the visual speaker. Good morning. Call to order the meeting of the Philadelphia City Commissioners Return Board for Wednesday, November the 12th. 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 4-year term that coincides with the municipal election
cycle for mayor and city council. The commissioner set and enforced departmental policies to administer voter registration and conduct elections in accordance with federal and state voter registration election laws. City commissioners were created by the Pennsylvania assembly 1711 with a focus
on taxation and held various regulatory powers throughout the centuries. The commissioner started maintaining voter list in 1799 and took on more election related responsibilities but didn't emerge into a current form until the adoption of Philadelphia home charter in 1951.
We will start off with public comments before beginning their comments. Commenters will state where they live or if they are not a resident of Philadelphia that they are 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 a public objection to a perceived Sunshine Act violation, please raise your hand and I will recognize you. Outburst will not be
tolerated. Anyone wishing to offer public comment, please step forward. Seeing no public commenters, we will now move to report from Secretary Seth Bluestein. Are there any email public comments? >> As of 9:45 a.m., there were no email
public comments. >> Thank you, Secretary. We will now proceed to old business. First, we have a report from our directors of election operation and administration, Mr. Joe Lynch and Mark Johnson. Joe, we'll start with you. >> Yes. Good morning, commissioners.
>> Morning. >> Uh we're doing good. We have everything uh pretty much we're going. We're on a good time frame. Uh we scanned over 2400 uh provisional ballots yesterday. We're up to we're up to a date on the
adjudication. We're working on writeins now. Um this weekend or the end of the week, we'll start the 2% audit. Um we still have to finish scan. Uh Kevin's still working on uh the rest of the provisionals. He still has to work on
the partials. We already did some scans on those. Um but we're doing pretty good. We're we're ahead of the game. And then I have this weekend I'll also do uh all the mail and balance that were surrendered. We'll enter them into the shore system, too. So, we probably have
right now I think they're up to like 1500 of those. So, and that's it. And uh what I want to do is I want to get one prop to room 140 and 142 because I didn't mention them last week in a report and I was uh getting things
thrown at me when I came out of the meeting. So, my apologies to that staff. Thank you. >> Thank you, Joe. Vice Chad, do you have any questions or comments? >> I have none. Thank you. >> Secretary Bluestein, you have any questions or comments? >> I have not. Thank you.
>> Okay. I just want to echo your sentence. We definitely thank good folks at 140 and 142. Uh please proceed, Mark. >> Good morning, commissioners. >> Good morning. Um, as we are moving closer to our certification and going
over how we did, I believe everything went smoothly. Thanks to Joe and his and his operational team. Um, and again, I'd like to thank our staff and partners for their hard work. Right now, we're just focusing on post election operations, um, and supporting certification,
um, equipment retrieval, and putting things back the way they were to prepare for the next election. and um gearing up towards the next election cycle. I think we're going to have it a after action um which we'll go over and talk to all the teams and see how we did, what we did right, what we didn't wrong. If there
are any gaps, we try to fill them and we'll report back to the board according with what we find. So that's it. >> Thank you, Mark. Uh Vice Chair Dilly, did you have any questions or comments? >> Thank you. I have none. >> Secretary Bluestein, >> I have none. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mark. This completes our old business for today's meeting. We will now proceed to new business. We will begin by considering the first agenda item under new business, the male violence sufficiency determinations. We will call up deputy executive director of
compliance and vote by mail. Good morning, Dana. Can you state your name for the record, please? >> Dana Ecro, D A N A ERO E C K R O A D E.
>> Okay. Can you please read the first category and number of votes? >> Yes. One moment. So for the mail and ballot sufficiency number one signed front I have 66 ballots.
>> Okay. Was you using the camera? Would you put up on the screen? So, these are the voters that signed the front of the return label but didn't sign the front of the declaration. We have 66 ballots.
>> Okay. I move that this board counts the ballots in this category. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any commissioners have any comments? Hearing none. Uh, Secretary Blues team, please call a role.
>> Vice Chair Dey, >> I vote I. >> I vote I. Chairman Sabir, >> I. >> Please proceed. >> Category number two, I uh I'm removing from the list signed front pendant ID. It was that was the reminder for me to
um give them to the deadline for the ID verification. So, I added that to number eight. Okay. So, we're going to go to number three. No signature. We have 7 44 ballots. >> Okay. I move that this board does not
count ballots in this category. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Does any commissioners have any comments before we proceed to vote? >> Secretary Bluestein, please call the role. >> Vice Chair Dey, >> I vote I.
>> I vote I. Chairman Spir >> I. Please proceed. Ballots not enclosed in secrecy envelope. We have 318 ballots. >> I move that this board does not count ballots in this category. Is there a second?
>> Second. Does any commissioners have any comments before we vote? >> Yes, chairman. >> Please proceed. I believe that the same arguments that were successful in the EANS case, which requires PA counties to count the misdated and undated ballots, as well as
the Baxter case, which is currently before the Supreme Court, would apply to the so-called naked ballots as well. The secrecy envelope does not determine the timeliness of when a ballot is received. The secrecy envelope does not determine
if a voter is eligible to vote. Finally, when absentee ballots used to be counted in the polling places and there was only a handful of them, they served to prevent fraud. But that is no longer the case in a post Act 77 world with the central mechanized counting of mail
ballots. So there is no longer a compelling government interest to not count these ballots. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else want to make a comment? Uh yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would
just add that I agree in principle that these ballots should be allowed to be counted, but I don't believe the law as it currently stands allows us to. Thank you. >> Thank you. And echo sentiments of u my colleagues. Secretary Bluestein, please call the
role. >> Vice Chair Dey, >> no. >> I vote I. Chairman Spear, >> I please proceed. ID verification. No social security or driver's license on shore file. We have
seven. >> I move that this >> Excuse me. May I ask a question to Dana prior to the motion, please? >> Prior to the motion. Sure. >> Yeah. I have a question on this category. >> Sure. >> Um Dana, these voters received our ID
verification letters and they responded by filling out the form that we sent them or contacting us in some other way. Correct. Yes. >> So these voters, it would be impossible to verify using the form. They would have to send us a copy of their voter ID, right?
>> It all depends. So what they're sending back on the form isn't passing. So it could be numerous um reasons why. There could be their ID that they're provided is expired. It all depends. We just need them to send back verifiable
ID. >> Thank you for the clarification. You're welcome. >> I move that this board counts the ballots in this category. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any commissioners have any comments before we vote?
>> Uh, yes, Mr. Chairman. I have a question for Dana. >> Please proceed. >> Um, Dana, have you verified the ages of these seven individuals? >> Yes, I have. >> Are all of the seven individuals over the age of 65? >> No.
Okay, thank you. >> Okay, please proceed. Call RO Secretary. >> Vice Chair Dy >> I. >> I vote nay. Chairman Samir >> I. Please proceed.
>> ID verification ID provided opposite of what is on short file. >> Mr. Chairman, I have a question for Dana. >> Sure. The motion. Sure. These voters received our ID verification letters and they responded by filling out the form that we sent
them or contacting us in some other way. Correct. >> Yes. And they provided the opposite of what we asked for or what we needed. Correct. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> I move that this board counts ballots in this category. Is
there a second? >> Second. Are there any commissioners that have any comments before we vote? >> Yes, Mr. Chairman, if I may. >> Please proceed. >> Dana, how many ballots were there in this category? >> 11. >> And of these 11 voters, have you verified the ages?
>> Yes. >> And are they all over the age of 65? >> No. >> Okay. Uh because I do believe as the law currently states that we can only count ballots for individuals who have not provided verifiable ID if they are 65 or older. Uh, so I do have concerns about
this category, but thank you. >> Secretary Bluestein, please call a rule. >> Vice Chair Dey, >> I >> I vote nay. Chairman Samir, >> I please proceed. >> ID verification ID doesn't match. Shore
file. >> Okay, >> we have nine. I move that this board does not count ballots in this category. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any commissioners like to make a comment before we vote?
Hear none. Secretary Bluestein, please call the rule. >> Vice Chair Dey >> I. >> I vote I. Chairman Seir >> I. Please proceed. >> ID verification. No response. 52.
>> I move that this board does not count ballots in this category. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any commissioners have any comment before proceed to vote? >> There are no comments. Secretary Bluestein, please call the role. >> Vice Chair Dey >> I.
>> I vote I. Chairman Seabir. >> I. >> Thank you, Dana. >> Thank you, commissioners. appreciate you. That brings us to the end of our mail ballot sufficient ter terminations and thank you again for all your hard work this election day. I really
appreciate you. We will now move to any additional comments by commissioners. Vice Chair Diller, do you have any other business to be ready this meeting? >> I do not. Thank you. >> Secretary Bluestein, do you have any other business to read this meeting? >> I do not. Thank you.
>> Thank you, commissioners. Sure. Okay. I guess we are signing this unofficial, right?