ORDER-2018-8 : An Appropriation in the amount of $97,900.00 From: A/C # 84052-590000 – Capital Stabilization Fund To: A/C #019313-551161 –Capital Outlay - Voting Machines: $83,500.00 and A/C #019313-551162 – Capital Outlay – Voting Booths: $14,400.00

Transcript (~14 min @ 46:00)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 45:48 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, one and all. Also, Alderman McAteer-Margolis just pointed out, we're still free to receive emails. This issue is not final, and anybody who wants to send emails to the Alderman, we're certainly welcome to receive them at any time. That's a great point, Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Thank you very much. All right, the first order we have before us is order 2018-8, An appropriation in the amount of $97,900 from account number 84052-590000. It's the capital stabilization fund to account number 019313551161. Capital outlay voting machines. $83,500, and account number 019313-551162. Capital outlay voting booths, $14,400. Motion to suspend the rules so we hear from proper city officials. We have a motion to suspend the rules from Alderman Forbes, duly seconded by Alderman Inferna. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, we are under suspension. Clerk of Committees, our City Clerk, Mayor Reuter O'Shea, and our Elections Commissioner, Ms. Angie Olillo, are here with us to discuss this matter. Good evening, ladies. Please proceed. Good evening.

▶ 47:23 Speaker 1: Okay. Welch, I'll turn it over to Linda. Linda handled the bid opening.

▶ 47:30 Speaker 2: So we did. We had our bid opening, and we only had one company. company there are only two companies that make a machine that's been approved by the state of Massachusetts so we put it out to bid and we only got one back so we are going we want to go with that company which is LHS which is the company that presently has the AccuVote machine so this is the updated version

▶ 48:00 Speaker 2: the image cast of what they're the new machine the AccuVote is no longer being

▶ 48:06 Speaker 2: made so that and the voting booths our voting booths are as old as our voting machines our voting machines are over 20 years old we've had them they are breaking down at each election so it's time for us to look into new ones currently there are 71 cities and towns using this new L this new image cast 10 are on order and um there are 11 that are out bidding on it right now so there's a total of 92 communities currently looking into new machines some of the cities and towns that have only had their acu votes for 10 years don't need machines they're they no longer making the machines but they can you know they they were wonderful machines they worked wonderful for us for 20 years we never had issues with them so they don't have to look into new ones right now the total cost is eighty three thousand five hundred that's the fourteen complete packages because we have fourteen precincts and we're going to buy one extra machine to have which we should always have an extra one in case something happens because during the past few years as we have learned we've had to pay LHS to come down with extra machines and be there for when the machines break down if we can have one machine already ready to go if something happens and that's the purpose of the extra machine questions thank you

▶ 49:29 Peter D. Mortimer: very much miss angiolillo first in queue we have alderman Rita and president

▶ 49:35 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Kahn and then alderman Boyce out Thank You mr. chairman thank you for the presentation and I appreciate your efforts and all those machines can be maintenance heavy speaking of which do we have a is there a warranty do we have a service agreement with them will they have uh somebody on site or within a reason well the first

▶ 49:59 Speaker 2: year and they're on call for us the entire election and the reason we like this company is because they're right in salem new hampshire so during the past when our other machines have gone down they were here within an hour and they had new machines for us excellent and

▶ 50:13 Francis X. Wright Jr.: when it comes to the ballot itself uh will it be the same ballot will we be same paper okay so you'll darken in the circle you want to vote for there's no connecting or anything

▶ 50:32 Francis X. Wright Jr.: like that okay very good um one other question um i'll i'll hold off for now mr chairman thank you

▶ 50:39 Speaker 6: thank you alderman wright president khan please thank you so we're replacing 20 year old machines

▶ 50:45 Speaker 6: with new machines and two companies are approved on the state bid list and this is one of the two companies which was the only better yes thank you thank you thank you president

▶ 50:57 Peter D. Mortimer: Kahn alderman Boyce L please now you're talking about the ballot and putting

▶ 51:04 Robert A. Boisselle: into the machine and they count the votes that's the voting machine in the voting booth is where you're going into a little cubbyhole standing up and

▶ 51:18 Speaker 2: marking your ballot those old rickety ones we have that are probably older than the 20 years of the machines I have no idea how well they are but they are

▶ 51:28 Robert A. Boisselle: you we're afraid they're gonna fall are you considering any other technology to

▶ 51:34 Speaker 2: be used at this time we are since you mentioned it they are currently looking into these machines that are called pole pads and it's going to take the place of the check-in and check out the book and um this lhs is waiting for the state to approve them and they're hoping we can be on um what did they for the november election that we could test them out um but it's a poll pad it's electronic it has it just has the voter list put on it there's no record kept or anything like that the poll pad looks everybody up you can use your license if you want if people want to use their license you don't have to because in the state of massachusetts you do not have to use your license but a lot of people do like to show their license when they go to vote they prefer to show their license you put it up to the system it pulls up that person's name there's no mistake it pulls up their name their date of birth i have the machine in my office if anyone wants to stop by at any time and see it it's um it's wonderful all the results would come back to me everything would i could tell you at 12 noon how many people turned out to vote in each precinct um we could keep track the numbers it is it would stop the poll workers from having to count the numbers would automatically be there you check in it automatically goes in they get a ballot they go to the back desk which has a receipt that prints out and you match that up with that person and it just goes through the machine you're valid as usual so it's wonderful technology it just has not been approved for the state of massachusetts yet it is used in other states

▶ 53:15 Robert A. Boisselle: so this order is basically for the voting boots and the voting machine that's it motion to recommend

▶ 53:21 Peter D. Mortimer: alderman boycelle has made a motion to recommend this order for passage second said motion was duly seconded by alderman forbes on further discussion we do have a number of aldermen uh still in queue next we have alderman Medeiros fall followed by alderman's werco and then alderman inferna the motion uh to recommend this for passage is on the floor now and continuing on with the discussion we have

▶ 53:51 Monica C. Medeiros: alderman Medeiros please thank you uh i just uh keep it brief here i think so this is this is the new tablets that you just mentioned are not included in this at all it's just the the voting machines and the voting booths and um what's the lifespan expected lifespan of

▶ 54:15 Speaker 2: these new machines you know what i we can't tell you that's just like refrigerators they used to be 20 years out of them who knows i mean i don't know they've been they're new they are used everywhere but i mean they're under warranty i'm sure they'll have the pots for 20 years you know i don't see them not being you know still used in 20 years and i just want to reiterate

▶ 54:37 Monica C. Medeiros: very clearly these will continue to have a paper ballot so we will always have that as an option in order in case god forbid we need a recount we've got absolute paper ballots to to work off of um and we don't need to worry about you know information disappearing into cyberspace or

▶ 55:01 Monica C. Medeiros: anything like that um and in terms of the voting booths uh will some of these be at least one per polling place be handicap accessible yes for a wheelchair yes that would be great

▶ 55:17 Monica C. Medeiros: and you know we went through the process last year for the first time of early voting and setting up the chamber in advance for early voting would these machines be able to handle early voting any better than well you still cannot

▶ 55:33 Speaker 2: put a ballot through before Election Day so that so we wouldn't be putting so you can't right unless they change things that you can't you can do that but otherwise ballots have to be processed on Election Day and we're hearing that

▶ 55:48 Monica C. Medeiros: possibly the currently the deadline before the election to register to vote is is 20 days prior we're hearing that that may be possibly changing they're

▶ 56:05 Speaker 2: looking into same-day registration but so we'll look we'll need to be able to

▶ 56:08 Monica C. Medeiros: to have equipment to process that right well they would have to still yeah come and register with me

▶ 56:14 Speaker 2: and i mean if it's the same day i have questions about it but if the state approves it then they're allowed to vote it's still a way that we can still hold on to their ballot and make sure they're not voting in other places but that's up to the state thank you very much thank you very much alderman

▶ 56:40 Peter D. Mortimer: Medeiros next in line we have aldermen's work oh please thank you mr. chairman

▶ 56:41 Michael P. Zwirko: and thank you for being here tonight I just have two very quick questions so the intent is to have these new machines in place for the municipal this fall and then the other question I had and I know from time to time and you've come before us before that I know we had that voter registration drive where we got a little bit of money because we hit 20,000 or something like that and from time to time that this Commonwealth of Massachusetts gives us a little bit of money for elections and things of that nature are there any grants that were available for this type of thing I mean because we hold federal elections here but it's kind of the mandate of the local government to do so and there's just no mechanism for so the federal government gets free elections right

▶ 57:24 Peter D. Mortimer: those are all my questions mr. chairman thank you very much alderman work oh next in queue we have alderman inferno please followed by alderman MacMaster

▶ 57:34 Gail Infurna: Margolis thank you very much my question had basically been answered but I do want to give a look if you allow me just a little lead way no it's not quite on the agenda and being the computer whiz that I am as everybody knows and you were talking about these pole pads what if the internet went down in the building or what if something will you still have a hard copy of those books yes thank you I just worry about these things with computers thanks thank you

▶ 58:03 Peter D. Mortimer: very much alderman inferno alderman MacMaster

▶ 58:08 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Margolis please thank you thank you mr. chairman I think she really worries about not getting her poll book every year so she can call them on their birthday anyways the question I have is that thank you for coming and putting this before us I think it's probably long overdue the I've heard something about the way the ballot is when you put the ballot in from these machines is it processed differently is it scanned is it slower it is a little slower yeah but that's because it is scanning it now that's the new technology would it matter only during probably a presidential election it may slow things down a smidge but if we have early voting then this year it was so much easier on Election Day right but you would be scanning if we do early voting again it would be scanned in the office you would scan them later we would do it differently because we brought them to the poll each of the individual polling places and we didn't realize how many we would have I would set up a centralized tabulation and do it in my office and then combine the two in any case people would not be waiting if they voted early but if they were to vote at the polls it they might in a presidential or a big election they might expect a little bit um slower but do you do they have a better record of uh record i mean a better history of recording the correct information well they've always recorded correct there's never been an issue with the machines um anything else yeah it would be human error before it would be the machine so no there's no and did i understand you correctly that we might test some of these poll pads out the state is looking into it and she thought if she lhs said if they can get approval they would like to put us as one of the test sites like they did they had reading do the machines and they got to use them for free and they just set them up to test and show the state how they work right great well i'm sure you'll

▶ 1:00:09 Peter D. Mortimer: let us know on that it sounds kind of fun thank you thank you alderman mcintyre margolis i've Seeing no further aldermen wishing to be heard, there has been a motion to recommend this order for passage made by Alderman Zwirko and duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this order will be recommended to the full board for passage. Ladies, why don't you stay right there. The next order concerns you as well. And it is order 2018-9 pursuant to mass general laws chapter 54 section 34 use of voting machines by cities and towns. The city of Melrose hereby discontinues the use of AccuVote voting machines and adopts the use of the image cast precinct tabulator commencing at the November 7th, 2017 local municipal election. Please proceed ladies. So we're going to have a motion first.