PNB Election Sub-Committee Draft Minutes: March 8, 2010<br />
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Bill is nominated by Tracy to chair the work group. Tracy agrees to take notes. <br />
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Attendance: Wesley Bethune, Peter Tucker, Renee Bowser, Dan Siegel, Bonnie Simmons (ex afficio), Bill Crosier, Tracy<br />
Rosenberg, Anthony Fest<br />
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Bill read the recommendations from an email he sent earlier:<br />
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Specific Recommendations to Consider - From Bill's Document<br />
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1.  Make sure competent, trained personnel get our member and staff databases updated, corrected, and duplicates removed<br />
at each station by June 1 at the latest.<br />
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2.  Put all election-related information on one web site (for example, pacifica.org) and link to it from all stations'<br />
web sites, to make it easier to keep all the information correct, complete, and up to date.  Separate pages could be<br />
used if needed for each station.<br />
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3.  Plan on sending a postcard to all members in June, as noted above, to encourage them to get candidate pamphlets via<br />
the web, and to return the postcard (with their pre-printed name and address, etc.) if they don't have Internet access<br />
or for other reasons still want to get the complete packet by postal mail.  Use Reply Service Requested on those<br />
postcards to catch any address changes that have not already been caught and entered into the member databases.  Make<br />
sure there are numerous on-air announcements to watch for this postcard and what to do with it.<br />
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4.  Set up a system (preferably both online and with a toll-free telephone number) to handle replacement ballot<br />
requests, and requests for complete candidate info by mail, for those members who don't respond to the postcard or<br />
change their minds later.  We need to make this easy, both to minimize complaints and to ensure that we reach quorum.<br />
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5.  Mail paper ballots to ALL members, with reminders to go to the designated web site for candidate info, and how to<br />
request a packet by mail if they didn't send in their postcard as requested in 3. above.  Note that mailing paper<br />
ballots rather than the entire candidate info pamphlet, even mailed to all members, greatly reduces printing and postage<br />
costs while being fair to all members regardless of whether they have Internet access, and also eliminates possible<br />
security problems of electronic voting.<br />
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6.  (Option) Have all the ballots to be mailed by members to a single location, to be handled by an election vendor with<br />
no ties to any faction or candidate, and who will process and count the ballots.  (also reduces travel expense of having<br />
the NES go to each station individually for counting)  The NES could still go to this one location, though, if we feel<br />
it's needed.<br />
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7.  Put all the scanned ballot images and round-by-round STV results up on pacifica.org or other (single) web site as<br />
soon as possible after the ballots are processed.<br />
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Suggested that subcommittee look over the RFP with an eye to both this upcoming year and long-term options for<br />
contractable chunks of work<br />
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The group examined each item on the contract and for this meeting, determined whether or not we thought it might be<br />
contractable at this point. . <br />
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1) Oversee NES and LES - not this year. Not likely for next two years<br />
2) Database cleanup - can or should we contract it out? Discussed database cleanup procedures. Volunteers and staffers<br />
in separate databases due to limitations in Memsys. Different skill levels in database staffers and LES's.<br />
3) Coordinate candidate forums on-air and in-person, monitor and enforce fair campaign provisions. Not to contract out<br />
4) Print and mail candidate information. Layout and proof.  Maybe contract out<br />
5) Election web pages for each stations - unified web pages on pacifica.org - with good links from the stations.<br />
6) Automate replacement ballot requests - a centralized tracking and logging system. Maybe contract out. <br />
7) On-line voting system - test election for online voting this upcoming year. Maybe on staff election? <br />
8) Mailing the replacement ballots centralized from one location. Maybe to contract out at least until right before the<br />
end of the voting period.<br />
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9) Handle Choice Plus Pro files/compatible files <br />
10) Prevent ballot stuffing, Verify ballots<br />
11) Verify quorum<br />
12) 10 accurate STV tallies with observers<br />
13) Counting the ballots<br />
14) Scan images<br />
15) Copy ballot files into verifiable format<br />
16) Provide round by round detailed files<br />
17) Certify election results<br />
Items 9-17 - loosely called counting services could probably be contracted out as a unified task.<br />
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Wesley, Peter, Dan, Bonnie, Renee, Anthony Bill, <br />
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