliably and so, you know, above and beyond, then, yeah, our staffing needs within the city would be a lot lower because that would be a city full of superheroes. But as a city council and as an administration, you know, it's our responsibility to make sure that these systems are resilient so that, you know, if another more enticing commission steals away, you know, the chair of the elections commission, that there's still ample people to do the work that absolutely needs to get done and can't not get done legally and for the health of the democracy of the city. And I think that's really the motivation behind these conversations is to say, how can we help to make sure that the elections department is as resilient as it needs to be? you know, so that the next election, another consequential one, you know, goes as well as March did or even better. And to make sure that city staff and commissioners and all residents and voters can feel that peace of mind throughout the year. So I really appreciate everybody's participation in this process. And I think it's really great to have these conversations out in the open.
[Bears]: Councilor Bears. Thanks. Yeah, I just wanted to add one more thing, which is it may be valuable when the new person is hired for them to issue. As maybe I know you mentioned a post election audit. We're going to ask the team what they thought went well, what didn't go well, and we're going to, um, you know, update where needed procedures, processes, systems, etcetera. I thought that was great. I think it may be worth it. And it may meet some of the suggestions and thoughts of others to have the new elections manager kind of do an entry audit of some kind to say, okay, I have now arrived. here's what I see that playing, and I don't want to prescribe too much to it, but just to say, here's where I see things now. I'm looking forward to working with this team to run through the election. And then that would kind of give a benchmark from a somewhat outside perspective of someone who's new to the office. It may just be a way to have fresh eyes on something right away, write something to say, here's my perception on day one. you know, of what I think the office is, what my priorities are going to be going in, what I'm hearing from my staff, from the aid team, from the elections commission as priorities. And then, you know, after the September election, that could be a benchmark for them to write a report as well to say, you know, here's what I saw coming in. We've been through the primary. Here's some stuff, some conclusions that I'm going to put out there. So I just want to put that out as maybe a potential way for, um, uh, a potential thing for them to do when they start and also a way to talk to us and share with us what their vision is to be in this role, since it has been such a, there's been a lot of eyes and cameras and conversations and resolutions and public discussion about this role. And I think that is kind of the reality of elections being the person running elections. It is a, a level of responsibility to, nothing else happens if the democratic process doesn't happen, right? So there's a level of responsibility there. And I don't want to, again, I don't want to be too prescriptive about what that would look like. And I don't want to necessarily say, write everything down, tell us everything you think on day one and without some sort of editing process, of course. But I think there could be some value there. Just a thought.
[Nazarian]: I certainly appreciate the thoughts. I think the only thing that I would say, a couple of things I would probably say, but I'll reserve to one thing, which I think is the most important of the two. You know, my role here in, I think, today's discussion, pertains to the March 5th election because I'm happy to answer any questions that pertain to that election because I have more firsthand knowledge. I certainly didn't touch every single thing in that election, but I had a responsibility to that election. So I take responsibility for that election. Um, the any errors from that election are on me. Um, and I know that the commissioners absorbed some of that, too, and I appreciate their support in all of that. But I take responsibility for any of those. Um, as far as other areas of my involvement here, I obviously I'm here to speak to this council about anything budget oriented, where the chief of staff relates to the elections department, and I'm happy to that discussion as well. I would not be here to I would be here to take back ideas and information for future discussions with an election manager, but I have to respect the role that the commissioners play in all of this and certainly defer to them on further discussion as to that with amongst themselves and with the elections manager in the future. future. So I just want to make sure that that's clear, because I'm not going to overstep the Elections Commission. And I'm not suggesting you're saying that, but I just want to, I want to clarify the rules. And I want to clarify, you know, any, what commitments I can make and what commitments I shouldn't be in a position.
[Bears]: That idea goes out to Henry, Aaron, the commission, when I looked at you the whole time. So I know.
[Henry Milorin]: Yes, I read it. And yeah, through uh council's like uh there I share uh a report to share with everybody on the council. I'm not going to go through it step by step but I will go out of the nine thing that put one of the key thing that strike me the most is resolve and transparency. Okay. The counting and tabulation of vote were conducted. They have a lack of accuracy, okay? We know that and we took action to fix that. The recommendation based on past election, I said, we have to strengthen effort to engage everybody, every group in the city of Bedford who are citizen of Bedford to ensure inclusivity, inclusive throughout our election process. We need to improve our technical infrastructure at polling station. And if you look at the report the chief of staff shared with you for March 5th, I was all over the city making sure the night before the election we had challenge of polling station. And we don't have too many places in Medford. And you know that we worked at the council saying was with me the night, the final day that before we make the final decision on walking court. We need to signage. We had an issue with signage, which you saw on the recent report of March 5th. The fact I, specifically stated to DPW instead of leaving our sign to the actual polling station, polling location, bring it back to the election department where we can sit down prior to an election. We know exactly how many signs we have. If you don't have a clear number, you don't know how to do it. We did that. One of my biggest issue is training. I think in this past election, we conducted as many training we were able to. We did some in the morning, we did some at night to make sure people were present. But the key thing that I've caused issue is communication. Communication is key during the election. I should be able, no matter where you are, at a given, it's like me, for instance, I told people, you call me, I'll be there in no time, okay? Uh, it's the same thing if I need from the election office on election day To get in touch with a police officer or to get in touch with a poor polling A poll worker, which is uh, most more than likely. It's gonna be the warden because he's the ceo of that polling, uh station That should be done without any issue. We had an issue there and I don't think throughout our training, we told the people, make sure we have a communication between us. Transparency, we gotta get more detail. And overall, what I'm saying, I said, past election were conducted to the best we had in our hands, or to the best we had, whatever we could have done, we make it happen. Was it perfect? No, it wasn't perfect. Was I happy? I'm not. I'll go back and said, and which I believe I shared that through a conversation with. After the municipal election of 2023, I went home and spent an entire weekend where my wife almost throw me out of state because I was working too much on election after election, because I wanted to create a what you call a post election audit, what you just mentioned there. So Zach, But unfortunately, you know what? We had to go through a recount. That never took place. It was done. And I was trying to establish how do we do it? Do we do it online? Do we do it in paper? Because you're dealing with poor workers that has limited access to technology, okay? Not all of them will want to do it. that all this, we never got a chance to do it. Instead, what we end up doing, we did a recount audit. Now, past election of March 5th, what we did, we went different. We asked every warden, every clerk, every inspectors, write something. If you see something that didn't go well, during the election, let us know. So we have someone who collected all that together. I think one of the conversation I may have with some of the workers, and I believe I may have mentioned that during a conversation with the chief of staff, it may or may not be true, is we need to have a post audit election for March 5th. The reason we're not doing this is that we don't have an election manager. We would prefer to sit down with that election manager and say, this is what took place. This is what went OK. And we have to keep that in an archive for reference. councils any council can come in and say what happened on January 23rd and we should be able to look and find out exactly what happened what didn't we do what did we do and those are the things I wanted to say and they're in place and they are being conducted if you went on the same package that I've sent to to the council which made the agenda is the fact I spoke step-by-step on each irregularities that came to my attention. I'm not saying to all to the election commission. I said to my attention because we took a vote on the night November 18, 2023 and ask every commissioner write something, write an after action report. Perhaps what I observe is not what you observe. Perhaps what what uh John Doe observed is not what uh Jack observed. So, that way we could have put a master together and serve answer to your question better. We are frustrated. We are mad and people knows me. Things don't go well. It's it's upset but the thing is we are trying to enhance any irregularities that exist. Take action I'll give you an example. For instance, Warbird School. We had an election at Warbird School. We changed our normal entrance. We took action. We went there to make sure we had light. We had signage. Did we have enough signage? No, we did not. But now, in the next election, will we have enough? Yes, we know. Because if we had four, that didn't work. Now, we may need six. So, we had an issue at Brooks, okay? People come personally who knows me, call and say, Henry, election. Oh, I couldn't get through where we normally vote at the Brooks. So, we say, okay, we're going to fix that. We had that fix. It's not me who was fixing. Part of my job is to go to every single polling station on the giving day of an election to see what's in my eyes, not as a commissioner, as a citizen, what's right, what's wrong. I've city clerk. I used to, he will, he will post something, set a polling station, I will go and sneak behind him to see if he did it well for the disability people. That's how sneaky I can be. So today, it's fair If someone sees something that's not right with an election, you bring it to our attention and we take action. That's what I wanted to bring up. And if you look at the next report about irregularities, I believe step by step. I don't want to read the whole thing. I don't want to waste your time with more than what's in front of you. And that's what we're doing.
[Tseng]: Thank you, Commissioner Lauren. Thank you for your detailed response. Are there any other Councilors for our questions from Councilors before I asked a really short few questions? None? Okay, great. I was wondering, Chief of Staff, if you could speak to what the audit process looked like, the one that, the post-election audit that you mentioned in your report after the March primary, and I was wondering what the progress on that is like.
[Nazarian]: Thank you. I'm actually gonna defer to Commissioner Malorin on that because it's something that Commissioner Malorin has in his mind as to how that process would go. As I said before, we have prioritized our time and resources right now into the hiring. Once that process is underway sufficiently and doesn't require the level of time and energy, I think we're gonna begin on that next step. So, again, I defer to Commissioner Millard.
[Tseng]: Thank you. Commissioner Millard, can you speak really quickly to that?
[Henry Milorin]: Well, quickly, just like I just mentioned quickly to you, we provided every election poll worker to submit irregularities as they observe during the day of election. All those have been retrieved by a member of our team. put together in a group. So now what we're going to do, we're going to review them and master them into a master document to go over them with the next hiring manager, because we try not to do it ahead of hiring somebody. If we do it as a whole, that will actually fall exactly where council Zach mentioned. So that way that election manager will walk in and know what didn't go right. What we're trying to correct, so we'll give her at least some objectives as to what we want to do. But it's a process, it's a process.
[Tseng]: And I was wondering, I think we were focusing a lot on the day of the election and days leading up to the election. I think some of the irregularities might be explained by just a long-term setup. And I was wondering if there, in soliciting feedback, are you also asking about the months before the election as well?
[Henry Milorin]: The most that we have, we're looking at both of them. Now, you have to remember one thing Council was saying, we're looking at the municipality, election of 2023, we're also talking about the March 5th presidential primaries. So, as to the municipality, we still have to do, we, that's, that's the one that gave us the idea of creating a survey. Okay, that's what you called it, a survey after the election. Okay, it's broken down. I can even share it with you councils, okay, to see it. You can have it, because we agree we're going to work with each other. You can look at the model we put together and you can see, you know, we can add more. So as to march 5th, that's when we're doing the post audit because there's no reason now to go back into uh, 2023. We already did that. We count we already provide the council Uh the last council with uh, not the last because it was in december, right? Uh, we provided a recount a post recount or a report where you may call it. So now the one thing we're working on is the post audit of March 5th. That will be on the day of the election. We're doing it internal and external. So that will be when we say internal, we had the advanced team, those who were there for pre-election preparation prep, okay? They were there. There are things they did that went well. There are things they did that didn't go well for them and we intend to take correction. Now, we're talking on the day of the election. For instance, I give you an example. When I was talking, I said, uh, uh, just today I was having a conversation and something came to mind. I said, okay, uh, And at 20 minutes of 7... at 20 minutes of 8, I'm sorry, 7.40, we tell our runners to go to the polling site to retrieve the memory card and return them to... to City Wall, so we can get our... discount of election. Are we doing it right? I don't think we're doing it right. Because what it is, let's say if I have a guy who I send one courier to the temple, which is on Winthrop Street, I send the same courier, I send that same courier to to former Columbus school. That's a good height. So one of the thing we're trying to do now, try to look at same way together, a group of where you say you go to the fire station on West Medford, Yes, you can. From there, you can go to the American Legion. From there, you can go to the temple. From there, on the way back to City Hall, you can stop at Walking Court. That will do you for the night. So the guy who's at Tufts University can go from Tufts. He or she can swing by to the fire station on Main Street and do the city. So these are the things we're trying to put together for the post-audit. it won't happen before the next election and when I say the next election remember elections start with early voting it's that we vote by mail I believe right now we're about 160 days away from September 23rd and 200 something days from November. I think we will get that done before that because once we clear with the managing process, we get the staff together and people are recovering from election. We will have that. And when we get it done, you guys will be the first to receive it because we owe that to you.
[Tseng]: Thank you, Commissioner Mullen. I have full faith that you'll get that report done. Because of the length of this meeting, I want to wrap up pretty soon. Just for the chief of staff, two really short questions. I know you were in charge of a lot with this most recent election, and it seems to have gone better than previous elections. I was wondering if you could speak to what went right about it and what we can continue doing. to in that process because it seems like there were improvements and um you know i i think we've we've all made our stance clear on our individual stances clear on the number of fds we think are needed for the the department um i've personally heard from members of the the team that um that they would prefer more fds in the department And so I was wondering if you could explain a little bit, you know, how might we reassess or assess whether we need more to keep the same number? Thanks.
[Nazarian]: Sure. I'm happy to answer those questions the best I can. I don't want to dodge the first question, but I do want to recognize that I, you know, I'm only able to speak firsthand knowledge on one election, and I don't know that it would be entirely You know, I don't want to be haste in answering that question and, you know, not have the benefit of multiple experiences to have a really well-rounded answer for you. I think having been, I think the best thing I can say to this committee and to the council as a whole is this elections are, Um, there's a lot that goes into it. And, um, I, I am. I somewhat feel fortunate to have had that opportunity to learn that. And I really truly, I would say that for any one of our departments, but now I've had the chance to specifically, um, work alongside with many of our elections. Team members and can say that one firsthand. Um, There's so much that goes into it and there's a lot of moving parts, you know, and I and I I will say, you know, there's Based the best thing I think I can share with this committee is based on what one would learn from one election The biggest reflection I can share is that one election only gives you a snapshot of everything that goes into it and all the detail and all the work and all of the hidden possibilities, right? One of the hidden possibilities that Commissioner Malorne and I prepped for was signage, really, truly. I mean, it seems like we might not have prepped for it because we had an issue at the Roberts School, but we went to almost every polling location in advance of the election. He drove and I observed because I wanted to be sure that I had some knowledge as to the location, some wherewithal as to how to address a problem when it came through and how to adequately do it because we knew we were flying blind with signs. We didn't want to be in that situation, but we had been in that situation for the last, I don't know how many years. more than several. I don't know what that means, but so we prepped signs. I was prepping signs in advance of election day. We were calling and we were finding out what signs, it turns out, again, I think that this may have been in my report, but we had signs at virtually 18 locations throughout the city. It's not a sustainable way to determine your sign inventory. We've corrected that. We're not going to have that issue in September. But You can only know what you can foresee, and you can't reasonably foresee certain things. I think many, if not all Americans, would probably agree that the November election is going to be a challenging election. There's only so many things we can foresee. So again, having had this experience, I think the best thing I can say to this council, candidly, openly, and honestly, is There are some things that can't be foreseen. And I can tell you that with confidence right now, because I've been through this experience. And we have to have faith that people are going to do their best to be prepared, and that this organization, the mayor's office, the commission, the staff, and the existing staff are gonna do their absolute best to support the future elections manager, and that elections manager, I'm sure, is gonna do their very best to support this community in what will be, I'm sure, a very successful process. But there are gonna be calls about problems. I don't want anyone to be under any false notions that we're not going to expect any problems in November. I think as a nation, we're expecting a lot of problems. I think every American, or at least the vast majority of Americans, would say that, regardless of what political party you might view or be a preference to. I think that's the best I can share on the first question. I'm happy to certainly reflect on the question and think further. I don't want to dodge it, but I just, I don't think it's fair for me to say what went well and be somewhat, you know, I feel like it would be a little preposterous of me to do something like that. So yeah, thank you for your indulgence on that. And then the second one, as far as staffing is concerned, I would say, You know, I don't know if the A-team members who made that comment or those comments to you may have been referring to the vacant positions and the filling of those vacant positions and how that will change the makeup of the office and the perspective. Certainly, it wasn't a perfect solution or scenario that we were in. I don't disagree with comments or the way it was characterized. I didn't foresee this occurring, and I didn't necessarily want to be responsible for this. But I definitely see it as a positive opportunity for me to have a better understanding of the support that that office needs. And I believe that support doesn't come in the way of more FTEs. I believe that support comes in the way of making sure that I'm able to pave the path and the way for the elections department and office to be able to quickly and effectively turn issues around to prepare for the next several elections or the next couple and then beyond, of course. So, you know, I don't know the context. I can't speak to it. But I do think that the first step certainly is staffing that office, getting it fully staffed. And then, you know, as I said before, I think I think we go from there. I think we have to understand what that looks like, because I believe that system can work.
[Tseng]: Thank you. And so I guess that's something that we can talk about with a new elections manager, see, you know, let them determine what, from their perspective, what makes most sense in terms of staffing. Are there any motions on the floor, Councilor Collins?
[Collins]: I was just gonna say kind of, you know, to wrap up, really appreciate your time tonight and all of the information, the context. I think that this has been a, a real exercise in transparency. And I hope that, you know, I think given the topic, I think that's a positive thing. And I would also say, you know, to echo your words, Chief Staff Sarian, and also what a mission, long day, Elections Commission Chairperson Lawrence said earlier, I don't think anybody on this council is saying, you know, we have to get to a point where we can you know, realistically assume that no problems will occur. We know that's not the case. We're doing this in the context and under the backdrop of reality after all. But, you know, I appreciate the ability, the opportunity to, you know, talk about what's being planned, what's being worked on so that things will, you know, be professionalized and modernized and be as we intend them to be. With that, I don't want to supersede any other councilors questions or motions, but after I think a long and productive discussion, I would motion to adjourn.
[Tseng]: Thank you. Are there any other comments or questions from councillors at this time? Councilor Bears?
[Bears]: I think I missed my moment to say there are unknown unknowns. It's amazing how a FOPA can also be a great analytical matrix at the same time. As a chair, I wanted to... Justin was two when he said that, by the way.
[Clerk]: True, true.
[Tseng]: As the chair of this committee, I wanted to thank you, Chief of Staff Nazarian, and thank our election commissioners for their work, and thank our elections department for the work that they've put into the elections as well. I know it's not easy, and there are a lot of unforeseen circumstances that are difficult to address, and, you know, we might have different perspectives on how to solve it, but it is... I think we're all united in wanting to get a better elections department and elections process for the city. Before we take any votes, I wanted to open it up to public comment. I know there are people who have been on Zoom and in person. If there's any public comment, I'd be happy to recognize that.
[Nazarian]: Is it possible for me to just make one last comment? There's a lot of people who, whether it's from our various departments who help us set up and staff the elections between DPW, police, fire, we have a lot of departments, parking, we have a lot of departments who are involved in this. And I just wanna say thanks to them. I wanna say big, big thanks to all the support systems. And I've mentioned our head clerk in our office who was instrumental. I don't know if I highlighted enough how instrumental Chairman Malorin was. I don't think it goes to any of you as a surprise, but I just don't think we would have been able to do some of this success, and I think that goes to Councilor Collins and other Councilors' points. They're valid, and I think they're well taken, but I do think that if we have a full staffing of that office and the circumstances behind the staffing we have right now, hopefully the process. I know that a lot of the commissioners don't present themselves, but I do think that, um. We do have other commissioners. Commissioner Debated Edo, who's been learning a lot and been an instrumental part of the process as well. You know, I think that we have that sustainability built in and building so I, um, just wanted to say a special thanks to Commissioner more. Thank you.
[Tseng]: Thank you.
[Melanie Tringali]: Hi, Melanie Trangali, 16 Forest Street. I just have a couple of comments and questions. First of all, it's good to see that there's work being done. Many of you know I actually requested a recount at the November election due to all the issues that transpired. And so it's good to see that this election went a lot smoother. There was still some hiccups, and there's still some issues. I do think that cleaning the voter rolls is very important. You're wasting money sending things to people anyways that aren't eligible to vote, and that shouldn't be happening. A couple of things on Henry Milleran's thing here that I wanted to comment on or question on is, he talks a lot about fixing irregularities in our election. And in the first four, he talks about what he wants to do, but there's really no game plan on how that's going to be done. So I hope to see that there's going to be some plans on how that's going to be done. It talks about identifying and investigating irregularities. That's great, but how is that going to be done? Establish an independent investigation committee. Another good idea. Secure and audit voting machines. How is that being done? One of the things that came across during the election and during the recount is what we found was that machines were counting ballots incorrectly. There was several machines, actually, I think about 60 to 75% of the machines had different counts than actual ballots. and I don't see anything here in this plan addressing how that's gonna be rectified. The other thing that came up during the recount is there was over 130 million ballots that were never counted. Again, there's no plan in here to rectify or count the number of actual ballots that were received and the actual number of ballots that were counted. So I hope to see that addressed in this plan, or hope to see it addressed in some plan. Um, and then just one other comment. I was reading another report here. Um, I don't know if this is an error or but I mean, it is kind of true, but I think it's an error. Um, it says seven results in transparency, the counting and tabulation of votes were conducted with transparency and a lack of accuracy. Oh, I guess that that is accurate. But then it goes on to say instilling confidence in the election outcome. You might want to that doesn't make sense to me. So those are my those are my comments. Thank you.
[Tseng]: Thank you for your comment. I know there's one more hand on Zoom. I believe that the next meeting that the governance committee is holding is going to be on this as well. And so, you know, as we can tell, tonight's already been a long meeting. We have lots more to talk about. And so there will be more to talk about at that meeting as well. And hopefully, we'll maybe have more documents. an idea of what that post-audit report from this presidential preference primary says. On the recount itself, we had lawyers in the room who are top lawyers in election law. Essentially, what we found is there are questions about absentee ballots that didn't get sent to polling stations. That changes the numbers, not the ballots themselves being counted wrong. But I saw one hand on Zoom. Eileen Lerner, do you still want to speak? Sorry, hand raised, but I think you're... If you want to speak, please raise your hand.
[Clerk]: I'm going to ask you to unmute. Can you unmute?
[Tseng]: Do you see that mute button on your screen? I'm sorry. I think we're having technical difficulties with Zoom today. Yeah. Right. Aileen, we're pressing the unmute button for you, but you have to press unmute as well once it pops up on your screen. Yeah. Sorry, because of technical difficulties, I think we'll have to end public comment there. I know there's a motion on the floor to adjourn. Do I have a second on that motion? Second from Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? All those opposed? Sorry, it's too late in the night. Motion passes, meeting adjourned.
|
total time: 8.5 minutes total words: 1209  |
total time: 16.21 minutes total words: 2678  |
total time: 7.82 minutes total words: 1158  |
total time: 7.5 minutes total words: 1243  |
|
total time: 2.34 minutes total words: 370  |
total time: 2.19 minutes total words: 398  |
||