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 Alameda County Council

The following article is an extended version of one that appeared in the October 2005 VOTER.

LEAGUES AND LEAGUERS AT WORK IN ALAMEDA COUNTY

Elaine Ginnold, Acting Registrar of Voters for Alameda County, has recruited many League members for two new committees to advise her and her office—on Instant Runoff Voting and on Elections.

The Election Advisory Committee, which first met in August, was formed to help the Registrar's office understand election issues from the point of view of County voters. The initial focus of the committee has been voting equipment decisions. As Registrar Ginnold pointed out at the meeting, two laws that go into effect on January 1, 2006 require the County to make decisions regarding its voting equipment. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA), requires each polling place to have accessible voting equipment so that all voters can vote independently and privately. The current touchscreen voting equipment used by the County meets this requirement. The second is the State law that requires each touchscreen to have a voter verified paper audit trail printer. The Diebold touchscreens with printers have not yet been certified by the Secretary of State. Diebold's and the other touchscreen equipment is due to be certified between September and December 2005.

Ginnold, with approval by the Board of Supervisors, is issuing a new Request for Proposals (RFP) for a single vendor to provide a mix of equipment at each polling place—touchscreens with a paper audit trail, and an optical scan voting system. This would give voters a choice of systems. Vendors who respond to the RFP will have to meet rigorous contract provisions that should avoid many of the difficulties that the County, as an early adopter of touchscreens, endured with its vendor Diebold.

Early meetings have focused on the erosion of public confidence in the accuracy and reliability of our elections. How can public trust be improved by improving the machines and programs themselves? By improving the testing by elections officials? Should elections be programmed in "open source code", and what does that mean? How can public trust be improved by making all aspects of the election process open and visible to all interested citizens—"transparent", in the current phrase.

The Committee is broadly drawn, including citizens who believe or fear that the vendors and their computerized voting machines are stealing elections, to a UCB professor who is part of a new national consortium called ACCURATE (A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable, and Transparent Elections).

[For details, see http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/08/15_evoting.shtml]

Many League members and spouses serve on this committee, as League reps or wearing other hats, among them Nancy Bickel, Chair, ACCLWV; Evelyn Cormier, LWV Eden Area; Helen Hutchison, President, LWVO; Kate Quick, Communications Director, LWVC Board; and Nancy Van Huffel, President, LWV Eden Area.

The Instant Runoff Voting Committee, which first met in June, also includes many Leaguers: Anne Spanier, LWVO, Jean Safir, LWVBAE, Nancy Bickel, Sherry Smith, President, LWVBAE, Judy Cox and Bonnie Hamlin, LWVO, and Leaguers like Angelina Reyes, Judy Bertelsen and Joanne McKray, representing other organizations.

Registrar Ginnold has worked with the committee to develop a uniform protocol or format that might be used for IRV elections within the County. A uniform "roadmap" or protocol would enable the county to instruct vendors of election services about exactly what kind of IRV election for which they should develop a computer program and seek to have certified by the Secretary of State. If the same "roadmap" were adopted by cities within the County that wished to run IRV elections, the Registrar and the vendor would be able to move forward with incorporating IRV elections as part of consolidated elections. At present Berkeley, Oakland and San Leandro permit IRV elections in some cases.

The "roadmap" for IRV is currently being reviewed by the City Attorneys of the three cities, and the County Counsel.

Local press has given good coverage to efforts by IRV activists, including some Leaguers, to enable Berkeley to use IRV for its Mayor, Auditor and Council elections in November of 2006. In September, the Berkeley City Council passed Councilmember Kriss Worthington’s motion to write to the Secretary of State clarifying what the City needs to do to implement IRV. In addition, the Council urged the Registrar and Board of Supervisors to implement IRV and decided to begin preparing to adopt an implementation ordinance. Former City Clerk Sherry Kelly, hired by the City to work on implementing IRV, continues to work with the Registrar and connect with potential vendors to overcome barriers to IRV in Berkeley.

Funding Health Services in the County has been a continuing League concern. At its August meeting, the ACCLWV confirmed creation of the ACC Health Committee and the nomination of two League members, Dr. Ken Ballard and Sal Tedesco to the Measure A Oversight Committee. The County Leagues strongly supported passage of Measure A in 2004 to bail out the heavily indebted County Medical Center, which runs Highland Hospital and other County services, the safety net for those without health insurance.

Grand Jury reports on the progress of the Medical Center toward good fiscal and administrative management have continued to be very critical after passage of Measure A. The ACC has written several letters urging improvement.

ACC was glad to be asked to nominate two members to the oversight committee and delighted to find two extremely expert and able members to serve. To support Ken Ballard and Sal Tedesco in their work, Susan Schroeder, LWV Piedmont representative to ACC, will chair the newly formed ACC Health Committee. Susan and Dr. Ursula Rolfe of LWVBAE will share observing of the Alameda County Medical Center Board.

Join the Committee? The ACC Health Committee will communicate by e-mail, with meetings from time to time, so Leaguers who would like to participate in the committee’s communications should contact Susan Schroeder at srschroede@aol.com.

ACC on the Web: League Action at the County level is often invisible to members so LWVBAE has agreed to host the Alameda County Council of LWV’s web pages. We’ll be posting our letters to elected officials and other info. Take a look at www.lwvbae.org/acc.htm or just go to the lwvbae.org site and click the Alameda County Leagues items.

Nancy Bickel, Chair, Alameda County Council