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Five Easy Ways to Improve Local Elections
May 18, 2010 Primary Election Report
For more than a century, the Committee of Seventy has operated a
Voter Protection Program during every primary and general election.
Citizen volunteers recruited and trained by Seventy answer voters’
questions and help resolve problems at polling places in Philadelphia
and, in recent elections, throughout the region.
Through our use of the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline, voters report
personal concerns, as well as alleged improprieties they observe.
Seventy partners with national and local organizations, and with law
enforcement agencies, to ensure that all eligible voters are able to
cast a ballot.
Every election is different, depending on a variety of factors
ranging from the significance of the races to the number of genuine
contests to the interest of the electorate to the mood of the country.
Yet there is one constant, as confirmed by incident reports received by
Seventy during the May 18, 2010 primary: problems that occur time and
time again.
This post-election report recommends five simple steps to improve
the voting experience in Philadelphia, to the greatest extent possible,
before problems occur. They are directed to the three City Commissioners
who operate local elections:
• Bring the Elections Website into the 21st Century
• Clamp
Down on Electioneering
• Take Charge of Finding Polling Place
Officials
• Mandate Training of Polling Place Officials
• Invite
Public Feedback – and Take it Seriously
1. BRING THE WEBSITE INTO THE 21ST CENTURY
The City Commissioners’ website – www.phillyelection.com –
is woefully inadequate, assuming the ordinary user can find it at all.
Minimal information is provided and its format is amateurish at
best. The May 18, 2010 primary election results are available under an
obscure heading with an incorrect year: “2009 Municipal General
Unofficial Election Results.” A “new” feature, Language Interpretation
Services for Voters, dates from 2007.
City voters seeking the location of their polling places must
connect to a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania website. And, as the volume of
calls received by Seventy every Election Day confirms, voters relying
on the City Commissioners for location changes are often left in the
dark. Even the wife of the city’s Voter Registration Administrator
didn’t learn that her polling place had changed until she showed up at
the wrong location on May 18th.
By comparison, the websites of the Commissioners’ counterparts in
other major cities, and in Philadelphia’s suburbs, are far more
comprehensive, useful and inviting. The Allegheny County Elections
Division publishes “Election Day Experience Reports.” Chicago’s Board of
Election offers voter links in 12 languages. Montgomery County provides
maps of election districts and links to candidates’ campaign expense
report filings. Chester County supplies sample ballots.
The independent City Commissioners’ office is not included in city
government’s massive information technology overhaul. But the expertise
available within the city’s Division of Technology should be able to
assist in making the website respectable. At the very least, critical
election information should be accessible on the city’s website, where
most voters would naturally look.
2. CLAMP DOWN ON ELECTIONEERING
The most common problem reported by voters to Seventy’s Voter
Protection Program volunteers is feeling besieged by campaigners and
committeepeople at their polling places and, sometimes, inside the
polls. The Pennsylvania Election Code bans this behavior, commonly
referred to as “electioneering,” within 10-feet of the polling place.
Most other states create a significantly larger campaign-free
buffer zone to protect voters than Pennsylvania’s 10-foot barrier –
which the City Commissioners have interpreted strictly although the
Election Code states that ten feet is a minimal requirement.
Short of a change in the state law, the Commissioners should
aggressively enforce the current law to prevent intimidation and
disruption of the voting process. It should not require a Common Pleas
Court Judge to enjoin campaigns or Election Boards from blocking the
entrance to polling places or interfering with voting, as occurred on
May 18th in the Seventh Ward. Or Seventy’s volunteers to remind people
thrusting leaflets at voters entering the polls to back off.
The prohibition on improper electioneering – and the consequences
for violations – should be included in the Commissioners’ “Guide for
Election Officers in Philadelphia County” that is distributed to all
polling place officials under “Laws/Violations/Regulations”. Although
the law appears on the blue “General Information and Instructions”
poster that must be posted at all polling places, the tiny print
effectively makes this warning a meaningless deterrent. Judges of
Elections should be required by the City Commissioners to enforce the
electioneering barrier and to report non-compliance to law enforcement
officials.
3. TAKE CHARGE OF FINDING POLLING PLACE OFFICIALS
Every election district in Pennsylvania must have an Election
Board. Every Election Board is made up of five members, three elected
(Judge of Elections, Majority Inspector, Minority Inspector) and two
appointed (Clerk, who is appointed by the Minority Inspector and Machine
Inspector, appointed by the County Board of Elections). Elected
positions are on the ballot every four years.
There are 8,240 individuals needed to cover Philadelphia’s 1,684
divisions: 5,052 elected and 3,368 appointed.
Meeting this numerical goal is next to impossible, given that all
five members of the Election Board must reside in the election district
in which their polling place is located. In a city dominated by
Democrats, finding a Minority Inspector can be difficult. (By law, each
political party nominates one “Inspector of Election” candidate. The
highest vote-getter from the majority party in the district becomes the
Majority Inspector. The candidate with the second highest vote total –
invariably the Republican – becomes the Minority Inspector.)
On May 18th, Seventy fielded five separate, but similar,
complaints: Minority Inspectors named by court order (as typically
happens when there are no GOP candidates on the ballot) were turned away
at polling places by Judges of Election who refuse to accept the court
order. Seventy received an additional 10 calls from divisions where
officials were confused about who should be serving in the Minority
Inspector position, in a few instances after more than one person showed
up to assume this role.
The City Commissioners should be first in line to lobby for changes
in state law to make it easier to fill Election Board slots. For
example, if the jobs are predominately administrative, is it necessary
for all Election Board members to live in the election district? Must
all three positions continue to be elected?
In the absence of statewide reforms, the City Commissioners can
markedly improve the process of filing Election Boards by:
• Encouraging citizens of both parties – through public service
announcements and community outreach – to seek one of the three elected
or two appointed positions instead of relying on ward leaders and
committeepeople.
• Maintaining a public database of individuals who
have served on previous Election Boards and can be contacted well in
advance of an election to work at the polls.
• Partnering with the
School District of Philadelphia and non-public high schools to recruit
exemplary high school seniors to serve as clerks or machine inspectors,
as permitted by the Pennsylvania Election Code. This would serve the
dual purpose of filling Election Board seats and encouraging the next
generation of voters to become civically engaged.
• Following-up
with individuals who indicate on new voter registration forms that they
are interested in serving as poll workers on Election Day.
The
Commissioners should follow the example of the Allegheny County
Elections Division, which advertises the need for “civic minded
volunteers to serve on Election Day [who are] comfortable with new
technology and the ever changing election environment” and has an online
application form. Interested citizens are contacted by a representative
of the Elections Division. If there are no vacancies in an applicant’s
area, their information is retained for future elections.
4. MANDATE TRAINING FOR POLLING PLACE OFFICIALS
The long hours and low pay for the five officials required at every
one of the city’s 1,684 polling places often make it a thankless job.
The Committee of Seventy commends the many citizens who perform this
task year after year.
At the same time, too many polling place officials are unprepared
for anything but basic voting techniques. During the May 18th primary,
for example, Seventy’s volunteers fielded complaints from nine divisions
where the polling place officials were did not know how to handle
write-in votes
Election laws are complex and subject to change.
Just before the 2008 general election, a federal court judge ruled that
voters must be allowed to vote by paper ballot if half of the voting
machines in their election district were broken. It is imperative that
polling place officials are prepared to ensure that voters are not
disenfranchised.
The Commissioners offer training – but they don’t require polling
place officials to attend. Even if they do participate in training, far
too many officials seem to forget what they learned when it comes to
Election Day. Written materials disseminated by the Commissioners’
office are not help. The “Guide for Election Officers in Philadelphia
County” is a densely-worded document in a newspaper format that is
difficult to read.
The Commissioners should ensure that all polling place officials
are properly trained before every Election Day. Like continuing legal
education courses required of all active Pennsylvania attorneys, polling
places officials opting for video training sessions should be required
to electronically document their participation. A brief quiz on the
process could help to reinforce the lessons taught in the training.
In addition, the Commissioners should replace their “Guide for
Election Officers in Philadelphia County” with an easy-to-use, indexed
manual. The manual should be available for downloading from the
Commissioners’ website so that polling place officials can absorb
polling place rules and procedures well in advance of an election. The
Commissioners’ website should supplement the manual with “real-life
examples” of problems that typically occur on Election Day.
5. INVITE PUBLIC FEEDBACK – AND TAKE IT SERIOUSLY
Philadelphians who don’t travel in political circles are unlikely
to know who runs city elections – and the Commissioners seem to prefer
it this way.
The Commissioners hold weekly meetings leading up to every
election, but the only regular attendees are representatives from the
Committee of Seventy and a local Republican Party official. The
Commissioners don’t publicize an agenda or a schedule of meetings, which
are inconveniently held during weekday mornings. The only “minutes”
available are the unofficial notes published by Seventy on its website.
By contrast, New York City’s Board of Elections posts online minutes of
their meetings.
However, the most discouraging aspect of the Commissioners’
meetings is how participants are treated. The Chair of the City
Commissioners, who does virtually all of the talking at meetings (the
other two Commissioners are largely silent), is openly hostile to anyone
who appears to register complaints or to suggest improvements to city
elections. The clear signal is that feedback is unwelcome.
The Committee of Seventy urges the Commissioners to follow the
example set by Mayor Nutter and City Council during the budget hearings
and hold some evening meetings in neighborhoods around the city to
solicit voters’ feedback and to raise public awareness about the role of
their office. Hopefully the public exposure will drive a change in
their behavior and attitude.
* * *
These five steps recommended by the Committee of Seventy are not
difficult or even particularly innovative. Rather they are common-sense
approaches that we have developed after monitoring local elections and
interacting with the City Commissioners for many years.
In full disclosure: Seventy has publicly supported
professionalizing the management of city elections by eliminating the
City Commissioners as an elected office. Of the ten largest cities in
the United States, only Philadelphia has elected officials in charge of
running elections.
Eliminating the City Commissioners – who are independently elected
and not accountable to the mayor or City Council -- requires Council
passage of an amendment to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, followed
by a ballot referendum. Since this is not likely to happen before the
Commissioners’ next election in 2011, they should take the opportunity
to make their case for why they deserve to stay in office.
The public is increasingly demanding greater transparency and
accountability from all parts of government. Now is an excellent time
for the City Commissioners to live up to these expectations by putting
these five recommendations in place so that the 2011 municipal elections
run as seamlessly as possible.