with a focus on taxation and held various regulatory powers throughout the centuries. The commissioner started maintaining border list 1799 and took on more election related responsibilities but didn't emerge in its current form till 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 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, 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 comments, please step forward. Hearing none, we will now proceed to email comments report from our secretary, Commissioner Seth Bluestein. Are there any email public comments?
>> As of 9:45 a.m., there were no email public comments. >> Thank you very much. We will now proceed to old business. First, we have a report from our director of election operations, Mr. Joseph Lynch, and he's going to be also doing the report for
Mark Johnson. Thank you. >> Yes. Good morning, commissioners. >> Morning. >> I'll start with with Mark's report. Um his budget and procurement. The team to the team continues to manage daily fiscal operations including vendor
coordination and timely proceedings, processing of election related invoices. Expenditures and staffing costs are being closely monitored to ensure appropriate resource allocations through the close of the election cycle. Communications. Communications remain
active in public facing outreach and internal coordination. Highlights this week include daily voter education messaging on social platforms, updates to printed materials for polling places, not notices, and public events, website
content updates, and ongoing collaboration with media partners on radio, digital advertising, and PSA production. The team also supported planning for recent and upcoming press conferences. Engagement. Engagement continued
citywide voter outreach through events at libraries, community organizations, cultural gatherings, and senior centers. These efforts include distribute distributing informationational materials, demonstrating voting machines, and providing language access
support. The team also participated in community cultural programming as part of continued mult multi-ingual multilingual voter engagements. Human resources. As of October 24th, our total workforce stands at 207 employees,
including 31 exempt, 176 civil service, and 28 temporary staff supporting general election operations. HR continues staff staffing coordination, orientations, and personnel support and is preparing for
open enrollment while managing ADA and FMLA re request and ongoing employee relations information technology. The IT unit continues to ensure operational readiness of election support systems,
including poll worker communication devices and technology required for election day coordination. The team is also working on internal partners to ensure polling place data is accurately documented and verified.
Security security operations continue in coordination with the Philadelphia Police Department, OEM, and contracted security partners. Facility readiness checks, panic alarm validations, and deployment planning are on schedule with
continued focus on supporting staff and securing election sites. Closing. As we as we approach election day, our team continues to demonstrate professionalism and focus under high operational tempo. I want to thank our
Mark wants to thank our staff, our partners, and this board for your continued leadership and support. Thank you. That includes that report for administrative. >> Thank you. One second. >> Commissioner, did you have any comments?
>> I have not. Thank you. Please proceed. >> Okay. So, I'll go with my report. This is our public meeting report for October 29th, 2025. At the election warehouse, we have we have been shipping machines out to the polling places. The e- pole book unit conducted validation and functional
testing for each EPB e- pole books and white boxes will be packed by tomorrow so they could be shipped to the police district by October 31st. To date the election cycle, Dem Delaware and Spring Garden has processed 127,343
voter registration applications, including 121,593 electronic and 5,750 paper submissions. All applications are currently up to date. The unit the unit continues to
review applications and make any necessary updates. and on Monday mailed out 29,146 voter ID cards. 4,376 emergency ID cards are going out today due to the poll in place changes.
As of Tuesday, we have approved 108,275 vote by mail and absentee applications, which is 8,525 added from last week's total. Of those 58,912 are paper applications and 49,363
are electronic. A total of 1058 105,87 ballots have been sent out. So far, we received 49,663 ballots through the USPS and 7,281
through dropboxes for a total of 56,944 valid ballots. This total does not include the UAV ballots. The deadline to apply for mail and ballot was Monday, October 28th, but but voters who have
already applied and need replacements can still get one through election day, Tuesday, November 4th. If an emergency comes up, voters can submit an emergency absentee ballot application to the county board of elections office as long as they provide a valid emergency
reason. Voters who are 65 or older or who have a permanent disability may also request an alternative ballot if their polling place isn't fully accessible. The county the county also requests an al let me see the county also requests
an alternative ballot if their polling place isn't fully accessible. The county board of elections office located at city city city hall room 140 remains open for in-person mail ballot services through the election through election day. The office is open Monday through
Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p p.m. on weekends 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and on election day from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Satellite offices and and secure dropboxes across the city also are also available during these hours. More
information, including office locations, can be found at vote.fill.gov. ID verification letters have gone out to voters that either did not include the required proof of identification on their absentee/mail and ballot applications or their proof of
identification cannot 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 phyelection fill.gov by fax, by US mail, by telephone, or in
person. Voters have until midnight November 10th to return their proof of identification for the municipal election. The bore workers unit is wrapping up its fall training seminars with 3,742
participants already in attendance. Last week alone, 1423 bore workers completed online training, which remains available on our webs on our website for anyone who still needs it. We're continuing to send reminders to poll workers who
haven't yet who haven't yet confirmed their attendance. So far, 7,144 pole workers have been confirmed, which is 82% and messages have been left for 380 more. Thanks for the involved 17
program, 255 students have been placed so far. Not bad. Okay. Well, I wasn't given that number. >> All right. So, it's more than 500 according to Megan. That's all I have. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Joe. Um, commissioners, did you have any comments for general questions? >> I do. Thank you, chairman. Joe, just to clarify, in your uh report, you mentioned the satellite election offices and secure dropboxes across the city are
also available during these hours. Um, just to clarify, the secure dropboxes are open uh 24/7 until 8:00 p.m. on election day. >> Yeah, I I stopped that. Sorry. Thanks for pointing it out. Thank you. >> And just one more thing, just for the
record. Um, the individuals that are their polling place has changed with the exception of the emergencies have received a postcard. The you're talking about the one down in uh the eighth and the fifth ward. The one
>> not the all the polling place changes that we've done those folks they've gotten a postcard an ID card saying >> the polling place changes got a card from Yes. Yes, they did. >> Thank you. >> Nothing further.
secretary. >> Well, I just make a comment, I guess, and u maybe something we can figure this out. And I know every election cycle there are thousands of Philadelphiaians who don't return their ballots and they don't vote person.
Just seems like it's just we're leaving votes on the table. So, I don't know. Maybe something we could do maybe this election cycle. maybe reaching out to those orders maybe haven't returned their ballots or we can form together a coalition or something to maybe communicate with them to tell them
encourage them to return their balance possible. Thank you, Joe. 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 location events. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any commissioners have any comments for proceed to vote? >> I have none. >> I have none. >> Secretary Bluestein, please call a role. >> Vice Chair Dey >> I. >> I vote I. Chairman Spear
>> I. Motion passes. We now proceed to the next agenda item. A motion to approve the 2025 general election ballot canvas procedures. Is there a second? >> Second.
>> Any commissioners want to make comment? >> I have none. >> I have no. >> Please. Secretary Blstein, please call the role. >> Vice Chair Gilly. >> I >> vote I. Chairman Spear. >> I. We now proceed to the next agenda item.
A motion to approve the 2025 general absentee and mailin violent application challenge procedures. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any commissioners have any comments? >> I have none. >> I vote. >> Secretary Bluestein, please call a role. >> Vice Chair Dy
>> I. >> I vote I. Chairman Seir >> I. We will now proceed to the next agenda item. A motion to deputize and authorize the Philadelphia Board of Election Staff to prepare for and conduct the pre-Canvas and canvas of the
absentee and mail and balance for the 2025 general election. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Commissioner, do we have any comments? >> I have none. >> I have. >> Secretary Bluestein, please call the role. >> Vice Chair Dy >> I. >> I vote I. Chairman Seir
>> I. That was our last agenda item on the agenda before we adjourn. Uh, Commissioner Dylan, do you have any other business to be raised at this meeting? >> Yes, Mr. Chairman, if I may, I would like to take this time before we close out the month of October to recognize and acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness
Month. This year marks the 40th anniversary of breast cancer awareness month which was uh co-created by the American Cancer Society and it began in 19 when it began in 1985 it began as a week-long campaign to educate women
about the importance of screening. Uh today marks 40 years and also for me personally uh it marks another year that my mother remains uh a cancer survivor. So for everybody out there, just reminding people that you don't have to
just get screened in October. It's something that we should be thinking about all year round. And certainly not just for breast cancer, but for so many other uh cancers that can be defeated andor cured with self uh with
self-examination and pre-screening. Thank you, chairman. >> Thank you, uh, vice chair. And I definitely agree with that message. Secretary Bluestein, do you have anything you want to add? >> I do not. Thank you. >> Okay, before we close out, as always, I
definitely wanted to thank u all of our staff. Uh when I'm asked by media outlets across the world, and they they ask us how how do we give so much accessibility to the citizens of Philadelphia, uh simply tell them that we have the
best staff in the country and our p our Philadelphia election board staff against any staff in the country. We also would like to thank uh Mayor Charel Parker, Council President Kiata Johnson and city council,
all of our state partners, federal partners, and of course, um Arjie Powers from the Imagine Director's Office. We've been working so great to get everything together and we're looking forward to having a successful election and Let's do this.
Philadelphia, we got a few days left. Now is the time and our time is now. A motion to adjourn today's meeting. Is there a second? >> Secretary Bluestein, please call the role. >> Vice Chair Dilly >> I. >> I vote I. Chairman Samir
>> I. A jerk.