Friday, May 31, 2013

NYC Voter Assistance Advisory Committee


The New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) includes a division called the Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC). It is comprised of nine mem­bers whose role is to advise the CFB on voter engagement. The membership of VAAC includes:

•two members appointed by the mayor (who cannot be enrolled in the same political party)
•two members appointed by the speaker of the City Council (who cannot be enrolled in the same political party)
•one member appointed by the comptroller
•one member appointed by the borough presidents acting together
•the public advocate
•the executive director of the board of elections (or, in his or her absence, the deputy execu­tive director)
•one member appointed by the mayor in consultation with the speaker to serve as chair.

In making appointments to the committee, the New York City Charter advises that “the mayor, speaker, comptrol­ler and borough presidents shall consider experience with groups or categories of residents that are underrepresented among those who vote or among those who are registered to vote and community, voter registration, civil rights, and disabled groups.”

VAAC holds public hearings to solicit and hear testimony from members of the public, good government groups, and public officials regarding how to improve voter assistance in New York City, and makes recommendations to the CFB to help the agency develop and implement a com­prehensive voter engagement plan.

I have been attending these hearings and here are some of the suggestions:

- Pre-register to vote at 16, with automatic move to registered at 18. Would receive school civic credit.
- Allow to be poll worker at 18.
- Automatic registration when getting hunting/fishing license.
- Allow immigrants to vote in municipal elections.
- More languages on ballot.
- No excuse absentee voting.
- 15 days of early voting.
- Register to vote 10 days before election.
- Reduce the percent required for a hand recount This was to redress part of the issue of the upcoming primary/recount problem. The state legislature has voted to increase the time between the primary and the runoff to 3 weeks. They are in two different bills, so we do not know what the final bill will look like.

The VAAC produces a Paper/Digital/Video Voter Guide. The Voter Guide candidate profile is due June 12, 2013 and the Video Voter Guide script is due June 26, 2013. There also is a new app called "NYC Votes". It will include:

- Research candidate information.
- Find your poll location.
- View CFB information about candidates.
- View Social Media about candidates.
- Donate to a candidate with matching funds information.
- Allow candidates to automatically file their CFB data.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Bloomberg's Next Empire



It is the biggest development in London's buzzing financial district, two bronze-and-stone towers, connected by sky-bridges atop the ruins of a 2,000-year-old Roman temple. The three-acre site is just yards from the River Thames and alongside a huge building project for new offices on Queen Victoria Street in the heart of London's financial district and is also home to the Temple of Mithras.

Bloomberg Place, roughly the size of a Manhattan city block, is the future European home of Michael R. Bloomberg’s company and charity. But it is only one piece of the New York City mayor’s growing British empire. He is underwriting a major expansion of one of England’s most prestigious galleries, Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, designed by the noted architect Zaha Hadid.

Mr. Bloomberg, an Anglophile with a taste for English Regency style, is exporting his vast quantities of financial, social and political capital to this ancient city, where he has long yearned for influence. He threw himself into the city’s cultural scene, joining the boards of the Serpentine and the Old Vic theater. In a country where the government often financed the arts, Mr. Bloomberg adopted a more American style of corporate giving, stamping his name in museums where he paid for audio guides and sponsoring the Royal Court theater’s “Bloomberg Mondays,” when tickets are sold at a discount. He bought a box at Ascot, the high-society horse racing grounds.

Bloomberg Place, soon to be enshrined on the London map, is currently a mud pit crawling with cranes and bulldozers. By 2016, it will be home to a futuristic campus designed by the architect Norman Foster: it is to include a pair of undulating office buildings, pedestrian plazas, spaces for 390 bicycles and, if the mayor gets his way, branches of New York restaurants.

In one corner of the development sits the Temple of Mithras, Walbrook, a relic from London’s days under Roman rule. First uncovered in 1954, the temple, a sacrificial altar for an ancient religion, is being restored at Mr. Bloomberg’s expense.

Thousands of Roman artefacts have been unearthed in an archaeological dig hailed as 'the most important excavation ever held in London'. Archaeologists have found coins, pottery, shoes, lucky charms and an amber Gladiator amulet which date back almost 2,000 years. Experts leading the excavation have also uncovered wooden structures from the 40s AD around 40ft beneath the ground.

The discoveries have been so well preserved in the muddy waters of the lost Walbrook River that archaeologists have nicknamed the site 'the Pompeii of the North'. Sadie Watson, the site director from the Museum of London Archaeology, said: 'Certainly the archaeology on this project so far is probably the most important excavation ever held within London, certainly within Roman London.

It has offered experts an unprecedented glimpse into life in the bustling centre of Roman Londinium. Archaeologists from the museum were able to excavate the area when work to build the vast Bloomberg Place development began. Since then around 10,000 accessioned finds have been discovered by 60 archaeologists, the largest haul of small finds to have ever been recovered on a single excavation in the capital.

More than 100 fragments of Roman writing tablets have been unearthed, while 700 boxes of pottery fragments will be analysed by specialists. This site has provided the largest quantity of Roman leather to have ever been unearthed in the capital, including hundreds of shoes.

Sophie Jackson, from the museum, said: 'The site is a wonderful slice through the first four centuries of London's existence. The waterlogged conditions left by the Walbrook stream have given us layer upon layer of Roman timber buildings, fences and yards, all beautifully preserved and containing amazing personal items, clothes and even documents - all of which will transform our understanding of the people of Roman London.'










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Friday, May 24, 2013

NYC BOE and Primary Run-Offs


While the city primary elections are four months away, the New York City Board of Elections has already sounded the alarm that it will not be able to implement a run-off election with the procedures required for the new voting machines that were put into place in 2010. State law requires that a run-off election occur between the top two finishers two weeks after the primary for citywide offices (mayor, public advocate and comptroller) if no candidate receives 40 percent of the vote.

The new procedures following the passage of the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, require more time for the printing of paper ballots, the testing of scanners to read the ballots, and transportation of the machines to and from the poll sites. Even with the old lever machines, the top two candidates for a run-off were sometimes not known until days before the run-off. The already tight schedule has been exacerbated by the new voting machines.

Some good government groups are recommending the state legislature pass Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) to replace the separate run-off election. With IRV, voters rank candidates from first to last based on preference. The process starts by the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots assigned to eliminated candidate are recounted and assigned to one of the remaining candidates based on the next preference on each ballot. This process continues until one candidate wins by obtaining more than half the votes.

Another option besides IRV includes extending by a week to three-weeks the timing of the run-off election. Other less favorable options include using the old lever machines, pre-printing all possible ballots in advance, using ballots with “candidate A” and “candidate B” as placeholders for actual candidates made known through a separate card given to voters at the poll.

State Senator Marty Golden has sponsored a bill, and the Senate passed it, that would require the New York City Board of Elections to bring back the old-fashioned lever machines.

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said there were no plans to take up the Senate bill and passed an Assembly bill allowing for three weeks between the primary and a runoff, which they feel should be sufficient to reprogram the new machines.

But using lever machines brings many legal problems like: No required paper trail, not ADA compliant, not HAVA or state approved, and not able to display all the new approved languages. There is also the need to get the run-off ballots to overseas and military voters. And finally, many of the lever machines in storage need mechanical repair that will require the expense of cannibalizing machines for parts and finding technicians who know how to fix them and a printer who knows how to print lever ballots.

Now we have to see what the Governor will do.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Anthony Weiner Announces His Candidacy for Mayor of New York


Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, whose career in public life came to an abrupt end when he sent lewd pictures to a college student on Twitter, jumped back into politics by announcing a bid for Mayor of New York City.


A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday morning found City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the longtime front-runner, drawing 25 percent of the vote to Weiner’s 15 percent, the top two votes in the multi-candidate Democratic primary.

CLICK HERE for his website.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Running Elections Efficiently, A Best Practices Convening



On May 20, 2013, I attended the "Running Elections Efficiently, A Best Practices Convening" at the Kellogg Center, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), International Affairs Building in New York.

A side note: This was their graduation ceremonies day. Walking through the campus as they were setting-up was an interesting experience, got to talk with some graduates.

This one day event is designed to bring together election administrators, advocates, Legislative staff, and members of the public from throughout the nation to learn about election practices that have been adopted in different regions.

The event was co-sponsored by Common Cause, Common Cause/NY, and the Urban and Social Policy Programs, School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University with support from the George S. McGovern Great Government Endowment.

The goal of the convening was to learn procedures, costs, and effective practices from administrators who have implemented these types of reforms and what the future holds for our election process.

The Panels:

Early Voting
Michael Dickerson - Director, Board of Elections Mecklenburg County, NC
Maggie Toulouse Oliver - Clerk, Bernalillo County, NM
Ross Goldstein - Deputy State Administrator, Maryland Board of Elections
Wendy Weiser - Director, Democracy Program, Brennan Center (Moderator)

The moderator started the panel with the facts that 32 states and D.C. had early voting and 20 states had bills to start or increase early voting days.

The first panelist to speak was the Director from North Carolina. They allow 17 days of early voting and no excuse absentee ballots. They use a centralized database that allows laptops for voter verification with a signature device like a store credit card system. This system is a version of an E-Poll Book. They are evaluating to include registration during the early voting period. They are looking at adding a photo in future versions of their E-Book.

The next panelist was the Clerk from New Mexico. They allow 28 days of early voting and no excuse absentee ballots. They use an advanced E-Poll Book system that uses Ballot on Demand printing. They use a leased annex next to the board's office for early voting and absentee ballot receipt. They are looking at adding a photo in future versions of their E-Book. They use a optical scan system from Election System and Software, like the system used in New York. They are not happy with the system's close process and its management system and will replace it.

The last panelist was the Deputy State Administrator from Maryland. They allow 8 days of early voting and no excuse absentee ballots. This system is a version of an E-Poll Book. They are getting ready to pilot including registration during the early voting period. They are looking at adding a photo in future versions of their E-Book. Because they are centralized and synced, they allow candidates to download voter list daily of who voted early. This radically changes how a candidate would do their grassroots work.

Registration Modernization
Michael Dickerson - Director, Board of Elections Mecklenburg County, NC
Maggie Toulouse Oliver - Clerk, Bernalillo County, NM
Samuel Derheimer - Manager, Election Initiatives, PEW Charitable Trust
Paul Kominers - TurboVote, New York City
Wendy Weiser - Director, Democracy Program, Brennan Center (Moderator)

The moderator started the panel with the facts that 25 states are working on bills to change their registration process. The 11 states and D.C. with same-day registration are: California, Connecticut, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The first panelist to speak was the Director from North Carolina. They are planning to use their E-Poll Book system to allow registration during early voting. They use the postal system, by sending a postcard, to verify an address. They print their backup poll books on the Saturday before election day.

The next panelist was the Clerk from New Mexico. They currently use a paper registration system. They are developing an in-house system using tablet/iPad with a third-party company called EVOTEE for registration and record updates. They also are looking at putting these touch-screen systems in their Motor Vehicle offices.

The next panelist was the Manager from PEW Charitable Trust. He talked about a new initiative to create a voter database. Currently the states of Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, Utah, Virgina, and Washington share voter data. The project is called Election Registration Information Center (ERIC Project). The Pew Charitable Trusts is partnering with election officials, policy makers, technology experts, and other stakeholders toward a voter registration system that features:

•Greater coordination among states in order to increase accuracy and reduce costs.
•Better use of available databases, such as motor vehicle information, Social Security death records and National Change of Address information, to keep voter registration lists current.
•Access for voters to securely update records electronically in order to minimize manual data entry.

An analysis of ERIC's database determined in 2012, there was 3.5 million provisional ballots and we do not know if they were all counted and 1.2 million voters did not or were unable to vote.

The last panelist was from TurboVote. TurboVote, an up-and-coming start-up, who wants to become the "Netflix of voting" by revolutionizing voter registration and vote by mail via the Internet and snail mail. The concept is: Users fill out voter registration or vote by mail forms on their Internet browser, then TurboVote prints an official document based on that data. TurboVote sends users a paper copy through snail mail along with an envelope pre-printed with the address of each user's local voter election board — very much how Netflix's original business model works. Once a user gets the form and envelope, all they've got to do is sign the form, stuff it in the envelope and drop it in the mail. TurboVote also send users text message reminders when registration or voting deadlines are approaching to remind them to get their paperwork in the mail. Reminders are sent for elections at every level of government, including local, state and federal.

Online Registration and Voter Education
Ester Fuchs - Director, Urban and Social Policy Programs, Columbia University (SIPA)
Art Chang - Chairman, Voter Assistance Advisory Committee, NYC Campaign Finance Board
Dean Logan - Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Los Angeles County
Ross Goldstein - Deputy State Administrator, Maryland State Board of Elections
Jenny Flanagan - Director of Voting and Elections, Common Cause (Moderator)

The moderator discussed the challengers of voting online and their effort of voter education. CLICK HERE for more information about Common Cause's efforts.

The first panelist was the Director, Urban and Social Policy Programs (SIPA). She explained their new website for New York City voters, WhoseOnTheBallot.org features.

The next panelist was the Chairman, Voter Assistance Advisory Committee, NYC Campaign Finance Board. He explained a new App called NYC Votes. While initially aimed at helping campaigns to deal with donations, developers say they plan to add features in the coming months that will allow voters to find and research candidates; interact over social media; localize their ballot; and get elections results. The app was developed by the Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC) of the CFB with the assistance of partners from the city's civic-oriented tech developer community, including Pivotal Labs and Method. TekServe, an Apple sales specialist, has agreed to help candidates get swiping technology working on their devices. It will be rolled out later in May.

The next panelist was the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Los Angeles County. He discussed an analysis that paper registration produced 72% voting but online registration in 12 states produced 81% voting. He spoke about the social networking to get out the vote with RockTheVote, LaVote.net helped to be proactive with voters. He hopes to have an online voting system fully developed by 2016.

The last panelist was the Deputy State Administrator, Maryland. He talked about how he is using the ERIC Project for online registration and hopes to add the ability to apply for an absentee ballot in the future.

Post Election Procedures - Audits and Recounts
Douglas Kellner - Co-Chair, NY State Board of Elections
Philip Stark - Chair, Statistics Dept., University of CA, Berkeley
Pamela Smith - President, Verified Voting Foundation (Moderator)

The moderator spoke about the need for consistent audits for all types of ballots, chain of ballot custody, and an escalation process to handle problems as quickly as possible.

The first panelist was the Co-Chair, New York State Board of Elections. He explained that NY went optical in 2005 that included a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). That there is an automatic audit of a 3% hand count with random selection of machines. There is a recanvas if the vote is within .5%. One problem with the optical scanners was voter intent in a recount. Looking at the ballot, if a voter circled a name it would not be counted originally but the court might accept it. If a ballot is signed by the voter it becomes invalid but the scanner would count it. New York hopes to modify the scanner to put an identifiable mark on the scanned ballot to be able to retrieve a redacted version of the stored ballot image. The re-count process is still not decided for the upcoming September Primaries in New York.

The last panelist was the Chair, Statistics Dept., University of CA, Berkeley. He explained new algorithms for recounts. He called it Leveraging by Stirring a Random sample of ballots. After showing different charts, he explained Risk-Limited Audits that only requires counting ballots until you know the winner, the different will not change if you continue counting. He also talked about software that would match the machine count number to the ballot image.

Disaster Preparedness and Polling Place Challenges
Denise Liberman - Senior Attorney, Advancement Project
Valerie Vazquez - Public Affairs and Communications, NYC Board of Elections
Douglas Kellner - Co-Chair, NY State Board of Elections
Dean Logan - Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Los Angeles County
Susan Lerner - Executive Director, Common Cause/NY (Moderator)

The moderator spoke about the effort in New York City after Super Storm Sandy to send out canvasser to make sure the provisional ballots were delivered.

The first panelist was the Senior Attorney, Advancement Project. He spoke about better poll worker training, better wages, using students at the polls, giving tax credits for poll workers, 1/2 day shifts, and having more bi-lingual poll workers.

The next panelist was the Public Affairs and Communications, New York City Board of Elections. Using a slide show, she gave a detail report of what happened before, during, and after Super Storm Sandy. She spoke about the need to include opt-in email address during registration for better notification using all available options. There was also the moving stored scanners away from flood areas (A zone) helped but they missed the areas near (B zone) areas.

The next panelist was the Co-Chair, NY State Board of Elections. He spoke about some of the good things the New York City's Board of Elections did during the storm. He suggested there is a need to pre-stage generators. There was many cases of long lines and he did inform there was a 30 minute wait time limit in the law. There was another round of discussions about how to eliminate long lines.

The last panelist was the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Los Angeles County. He spoke about the need for better absentee ballot processes, extending return dates for all mail-in/military/oversees ballots, the need for reserve poll workers, pre-depose equipment, using students at the polls, using county workers at the polls, and off-site ballot counting.

It was a long day, but I meet many new people who are interested in versions of structural political reform.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Monday, May 20, 2013

13,000 Voters on Rolls in Maryland still on D.C. Rolls


This post comes from an article by Jeffrey Anderson an investigative reporter for The Washington Times.

Washington, D.C., has failed to remove from its voting rolls as many as 13,000 former residents who years ago moved to Prince George's County Maryland and cast ballots there, making fraud by voting in two jurisdictions as easy as going to the polls in their old neighborhoods after a review of records.

In dozens of cases, names are listed as voting in both jurisdictions in the November 2012 presidential election. Provided a subset of the names, the District pulled paper records and said most did not vote, but that other voters accidentally associated their ballots with the former residents' names instead of their own.

For others listed as voting in both jurisdictions, they had no such explanation.

"All voter fraud violations discovered by the District of Columbia Board of Elections will be referred to both the District and the United States Attorney General Offices for further review," said D.C. Board of Elections spokeswoman Agnes Moss.

Democrats who have been deeply active for decades in the community of black, middle-class residents, who, by the tens of thousands have left the District for its eastern neighbor, though are still active in the District or employed by the government, said Prince George's County residents using their former D.C. addresses to cast votes there is an open secret.

"It happens a lot," said Ward 7 activist Geraldine Washington. "I know of people who still vote in their old address after they've moved [out of the District]. I mean years after. They do that a lot."

The list of voters with names so unusual that there has been only one in the District and one in Prince George's and who are listed as voting in both jurisdictions in the 2012 election is in the thousands.

Indeed, the list of Prince George's voters with unusual names that match those on voter rolls in the District was far longer, at 13,000.

CLICK HERE to read the entire article.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Best Practices to Running Elections Efficiently



Running Elections Efficiently, A Best Practices Convening is a one day event on May 20, 2013 designed to bring together election administrators, advocates, Legislative staff and members of the public from throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region to learn about insider election practices that have been adopted in other regions.

The event is co-sponsored by Common Cause and Common Cause/NY with the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Panels will discuss the following topics:

-Online Registration
-Early Voting
-Same Day or Election Day Registration
-Poll Worker Education
-Disaster Preparedness and Election Day Challenges
-Post Election Procedures: Recounts and Audits

When: Monday, May 20, 2013 -- 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
(breakfast and registration from 8:30 a.m.)

At: Kellogg Center, Columbia University
School of International and Public Affairs, International Affairs Building
420 West 118th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10027

CLICK HERE if you want to attend.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NYC Town Halls About the 2013 Elections



Common Cause/NY is joining with CBS Channel 2, WCBS 880, 1010 WINS, and El Diario to host a series of Town Halls style meetings before the Mayoral debates.

Heading into the election, they want to learn what issues are important to you.

-What would you ask the candidates?

-What concerns do you have in your community?

By hearing from you, they can better represent your concerns to those who would be our elected officials.

The meetings will be held in each of the 5 boroughs:

-Manhattan - June 6 (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)
-Bronx - June 11 (Lehman College)
-Brooklyn – June 18 (St. Francis College)
-Queens – June 25 (N.Y. Hall of Science
-Staten Island – June 27 (Wagner College)

CLICK HERE if you want to attend.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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An App to Engage NYC Voters and Candidates



New York City hopes to get more people engaged in this year's pivotal election with a new web app that aims to benefit both campaigns and voters. The web app, named NYC Votes, will streamline campaign donations and also serve as a resource on candidates and the election. The software draws from the city's campaign finance data and is expected to be released in two weeks. It will be available on most browser-enabled devices, including phones and tablets.

"We started from the premise of creating a much more seamless, end-to-end experience for participants in the voting process," said Art Chang, the chairman of the Voter Assistance Advisory Committee of the city's Campaign Finance Board, who is in charge of developing the software. The initial goal of the tool, Chang said, was to make "life easier for candidates, for constituents and for the Campaign Finance Bureau's (CFB) audit staff," particularly surrounding small donations.

The city's 6-to-1 public matching system is designed to encourage a broad spectrum of people to contribute in small amounts. In 2009, contributions of $175 or less made up nearly 70 percent of all contributions, according to the CFB. "In the past these contributions have caused a lot of headaches," said Chang, whose firm lent a project manager to the app effort.

NYC Votes overcomes this by handling the credit card processing while also verifying addresses for compliance, enabling virtually any candidate to start taking plastic. A magnet card swipe reader can also be used with the software, so that even campaign staffers at fundraising events can use their mobile devices to record contributions.

While initially aimed at helping campaigns to deal with donations, developers say they plan to add features in the coming months that will allow voters to find and research candidates; interact over social media; localize their ballot; and get elections results.

The app was developed by the Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC) of the CFB with the assistance of partners from the city's civic-oriented tech developer community, including Pivotal Labs and Method. TekServe, an Apple sales specialist, has agreed to help candidates get swiping technology working on their devices.

I hope the software interface will be able to determine if a contributor has already met their matching fund limit and total contribution limit. It will also need the ability to enter the necessary information and check-off boxes so the candidate has enough information to properly file the contribution to the CFB.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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