Did you ask can you see person? Did you ask can you see person? No, no, no. You access the >> P. Good morning. Call to order the meeting of the Philadelphia City Commissioners Board of
Elections for Wednesday, May 13th. This meeting is in compliance with the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act. The Philadelphia City Commissioners are a three member bipartisan board of elected officials in charge of elections and voter registration for the city of
Philadelphia. Each commissioner is elected to serve a four-year term that coincides with the municipal election cycle for mayor and city council. The commissioner set and enforce departmental policies to administer voter registration and
conduct elections in accordance with federal and state voter registration election laws. The city commissioners were created by the Pennsylvania assembly in 1711, but they focus on taxation and held various regulatory powers throughout the century.
The commissioners started maintaining border list in 1799 and took on more election related responsibilities but didn't emerge until its current form until the adoption of Philadelphia home charter in 1951. We will start off with public comments
before beginning their comments. Commenters shall state where they live or if they are not a resident of Philadelphia and that they are a Philadelphia taxpayer. Public comment is not an opportunity for dialogue or Q&A. It is public comment a chance for you to
tell us what you think. Each speaker will have two minutes to speak. However, I may extend the time at my discretion. Public comment must concern matters on today's meeting agenda. Finally, it is my responsibility to preserve the order
and decorum of the meetings. As such, profane, slanderous, discriminatory, or personal attacks will not be tolerated. If you wish to make public objection to a perceived Sunshine Act violation, please raise your hand and I will recognize you. Outbursts will not be
tolerated. Anyone wishing to author public comment, please step forward. Hearing none, we will now move to a report from secretary for the email public comments. Commissioner Bluestein, are there any email public comments?
>> As of 9:45 a.m., there were no email public comments. Thank you very much. Uh before we proceed to old business, uh the board held an executive session on Wednesday, May the 6, 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
to discuss a personnel matter. We will now proceed to old business. First, we have a report from our directors of election of operation and administration, Mr. Joseph Lynch and Mark Johnson. However, Mark Johnson is not here and
Mr. Joseph Lynch will be reading both reports. Good morning, Joe. >> Morning. Morning, commissioners. This is our public meeting update for May 13, 2026. At the election warehouse, all units have been making their final preparation for next week's primary election. The
voting machine service unit has been shipping machines to polling locations. The e pole book unit has finished testing. E pole books will be packed tomorrow, May 14th, and shipped to pickup locations on Friday, May 15th.
The election materials can start being picked up by board workers on Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on Monday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. As of today, our voter registration unit has processed 139 33,955
voter registration applications. 24,050 were paper and 109,95 were electronic. All applications are up to date and are being reviewed. The unit sent out 27,386
voter ID cards yesterday. As of yesterday, the county board of elections approved 85,82 vote by mail applications, which is 3,54 added from last week's total. Of those 45,974
are paper applications and 39,828 are electronic applications. This includes civilian overseas, military and federal voters. All processing is currently up to date. We mailed out 86,344
votebymail ballots and have received back 44,953 ballots so far, which includes replacement ballots. The deadline to apply for a mail mailin ballot was yesterday, May 12th. Voters can still request a replacement ballot
until election day, Tuesday, May 19th. If an emergency comes up, you may submit an emergency absentee application to the county board of elections office. To receive an emergency absentee ballot, you must provide a valid emergency
reason on your application. Voters who are over 65 or living with a permanent disability may also obtain an emergency alternative ballot if their polling place is not fully handicap accessible. and they just learned that there that after the application
deadline yesterday, the county board election office will remain open until open until election day. Office hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p p.m. Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 400 pm on Saturday and Sunday.
And on election day, they will be open 7 am to 8:00 pm. ID verification letters have gone out to voters that either did not include the required proof of identification on their absentee/mail and ballot application or their proof of
identification could not be verified by the county board of elections office. Voters who have received this letter may submit their proof of ID to the county board of elections via email at phillyelectionsfill.gov. gov fax, US mail, telephone, or in
person. Voters have until midnight on Tuesday, May 26 to return their proof of identification for the general and primary and special election. The board workers unit is finishing up our spring spring training seminars,
which which 4,161 in-person participants and 1,394 online participants so far. Both the online training and the in-person spring training seminar schedules are available on our website
at vote.fill.gov. Reminders have been sent to those who have not yet attended the training sessions. Currently, 8,101 poll workers have been confirmed for our polling locations. 125, excuse me, 120 confirmation
messages have been sent to pole workers. Also 661 applications have been received for our involved at 17 program of which 471 have been processed and trained. Satellite election officers are
currently assisting the public. Offices are open Monday through Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and on Saturday and Sunday 10 10:00 am to 4 pm. The hours on election day will be 7 am to 8:00 p.m. In closing, I would like to thank the entire department for their dedication
and grit in putting this election together and I and I thank all the commissioners for their assistance too. So thank you and that's all I have. >> Thank you Joe. What I should do is you have any questions or comments for Joe? >> Yeah, I thank you. I do, Joe. Um, the
the 27,386 voter ID cards that were mailed out yesterday. >> Yes. >> Were they the cards as well that went out to the people who saw a change in their polling place? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> No more questions. Thank you. >> Secretary Bluestein,
>> I have not. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> We can go to Mark's report. >> Okay. I have Marsh report um for the week of May 13, 2026. Good morning, commissioners. As we enter the final stretch leading into election day,
departments across the office continue focusing on election readiness, voter education, operational coordination, and maintaining secure and accessible election services for the Philadelphia voters. Human Resources continues
working workforce planning and training coordination efforts in partnership with the new training and development officer to ensure departmental compliance and operational readiness. As of May 8th, 2026, office staffing
remains at 196 employees, including 30 exempt employees, 166 civil service employees, and 21 temporary employees supporting primary election operations. Communications this week focused heavily
on voter education efforts efforts. Messaging related to the deadlines, satellite election offices, and inerson mail in-person mail voting generated strong public engagement across social media platforms. Additional work include
included election day operational materials, media credentials coordination, citywide employee communications, and installation of permanent weather approved election signage at city hall. Press and media credentials requests for election day
warehouse access are now being processed on a rolling basis. Voter engagement and language access efforts continue across the city through outreach events at libraries, community organizations, senior centers, and
public events. staff continue assisting voters with registration guidance, voting machine demonstrations, poll worker recruitment, multilingual multilingual election materials, and voter resource distributions throughout Philadelphia
communities. From a budget and finance perspective perspective department the department continues coordinating op operational resources procurement activities and election retreat related expenditures to ensure all operational and staffing
needs remain supported through election day. Security operations remain fully engaged and coordinated. The final election security support meeting with our law enforcement and public safety partners is scheduled for Thursday, May 14th at 2026.
At this time, all planned election security measures and operational support initiatives have been implemented to support a safe and secure election process citywide. Overall, departments continue working collaboratively to ensure a secure,
transparent, and accessible election for voters in Philadelphia. Thank you. >> Thank you, Joe. Vice Chair Dilly, do you have any uh guess comments about Mark's report? >> I have none. Thank you.
>> Secretary Bluestein, >> I have none. Thank you. >> Thank you. Again, I'd like to thank uh you Joe and Mark definitely definitely working very well together and just the organizational structure. How many lectures did you do, Joe?
>> I mean, how many would this be? uh while it would be 60 and then not counting the uh not counting the uh specials in between. >> Thanks, man. I appreciate you, Jim. >> All right. Yep. >> Thank you. >> We will now proceed to new business. We
will begin by considering our first agenda item, a motion to authorize professional staff to establish mobile Dropbox locations, events. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Secretary Bluestein, please call the role.
Vice Chair Dey >> I >> I vote I chairman Seir >> I motion passes. We will now move to the next agenda item. Our motion to deputize and authorize the
Philadelphia Board of Election staff to prepare for and conduct the pre-Canvas and campus of the absentee and melon ballots for the 2026 primary election. Is there a second? Second. >> Does anyone have any comments?
Okay. Secretary Bluestein, please call the role. >> Vice Chair Dilly. >> I. >> I vote I. Chairman Seabir. >> I. Motion passes. We will move to the next agenda item. A motion to hire Kalia Baker for the communications director position. Is
there a second? >> Second. >> Anyone have any comments? Hear none. Secretary Bluestein, please call the role. >> Vice Chair Dilly. >> Abstain. >> I vote I. Chairman Seabir. >> I. Motion passes.
That was our last agenda. That was our last item on the agenda before we adjourn. Commissioner Daly, do you have any other business to be raised at this meeting? >> I have none. Thank you. >> Secretary Bluestein, do you have any other business to be raised this meeting? >> I have none. Thank you. >> Thank you, commissioners. Hearing no or
other business, I motion to adjourn today's meeting. Is there a second? >> Secretary Blueststein, please call a rule. >> Vice Chair De >> I. >> I vote I. Chairman Seir, >> I. Submitting is a journ.