ORDER-2024-34 : A recommendation from the Board of Registrars of Voters and request that the honorable City Council authorize early voting for the June municipal election.

Transcript (~6 min @ 1:28:48)

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▶ 1:28:48 Robb Stewart: Madam President, I'll make a motion for to have immediate consideration to for order 2024 dash 34.

▶ 1:28:57 Speaker 2: Objection. No second is needed for immediate consideration.

▶ 1:29:00 Leila Migliorelli: Um, do we have to take a roll call? Vote no. Okay. All right. Seeing no objection to immediate consideration, the order is now before us, um, if we want to hear from the Board of Registrars, I will entertain a motion to suspend Rule 37 B.

▶ 1:29:17 Robb Stewart: Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to suspend Rule 37 B. Second Madam President

▶ 1:29:22 Leila Migliorelli: Mo. Motion to suspend Rule 37 B made by Councillor Stewart. Seconded by Councilor Romanul. Uh, Madam Clerk

▶ 1:29:28 Speaker 3: Councilor Firo? Yes. Councilor Repe? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Ramine. Yes. Council Karen Trady? Yes. Council Reky? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Council Vandiver? Yes. Councillor Williams? Yes. President Elli? Yes. That's 11.

▶ 1:29:44 Leila Migliorelli: The rule 37 B is now suspended. Um, so just to clarify this order, if it's not intuitive, is to, um, for, is related to the two other orders on our agenda tonight. This is specifically about the early voting, voting, um, option for this election. So, um, mad Clerk or members of the Board of registrars, if you would like to be, um, at the table.

▶ 1:30:11 Speaker 2: Well, We Counsel that. Yeah.

▶ 1:30:30 Speaker 2: Good evening. Evening, Frank. Right.

▶ 1:30:31 Speaker 3: Those of you who don't know Frank. Right. You all know Frank. Right. Richard Alvis, chair of the voter registrars.

▶ 1:30:38 Leila Migliorelli: Good evening. Um, if you just wanted to maybe state that the order, the recommendation, um, for the council and the public,

▶ 1:30:44 Speaker 3: You should have my memo on file and the minutes from the on the order. Mm-Hmm.

▶ 1:30:51 Speaker 2: Yes. So the, the board unanimously voted to have a single day of early voting on June 8th. Okay. Thank you. Any questions from the council?

▶ 1:31:05 Speaker 2: If not, uh, councilor fa. June 8th. June 8th or June 8th. Early voting on June 8th. Yes. Early voting. Okay. Early in-person voting. Okay.

▶ 1:31:14 Speaker 3: June 8th, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM the same day as the day of registration,

▶ 1:31:19 Speaker 7: Which is a Saturday.

▶ 1:31:23 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. Yep. Saturday. Okay. Counselor. Um, Jamal Ledine.

▶ 1:31:27 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. So, uh, we have June 8th, uh, which is a Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM 5:00 PM right here in the city council chamber for early voting in person. Okay. And, uh, do we have, um, do we know how many,

▶ 1:31:44 Speaker 3: uh, um, volunteers we will need? We have all the, uh, personnel that they will need to be during that day? Or Does so early person, early in person voting here in City Council Chamber, just like, uh, early in-person voting for the March presidential primary, the last five elections we've had right here in City Council chamber, we have personnel, part-time personnel, like we've had in March, the person used to sit right here. We've, the chairs you're sitting in have the white Mm-Hmm. Privacy screens. People come in, they check in, get their ballot, fill out the thing. Perfect. Pass it in. And, And do we have all the entrance open, open mm-Hmm. For them, even the handicap accessible so that people will be able to use everywhere, not one entrance. Right, right. The entire building's open. There are white, um, sandwich boards around the entire building. It's the same day that the state requires us to have last day registration. So we're open anyways for people to come in and register to vote. And, um, did we, and that is totally my memory now. Uh, do we always do one day only early voting? Or have we done more than one day early voting Completely depends on the election. Okay. There's a, there's been a varied amount for state and, um, for state elections, we are required to do a certain amount of voting based on population of our voting. So I don't have the chart in front of me, it's not a state or, um, a federal election. So state and federal elections, the state requires certain mandated timeframes, either one week or two weeks, depending on the state election or presidential primary, uh, presidential election. And from your experience, is there any reason why we chose only one day rather than

▶ 1:33:36 Maya Jamaleddine: two days to give more options?

▶ 1:33:39 Speaker 3: Is there, from my experience, is there only

▶ 1:33:41 Speaker 2: Our experience is that actually turned out, tends to be rather low on these days. So it's, it's an efficiency thing as much as anything else. The Saturday is a convenient day. Um, people as, as, as, uh, our city clerk said the building has to be open anyway. There have to be people in the building anyway. And it, it just seemed the best way to do it. We do offer as well, you know, early voting by mail, absentee voting, and of course, day of election voting. So there are a lot of options for people. Okay. People do like the early, early in-person voting, but we have not seen a great turnout for it. So it didn't seem efficient to have more. Okay.

▶ 1:34:19 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. Got it. Thank you. Councilor Williams?

▶ 1:34:22 Speaker 2: Did I see your hand raised? You did, but I'm good.

▶ 1:34:28 Speaker 2: Thank you. Um, any other questions from counselors? If not, what is the will of the council?

▶ 1:34:36 Speaker 6: Madam President, I'll make a motion to recommend second motion

▶ 1:34:38 Leila Migliorelli: to recommend made by Councillor Stewart. Second by Counselor Carrum Jie. Mr. Clerk, would you please call the role

▶ 1:34:50 Speaker 3: Councillor Williams? Yes. Councillor Repe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Chetty? Yes. Councillor Cremsky. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Finocchiaro.