Mhm. >> Good morning. I call to order the meeting of the Philadelphia City Commissioners Return Board for Wednesday, May 27th, 2026. This meeting is in compliance with the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.
The Philadelphia City Commissioners are 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 commissioners set and enforce departmental policies to administer voter registration, they conduct elections in accordance with federal and state voter registration and election laws. The city [clears throat] commissioners were created by the Pennsylvania
Assembly in 1711 with a focus on taxation and held various regulatory powers throughout the centuries. The commissioners started maintaining voter lists in 1799 and took on more election-related responsibilities but didn't emerge into its current form
until the adoption of Philadelphia's home rule 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 and that they are Philadelphia taxpayers.
Public comment is not an opportunity for dialogue or Q&A. It is public comment, a chance for you to talk what you think. Each speaker will have 2 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. Outbursts will not be tolerated. Anyone wishing to offer public comment, please step forward. Hearing none, we will now proceed to email public comment. Secretary Bluestein, were there any email public
comments? As of 9:45 a.m., there were no email public comments. Thank you. We will now proceed to old business, but first, we have a report from our directors of election operations and administration, Mr. Joseph Lynch and Mr.
Mark Johnson. Joe, we'll start off with you. Yes, morning, commissioners. We'll make this short but sweet. Today's operation report, all mail-in ballots that could be opened have been have been and the rest that are going to be voted on today will be opened by end of business today and
scanned. All provisionals that can be counted are open and scanned except for the number of the ones that need to go in front of the board, which will be this upcoming Friday. Uh the rest of the staff, they're working on the audit of the number two books. They're still cracking open the
hoppers, and they're working on um the surrender mail-in ballots. They're going to start working on them and entering them into the system. And then at the end of the meeting, I have the unofficial results. Um We had the We had to send the unofficial
results to the Department of State last night by 5:00 p.m., so I signed off as the clerk. And then if I could just get all three commissioners to sign this today, we'll send this up. We'll send this after the meeting to Harrisburg. It's the unofficial results.
And that's all I have. Thank you, Joe. Um Vice Chair Adili, did you have any questions or comments? I have none. Thank you. Secretary Mustafa? I have none. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Appreciate it, Mark.
Good morning, Commissioners. Um this is even going to be shorter, but um admin staff continue to provide direct assistance and um material support to our election operations as we move towards certification. Um I think um from our financial standpoint, as we move towards the end of the fiscal year,
we're just making sure that our vendors are um providing their last invoices for this past election so we can pay them in a timely manner. And outside of that, just once again, I want to thank the staff for the fine job that they're doing throughout this whole election process.
Thank you. Thank you. Vice Chair Adili, did you have any uh questions or comments? I have none. Thank you. Secretary Mustafa, do you have any questions? I have none. Thank you. Well, thank you. Um appreciate y'all as always. We will now proceed to new business.
We will begin by considering the first agenda item under new business, mail-in ballot sufficiency determinations, we'll call up our Deputy Executive Director of Compliance and vote-by-mail. Good [clears throat] morning, Commissioners. Hey, good morning.
Good morning, Dana. Can you say your first and last name for the record, please? >> Sure, Dana Eckroad. Dana, D A N A. Eckroad, E C K R O A D A. Thank you, Dana. Please proceed. >> So, the 2026 primary mail-in ballot
sufficiency determinations, um category number one, no signature. We have 291 ballots. Thank you. I move that this board does not count ballots in this category. Is there a second? Second.
Secretary Bluestein, please call the roll. Vice Chair Daley. I vote aye. I vote aye, Chairman Sabir. Aye. Please proceed. Number two, ballots not enclosed in secrecy envelope. We have 133 ballots.
I move that this board does not count ballots in this category. Is there a second? Mr. Chairman, if I may remark Remark on the motion. Please proceed. I believe that the same arguments that were successful in recent court cases would apply to the so-called quote 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. >> [snorts] >> But this 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. Uh Secretary Bluestein, do you have anything you want to say before we proceed to vote? Um yes, thank you Chairman. I would just say that I agree with Commissioner Deely's sentiments, but unfortunately I believe we are bound by law to not count
the ballots. So as such I will second your motion. Thank you. Please call the roll. Vice Chair Deely. No. I vote aye. Chairman Samir. Aye. Please proceed. Number three, ID verification, no social
security or driver's license on sure file. We have two ballots. I move that this Mr. Chairman. Can I put the motion in? First? No, can I ask Dana a question first? >> You want to ask Dana a question first before we even put the motion in? Yeah. Sure, go ahead.
Proceed. Dana, these voters um received our ID verification letters and they responded by filling out the form that we sent them or contacting us in some other way? Yes. So these voters, it would be impossible to verify using the form. They would
have to send us a copy of their photo ID. Yeah, it all depends. We need them to send back verifiable um ID, so it could be rejected for a number of reasons. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Chairman. Sure.
Secretary, anything you want to say? Um so I would just like to ask Dana uh if the voters in this category are at least 65 years or older. Yes, they are. Both voters are? Yes. Thank you. I move that this board counts the
ballots in this category. Is there a second? Second. Secretary Bluestein, please call the roll. Vice Chair Daley. I. I vote I. Chairman Suber. I. Please proceed. Number four, ID verification, ID
provided opposite of what is on shore file. We have three ballots. Does any commissioner want to ask Dana a question or make a comment? Yes, thank you. These voters received our ID verification letters and they responded by filling out the form
that we sent them or contacting us in another way. Yes. And they provided the opposite of what we needed? Yes. Thank you. Secretary Bluestein. Uh thank you, Chairman. I have the same question for Dana. Are the vote three voters in this category uh at least 65
years old or or older? Yes, all three voters. >> Okay, thank you. I move that this board counts the ballots in this category. Is there a second? Second. Secretary Bluestein, please call the roll. Vice Chair Daley. I.
I vote I. Chairman Suber. I. Please proceed. Number five, ID verification, ID doesn't match shore file. We have three ballots. Uh does any commissioner want to make a comment? Or question? No.
No, thank you. No, thank you. I move that this board does not count ballots in this category. Is there a second? Second. Secretary Bluestein, please call the roll. Vice Chair Daley. I. I vote I. Chairman Suber. I. Please proceed.
Number six, ID verification, no response. We have 101 ballots. Does any commissioner want to make a comment on this? I have none, thank you. >> No, thank you. I move that this board does not count ballots in this category. Is there a second? Second.
Secretary Bluestein, please call the roll. Vice Chair Daley. I. I vote I. Chairman Zabier. I. Thank you so much. That brings us to the end of our mail sufficiency determinations. Thank you so much for all of your hard work this election day. We appreciate
you. We will now move to any additional comments by the commissioners. Vice Chair Daley, 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 at this meeting? I have none, thank you.
Thank you, commissioners. >> Mhm.