[0:02] I'm going to record the session. So if you miss something, you want to watch it again, because it's just so riveting, or if you have somebody that you want to share this with, we will have a recording of it after the meeting. It takes a little while for it to upload. So if you do want the video, just let me know.

[0:24] Before the meeting, I sent you all a copy of the slide deck that we're going to go through.

[0:31] and I also sent you a contact sheet.

[0:34] Please return that contact sheet to me by the 15th.

[0:40] What else do I have?

[0:42] The other thing, I hope to be able to share some equipment set up videos with you

[0:47] being we're not going to be able to do a little equipment refresher.

[0:51] But when I put them into my presentation, I could hear them.

[0:54] But when we did our test meeting, it's not going through teams.

[0:57] So after this meeting, if you are interested in those videos, I can email them to you.

[1:03] I know I had some problems emailing the presentation to some of you because of size limitations.

[1:09] So if your size limitations, we may have to go to a plan B if you want those videos.

[1:15] So if you do want copies of those, just shoot that elections at chisatocounty.us and email

[1:26] Okay,

[1:30] so now I am going to try and share my screen and we're going to get going because we have a lot of information to get through today and I don't want to keep you any longer than we absolutely have to.

[1:41] So, all

[1:46] right.

[1:48] Can everybody see the PowerPoint presentation?

[1:52] Somebody can just unmute themselves and let me know.

[1:58] No. No. No. I cannot see it. I cannot see it. No. Okay. We're going to try this again.

[2:07] No. I opened it on a different computer.

[2:12] I see it now. Now we can see it. Awesome. Yes.

[2:16] See it now. So you guys are my guinea pig. This is the first time I posted a meeting doing this. So hopefully I'll go as well. So.

[2:23] Our agenda for the day, we're going to go over to some miscellaneous information, we'll

[2:28] go over new law summaries, important dates, candidate filings, campaign financial reports.

[2:35] We'll talk about ballots, appointing election judges, training election judges, absentee

[2:41] voting, health care outreach, testing of equipment, polling place accessibility, and other polling

[2:47] place issues. We'll talk about things that happen after the election and returns. We'll

[2:54] talk about COVID-19 considerations at the poll. We'll have a few more miscellaneous things at

[2:59] the end. We'll talk about equipment, security, and the 2020 presidential primary recap.

[3:06] And we'll have some time at the end for questions.

[3:11] So on that miscellaneous information, the city

[3:16] school and township clerk guides. The Secretary of State's office is no longer providing print

[3:22] versions of those so you will have to go to the Secretary of State's website to get those election

[3:29] guides so you will not receive a hard copy of those anymore. They ran into some printing

[3:35] cost issues and some issues with timing because of COVID and so the one printer they did

[3:43] find was exorbitant, and so there's a lot of things that they used to provide for us that they are no longer going to.

[3:52] The election laws were given out to everybody at the PNP, they were shrink wrapped, it's the big statutes.

[4:00] But if you want an electronic version of those, that is the link to the laws.

[4:06] In the past, we've given every city or township or school district about 10 copies of the

[4:13] campaign manual and affidavits for filing.

[4:16] We got about a third of what we had ordered, so I will be providing four packets of the

[4:23] filing materials for those of you who have July filings instead of the 10 that we've provided

[4:29] in the past.

[4:30] If you need more than that, again, you can get those.

[4:33] It can be printed off of the Secretary of State's website

[4:36] and the link is there.

[4:41] So we'll jump right into the new laws.

[4:44] So on May 12th, they cast a COVID-related election bill.

[4:52] And it gave us some flexibility.

[4:55] As you all remember, you need to designate your polling place

[4:58] by December 31st of every year for the next year because of COVID and some concerns about

[5:05] some high-risk polling places if you are in a school or a senior facility they're allowing you

[5:13] to change your polling place up until July 1st. You're going to do that it has to be done by resolution

[5:21] and you have to send that resolution to me and then all of the voters in your precinct would need

[5:27] be notified of that polling place change. You can either do that yourself or we can do it through

[5:33] the statewide voter registration system and have a postcard sent to them. So if that's something

[5:39] I know North Branch and Rush City have already done that because they had polling places in a

[5:43] senior facility, but if anybody else is in a high-risk polling place, make sure you get that changed

[5:50] made before July 1st. Unless it's absolutely necessary, you cannot use a school facility.

[6:00] Another part of that new law is it allows candidates to file electronically. So those of you that

[6:07] have filings coming up, you have to figure out how you're going to accommodate that. Here when we had

[6:12] our filings that disclosed a week or so ago, we had the form on our website that they could print off

[6:22] And complete, have it notarized, and then they could email it back to us, they could drop it off to us, but you have to figure out how you're going to collect your filing fee.

[6:34] So if you do not take credit cards, you may need to figure out a way that you're going to do that.

[6:39] Regardless of how people file, they still have to get their affidavit in by the deadline.

[6:47] If anybody's providing a petition instead of filing B, that can also be done electronically.

[6:57] Anybody, any of the federal or state candidates that want their right-ins

[7:01] counted can make that request electronically as well.

[7:06] And then it made available some more have-a-funds for pandemic activities.

[7:12] And that's mainly going to be used by the Secretary of State's Office to do outreach

[7:17] encourage people to vote absentee.

[7:21] The last, there's a couple things more. Another big thing is

[7:28] for those of you that have health care facilities in your jurisdiction, instead of taking a

[7:34] team of election judges out there, we can now train the workers at that health care facility on doing

[7:43] absentee voting. You will still need to make the arrangements, still need to get the apps, get them

[7:48] to me, get the ballots to them, but instead of sending a team, you can have their workers

[7:54] do that, so you're going to want to start coordinating with them very soon to get that

[7:59] accomplished.

[8:03] The other thing that the law does, it allows us 14 days to process absentee ballots instead

[8:10] of the normal seven days.

[8:11] This is not a permanent change, but for this election cycle this year, for the primary and

[8:18] the general. Typically we couldn't start opening the envelopes and feeding them into our

[8:23] equipment, our precinct counters until seven days before now we have 14 days, which also means

[8:29] anybody that wants to come in and change their ballot instead of the seven day deadline, it's now 14.

[8:36] The other thing with absentee ballots is normally we would have one day after the election to get them

[8:42] process. It's always our goal to have them done on election night. But with the expectation

[8:49] that there's going to be a lot more absentee ballots, they are allowing us two days after

[8:54] the election to get those processed at the end of day one after the election. If we still

[9:00] have such a process, we have to do some reporting on how many ballots are still left to be processed.

[9:04] But you guys won't need to worry about that other than for the local races, you may not

[9:12] have your totals until two days after the election if we have an overabundance of absentees

[9:17] that we can't get processed by election day.

[9:20] I have a question.

[9:22] This is Regini.

[9:26] Our senior center here.

[9:31] Okay.

[9:32] What's your question?

[9:39] We can't hear you again.

[9:47] What about it

[9:51] maybe try typing your question in into the chat or guinea and I can't see

[9:57] those right now because I've got the presentation up but if Kim can answer your question then

[10:02] we will get to it at the end.

[10:07] Next thing is there was some litigation it's the foul litigation and it had to do with

[10:12] assistance to voters.

[10:13] If you remember, prior candidates could not assist voters with this litigation, candidates

[10:21] may assist voters now, and there is no longer a limit of people that are assisting being

[10:28] limited to only helping three voters.

[10:30] So that came out of that litigation.

[10:33] There are a couple other lawsuits that are in process right now, but we don't have any

[10:38] information because obviously we don't know what the outcome of those will be.

[10:41] So, if we get any other resolution to any of those other litigation that's going on at

[10:49] the Secretary of State's office, we will forward that to you as soon as we know.

[10:54] All right, so now we'll start talking about dates.

[10:58] So the primary election is August 11th, absentee ballots will be available starting June 26th

[11:05] through August 10th.

[11:07] The government center will be open the Saturday before August 8th from 10 to 3 for absentee

[11:13] voting. We also have to stay open until 5 o'clock the Monday before election day for absentee voting.

[11:23] And the pre-registration date closes on July 21st for the primary.

[11:30] The general election is November 3rd. absentee voting for the general election will be September 18th

[11:38] through November 2nd. I didn't put the date on there. Again, the government

[11:43] center will be open that Saturday before and we'll stay open till 5 o'clock

[11:48] the Monday before pre-registration for the general election closes

[11:52] October 13th.

[11:57] So filing for those two dates. So filing for the State County and

[12:02] municipalities with primaries, which there's nobody in Chisago County, no

[12:06] municipality that has a primary so really it was filing for state and county

[12:10] offices was May 19th through June 2nd and the last day to withdraw was the

[12:15] fourth. The filing office has to be open until 5 o'clock on the last day of

[12:22] filing so even if your office is closed at 3 o'clock normally you have to stay

[12:27] open until 5 o'clock on the last day of filing and so how that impacts you is for

[12:33] filing for school district and municipalities that don't have the primary which would be

[12:38] all of you with the exception of those townships which still have March elections.

[12:44] So for the rest of you, filing is July 28th through August 11th and then the last day to

[12:50] withdraw would be 5 p.m. on August 13th.

[12:54] So the last day to file and the last day to withdraw, you have to stay open until 5 o'clock.

[13:01] What do you need to do as far as filing so you need to provide us notice of the

[13:11] election 74 days before the election so we know what offices to kind of

[13:18] expect as we start working with the ballot vendor the absolute last day to do

[13:22] that would be August 21st so we need a list of the offices and any questions

[13:28] that will be on your ballot for the general election.

[13:32] Another thing you guys need to do is prior

[13:34] to your candidate filing period two weeks before,

[13:37] you need to publish a notice of the offices

[13:39] that are going to be open for filing in your jurisdiction.

[13:42] So the deadline to do that would be July 14th.

[13:45] So look at your official newspapers publishing schedule

[13:49] and make those arrangements ahead of time.

[13:54] And then that notice has to be posted 10 days before,

[13:56] which would be July 17th.

[13:59] you have to be open at least from one to five on the last data file, and that applies for

[14:06] Township Elections also. So we'll talk about filing information now.

[14:14] So candidate eligibility,

[14:16] they have to be an eligible voter, they have to have no other affidavit on file, there are a few

[14:22] very limited exceptions to that, but they can't be filed, have a affidavit in for a state office and

[14:30] filed then for a city or school district office.

[14:34] They have to be at least 21 years old.

[14:37] They have to maintain residents in the district for 30 days before the general election.

[14:43] For school board, they can't be a registered sex offender.

[14:48] And charter cities can have additional requirements.

[14:50] We don't have any charter cities in Chisagal County, so we don't have to worry about that.

[14:56] So, the candidate filing information.

[15:01] You're going to have two, we're going to mail to you those four copies of the affidavit of

[15:07] candidacy and campaign manuals. Again, if you need more, you'll have to go out to that

[15:12] link that I provided at the, and the first one of the first slides and print additional

[15:17] copies if you need them. The other documents that you're going to need to provide to candidates

[15:21] that can be obtained from that Secretary of State's website as well is an address of residence

[15:28] form. That's a form that will be used if the person has an order of protection and checks

[15:34] the box on the affidavit of candidacy that their address is private. So you'll need to have

[15:39] a few copies of that at least just in case somebody needs that one. The campaign financial reporting

[15:45] forms are out there. There is an optional candidate information form that can be provided.

[15:56] There's

[15:56] a cyber security playbook. It basically gives them a link to that information, the IRS tax filing

[16:03] requirements, an attorney general memo on auto dialing, MINDOT and county information on posting

[16:10] signs, and various forms to order different things from the Secretary of State's office, like absentee

[16:17] voting list, polling place list, voter list, those types of things, and then the affidavit of withdraw

[16:24] is also there. And again, if you need additional copies, you will need to print them.

[16:32] Once someone files during that filing period, you need to send the affidavit

[16:36] filing to us as soon as possible, absolutely by the end of the day, because we have to enter

[16:41] those into the state system. So if you mail them to the elections at chisago county.us

[16:47] or fax them to us, that's something that multiple people in our office have access to

[16:53] and can get that affidavit.

[16:58] So what you need to submit to us is the affidavit of

[17:01] candidacy, the optional candidate information form if they provide that.

[17:08] Again, that's optional. And if the candidate's name is difficult to

[17:12] pronounce, provide us with some guidance on how to pronounce that name. So when

[17:17] we're giving that to our equipment vendor to record the names on the touch

[17:21] they're not pronouncing somebody's name really bad.

[17:27] And then this information is entered into that statewide system

[17:30] and that's what our vendor uses to pull the information

[17:35] for creating the ballots.

[17:39] So information that's required on that affinative candidacy.

[17:43] First of all, make sure that the information is legible.

[17:45] And remember that you're going to be scanning or faxing it to us.

[17:49] So if it's marginal on your end, by the time we get it,

[17:52] it's going to be even worse.

[17:54] And then when we upload that into the Secretary's State's

[17:56] website, it's going to be worse yet.

[17:58] So make sure that everything is legible.

[18:02] The candidate's name is how it's going to appear on the ballot.

[18:06] So it needs to be their true name or name

[18:08] that they're known in the community.

[18:10] And so that's what's going to show on the affidavit.

[18:13] They can include titles or anything

[18:16] that's going to give them an advantage.

[18:18] So they can't put Dr. John Smith.

[18:20] they can just have John Smith.

[18:24] And however they put their name on the affidavit is going to be exactly how it appears on the ballot.

[18:31] So if they put a middle initial, the middle initial will be there.

[18:35] If they put a middle initial in a punctuation, the middle initial and the punctuation will be there.

[18:40] So however it is on that affidavit is how it will appear on the ballot. We cannot change anything.

[18:48] The other thing with their name, it has to be an upper and lower case.

[18:53] It can't be all caps.

[19:00] And make sure that the office that they're seeking is on there.

[19:05] And if a district applies, that's there for your local offices, really, that's except

[19:12] for maybe some townships, that's not really going to apply.

[19:17] The residential address is required unless they check that private data box.

[19:22] The only reason they can check that private data box is if they have an order for protection.

[19:28] So they can't check that just because they don't want people to find them.

[19:33] And in that area, it can't be a PO box either.

[19:37] The PO box can go in their campaign address, but it has to be a physical address where

[19:43] we can verify that they are actually filing in the appropriate district.

[19:49] And if its phone number is required, so if there's no phone number on it, we're going

[19:54] to return it to you and you're going to have to track that information down.

[19:59] Impaying contact info is optional.

[20:03] So if their address is the same, they don't have a PO box or anything like that.

[20:08] They don't have to fill that section in.

[20:11] Email address is optional.

[20:13] One thing you may want to look at is if they're providing you a government issued email

[20:18] address. You may want to ask them if they have a private one just because you don't want to

[20:24] run into issues where maybe that government jurisdiction has a requirement that their

[20:33] city or county or government issued email address can't be used for political purposes so just

[20:40] kind of help the candidates out there. Make sure that the candidate signs it and dates

[20:46] the affidavit and if they're not doing it at your office, make sure that it's

[20:54] notarized.

[20:59] So this is a copy of the affidavit of candidacy and I just kind of

[21:03] highlighted some areas that's important for them to fill out. So just check

[21:08] those things and make sure everything is filled out appropriately.

[21:15] Filing fees

[21:15] fees, or they can submit a petition in lieu of filing fees, but filing fees are not refundable.

[21:25] For city and township offices, most are going to be fourth class, it's going to be $2.00.

[21:31] I think North Branch is maybe the only one that's a second or third class that can charge

[21:36] $5, but make sure you're charging whatever's on your established fee schedule.

[21:42] And again, Township and School District are also $2.

[21:48] Again, the withdrawal period for the primary was June 4th.

[21:53] For the general election will be August 13th and they're due by 5pm.

[22:01] We had a candidate who wanted to withdraw and it was after 5 o'clock,

[22:05] so unfortunately we had to deny that withdrawal and her name is still going to be on the ballot

[22:12] for the primary. So just make sure that people are well aware that if they want to withdraw,

[22:16] they have until 5 p.m. And they have to withdraw with whoever they filed with. So if they are

[22:23] coming and filing in your office for city office, that's where they have to withdraw.

[22:30] And you need to notify our office immediately if you get any withdraws so we can put that into the

[22:35] state system. So it can be removed. And you could send that to us either via email or fax just like

[22:43] you do the affidavits.

[22:47] Campaign finance and campaign practices. So chapter 211A gives you the

[22:53] guidelines on financial reporting. It covers candidates and committees. So if there's a question

[23:00] on your ballot and there's a committee form to either support the question or defeat the question,

[23:06] they are subject to those same rules as any candidate would be. So reports are filed with whoever they

[23:15] file for office for, so any of your city officers that are filing for election are going

[23:21] to file their financial reports with you, not with our office.

[23:26] You have to make sure that all the required filings are done on time, and there's forms

[23:35] available in the packet that you provide them, there's also copies in the campaign financial

[23:41] manual, and those forms are available on the Secretary of State's website.

[23:47] Their initial report is due within 14 days of either spending or raising $750, so that's

[23:55] when their initial report would be due.

[23:57] They don't spend $750, they're not going to need to file a financial report.

[24:03] So on that financial report, they have to provide their name or the ballot question that

[24:11] their supporting. The name of the person responsible for filing those, so sometimes candidates

[24:18] have a financial manager that does that work for them, so if it's somebody other than

[24:23] the candidate filing that report, that information needs to be on there. You have to report the

[24:28] amount of cash on hand, the total amount of contributions and disbursements within five days

[24:34] of the report being due, the amount date and purpose of any disbursements, and contribution

[24:42] amounts and who made those.

[24:46] Candidates can't accept contributions or make contributions to a principal campaign

[24:51] committee.

[24:54] A principal campaign committee has to be registered with the Minnesota Campaign Finance

[25:00] and Public Disclosure Board.

[25:03] And the exception to that is when the contribution is made out of personal funds, not out of campaign funds.

[25:11] So what do they do?

[25:12] Once they file that initial report before the primary, they do 10 days beforehand.

[25:22] And before the general, again, they do 10 days before the general election.

[25:27] Then there is also a certification of filing that's required.

[25:31] And that's due after the general election.

[25:36] And then again, if they haven't filed a final report,

[25:41] they're going to need to file by January 31st until they've filed that final report.

[25:50] If you, as a city or a township, have a local website,

[25:54] you are required to post any campaign financial reports

[25:58] reports that you receive on your website.

[26:01] The statute says that you need to do it immediately or no longer than 30 days after you receive

[26:06] it.

[26:08] And you have to keep those on your website for four years from the date that the report

[26:14] was originally posted on your website.

[26:18] And then you also need to notify the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board of your

[26:24] your e-mail or your web address where any of those campaign financial reports are filed.

[26:32] So here is a copy of what that financial report looks like.

[26:36] And again, on the backside of this, it has the dates that those records are required.

[26:43] So that's a good thing to point out to your candidates and help remind them.

[26:52] Even the ones that they say hang on, I have a question here.

[26:56] Even the ones that they say the 750 or nothing that has to go out on the website too.

[27:01] Yes.

[27:04] Okay.

[27:06] So the certificate of filing that has to be submitted to use seven days after the general election.

[27:13] And again, that also needs to be filed by any committee that's supporting or

[27:18] are looking to defeat a ballot question, and they're going to indicate on there that

[27:24] they either filed all of their financial reports that they were required to, or they didn't

[27:29] meet that $750 threshold.

[27:34] And election certificates can't be issued until this certificate of filing is received.

[27:40] If you issue a certificate without receiving that, you can be charged with a misdemeanor.

[27:46] and there has been a complaint filed in the past in

[27:50] Chisago County. So I know that this is something that the state takes

[27:55] seriously and does pursue. So make sure that you get all of the filing reports

[28:00] before you issue that election certificate to your winning candidates.

[28:04] And then this is what that campaign financial report certification looks like,

[28:10] and that needs to be filed by everybody. And they're going to either say,

[28:13] Yep, we filed our reports or nope we didn't meet that threshold.

[28:20] Their final report can be filed anytime they've paid all of their debts and they have less

[28:26] than $100 in assets left in their campaign fund.

[28:31] So once they hit that and again they're going to use that same report that I showed you

[28:38] a few slides back, let me go back.

[28:43] That's going to be filed on here.

[28:44] just up at the top, they're going to check that final report box. I don't know if you can see me

[28:51] pointing to that, but they're going to use that same one. So it's

[29:02] going to cover the period

[29:03] from their last report to the date of whatever they're saying that their final activity was. If they

[29:10] decide at some point in the future that they're going to run again or if somebody contributes to their

[29:15] campaign again, then they're going to have to start the filing report and they're going to need to

[29:20] file initial report again for any new activity.

[29:26] Failure to file. So as the filing officer,

[29:29] you have to notify any candidate or committee that has a file in initial report that hasn't

[29:35] filed when they're supposed to. So the 10 days before and the primary and 10 days before

[29:42] the general. So that is one of your responsibility and they are required to respond to you within 10 days.

[29:48] If they don't, you have to file a complaint with the Office of Administrative

[29:52] hearings if you don't receive a response from them within that 10 days.

[29:59] If a former

[30:00] The formal complaint has been submitted and then the candidate files their report that complaint with the Office of Administrative hearings can be withdrawn.

[30:11] So, as filing officers, you are not responsible for interpreting or enforcing the campaign practices laws, but you do have some administrative duties for your local candidates that file with you. So you're required to provide them in the report, so make sure that you're doing that when they file and make sure that you're reminding

[30:31] them that they need to file. To receive those financial reports from the candidates,

[30:38] you have to notify any candidate or committee who doesn't file their reports on time. You

[30:46] have to file the complaint with the Office of Administrative Hearings if they fail to do that

[30:51] after you've notified them. And you have to hold those financial reports

[30:56] for public inspections, so don't throw them away. You have to keep them. You have to put them,

[31:03] again, a reminder, if you have a website, you have to put them on your website. You have to

[31:08] collect the certification of filing form seven days after the election, and then you have to issue

[31:14] a certificate of election only to the winning candidates who have filed that certificate of filing.

[31:19] So,

[31:22] some other campaign issues that come up and you may get asked, there's the statute

[31:28] that requires a disclaimer be included on any campaign materials, so campaign signs,

[31:34] campaign literature, that sort of thing, that's a question that often comes up.

[31:38] So, put that in for you to easily find again.

[31:43] Whether you have a sign ordinance or not during an election year, campaign signs can be posted

[31:51] from 46 days before the primary election, which will be June 27th, and I know that because

[31:58] that's absentee voting starting, until 10 days after the general elections. So no matter

[32:03] what your local ordinance may say, they can post signs in an election year. And if you

[32:12] don't have a sign ordinance, they can be posted anytime.

[32:17] If you have a parade or community

[32:20] be festival in your town, and they allow candidates in their parade, they can't be charged to

[32:26] fee that's greater than other units in that parade.

[32:32] Complaints on campaign finance practices

[32:35] are heard by the Office of Administrative Hearing, so I would refer people that have complaints

[32:40] about that sort of thing to the state. And there is the email address of where those complaints

[32:48] would be filed and they have to be filed within one year of whenever that violation occurred.

[32:57] If an administrative law judge or panel hears that and complains and finds that it's frivolous,

[33:04] they can order the complaint and to pay the respondents a attorney's fees. So they want to make

[33:09] sure that it is truly a violation before they go down that road.

[33:16] Now we'll talk about ballots.

[33:19] So before the meeting this morning, I sent you all a copy of the slide deck and the election information worksheet.

[33:29] And so I need everyone to complete it and have it back to me by June 15th.

[33:35] That's going to give us the information of who we should be contacting in your jurisdiction for any election related issues.

[33:42] and if you have any offices or questions coming up that's going to help us.

[33:48] Another thing I added to it this year is how many election judges you're going

[33:51] to have working on election day and I need that because we're trying to

[33:55] order some supplies to provide to you at the elections and we'll go over that a

[33:59] little bit later.

[34:02] If you're going to have a ballot question notify me as soon as

[34:05] possible so I can let our ballot vendor know that as she starts programming.

[34:10] If you do have a ballot question, you're going to have to provide me an electronic version

[34:15] of your resolution that establishes that ballot question.

[34:18] And then you're going to need to provide that wording of the question to me in Microsoft

[34:24] Word format, not in a PDF format because we have to upload that into the state system

[34:32] and we can't do it from a PDF.

[34:37] name rotations so most of you this doesn't matter really North branches the

[34:43] only one that it really matters because they have multiple precincts if you

[34:46] want to set the rotation for the names on the ballot I would need to know that by

[34:51] August 13th if you want we can just have the state system do a random

[34:58] bordering of it and so if you want to do that let me know otherwise like I said

[35:05] that's gonna be done by the state system.

[35:08] As soon as I receive the ballot proofs

[35:10] from our ballot vendor,

[35:12] I'm gonna forward them to you

[35:14] to whoever's on that designated contact information sheet

[35:18] that we just talked about for approval.

[35:21] Our window to get the ballots,

[35:23] the equipment program, the ballots set

[35:28] and printed for absentee voting

[35:30] is a very, very tight window.

[35:32] So, it's super, super important that you get that back to me right away and be watching

[35:39] for that.

[35:43] Other thing in the past, we've always published a county-wide sample ballot and we will continue

[35:49] to do that.

[35:50] If you want something that's specific to your city or township ballot and in just your official

[35:58] newspaper, then you're welcome to do that and let me know and I can get you a sample

[36:02] ballot otherwise we will do the county-wide one. Again, we put that in the post-review

[36:08] and the Chicago, it's not the post-review anymore. It's the county news review.

[36:14] I'll probably call it the post-review for the rest of my life, but so we do it in the review

[36:18] and then we also do it in the county press. So if you want it somewhere other than one of those two,

[36:24] you will need to do it on your own.

[36:28] Again, once we send you that ballot proof, you have to,

[36:33] It's super, super important that you review all of the information, all of your offices,

[36:39] the number of candidates to vote for, all of the spelling, and again that window is short, so you need to get it back to me.

[36:48] I'm probably only going to give you a day to get it turned around because that's how short our window is in order to make sure that we have the ballots by the beginning of absentee voting.

[36:59] And I'm going to send you a sign off sheet that you're going to sign off that your city candidates and or questions are correct or township or school district.

[37:07] Any errors that you find on the ballot after that are going to be at your cost to reprint any ballots for that.

[37:15] So again, return that proof sign off to me so we know that we can get going on printing the ballots.

[37:25] Once the absentee voting period starts and we have those ballots programmed, people

[37:32] can see what's on their ballot and get a sample ballot off of the Secretary of State's

[37:37] precinct finder.

[37:38] So there's the link to that.

[37:40] That's a good one that you might want to put out on your website if you have election

[37:46] information on your websites.

[37:47] So these are the offices that will be on the ballot this year.

[37:54] As you can see, we've got a lot of judges again this year.

[37:59] So we've got 25 judges.

[38:02] So that's going to be a big ballot again.

[38:06] Hopefully we won't have to go into two ballots again like we had to last year or two years ago.

[38:12] But in addition to those, there could be mayor and council,

[38:15] little town board for Lenton Nestle, school board, any questions.

[38:20] At this point, I don't know if any questions that are going to be on are constitutional amendments,

[38:25] but there's still time.

[38:27] So just yesterday, I got a ballot proof for the primary.

[38:34] So as you can see, we will have four columns on this ballot, and they can't cross over.

[38:39] So there will be legal, legal marijuana now, party candidates, grassroots legalized cannabis

[38:45] candidates, Republican and Democratic

[38:47] Primary Labor candidates.

[38:52] You can see

[38:52] some write-in lines on here. They

[38:54] shouldn't be on here, but I just

[38:55] wanted to kind of give you a little

[38:56] snapshot of what that's going to be.

[38:59] There are no nonpartisan offices

[39:02] this year. So none of the county

[39:04] offices or judges had enough candidates

[39:07] file to require the primary. So it

[39:10] will just be candidates on the

[39:12] partisan side of the ballot this year.

[39:13] pointing

[39:17] election judges. So back on May 1st, the parties had to provide the

[39:23] Secretary of State with a list of people who are interested in being election

[39:27] judges from their caucus that they held back in February. The state had to

[39:33] provide that to our office by May 15th which they did and they provided to us by

[39:40] precinct and list anybody who's willing to serve outside of their home

[39:44] precinct, which there was nobody in Chicago County, so none of you got those lists.

[39:50] Then we have to promptly turn around and send them to you, which we did before that May

[39:56] 15th.

[39:56] We emailed them to you on May 15th.

[39:58] I think we got them on the 14th.

[40:00] We sent them out to you on the 15th.

[40:04] So when you're appointing your election judges, you have to first appoint from that list

[40:08] is what the statute requires.

[40:09] If there's additional vacancies after that, you can appoint others who aren't associated

[40:16] with a major political party.

[40:19] So election judges that weren't provided by the party, they have to provide you with

[40:23] their party affiliation or sign a statement that's saying that they're not.

[40:27] So you and they need to do that so you can assign those tasks that require party balance during

[40:34] election day.

[40:38] Again, you have to maintain party balance among the affiliated major parties.

[40:45] You have to have at least two judges in each precinct that are affiliated with different

[40:50] political parties.

[40:53] No more than half of the judges in anyone precinct can be from one major party.

[40:59] So as you're appointing your election judges, make sure that you're looking at that party

[41:03] affiliation.

[41:06] Judges can't, judges not affiliated with the major political parties need to sign a

[41:11] statement and providing that to you.

[41:16] And then also you need to designate a head election judge that will really be overseeing

[41:23] things at the polls on election day.

[41:27] So your last day to appoint election judges for the primary would be July 17th.

[41:33] And for the general election, we'll be October 9.

[41:39] You have to pay your election judges at least the state minimum wage.

[41:44] Training and travel time has to be included as well.

[41:51] So there, you'll remember from two years ago, this was always information that really only

[41:56] the clerk had in the past.

[41:58] But now party affiliation or non-affiliation can be shared with other election judges so

[42:04] So they can make sure that there's party balance on those duties that require it.

[42:09] That information should not, cannot, may not be disclosed or used by those election judges

[42:16] for any other purpose.

[42:17] So they shouldn't be, you shouldn't be talking about it or they shouldn't be talking about

[42:22] well.

[42:22] Did you know that Bob is with the legalized marijuana party?

[42:26] I mean, that's nothing that should be discussed outside of making sure that those duties

[42:31] you have your party balance.

[42:36] So you are required to have four election judges

[42:38] at all times for the general election. There are, there's a minimum of three

[42:43] judges for some other elections, but with the electronic equipment really you need

[42:48] for. And then the statute also says that if you're doing hang count of ballots you

[42:53] need one judge for every 150 voters, but we're not doing hang count of ballots so we

[42:57] don't need to worry about that.

[43:01] Again with the electronic equipment you need to have

[43:04] for judges. Student judges don't count towards your minimum.

[43:10] So if you're using some student judges

[43:13] and we'll talk about them a little bit later,

[43:15] they do not count towards your minimum.

[43:17] They're just bonus judges and extra hands to do the work.

[43:23] To be an election judge, they have to be eligible

[43:24] to vote in Minnesota.

[43:26] They have to be able to read, write and speak English.

[43:30] They have to be appointed by the local authority.

[43:33] So you have a city, the county, and school district, the township, the school board.

[43:39] They have to go with your training.

[43:41] So they have are required to take two years of training in an election cycle.

[43:45] So the new election cycle is starting now and will run until June of 2022.

[43:56] An election judge can't be a candidate in that election.

[44:00] They can't be the spouse parent, step child, step child sibling, step sibling or of a candidate

[44:06] it or another election judge that's working in the same precinct, and you'll remember

[44:11] two years ago, they further defined that, but they can't be domiciled together, so you

[44:17] can't be somebody living together either permanently or temporarily.

[44:23] So keep that in mind too, just because they're not officially married if they're living in

[44:29] the same house they can't serve together or live with a candidate.

[44:37] Election judge can't be a challenger.

[44:41] Relatives of another election judge can serve in the same precinct, but they can't serve

[44:47] on the same shifts.

[44:48] So if you have a husband and wife team, mother daughter team, something like that, they can

[44:52] both work in your precinct, but you have to have them working different shifts.

[44:56] Let's

[44:58] go.

[45:00] Students can serve as trainee election judges. They have to be 16. They have to be a United States

[45:05] citizen. They have to serve in the county where they live, which is different than any other

[45:10] election judges. Any other election judges can serve anywhere in Minnesota with trainee

[45:15] election judges. They could only serve in the county where they live. They have to be enrolled

[45:20] in high school or home school and have good grades. And they have to have permission from

[45:25] both the school and the parents. They serve without party affiliation and they

[45:32] can't work past 10 o'clock and they have to be paid at least two-thirds of the

[45:38] minimum wage. They can't perform tasks that are required to be done by judges of

[45:44] two different political parties because they serve without party affiliation so

[45:49] they couldn't help with curbside voting, for example. And again, they don't count

[45:55] towards the minimum number of judges you need.

[46:00] Other things to consider, especially

[46:03] this year with health issues and the uncertainty of our world, you want to make

[46:09] sure that you have backup judges that are trained and able to come and work

[46:13] at a minute's notice if somebody's unable to come on election day. You might

[46:18] want to think about fresh staff coming in for closing activities just because people that have

[46:23] worked all day their brains have turned to motion they might not be as sharp as maybe they were at

[46:29] six in the morning so consider that if you have that ability you might want to put your best people

[46:35] on voter registration because that's where you can really end up with a backlog if they're not

[46:41] sharp in knowing what they're doing on voter registration. When possible,

[46:46] team up a veteran judge with a new judge.

[46:51] Election judge training. So this is where you guys are

[46:54] going to probably all hate me. This year because of COVID-19, the only option for training is going

[47:01] to be the online training. So where we've had live sessions in the past, those will not be available

[47:09] just because when we were planning all of this, there was no group meetings allowed.

[47:17] So again,

[47:18] they have to take two hours' worth of training. And when they do that, there will be several lessons

[47:24] that they will go through. And then there'll be a quiz at the end of each lesson, and they won't be

[47:30] able to move on to the next lesson until they've got all the questions right. They're pretty easy

[47:34] questions, so I don't think anybody will have any problems.

[47:40] So we will provide you to a link to the

[47:43] county website for your judges to sign up for the training. So what you will need to do is get

[47:49] that link to all of your election judges to get them to get signed up. Here's another thing

[47:56] you guys aren't going to like but I have to be very firm on this. You guys need to be responsible

[48:04] for ensuring that your people get signed up. We don't have the staff to be fielding calls on well

[48:10] I can't figure out how to get signed up or can you sign me up. For the PNP our office was

[48:16] is inundated with your election judges calling.

[48:20] And when you add up all of the election judges

[48:23] across the county, we're talking about 300 judges.

[48:26] We do not have the staff to be able to help them get signed up.

[48:30] So if you have a judge that is having a hard time

[48:34] getting signed up, you're going to need to work with them

[48:38] and either sign up for them or walk them through that.

[48:41] We will not be able to do that.

[48:43] And if they call here, we're going to refer them back to you.

[48:50] The training registration link will be open from June 15th to the 26th.

[48:57] So that's when they're going to need to get signed up.

[49:00] Their training has to be completed no later than July 22nd.

[49:07] And they're going to need to have a unique email address.

[49:10] I know we've got some husband-wife teams that have served in the past and done the online training.

[49:20] They each have to have their own email address when we set them up in the online training portal.

[49:27] We found that if they're using the same email address, it really screws the system up.

[49:34] So encourage them to set up a free email account through Yahoo or Gmail and the election, you know, the link will be on the election judge information page. So this I've kind of done a couple screenshots of what the information will be out on the website.

[49:55] And then this will be the registration form and they're going to have to say if they're going to be a head judge or health care facility judge.

[50:02] Most likely, none of you are going to have health care facility because you're going to be your regular election judges won't do that, but we will have to set up any of the health care workers that are going to help their voters to get the training here.

[50:20] So, head judges are required to have an hour of additional training.

[50:25] absentee ballot board they require some additional training too and we'll do

[50:29] that here with them. All election judges have to attend the online training.

[50:35] Again we don't have the option of in-person training this year. If you have

[50:43] an vacancy on election day all of a sudden every all of your election judges get

[50:47] COVID-19 which I hope that they don't and you have to pull some people in and

[50:54] off the street to be election judges that day.

[50:56] The head judge will need to provide the emergency training.

[51:00] And you'll need to let us know if there's

[51:04] any issues you think we need to address

[51:06] with election judge training, because I'm just finalizing

[51:09] the online training deck for our vendor.

[51:13] So if there's anything that you guys think

[51:15] is really important that we stress with the election judges,

[51:19] just shoot us an email and let us know.

[51:21] And again, you can use that elections at ChisagoCounty.us.

[51:28] Now we will get into absentee voting.

[51:32] Again, a few years back, I want to say maybe six years ago, voters no longer have to provide

[51:41] a reason why they're going to absentee vote.

[51:43] In the past, they had to have a reason, they were sick, they were out of town.

[51:47] Now they don't need to, which has really increased absentee voting.

[51:52] And then the other thing that we have done is offered direct balloting, which is basically

[51:57] absentee voting where they come here and they vote in person at the government center.

[52:04] They still have to fill out an absentee ballot application because it is still an absentee

[52:08] vote.

[52:09] But what it does is it saves us a few steps because they can put it directly into a precinct

[52:14] counter rather than in envelopes that the absentee ballot board has to process.

[52:18] and then put into precinct counters.

[52:23] So we're going to do that again for both the primary and the general

[52:26] and that will be available seven days before the election.

[52:30] So starting the Tuesday before election day.

[52:35] So just kind of a little fun fact.

[52:37] Our last presidential election, which was in 2016.

[52:40] We had 4,700 absentee voters in actually in 2018,

[52:46] which was an off year. We had just a couple hundred less than that. Back in 2016, that was 105 percent more than the 2012 presidential election.

[52:57] So it was very busy with absentee voting and we anticipate that that will be even greater this year just because of the pandemic.

[53:09] So back in 2016, we helped just shy of 1,500 voters during that direct ballot period,

[53:18] almost 500 of them in that last day before the election.

[53:21] So it was a little bit crazy around here.

[53:24] Voters can apply for an absentee ballot online and submit it electronically.

[53:29] They can do a paper app too, but we prefer that they do it online through the Secretary of State's website

[53:34] right because then we are not having to enter all of those applications manually.

[53:42] And they can track where their absentee ballot is at on the Secretary of State's website

[53:47] too.

[53:47] So, again, that's probably information.

[53:49] If you have a website you're going to want to put out there.

[53:52] They can go on at any time of the day and night and see where their ballot absentee ballot

[53:57] is in the process, whether it's been mailed or if we've received it, whether we've accepted

[54:04] it. So all along the way it's tracked. This is just kind of a graphic of you can see how our

[54:14] voter registrations and our voting has increased over the last couple decades.

[54:27] Epsity ballot board, we process all of those here. With the anticipated increase in Epsity

[54:35] voting. We really need additional judges who would be willing to serve on the absentee ballot board.

[54:40] So if you have any election judges that you know may be looking for some little part-time work,

[54:46] or just enjoy election processes and would be interested in working on our ballot board,

[54:53] have them reach out to me as soon as possible. I'm putting out a schedule here in the next

[54:57] couple days and we could really use some additional hands to help with that because we're anticipating

[55:05] higher than normal absentee voting. We've already got probably close to 354 hundred applications

[55:12] in already in the absentee ballot. Window hasn't even opened yet, so have them reach out to me.

[55:22] So you won't be doing anything with absentee ballots at the polling place. They will process and count

[55:28] everything and then for your local races I will send you your absentee results but they all

[55:38] the results will be incorporated into the election day results here at the county.

[55:46] When we get the

[55:47] electronic rosters the poll books together we will have everything marked hopefully for you through

[55:54] Saturday. We'll push a supplement. Maybe it'll probably only be through Saturday noon,

[56:01] which voting stays open for a little while after that just because it takes quite a while to do that.

[56:07] But you will have to push a supplement right away on election day that will mark anything AB that

[56:16] came in either after we push the supplement on Saturday and anything that came in from Monday.

[56:21] And

[56:25] then we can still accept absentee ballots until 8 p.m. through the mail or people can drop

[56:32] them off here until 3 p.m. on election day. So if we get any additional absentee ballots that

[56:38] come in on election day, we'll notify you until you that you need to push another supplement.

[56:45] For the presidential primary at about seven o'clock, I had a postal worker from Stillwater

[56:52] come and hand deliver a ballot that had gone to their post office instead of ours.

[56:57] So they do come in late in the day.

[57:00] So if anybody does come in with one, I will let you know that you need to turn your hot spot back on and push that supplement.

[57:10] Again, we talked about this at the beginning, but just for the 2020 election, the ballot board will have two days after the poll is closed to get all of the absentee ballots processed.

[57:21] and we'll give you those results for your local races.

[57:25] Again, if you know anybody that wants to serve on the ballot board,

[57:29] have them contact either Kim or I as soon as possible.

[57:33] Because I think we're going to need additional assistance,

[57:36] especially for the general election.

[57:40] Healthcare facility outreach.

[57:42] Again, this is going to be a little different this year

[57:44] because of those temporary changes due to the pandemic.

[57:49] So the clerk is required to conduct health care outreach voting when you have a hospital,

[57:55] a sanitarium, or other institution defined in that statute, and really the only thing that

[58:01] would fit under that category would be the Fairview Medical Center, the hospital in Wyoming.

[58:06] So the city of Wyoming would need to deal with any absentee voting for anybody that's in the hospital,

[58:14] and it also requires it for nursing homes as defined under that statutes. So those are the four

[58:24] facilities in Shasago County. So North Branch University Wyoming and Shasago City need to make

[58:30] those arrangements. Again, you are still going to need to coordinate with them for the health care

[58:37] facility voting even though there is the temporary law change this year. So you're going to need to

[58:41] establish a date when they're going to do it. You're going to need to coordinate getting

[58:45] the applications to them, getting the completed applications return to our office. You're

[58:51] going to need to get the ballots to them for their election day that they choose. And you're

[58:57] going to need to coordinate with the healthcare facilities staff to get their employees trained

[59:03] that will be helping the voters.

[59:06] If possible, you want to try and coordinate with them before

[59:10] the voter registration pre-registration cutoff. So we have, they have fewer election day registrations

[59:16] that they would need to deal with. So, you know, if you can get those applications in before

[59:21] either July 24th for the primary or October 16th, that would be best.

[59:28] Coordinate with them on getting

[59:30] those applications completed and return to our office at least one week before their election day.

[59:38] And then you're going to have to coordinate, drop off, and pick up of the ballots.

[59:44] And this can be done during the 20 days before the elections.

[59:47] So your window for the primary election is going to be between July 22nd and August 10th.

[59:52] This one they can do it.

[59:53] And for the general election, it will be between October 14th and November 2nd.

[59:58] I would encourage you not...

[1:00:00] To do it in that week before, just because our office is so crazy busy, it would be very difficult to get ballots ready and to you. So if you can avoid that last week, we would appreciate that. But if push game to shove in, that's the only day they can do it. We can do it then. So now we're going to talk about polling place accessibility and some other issues. Again, we talked about this a little bit at the beginning. You need to designate your polling place every year by December 31st for your next year's elections.

[1:00:30] But with that temporary law change, if you're in a high-risk facility, you can make a change up through July first.

[1:00:39] So they only want you designating a school facility if there's no other public or private facility reasonably available.

[1:00:47] In that language came I pulled directly out of the statute.

[1:00:50] Then we need to notify the voters that there's a polling place change.

[1:00:54] And again, you can do it on your own, or we can do it through SVRS, and a postcard can

[1:01:01] be sent to them, and then we would bill you for the cost of that because we get charged

[1:01:05] for those.

[1:01:08] And polling places have to be accessible, large enough to accommodate your election day

[1:01:14] activities, free from other non-election activities, free smoke free, liquor free,

[1:01:23] minimum accessibility

[1:01:25] You have to have paved parking with a wide space reserve for disabled people, curb cuts or temporary ramps for handicap accessibility, paved main route, free of stairs or elevators to get people where they need to be entrances and doorways have to be a minimum of 32 inches wide, walkways and hallways need to be 36 inches wide.

[1:01:51] and they have to be free from anything that's sticking out or hanging out that somebody can bang their head on.

[1:01:59] If you have stairs, you need to have handrails and you need to put signage up on an accessible route.

[1:02:07] If your main entrance isn't accessible but there is an alternate accessible route, make sure that you have signs clearly designating that.

[1:02:15] And you have signs that let the voters know that there is assistance available.

[1:02:24] And at least one, you have to have at least one wheelchair accessible loading booth

[1:02:28] with a stable flat writing surface that's 34 inches high.

[1:02:35] And I know a lot of the election booth vendors do have special handicap accessible booths that have extensions on the legs

[1:02:45] that make them wider so you can get a wheelchair under them.

[1:02:51] So this is the normal polling place flow that you've seen a million times from us.

[1:02:58] You'll notice in the middle this year you're going to need to consider your social distancing.

[1:03:05] So you're going to need to space things out more than you have.

[1:03:09] Your voting booths need to be six feet apart.

[1:03:11] Your roster table and your new registration table need to be six feet apart if you're

[1:03:17] doing them at separate places.

[1:03:19] So just keep that in mind as you're setting up

[1:03:23] your polling place that you need to maintain

[1:03:26] that six-foot social distancing.

[1:03:32] During voting hours, election judges voters

[1:03:34] and other authorized people are the only people allowed

[1:03:38] in the polling place.

[1:03:39] And that's gonna be even more important this year

[1:03:42] with maintaining that social distancing.

[1:03:44] You're gonna wanna discourage people hanging out

[1:03:46] and just chatting about their crops

[1:03:49] or the weather, or their new grand baby in the polling place just because we want to help with that social distancing.

[1:03:59] So authorized people are anyone that's helping a voter who is disabled or unable to read or write English.

[1:04:07] And remember that new law, there's no limit.

[1:04:10] As a result of that loss, there's no limit on the number of people they can assist.

[1:04:14] People that are vouching for other voters if there's a new voter registrant that doesn't

[1:04:20] have the appropriate identification, a voucher can be in the polling place.

[1:04:26] Again, that voucher needs to be a voter in that precinct.

[1:04:31] Observers that have written authorization from the Secretary of State's Office, my office

[1:04:35] or the clerk's office, peace officers if election judges have requested them to come to

[1:04:41] keep the peace. Children, when they're accompanying voters, again, you know, try to discourage this

[1:04:48] as much as possible with the social distancing issues, but obviously some people don't have the

[1:04:56] daycare available, but still want to come out and vote, so just try to be cognizant of that.

[1:05:02] Challengers are authorized, and teachers and students participating in mock elections, I'm not

[1:05:09] aware of any school districts that are looking to do a mock election and quite honestly they

[1:05:15] contacted my office to do that this year I would discourage it just because of the pandemic.

[1:05:19] But they have to be authorized by the Secretary of State's office and I can only

[1:05:24] imagine the Secretary of State's office would be discouraging that this time as well

[1:05:28] and news media. And anybody that wants to make a written complaint again you'll have have a

[1:05:36] complaint forms and state election law, complaint forms in your forms buckets.

[1:05:44] So prohibited polling place activities would be anybody that's being disorderly, anybody

[1:05:49] that's intoxicated or has liquor with them, people who are campaigning or have campaign

[1:05:57] material or literature or buttons, anybody that's smoking, anybody that's lingering within

[1:06:04] 100 feet of the building. Again, no campaigning or campaign information can be within 100 feet of

[1:06:10] the building. Or if you're pulling places on public property, it can't be anywhere on the public

[1:06:16] property. That prohibit, oops, I'm sorry.

[1:06:22] That prohibition on the 100 feet does not apply to adjacent

[1:06:29] private property. So even if there's a campaign sign in a private individual's front yard and it's

[1:06:35] closer than a hundred feet to the polling place that's on private property at

[1:06:39] constator.

[1:06:42] Exit pullers can approach voters leaving the polling place if they've

[1:06:45] got their predetermined way that they're asking questions and their questions

[1:06:52] are anonymous.

[1:06:55] It has to be outside of the polling room. Election judges just a

[1:07:01] reminder that if your ballot box is getting full you can either straighten them

[1:07:05] out if they're falling in the bin, Kitty Wampus, or you can remove them and seal them

[1:07:12] into a ballot box, but just note that you're doing it on your incident log, note what time

[1:07:18] you're doing it, who's doing it, and publicly announce what you're doing, so the voters

[1:07:23] don't think that there's shenanigans going on.

[1:07:27] Your incident logs, that lets us know what's going on in the precinct, use that to record

[1:07:35] any unusual events or problems and if you've resolved a problem put that on

[1:07:40] there too so if we get a call a couple days after election that says hey when

[1:07:45] the insunnerized township was blah blah blah blah it helps us to know that did

[1:07:51] occur and how you resolved it because then we can communicate that to the

[1:07:55] voter and return them with the in the supply bucket on election night so we have

[1:08:01] those. So when we're fielding calls after the election, which does happen, they go home and they

[1:08:08] stew about what happened at the polling place and usually are calling us the next morning.

[1:08:12] So make sure those incident logs are are completed. Things you'd I we've seen on the incident logs

[1:08:18] that you don't if a voter has a spoiled ballot and with the primary that's going to be a lot,

[1:08:25] you know they cross over and so they need to get a new ballot. Spoiled ballots don't need to go

[1:08:29] on there, just note things that are occurring that are odd in the polling place.

[1:08:37] So, I will talk a little bit about challengers.

[1:08:39] They have to have a letter appointing them with their proof of residence, and the proof

[1:08:44] of residence would be anything that you would allow somebody to use to register on election

[1:08:49] day.

[1:08:52] They can only challenge a voter's eligibility based on their own personal knowledge that a

[1:08:58] voter isn't eligible to vote.

[1:09:00] They can't make lists of voters to challenge based on information maybe that their political

[1:09:07] parties sent out and that maybe was returned to them so they can't have lists of people

[1:09:12] that they kind of predetermined that they're going to challenge and they can't make lists

[1:09:16] of people who are voting on election day.

[1:09:19] They can't handle any election materials and they can't try to influence voters at the polls.

[1:09:26] If they're going to challenge somebody's eligibility to vote, they have to fill out the oath of challenge voter.

[1:09:33] And again, that'll be in your forms packet.

[1:09:40] Challenge voters have to swear an oath, and you as the election judge are going to ask them questions regarding the challenge based on whatever that challenger is challenging.

[1:09:53] And those questions again are going to be in your election judge guides.

[1:09:57] If the voter answers the questions appropriately, then you allow them to sign in on the complete

[1:10:09] their registration on the poll pad, I'm sorry, and allow them to vote.

[1:10:16] If the challenger persists, then you're going to ask the voter again the questions if they

[1:10:25] continue to say they're eligible to vote, then you're going to have that voter verbally repeat

[1:10:30] the oath that's on the roster on your oath sheets that print out of the poll pad, and after that,

[1:10:39] then they can sign their receipt and then you're going to allow them to vote.

[1:10:46] Voter privacy, we talk

[1:10:47] about this every year. It has to be maintained in the polling place at all times. This is going to be

[1:10:53] more challenging this year with COVID, just with the social distancing and you might have

[1:10:57] people waiting in lines and where they maybe wouldn't have to in the past. So again,

[1:11:04] that's what we get most complaints about. If you're going to allow voters to vote somewhere

[1:11:09] other than voting both, if you've got tables set up or something, make sure that they're

[1:11:14] offered a secrecy sleeve or you have barriers set up to provide them the most privacy as

[1:11:20] possible.

[1:11:23] You have long lines waiting for the scan. Make sure that you're

[1:11:26] offering a secrecy sleeve to those people. And again, as they're waiting in

[1:11:31] line, make sure that you're maintaining social distancing. Which might mean

[1:11:36] you have to have people waiting in line outside of the building longer to get in.

[1:11:42] Make sure that the judge in charge of the voting machine maintains that six

[1:11:47] foot separation to from the machine and doesn't view a ballot unless they're

[1:11:51] asked by a voter, so they shouldn't be up right on top of the scan looking at

[1:11:59] people's ballots as they're going in. Again, roster notations are private

[1:12:06] data and need to be kept private. This is easier for us now that we're using

[1:12:11] the poll pads because it's only going to come up for that voter with the old

[1:12:16] paper rosters if you had somebody signing that could see any roster notations for

[1:12:21] any other voters that were on that page. So that's a little bit easier for us now, but again that's

[1:12:27] private data and it should be never be discussed with any other voters in a public space where

[1:12:32] conversations could be heard. Elections judges shouldn't be talking about it unless they're trying

[1:12:38] to resolve a challenge or something that's on there, they may need to discuss it but should go away

[1:12:44] from other voters so that discussion is private.

[1:12:50] Election judges need to stay neutral, even though they're affiliated with a political

[1:12:55] party and a lot of times they have strong political opinions and views.

[1:13:01] When they're working in the polling place, they have to keep that at bay.

[1:13:07] In their oath that they're taking, they need to remain neutral.

[1:13:13] And as head judge, if they, the head judge hears some of those discussions going on, that's

[1:13:20] that head judge's responsibility to go and talk to that election judge, and if it can

[1:13:25] be resolved, then they're going to come to you as the clerk to resolve that issue.

[1:13:30] If a voter asks about an officer a question on the ballot, you can need to, the election

[1:13:36] judges need to refrain from making their personal comments or opinions about it, really direct

[1:13:42] them to the instructions on the ballot. It's going to tell them the office and how many

[1:13:46] to vote for and really that's the instruction that election judges should be giving to voters.

[1:13:55] Election day registrations, proof of residence are going to be required for election day registrations,

[1:14:01] just like always. Nothing has really changed since last election cycle with what they can use.

[1:14:08] They can use an ID that has their current name and address. If they don't have an ID that has

[1:14:13] their current name and address on it, they can use a photo ID plus an approved document

[1:14:19] that has their current name and address on it. They can use a voucher. The voucher

[1:14:24] has to be in the same precinct, and they can vote for up to eight non-registered voters.

[1:14:31] So there's a form in your forms packet that you keep track of how many people that they

[1:14:36] voted or vouched for. So on the poll pad you're going to complete the voucher section.

[1:14:45] And with the with the poll pads it's a lot easier because you can just look up their name just

[1:14:51] like you would if they're they were looking to check end of all you can put in start typing in

[1:14:57] their name and it's going to pull up any registered voters.

[1:15:00] So then you just selected. So it makes it a lot easier than having to go through a roster and find their voter number and that sort of thing. Healthcare facility workers are not limited to vouching or helping eight voters. College and student IDs are allowed for us. We don't have any colleges here. So that's not a big thing. If they had a valid registration in this precinct.

[1:15:27] And let's just say they had a name change, they got married and their name changed, or

[1:15:32] they moved two doors down, and they were still in the same precinct.

[1:15:36] They could use that valid registration.

[1:15:39] They're still going to need to complete a voter registration to change their name and address,

[1:15:44] but they don't have to provide any other proof other than their current registration in that

[1:15:49] precinct.

[1:15:49] And then anybody who tries to register after the pre-registration has closed, they will

[1:15:57] get a letter from our office saying, thanks for submitting your voter registration, but

[1:16:01] it came in too late for this election.

[1:16:03] So they can use that letter from us as their proof-of-read of ID for their Election Day Registration.

[1:16:13] Allowable ID, if it has their current name and address, would be their driver's license,

[1:16:17] operations, a permit, or a Minnesota ID card, a receipt for any of those.

[1:16:25] Tribal ID that has their name, current address, signature, and picture on it.

[1:16:30] Allowable photo ID plus an approved document.

[1:16:34] So they can use a driver's license that's expired or from another state.

[1:16:39] They can use a passport, a military ID, or a veterans ID, which are different.

[1:16:44] tribal ID card, high school school ID or a university or college ID and if they use those then they have to provide a document along with it.

[1:16:55] It can be a residential lease or rental agreement, a student's fee statement again which we don't have a college so doesn't really apply much to us or a bill.

[1:17:06] Again, remember that the bill has to be

[1:17:08] within 30 days of the election.

[1:17:10] It has to have the person's name,

[1:17:12] that person that's voting's name and address.

[1:17:16] It can't be a spouse or a roommate or somebody like that.

[1:17:21] Property tax statements cannot be used as a proof of ID,

[1:17:26] because you can own property a lot of places.

[1:17:30] Again, the document has to contain the voters name and address.

[1:17:35] It can either be a paper bill or they can pull something up on their smart phone, their tablet or

[1:17:41] anything like that. So it can be an electronic copy of a bill. Again, the same rules apply. It has

[1:17:46] to have their name. It has to have their address and has to be do within 30 days.

[1:17:53] Roster correction form. This form should only only only be used to correct typos. If there's a name

[1:18:02] change or an address change they have to do an election day registration. This

[1:18:07] would only be this roster correction form should only be used if there's a

[1:18:12] typo we've spelled their name wrong you know their birth date is

[1:18:16] transposed or something like that. So only use this for corrections and if

[1:18:23] somebody says well my husband Bob passed away last week and his name is still on

[1:18:29] roster, you could have her fill out this form and then we'll make sure that it gets taken

[1:18:34] off. We do get notification from the Department of Health and from the recorder's office on

[1:18:40] a monthly basis of any death records that are filed, but depending on when the roster is

[1:18:46] generated, those may not hit for election day, just because election day is early in the month.

[1:18:52] So

[1:18:55] after the election, you're going to do some ballot reconciliation.

[1:19:01] You're going to clarify the number of ballots that were provided to the precinct.

[1:19:06] Two judges should be counting the packets as you're opening them.

[1:19:11] We order them in packets of 150 or 25.

[1:19:18] So if it's a packet of 100, it's not going to, it's the bigger packet.

[1:19:24] If they're the 50 or so 50, 25 or 75, it's going to be marked on the outside of the shrink

[1:19:30] wrap.

[1:19:30] How many hours should be in there?

[1:19:33] So just make sure that that's the number of ballots that are in there and they package

[1:19:37] them using automated equipment.

[1:19:41] So every once in a while you get a couple more or a couple less.

[1:19:44] If there's more or less than the hundreds or whatever should be in that packet, make sure

[1:19:49] that you know that on your incident log because when you're doing your summary statements at

[1:19:53] at the end of the night, you're going to need to know that to tie out your totals.

[1:19:59] So the pressing summary, you're going to include the number of ballots that were delivered

[1:20:05] on election day, any adjustments that you made, if you have to photocopy.

[1:20:11] It's always my goal for you never to run out, but I don't want to be throwing away thousands

[1:20:17] of ballots either after an election.

[1:20:20] So you're going to need to know any unofficial ballots that you maybe have to make, number of

[1:20:27] spoil ballots, any duplicates made, which now that you're not doing absentee voting, the chances

[1:20:37] of you having to duplicate a ballot would be very slim, and then your number of unused ballots.

[1:20:42] When you add all that up, it should equal the number of ballots that you started the day with.

[1:20:49] Again, you'll have the auditor return log and we want you to use that to make sure everything is tying out and any discrepancies are noted on there.

[1:21:02] So your number of voting should equal the number voting must equal the number of votes reported and if there's the excess ballot process, you're going to follow that.

[1:21:13] So again, this is the ballot custody form that you get when we hand the ballots off to you as the clerk.

[1:21:20] We're going to sign off on the top.

[1:21:22] In the middle section is where when you're handing it off to your head judges should equal the same amount.

[1:21:29] And then the bottom section is what they're going to fill out and should be completed before you return to our office because that's what's going to

[1:21:36] you tie out to the number of ballots that you received plus any that you had to make

[1:21:42] or any extra ballots that we're going to pack it.

[1:21:50] So check in at our office.

[1:21:54] It's going to be done in the presence of an election judge or clerk.

[1:21:58] We're going to make a record of all materials that were delivered.

[1:22:01] We have a checklist that we use of things that need to be coming back to us.

[1:22:06] We're going to try and record the name of who's making the delivery.

[1:22:09] So if we have questions, we can, we know who to contact, we're going to need you to include

[1:22:16] the number of ballots delivered to the precinct, the map and the number of ballots that

[1:22:20] were returned in any discrepancies.

[1:22:25] Are the summary statement stats completed and correct?

[1:22:31] We have to report things that I think kind of are silly to the Secretary of State's Office

[1:22:38] was who in turn has to report them to this Fed.

[1:22:41] So it's important that everything on that summary statement,

[1:22:44] including the stats, which seem kind of silly,

[1:22:47] like how many voting booths do you have.

[1:22:50] Everything has to be filled out

[1:22:51] because I have to report that to the state.

[1:22:54] And so make sure that you're filling out

[1:22:56] the summary statements for the presidential primary.

[1:22:59] There were several precincts that did not complete them.

[1:23:01] So it's very important that those are filled out and complete.

[1:23:07] The other thing we're going to check when you're bringing stuff back at the end of

[1:23:10] the night are the voted ballots sealed into usually the big blue bins if they're not

[1:23:17] they need to be.

[1:23:21] If you had excess ballots do we need to complete that excess ballot process and hopefully we'll

[1:23:27] have communicated that before you get here to return things.

[1:23:31] If you have more ballots then you should and we need to complete that process because it's

[1:23:35] a lengthy process.

[1:23:35] us.

[1:23:38] If they're not returned on election night, you have to return the poll paths and voter

[1:23:43] registrations to us within 48 hours. We have reporting requirements to the state that we have

[1:23:49] to have certain percentage of those new voter registrations entered into the system at certain

[1:23:55] milestones. So, it's important that we have those back so we can start getting those ready

[1:24:00] and getting ready for the canvassing board, which is only a few days after the election.

[1:24:07] So,

[1:24:08] election night, but if for some reason they get forgotten or whatever, we for sure need

[1:24:13] them within 48 hours. And I might even come get them the next day if need be.

[1:24:19] So going

[1:24:20] back to that summer statement, everything needs to be completed on there, you know, including

[1:24:25] your number of election judges, your voting booths, and so on and so forth. And everything

[1:24:30] should tie out. So make sure that you're spending time making sure that everything's filled

[1:24:37] out the other thing that's important. Remember, this is a two-page form. Again, for the

[1:24:42] PNP, there were several places that didn't provide us the second page. And the second

[1:24:48] page is important because that's what has the election, so just signatures on it.

[1:24:52] So please make sure that you're returning both pages. And we do try and put a worksheet.

[1:24:58] It'll have a worksheet watermark across it that you can use to, you know, tie your numbers

[1:25:04] out before you put it on the triplicate form. So here's what that form looks like. Again,

[1:25:11] it's two pages. It's on 8.5x14 paper. So just make sure that you're completing both sheets

[1:25:21] and that they get put into your envelopes A, B, and C. So that's the other thing we had to search

[1:25:29] high and low for some precinct summary statements that were in their supplied buckets, some field

[1:25:35] else, some not. So make sure that they go into summary statements A, B, and C, because we need

[1:25:39] those for our canvassing board for the state.

[1:25:46] So with the summary statements, your judges are going

[1:25:51] to prepare the appropriate number of results tapes coming out of your scan. For a state election,

[1:25:58] it's going to be at least three for envelopes A, B and C. If there's school district elections on

[1:26:05] there, you're going to need to print an additional one for the school district. And you probably want,

[1:26:10] if you have people coming into the polling place and wanting to know results, it's easier if you

[1:26:15] just print an extra one and tape it to the wall and then they can go look at the results themselves

[1:26:20] rather than them bugging you while you're trying to do other closing activities.

[1:26:28] At least two of those

[1:26:29] Those result tapes, envelope A and B need to be returned to my office.

[1:26:34] The first one that first tape should be the long tape that includes your zeros tape

[1:26:40] that you print out at the beginning of the day and anything that prints out during election

[1:26:44] day and then your first set of results.

[1:26:47] So that should all go in envelope A and remember you need to keep that first result tape intact.

[1:26:53] The second result tape should go in envelope B and those two are going to come to me.

[1:26:59] envelope C will go to the city clerk.

[1:27:04] Those envelopes need to be sealed. Please

[1:27:07] complete the information on the front of the envelope, which includes what

[1:27:11] election it is, what precinct it is. I'm trying to think what else is on the

[1:27:18] front of there. I think that's basically it. And that your election judges sign

[1:27:22] across that sealed flap after everything is in there.

[1:27:27] Voted ballots need to be

[1:27:29] We brought to our office as soon as possible after you're done voting and get everything tied

[1:27:33] out.

[1:27:34] They need to be sealed so they can't be accessed without breaking the seal.

[1:27:39] And we'll provide you with numbered seals and certificates to put on there.

[1:27:43] Typically those are going to go in your big blue bins.

[1:27:47] The blank ballots that haven't been voted do not go in that blue bin.

[1:27:52] Those go into another one.

[1:27:54] The voted ballots we have to keep for 22 months.

[1:27:57] The blank ones, we can get rid of after the contest period, so please don't put your non-voted

[1:28:04] ballots in that blue box.

[1:28:06] Only the voted ones, your voter receipts, and there's a couple other things that we're

[1:28:11] going to try and put new labels on those boxes too.

[1:28:19] Ballots that haven't been issued to voters have to be returned to, so those non-voted ballots

[1:28:25] make sure they get returned to us.

[1:28:28] And again, like I said, they have to be kept until after the test period.

[1:28:33] So this is that excess ballot process that we talked about a little bit earlier that we hope we never have to deal with.

[1:28:39] If there's more ballots that have been processed than signatures on your poll pads, what you're going to have to do is there's a process where you at random.

[1:28:50] First of all, you have to go through and make sure that all of the ballots have been initialed by two election judges.

[1:28:54] If there's a say you had two extra ballots and there's two ballots in there that weren't

[1:29:01] initial by election judges, those are just removed and the counts adjusted appropriately.

[1:29:07] If there's not, then you're going to pull two at random and then when you get back here

[1:29:11] we're going to have to process all of those ballots through a precinct scanner again.

[1:29:17] You will be happy to know that because of COVID in the expected extra absentee ballots,

[1:29:23] the county board authorized me to purchase a central count. So we could do it through

[1:29:28] the central count machine, which is much, much faster than a precinct counter. So that kind of

[1:29:35] goes through a little bit of that excess ballot process.

[1:29:42] So after the election, you have to hold

[1:29:44] a canvassing board. And the canvassing board meets the second or third day after a primary election,

[1:29:49] which none of you will have to do. We will do that here at the county and it is scheduled already

[1:29:53] for the Friday after the primary election, and between three and ten days after.

[1:30:00] Here in general election, we will canvas all of the federal, state, and county offices here, cities, school districts, townships, you are responsible for canvassing your own results for any candidates or questions that you might have.

[1:30:17] And then at that canvassing board, you're going to declare the results. We send the state federal and county results to the secretary of state, and then they include that in the state canvassing.

[1:30:34] If there is a recount,

[1:30:36] for one of your local offices or question.

[1:30:39] You as the clerk are the recount director for that office.

[1:30:47] We are here to assist last election cycle.

[1:30:51] Lindstrom did have a request for a recount.

[1:30:54] So we did do it here just because the ballots are here

[1:30:56] and we didn't have to worry about ballot security

[1:30:58] transporting them to another location.

[1:31:00] So we will be here to help you with that process

[1:31:03] because it's there's pretty specific rules around that but just know that you are the

[1:31:08] recount official if there is a recount for a local office and we will just be here to assist you.

[1:31:16] Publicly funded recounts for state office if it's within a half a percent then it is a

[1:31:25] publicly funded recount for local offices again if it's less than a half a percent.

[1:31:34] discretionary recounts, so a losing candidate if it doesn't meet that publicly funded threshold

[1:31:40] can request a recount at their own expense, if it's greater than that amount noted above

[1:31:47] but they still feel like they want a recount.

[1:31:53] So for the primary they have to request it by 5 p.m. on the second day after the canvassing

[1:31:58] results or the fifth day for local offices for the general. Again, they have to

[1:32:07] request it within by 5 p.m. on the second day after the canvassing or the

[1:32:12] seventh day for local races.

[1:32:18] Every general election, we are required to do

[1:32:21] what's called a post-election review. I am the post-election review official and I

[1:32:28] I may enlist some of you to help if some of the larger precincts get pulled, but basically

[1:32:35] we have to do a hand count of two randomly selected precincts and we have to count the

[1:32:41] office of President, U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative, and we have to do that by hand

[1:32:47] for those two precincts.

[1:32:51] So if say a Wyoming or one of the big North Branch precincts get picked, I might enlist

[1:32:57] you clerks to help with that, otherwise our office typically has handled those in the past.

[1:33:03] Those are open to the public and the political parties if it's a contested race.

[1:33:09] Do come and watch, so.

[1:33:12] You need, as clerks, need to certify local results to our office.

[1:33:18] You need to issue the certificates of election for the candidates for your local office.

[1:33:23] Again, don't forget it's only after they filed their financial reports and

[1:33:27] certificate filing. And they need to be issued seven days after the

[1:33:34] canvassing if there's no recount requested. And you need to notify the Secretary

[1:33:40] of State's Office for any referendums changing the form of government. Or if

[1:33:45] you're approving, if you had a question approving and taxicating liquor sales.

[1:33:51] So now

[1:33:52] the topic that everybody I'm sure is all excited about. COVID-19 considerations that are polling places.

[1:34:01] So coronavirus information is changing almost on a daily basis. So I didn't put a lot of specific

[1:34:09] information into the presentation deck here. I have provided you with links for the

[1:34:18] state of Minnesota, also for the CDC, because these are changing on a rapid basis, I didn't

[1:34:26] want to provide you information that by August 11 could be outdated.

[1:34:30] So there are links for you to go to the CDC website, does have some recommendations for

[1:34:35] polling places, and so that's some good information there on their website.

[1:34:40] They do have some posters and things like that.

[1:34:43] we will try and provide you with some but just know that you can go out and

[1:34:49] look at information out there.

[1:34:53] Things that you should be considering as you

[1:34:56] prepare your polling places, make sure that you have hand sanitizer, cleaning

[1:35:00] supplies, masks and gloves for your election judges, single use pens. They need to be

[1:35:06] blue or black, no pencils because that will mock up the scanners.

[1:35:13] I would encourage your

[1:35:15] voters to use their own pens, but you probably want to look at buying some really cheap

[1:35:22] pens that if they don't provide their own, bring their own pen that you could just tell

[1:35:26] them to keep. I know for absentee voting, I've bought a lot of really cheap, big pens for

[1:35:34] about $0.7 a piece from Amazon.

[1:35:38] You may want to consider shields or screens

[1:35:40] for between the voters and the election judges

[1:35:44] and consider your social.

[1:35:46] How you're going to manage social distancing,

[1:35:48] whether it's floor stickers, signs, tape lines,

[1:35:54] you're going to wait here, tape lines on the floor.

[1:35:56] I know that doesn't necessarily work good,

[1:35:58] but you've got to get through one day, so.

[1:36:02] Preventative measures, poll workers can take, and again, there's more information on

[1:36:07] the CDC website.

[1:36:08] I just tried to pick the ones that I don't think are going to be changing much, but if

[1:36:14] your poll worker is sick, they have a fever, they have any of those respiratory symptoms.

[1:36:20] They need to be staying home, and they should be communicating with you as soon as possible.

[1:36:26] They need to practice hand hygiene frequently, hand washing, hand sanitizing.

[1:36:31] So you're going to want to make sure that you have enough soap at your polling places

[1:36:36] in the bathroom and those types of things.

[1:36:39] You're going to want to have somebody that's going to be in charge of routinely cleaning

[1:36:43] those frequently touched surfaces, your election booze, those types of things.

[1:36:49] Cleaning and disinfecting the voting assistance equipment, so the scans, the tablets, the keyboards,

[1:36:58] anything that you might have, and we'll talk a little bit more.

[1:37:01] I've got some recommendations from our vendors here in a couple slides on what should be used.

[1:37:07] Make sure that your bathrooms are supplied adequately with soap and towels and things like that,

[1:37:15] and that you have somebody that's checking that,

[1:37:18] in charge of checking that and maintaining that throughout the day.

[1:37:22] Hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol is what they recommend

[1:37:27] and again encourage your voters to use their own pens.

[1:37:31] Normally you just leave pens in the voting booths

[1:37:34] and sometimes even tie them there. I would not recommend doing that at this point.

[1:37:41] You want to incorporate your social distancing strategies,

[1:37:44] strategies where it's feasible. I know some of you have really small places and this is going to be challenging but you really need to

[1:37:51] encourage your poll workers and your voters to do that. You're going to need to increase your distance between your voting booths.

[1:38:00] You're not going to be able to stack them up one up against each other. Try and limit non-essential visitors.

[1:38:06] So discouraging other people that aren't voting from being in the polling place again remind your voters that they should be maintaining that social distancing the six feet.

[1:38:19] And you know, we'll again try and pull some signs from those websites once we get closer to dates that have the current information on them.

[1:38:32] discourage voters and workers from greeting each other with handshakes or hugs like they maybe have in the past.

[1:38:42] Right. So now we'll talk about recommendations from our equipment vendors. So I've reached out to both knowing and to heart about what should we be using on our equipment.

[1:38:53] So with the poll pads, they recommend unplugging the cables and turning off the iPad, which may not always be feasible.

[1:39:01] They recommend using a soft, lightly damp, lint-free cloth to wipe them if they're still

[1:39:11] fingerprints or something on there.

[1:39:14] Use that lint-free cloth with a little bit of warm, silky water, avoid getting moisture

[1:39:19] in the openings, they don't want you using compressed air and just actually within the last

[1:39:26] couple weeks have sent out a new update that say you can use a wipe that's 70%

[1:39:34] isopropyl alcohol wipe. So that's not a lysol wipe or anything like that. It

[1:39:41] needs to be an alcohol wipe or you can make an alcohol solution that's 70%

[1:39:47] isopropyl alcohol and 30% water to use. They do have some electronic swipes. I know

[1:39:55] on Amazon, but just make sure that it's got, it's the 7030.

[1:40:06] Pullt has stylists. Again,

[1:40:08] they recommend using the isopropyl alcohol wipes or on the stylist. They say you can use

[1:40:14] the disinfectant wipes, but only the shaft of the stylist, not the rubber tip, because

[1:40:20] if you get those solvents on the rubber tip for the stylist, then it's going to degrade

[1:40:26] that and it's not going to work. So just the shaft of the stylus. So for the

[1:40:34] variety scan and touchwriters, again they say to wipe down with a clear

[1:40:39] isopropyl alcohol water-based solution, 70% alcohol, 30% water, and a

[1:40:44] lint-free wipe. Don't wipe or wet with a paper towel and don't use any ammonia

[1:40:51] bleach or detergent-based solutions. So don't use a Chlorox spray or anything like that.

[1:40:57] It's just the alcohol water solutions.

[1:41:01] So I know I've been encouraging all of you to buy supplies

[1:41:05] and I'm still encouraging that. I am trying to get some supplies for you. You may want to elect to

[1:41:13] get more than what I'm able to provide. So as of this point, I've been able to get each precinct

[1:41:20] two bottles of a disinfectant spray. Again, don't use those on the pole pads, the scan,

[1:41:26] or the touch writer screens. Two rolls of paper towels for every precinct masks, gloves,

[1:41:34] and I forgot to put on there. I did get some microfiber towels for wiping those screens.

[1:41:41] I'm still trying to get hand sanitizer that doesn't cost me $80 a gallon,

[1:41:48] and I'm trying to find some electronic swipes that might work for you but again I encourage

[1:41:54] you to get your own as well in case I'm not able to get that or if you want more disinfect

[1:42:00] and spray or paper towels then what we've got listed here please get them on your own.

[1:42:08] And I will try and communicate with you if I'm able to get hand sanitizer at all.

[1:42:13] lot of places don't have it at all.

[1:42:18] Okay miscellaneous records retention. If there's any supplies or anything like that and your copy of the election returns, that sort of thing, you are responsible for keeping those.

[1:42:32] The county will keep the ballots and any of the returns for any state and

[1:42:38] and primary and general elections, but it's your responsibility to keep for other elections.

[1:42:45] For the most part, if you have to keep those materials, you need to keep them for 22

[1:42:50] months.

[1:42:51] There are a few things like you have related records that need to be kept longer, but for

[1:42:58] the most part, it's 22 months that you need to keep those.

[1:43:05] emergency plans. I need to get our updated emergency plan completed and submitted to the state

[1:43:12] by July 1st, so I'm working on that. So if you've had any changes in who's in charge of

[1:43:18] the elections at your precinct since the PMP, let me know that. So I can make those appropriate

[1:43:23] changes. I have to have that submitted to the state by July 1st. In the event of an emergency,

[1:43:30] You can combine polling places.

[1:43:33] You have to immediately notify us in the Secretary's State.

[1:43:37] You have to post it at your office and on your website.

[1:43:41] And it has to be really clear to where the voters need to go.

[1:43:49] And I got ahead of myself.

[1:43:50] So here's where it talks about the emergency plan

[1:43:55] has to be submitted to the Secretary by.

[1:44:00] Again, we will get the public accuracy testing here at the government center for all

[1:44:09] precincts, and I will continue to do that as long as I get enough help to do that.

[1:44:16] For the P&P, we really didn't get a lot of volunteers, so if you or your staff or some

[1:44:24] of your election judges are able to come and assist with that, that would be greatly appreciated.

[1:44:28] If I can't get enough people to do the whole entire county here, it will have to revert

[1:44:34] to being your responsibility like it was years ago.

[1:44:38] And I know that can be challenging doing it at your polling location, but if I can't get

[1:44:45] the help to do it here, I will have to give it back to you guys.

[1:44:49] So I'm encouraging you all to come and help or get, see if some of your election judges

[1:44:54] can come and help.

[1:44:55] And it's a good way to get refreshed on how the equipment works.

[1:45:01] After the testing has been completed and again, that can only be done the week before the election. I will schedule a time where you can come and pick up all of your equipment.

[1:45:13] Another miscellaneous fun fact is for certain things. We are included in the 11 county metro area and an example of where that would impact us is township elections in the metropolitan area.

[1:45:31] Our 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. where outside of that metro area for township elections, you would only have to be open from 8 to 5 to 8.

[1:45:44] Good resource for all of you in all of your activities surrounding elections would be on the Secretary of State's website.

[1:45:52] They do have separate calendars for cities, townships, school districts, and whether you have a primary or without.

[1:45:58] So that's a good resource for you to start marking your calendar with all of those things

[1:46:03] that you as the clerks are required to do.

[1:46:07] Towns with November elections could return to March elections.

[1:46:12] If you've gone for at least two elections in November, the Tom Board would have to unanimously

[1:46:19] adopt a resolution going back and then you would have to have your plan for staggering.

[1:46:24] monitoring, questions approved by voters would go to the next November election.

[1:46:30] When a town moves to November elections, you can also transition to having your supervisors

[1:46:37] have six-year terms.

[1:46:41] So towns that have already moved to November can again adopt that six-year term and you would

[1:46:48] have to put together a plan on how you're going to stagger.

[1:46:51] other

[1:46:56] information that might be helpful for you as cities to know and or put on your website, so

[1:47:03] voter registration application, they can either do it by paper application or they can do it through

[1:47:10] the Secretary of State's website. Again, that's how we encourage people to do it, otherwise we have

[1:47:15] to manually enter those, so you might want to provide that link. People are asking you questions

[1:47:23] about how they can register to vote.

[1:47:25] And again, on the Secretary of State's website,

[1:47:27] they can go out and check to see if they are registered also.

[1:47:31] If you are doing any house number or street name changes,

[1:47:37] you can't do those within 45 days of an election.

[1:47:40] So just keep that in mind as you're looking at your street naming

[1:47:44] and numbering annexations.

[1:47:47] If it's more than 24 days before the election when the annexation

[1:47:50] approved that it would be effective for that election coming up. If it's less than 21 days

[1:47:57] before the election, it would be effective after that election date.

[1:48:04] Your training, city

[1:48:07] township and school clerks that serve as the election administrator for your jurisdiction

[1:48:11] are required to be trained every election cycle. And again, remember an election cycle is a two-year

[1:48:17] period that starts in June of an election year. So this is the beginning of our next election cycle,

[1:48:28] so you are good for two years as long as you get all of your training in. So if this is your

[1:48:34] initial certification, this is the first time you are going to be the election administrator,

[1:48:39] you need to have five hours of training.

[1:48:44] And if this is a maintenance,

[1:48:49] you need to have four hours of training.

[1:48:52] So we're going to definitely get two hours of training in today.

[1:48:55] If you do the election judge training,

[1:48:58] that will be another two hours.

[1:49:00] If you attend other training offered by the Secretary of State's Office

[1:49:05] or your professional organizations,

[1:49:06] They will provide you with a certification form that you fill out that says how many hours and where you did that training.

[1:49:13] Just make sure that you email that to us so we can keep track of it.

[1:49:18] We are going to do a better job of keeping track of who has the appropriate amount of hours.

[1:49:26] So equipment refresher again, our precinct we've got our precinct counters, the variety scans that will sit on top of the ballot box.

[1:49:36] Our assisted marking device is the touch writer, looks like my picture cut off writer.

[1:49:45] Again that has a printer that you attached to it and set it up and it has its own table.

[1:49:54] We are again going to use the electronic pullbooks so we are going to use doing pull pads and so

[1:50:00] we will not have paper rosters at the polls.

[1:50:04] We will have a paper an extra greeter's list

[1:50:09] that in case the poll pads go down,

[1:50:11] you can still process voters the manual wave,

[1:50:15] but the poll pad is how you're gonna do most everything.

[1:50:20] And there'll be a packet for emergency use

[1:50:24] that will have some paper sheets where they would sign in

[1:50:27] and then you're going to use that greeter's list.

[1:50:33] Again, the pull pad distribution will be like it has been

[1:50:37] in the last couple of elections.

[1:50:40] So you'll have the same amount of pull pads as you have in the past.

[1:50:44] It'll be up to you whether you want to use them all or not.

[1:50:52] Again, you're going to need to consider your layout

[1:50:54] and electrical needs because with all the new equipment,

[1:50:57] everything needs a power outlet.

[1:50:59] So you want to make sure that you have enough power cords and extension cords to get your

[1:51:05] equipment hooked up the way you need to.

[1:51:09] And I'd hope to go through a refresher video for the scan and touchwriter setup.

[1:51:18] And the video works great and it's really a good refresher.

[1:51:24] However, when we did our test run through teams, you could see the video, but not hear

[1:51:29] the audio, so that really wouldn't help you a whole lot.

[1:51:32] So if you are interested in those videos, I can definitely email them out to you.

[1:51:37] Just know that they are generic and used across the United States.

[1:51:43] So they're not specific to Minnesota processes, so there's a couple things that are slightly

[1:51:47] different.

[1:51:48] So, in those videos, they detail how to reopen and suspend polls.

[1:51:53] You will not have to do that.

[1:51:55] That's first states that have early voting.

[1:51:59] For the touchwriter, some states use barcode scanners and scan a ballot.

[1:52:06] We don't use that here.

[1:52:08] And also, in the video, it refers to a ready-for-use button that you touch on the screen.

[1:52:14] We don't have that feature here in Minnesota.

[1:52:16] You remember you have to push the blue poll worker button on the back of the machine to initiate the ballot instead of touching that ready for use.

[1:52:25] And also it talks about provisional ballots and provisional ballots are not used in Minnesota, so our equipment isn't programmed for that.

[1:52:38] And just kind of as a reminder to initiate a ballot on the touch rate or you're going to press the blue poll worker button in the back.

[1:52:45] Then it will prompt you for your password, which you will give you.

[1:52:50] And then you're going to select create a valid access code.

[1:52:54] And then you're going to select the ballot for your precinct that you need.

[1:52:58] And for those of you that have multiple school districts, make sure you're picking the right

[1:53:01] school district ballot.

[1:53:03] And then you're going to select the yes print the code.

[1:53:07] You're going to enter that and say accept and then that will bring you right to the ballot.

[1:53:13] All right.

[1:53:14] We're going to talk about security a little bit.

[1:53:17] So again, ensuring integrity of the elections is super important.

[1:53:22] You need to maintain security after you're polling places.

[1:53:26] So that includes the physical aspects from the time the ballots leave our office here and

[1:53:33] we hand them off to you.

[1:53:34] You need to make sure that those ballots are secure and that your equipment is secure and

[1:53:39] on election day that's secure.

[1:53:41] If there's private data, again, those roster notations,

[1:53:46] election judge party information, that you're keeping that private data private,

[1:53:52] and making sure that you're discussing that with your election judges

[1:53:57] and making sure they're adhering to that.

[1:54:01] So with technology, again, we're only going to connect those poll paths

[1:54:05] to the internet to upload the supplemental ABs,

[1:54:08] and then you're going to shut down that internet connection.

[1:54:10] There's never any time that we transmit any results electronically through a modem.

[1:54:19] Some larger communities do that.

[1:54:22] We do not.

[1:54:24] You're unfortunately going to have to bring that stuff to us at the end of the night.

[1:54:28] So I think from a technology perspective, we're doing the best – our processes are the best to keep that result information secure.

[1:54:42] Things we're doing, again, we conduct a preliminary test in our office right away when we get the V drives that are programmed for the equipment.

[1:54:52] Then we're doing that public accuracy test.

[1:54:55] We're sealing all of the equipment after the testing and you guys should be checking those

[1:55:01] seal numbers because they're recorded and will be given to you on the seal certificate.

[1:55:07] So you should be checking those to make sure that nobody's been tampering with them.

[1:55:12] The Secretary of State's Office has implemented multi-factor authentication for the SVRS, the

[1:55:19] state-wide system. And in our office as much as a pain as it is, we have implemented multi-factor

[1:55:27] authentication on our computers because we're dealing with emails and certain things that may

[1:55:32] have private data on it. So those are things that we're doing. And again, we complete that post-election

[1:55:39] review where we're verifying election night results by doing a hand count. So that brings us to

[1:55:49] the 2020 PNP recap.

[1:55:54] So we had 57, just try a 5,800 people vote

[1:55:57] at the presidential nominating primary,

[1:55:59] which was 16.6% voter turnout.

[1:56:03] The reimbursement requests were submitted

[1:56:06] to the Secretary of State's Office,

[1:56:07] and I know they were working on them this week

[1:56:09] because I got a phone call about ours with a question.

[1:56:14] Those payments will be made directly to you,

[1:56:17] so keep your eye open for them.

[1:56:20] In total, throughout the county, we requested $59,706 of reimbursement.

[1:56:30] The average city or township came to about $1,400 reimbursement.

[1:56:35] Some more, obviously, some less.

[1:56:37] The county had the lion's share of the reimbursement because we had the ballot printing costs and

[1:56:42] that sort of thing.

[1:56:43] When we had our meeting with the Secretary of State, there is no indication that they

[1:56:48] are not going to continue with the presidential primary in the future.

[1:56:53] So expect to have another presidential primary four years from now.

[1:56:58] The other thing they said is reimbursement is not likely in the future.

[1:57:04] So as you're working on budgets, keep that in mind.

[1:57:07] you're going to need to budget for an additional election and a presidential election year.

[1:57:15] So that

[1:57:19] brings us to questions. I'm going to see if I can quit sharing.

[1:57:28] And open it up for questions.

[1:57:31] If you've got a question, you will need to unmute yourself. So throw Matt me. We'll see what we can

[1:57:39] figure out.

[1:57:50] It looks like there was a question in the chat. How long are the videos? I think the

[1:57:54] scan videos about eight minutes, the touch writer videos about 12 minutes. I am waiting for some

[1:58:02] videos from knowing they were in the process of updating some videos and they had hoped to have them

[1:58:10] out in the next week. So I might be able to forward you one for the pull pads as well.

[1:58:16] Bridget, I have one.

[1:58:20] Since we have to have the

[1:58:22] the bush keep a landing and a

[1:58:24] state's rush city do their own

[1:58:28] assisting with the voting.

[1:58:31] Do we pay them?

[1:58:35] I don't think you would be required to,

[1:58:38] because you're not hiring them,

[1:58:40] but I guess that would be between you

[1:58:42] between you and the health care facility.

[1:58:44] Okay, thanks.

[1:58:50] Brigitte, I have a question about the filing period for a school board

[1:58:54] candidacy. Okay. When you say that filing period is open, does that mean that

[1:59:01] our offices still have to be open during that time frame? Or is everything

[1:59:07] can be done electronically?

[1:59:11] If when when the filing period started for the

[1:59:16] primary. That's when the governor's order still had a lot of facilities closed. So the

[1:59:23] beginning part of our filing period was strictly either electronically, we had a drop box

[1:59:30] or we would do curbside with a candidate. So if the governor has ordered facilities closed,

[1:59:37] then I think you can have those alternate methods. Otherwise if you know if everything is open,

[1:59:43] you probably do need to have your normal business hours available available for people to file.

[1:59:50] Which is difficult to determine because we're going to have to be getting those notifications

[1:59:55] to the newspaper within the next couple of weeks.

[2:00:00] Do we just, do you have a recommendation? Do we just say that we're still open as usual or? I, I. Well, I mean, in your, in your notice to the paper, you just have to say when your filing period is, if you're going to use alternatives, like we really didn't know if our offices were going to be open, be able to be open until like three days before the filing period. So I had some procedures and options in place.

[2:00:27] And really, we didn't post that on our website,

[2:00:30] those different options as far as the drop box,

[2:00:35] electronic, all those different options that we use,

[2:00:39] until the Friday before.

[2:00:41] So, you know, as long as you have that information out there

[2:00:44] and available to people, I think you're fine.

[2:00:48] Okay, thank you.

[2:00:50] Other

[2:00:54] questions?

[2:00:58] I have a question on the I voted stickers.

[2:01:01] Yes, that was how we're going to handle those.

[2:01:06] I would, that's a challenging question.

[2:01:13] The Secretary of State's Office, when we did our county training, they had recommended a self-serve bin.

[2:01:22] I think a self-serve bin where everybody and their mother is dropping their hands into the bucket seems like a worse option.

[2:01:30] So, I mean, that's going to be a challenge.

[2:01:34] Maybe you cut them and set them on a table that somebody could grab one, rather than

[2:01:40] sticking their hand into a bin of them.

[2:01:44] But yeah, that's definitely a challenge, and maybe there'll be some recommendations in

[2:01:49] that CDC stuff for polling places once we get a little closer, but you really will have

[2:01:55] to decide what the best option will be. Bridget Sharon from Stacey couldn't we cut them apart and

[2:02:04] when we hand them their voter receipt, hand them the I voted sticker at the same time.

[2:02:09] And then they they would have it and then they can just leave.

[2:02:13] Yeah, that's a great idea.

[2:02:20] Bridget I have a question. This is Bobby from Sunrise.

[2:02:24] Okay. Is there a minimum amount of election voting booths that we have to

[2:02:29] have because ours are right next to each other and we don't have a lot of room to put to spread them

[2:02:34] apart. So are we, are you recommending like take half of them down and then only use half of them,

[2:02:41] or what are you recommending? The recommendation from the CDC is to maintain social distancing. So if

[2:02:47] that means blocking off some of your election, election moves, if they're permanently installed,

[2:02:53] that's what you'll have to do. You know, we can't, it's not a mandate, it's

[2:02:59] just those CDC recommendations. So we can have fewer rules. You will likely have to

[2:03:05] yes, which means that people will wait in line longer. Okay. Which will make

[2:03:10] them cranky. Yay, thank you Bridget. Oh, other

[2:03:20] questions. Will you be standing out

[2:03:24] the online training by email? The information is the online training by email?

[2:03:29] Yep, so it will have the link in there. Okay, great. Thank you.

[2:03:33] And I hope to have that out to you by the end of the week.

[2:03:40] Other questions?

[2:03:43] Hang on a second. I'm going to go grab the list from Kim on attendance and we'll run through that

[2:03:49] and make sure I've got everybody.

[2:04:15] So I'll run through the list and then if I've missed you,

[2:04:22] Either let me know if you have the ability to unmute yourself, otherwise shoot us an email.

[2:04:28] So I have Amy Mel, Andrea from Fish Lake, Ann Kessner, Arleigh Chambers, Becky and Kelly

[2:04:36] from Lent, Bobby Harrington, Faith Lickshidal, Jeanette Peterson, Jody Davis, Kelly Dumas,

[2:04:45] Missi-Glenna, Norma Anderson, Paula, I'm assuming Paula Omi, Regaini,

[2:04:54] Rename Mustetter, Rob, Linwood, Sharon Payne, Stersha, Suhockstetter, Terry Linde, Tom Thompson,

[2:05:05] Debbie Erickson in Tyrone, Joan from Schaefer, Steve, and then we have, let's see, two, four, six people on phones.

[2:05:20] So for those people that are on the phone, you'll need to send us an email of who you are.

[2:05:30] and then let's see there's a few people that we there's

[2:05:46] a I think that's about it okay I think I

[2:05:49] know we're most everybody's from on this list

[2:05:53] all right I see John Peckman anybody else Bridget

[2:05:58] yep Terry Lind was watching with me but she just had to leave yeah you got that okay Bridget

[2:06:08] Yep, Kelly Stork from National Townships.

[2:06:14] Okay.

[2:06:20] Anybody else have any other questions?

[2:06:26] Well, I appreciate all of you guys' hard work and efforts.

[2:06:29] I know this election cycle is going to come with challenges,

[2:06:33] but I know you guys are all up for it.

[2:06:36] If you have questions, please reach out to either Kim or I.

[2:06:41] We will do our best to get you an answer as quickly as possible.

[2:06:45] There's some unknowns out there right now, so we may have to do a little digging

[2:06:49] and figure out a best practice, but we will do our best to try and provide you with guidance.

[2:06:55] If it ultimately is a legal question, we aren't able to provide legal opinions,

[2:07:02] so I might encourage you to reach out to your city or township or school attorneys,

[2:07:09] but we will do our best to provide any guidance that we see from the Secretary of State's Office and that sort of things.

[2:07:16] So, if nobody else has any other questions, I will let you go just in time for lunch.

[2:07:25] Thank you, everybody.

[2:07:28] Thank you, Bridget. Thank you.

[2:07:30] Thank you, Bridget.

[2:07:32] Thank you.

[2:07:33] And if anybody wants the video, let me know.

[2:07:38] I think I do. This is Jody at the schools.

Clerks Election Meeting 06-09-2020

Transcript