Good morning. >> Call to order the meeting of the Philadelphia City Commissioners Board of Election for Wednesday, February 11th, 2026. 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 focused on taxation and held various regulatory powers throughout the centuries. The commissioner started maintaining border list in 1799 and took on more election related responsibilities, but didn't emerge into
its current form until the adoption of Philadelphia Philadelphia's home charter in 1951. We will start off with public comment 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 and 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 move to report from secretary for 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. We will now proceed to old business. First, we have a report
from our directors of election operations and administration, Mr. Joseph Lynch and Mark Johnson. Joe, we'll start up with you. Morning, commissioners. >> Morning. >> This is our public meeting update for
February 11th, 2026. At the election warehouse, the voting machine service unit has been busy performing scheduled general maintenance on the XL's. The e polebook unit began testing the express bolt press vote printers. The election materials unit
has been working to ensure that the supplies needed for our poll workers are ordered, organized, and ready for packing. For our voter registration report for the election cycle to date, we have processed 58,352 voter registration applications, of
which 1550 are paper and 56,82 are electronic. This week we mailed out 10,544 ID cards. All applications are up to date. We are also training D Delaware
and Spring Garden and SEO personnel in petition challenges and voter registration refresher trainings. The county board of election is now accepting mail-in and absentee ballot applications. Voters on the annual mailin and absentee list started
receiving their annual application in the mail. Voters will need to complete and return their application to the county board of elections office to continue to automatically receive either a mailin or absentee ballot for each
election in 2026. Voters may apply online rather than returning their paper application at vote.fill.gov. As of yesterday, we have approved 14,134 vote by mail applications.
Of those, 306 are paper applications and 13,828 are electronic applications. This includes civilian overseas, military, and federal voters. We have started receiving back the annual mailin and
absentee applications, leaving us with a total of 8,382 applications waiting to be processed. Of those, 5,879 are paper applications and 253 are electronic applications.
Voters will need to complete and return their applications to the county board of elections office by 5:00 pm on May 12th to vote by mail for the primary election. Petitions for the upcoming general primary election are now available on our website at vote.fill.gov.
The county board of elections office at city hall room 142 and at our satellite election offices will be printing petition packetses packets for anyone who needs assistance. Any Democrat or Republican interested in running for
members of Ward executive committee committee person will need to complete and file their petitions with the county board of elections office room 142. Petitions cannot be circulated or filed until Tuesday, February 17th. The last
day to circulate and file nom nomination petitions is March 10th and the last day for candidates to withdraw is March 25th, 2026. for the poll and place unit. The poll place unit is actively finding locations
for refusals and conducting field work to secure proof of residence in coordination with the voter registration unit. It will also consistently monitor these sites in anticipation of the primary election. The board workers unit winter training
for our poll workers in January. The election board training seminar is posted on our website at vote.fill.gov. To date, 249 poll workers have registered for the training with 621
already attending. Training notifications were sent out via letters, emails, and text messages. Weekly reminders will go out to those who have not yet attended. The unit launched the involved at 17
applications and a new pole worker interest form in the working in the working the poll section of our website. We hope to recruit 250 new pole workers in February. Satellite election officers are currently processing online requests for
mailin ballots while also assisting the public with petition request. Offices are open Monday through Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Thank you. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Joe. Vice Chair Dylan, do you have any questions?
>> Thank you, Chairman. Yes, Joe. Just one question. Are we keeping a tracker on the 250? Do we know where we're at? >> Um, not as of yet. I I can find out from Megan. I'll find out. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Secretary Bstein, do you have any
questions for Jim? Five. Thank you. >> Thank you, Joe. >> Mark, want to proceed? >> Good morning, commissioners. >> Good morning. >> Um, over the last couple of uh months, we've been working hard on ensuring that we're preparing for the next election that's upcoming in May. engagement unit
which is has been primarily working on um translations and linguist linguistic services um um with different departments to make sure the information that goes out to the community is correct and u and appropriate. Um our communications department has been
working hard with it with all our other departments and including your offices to make sure that um we're um the community knows what dates are important. um information on the website is updated and that the commissioner's
office is constantly represented in the best possible light. Um from a security standpoint, we have been dealing with uh um there our security vendor for the city is up currently on the contract and uh we're waiting for that bid to close
so we can know exactly who we're going to be dealing with in the upcoming election. security is is a is a paramount thing for our organization and we're working on contingencies. Um if we do not have our regular vendor because of contractor contractual concerns. Um,
we're going to have to have some type of plan B to make sure that they understand what we do, how we go about doing it, because we're kind of unique in our role when it comes to election management and making sure that the vendor, even though the contract that goes out is is uh a
citywide contract. Our needs are real heavy for a fairly short period of time and not all contractors can deal with that without a support. So, we are aware of that and we're working diligently to address that. Um from an IT standpoint, the IT
department's been working with a lot of the other departments um to bring additional efficiencies in through um through IT management, creating new forms, working with um um our
investigation unit to help uh find a a really good way to identify and track our polling locations. Um working with uh the poleworker unit um potentially new software so that they can manage pull workers a little bit more efficiently and one to make sure that they can get paid quicker. That I know
that's a great concern for all your offices. Um and budget and finance. Um today we'll be dealing with the budget. So u we'll go through that when that time is appropriate. But we have been working hard to make sure that everyone's needs by talking with all the different departments um to ensure that
not only for this budget cycle coming up into election everyone's needs are met um um the money is in appropriate locations our vendors are being paid but to make sure that moving forward that we are flush and we are officially
responsible in everything that we do. Thank you, Mark. Vice Chair D, do you have any >> Well, I got one. So, currently from a um HR standpoint, we are currently have 176 employees
total, um 30 exempts, um 146 civil servants, uh 51 clerk ones, 25 clerk twos, 28 clerk threes, um eight trade horos, and um eight uh voting machine mechanics. Um, and we also have one temp
who's also working for us currently. So, >> you done? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay, there we go. >> Uh, Dylan, do you have any questions? >> Thank you, Chairman. I have none. Thank you, >> Secretary Bl. >> Thank you. I just have one question. U, is the current security contract already
expired or do we know when? >> It will be in April. >> In April. Yeah. So, their bid closes for the current contract, I believe, on the 18th of this month. Um, believe u so how when they're going to um award that,
that's really up to the city. That's what we carry. We don't currently have our own contract. That might be something that we need to think about moving forward later on um depending on what happens. Um but for right now, you know, it's a wait and see type of thing. But thank you. >> Thank you, Mark. And thank you, Joe.
really appreciate the hard work. Appreciate the hard work uh from you and your staff. We will now proceed to new business. We will begin by considering our first agenda item. A motion to approve city commissioner's
fiscal year 2027 budget proposal for inclusion in the mayor's proposed budget pending city council approval. Is there a second? >> Second. Commissioners, do you have any comments on item before we proceed to vote? >> I have not.
>> I have none. Thank you. >> Secretary Bluestein, please call a role. >> Vice Chair Dey, >> I vote no. >> I vote I. Chairman Sabir, >> I. >> We will now proceed to the next agenda
item. A motion to approve the 2026 primary election ballot canvas procedures and absentee and melon ballot application challenge procedures. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Commissioner, do you have any comments on these items before we proceed to vote?
>> Thank you, chairman. Yes, if I may. I just would like to say that I cannot vote in favor of anything any procedures that eliminate the RTC's. That is how we ensure that results from around the city arrive timely and around
the same time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Secretary Bluestein. >> I have nothing. Thank you. >> Thank you. Well, before we proceed to vote, I just wanted
to reassure uh that the public that our staff uh have been doing things slightly different than we've done in the past, but the result has always been excellent and superb and above reproach. So again, thank you staff for bringing new
innovative ideas uh to the commissioner's office and I encourage you to keep on continuing bringing new ideas. Secretary Bluestein, please call the RO. >> Vice Chair Dey, >> I vote no. >> I vote I. Chairman Sabir,
>> I. >> That was our last agenda item. Is there any other business to be raised at this meeting? >> I have not. >> I have not. >> Thank you, commissioners.
Uh before we uh close out, just wanted to recognize uh Black History Month. The 15th amendment was passed in 1870. And in 1871, Actavis Cattle was killed
on election day for organizing African-Americans for the God-given and constitutional right to vote. After reconstruction and after passing of of the 15th amendment, state and local commissioners from
across the country were not enforcing those laws, which led to Jim Crow, which led to pole taxes. Pole taxes in many cases were one month's salary for someone to vote. If
someone in their family did not have the money for the pool tax, in some counties the balance kept on getting higher and higher and higher. Sometimes it resulted in a loss of life, loss of employment.
We saw four little girls who were visiting church uh was detonated and bombed and died. We saw in some in some Alabama where you had activists crossing the Edund Pettis
Bridge who were met by state troopers on horses and who were beaten savgiven constitutional right to protest for voting access for all Americans. The voting act voting rights act was passed
in 1965 which led to today we're seeing vote by mail. We're seeing satellite office locations and we're seeing a robust election day operation which is currently happening in Philadelphia County which may have the most access of
voting in the country of America. So, we just take time to reflect about the history, especially in Black History Month, and the challenges and the barriers that were in place to block black voters from participating in
democracy. A motion to adjourn today's meeting. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Secretary Bluestein, please call the role. >> Vice Chair Daily, >> I. >> I vote I. Chairman Seir, >> I. This meeting is adjourned.