Apr 4, 2007 Minutes For Citizens' Advisory Committee

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
CITIZEN’S ADVISORY COMMITTEE
In conjunction with
Voter’s Registration Office

Meeting Minutes
April 4, 2007 – 6:30 p.m.


The scheduled meeting of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee was held at 6:35 p.m. on April 4, 2007, in the County Council Meeting Room #307.


WELCOME –
Chair Russ Shade welcomed everyone to this meeting.

Roll Call

Mr. Conklin gave the roll and the following members were present:
Jack Bradt Russ Shade Greta Browne (Late-7:00 p.m.)
Richard Benner

Motion to approve minutes from February 28, 2007. Motion seconded. Motion carried.

Courtesy of the Floor

Will Power, currently running for Northampton County Council, gave praise to the Voter Registration Office.

Old Business

Surveys

Overwhelmingly positive.
Experiences with the Voter Registration Office were very positive.
Issues can be dealt with some different approaches in training, additional personnel, etc.
Summary of Surveys reviewed with Committee
Survey results will be sent to the Voter Registration Office.

Letter to PA Department of State

Sent to Henry A. Van Sickle, Commissioner. He replied with a description of the certification process. Basically, he said the machines were not certified going into the November General election. State afterwards examined the tapes and everything functioned as it should and the General election results were certified.

New Business:

Will these machines satisfy the needs across the County? It will be monitored closely.
Difficulty with the machines due to the large ballot discussed. It takes time to change from Democrat to Republican causing some slowness. Processor upgrade is needed to resolve the issue will be in place for the November General election. This particular upgrade will necessitate required certification at the national and state levels; therefore due to time constraints the State DOS will not permit it to be in place for the Primary election.
This is the last public meeting of the Committee. The Committee will meet once or twice privately to assemble their list of recommendations and write a report for the County Executive.

Courtesy of the Floor

Large ballot issue discussed again.
Pay of poll workers should be addressed or schedule the staff accordingly to allow for dinner breaks, etc.
Suggestion for a greater oversight of wrongdoings instead of it being another candidate’s responsibility to identify the errors. Wrongdoings should be made public.
Suggestion for a document warning “what not to do”. Voter Registration information is sometimes used improperly and it should be exposed when it occurs.
The Green Party candidates and Green Party officials from last year did not receive surveys. It was an oversight and not done deliberately.
Optical Scanner was suggested as a means to address the paper trail issues.
Life expectancy of the new machines questioned.
John Stoffa thanked the committee for all its time and hard work.
Counties should work together in approaching the State.

Meeting Adjourned.

Motion to adjourn, seconded, meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.