TOWN OF SOUTH WINDSOR
MINUTES
TOWN COUNCIL WORK SESSION
COUNCIL CHAMBERS OCTOBER 3, 2006
SOUTH WINDSOR TOWN HALL TIME: 7:00 P.M.
1. Call Meeting to Order
Mayor Streeter called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
2. Roll Call
Members Present: Mayor Matthew Streeter
Deputy Mayor Thomas Delnicki
Councillor Edward Havens
Councillor Kevin McCann
Councillor Timothy Moriarty
Councillor John Pelkey
Councillor Cary Prague
Councillor Keith Yagaloff
Members Absent: Councillor Deborah Fine
Also Present: Town Manager Matthew Galligan
3. Public Participation - None
4. Communications - None
5. Town Manager’s Report - None
6. Items for Discussion
A. New LHS Optical Scan Voting Machines (and) IVS Voting System (Registrars of Voters to report)
Ms. Jan Murtha and Ms. Fran Knipple, Registrars of Voters gave an overview of the procedure. Ms. Murtha stated that as the person enters the polls, they will be directed to show their ID to a Checker. From that point they will go to a Ballot Clerk, who will give them a ballot and they will be directed to a privacy booth. In the privacy booth they will fill out the ballot by filling in the bubbles next to the person’s name. The privacy booth will have a privacy sleeve, a black marking pen,
6. A. (Continued)
and instructions on how to fill out the ballot. Once their ballot is completed, the person will bring their ballot over to the machine and insert it. Sample ballots were given to the Council so that they could sample a machine.
Ms. Murtha explained what happens when someone over votes. The machine rejects the ballot, and the machine Tender will tell the person what race the over voted in and that the person can get another ballot from the Ballot Clerk. The Ballot Clerk will tear off a section of the rejected ballot and mark it spoiled and put it into a secured envelope and the person is given another ballot. Every ballot must be accounted for.
If a person under votes, the machine will say what vote is missing and the person can go back to the privacy booth and fill in that bubble or they can tell the person running the machine that they would like the ballot to go through the way it is.
Ms. Knipple explained how to override the machine. Ms. Knipple and Ms. Murtha discussed the security issues and the precautions taken with making sure the machine is accounted for at all times.
Various questions were answered for the Council.
One of the main concerns that was raised and discussed at length was the privacy issue of someone possibly seeing a ballot that was not accepted by the machine. Ms. Knipple explained that the person working the machine would only know why the machine didn’t accept the ballot and inform the person of what the problem was and if the person wanted to fix the ballot, they would be the one to pick their ballot up. Ms. Murtha explained the privacy sleeve. Ms. Murtha also explained that this is not new technology, it has been used in New Hampshire for 30 years, in Massachusetts for 15 years, and it has been used in Vermont. She also said that it has been used in Vernon for their referendums and absentee ballots.
Ms. Knipple said that in 1994 South Windsor was one of the Towns that were able to have the pilot program. She said that at the end of voting they did a survey that was volunteer and the majority of the people liked the machines.
Ms. Murtha explained that information regarding the districts are on the Town’s website and they have been and continue to do voter outreach by going to the Chamber dinner on Thursday, September 28; Geisslers on Saturday, September 30; Stop & Shop on Sunday, October 1; they will be going to all of the PTOs; have gone to the Senior Center twice; Heritage Day on Saturday, October 7; Open House for the Fire Department on Sunday, October 8; and they will be covering a
6. A. (Continued)
couple of the political events that are open to the public. Councillor Prague suggested that they also go to Family Awareness Day.
Ms. Murtha and Ms. Knipple explained for Councillor Pelkey the matter of what form of identification is needed and how that is determined. They informed him that anyone that needs to provide a certain type of identification, those people received information in the mail.
There was some discussion regarding the memory cards.
Deputy Mayor Delnicki asked the Town Manager if the video that the Registrars has can be put on Public Access Television and on the Town’s website. Town Manager Galligan said that he would have Scott Roberts look into it.
Ms. Murtha said that the LHS Company is coming to train the moderators and assistants on October 17 at 6:00 p.m. in the Madden Room. That will be a 2 hour course and then she will be teaching a 1 hour course on the handicapped voting machine. She invited the Council to attend.
Ms. Murtha explained the handicapped voting machine, which is the IVS Voting System. She said that it is the system, per the HAVA Act, that every town has to have a handicapped voting machine in all polling places come November. She said that they are still waiting for the lines to come in and ordered that they be put in on the 9th.
Ms. Murtha stated that the only people that will probably need to use this machine are those that have seeing problems. She explained that the Federal Government is paying for it, because it is extremely costly.
Ms. Murtha said that she attended a training meeting on how to teach this. She said that it is still unclear on whether or not these machines will be able to be used on the Municipal years financially with Federal money. She also said that the Secretary of State only signed a one year contract because they are not sure how everything is going to go.
She also said that it will take a handicapped voter between 10 and 20 minutes to vote on this system.
6. A. (Continued)
Ms. Murtha explained what pieces of equipment have been received so far. She also confirmed for Mayor Streeter that most things have been paid for by the Federal Government, but there are a few things that the Town will have to pay for, which includes storage space for the old machines and some storage cabinets. She estimated that the cost should be less than $3,000.00.
Ms. Knipple explained who had keys to the storage cabinets and that security is not an issue.
The issue of what do people do that are using the new LHS Scan machine that are hard of hearing or do not speak English. Ms. Murtha and Ms. Knipple explained that anyone is welcome to bring someone of their choice to assist them as long as it is not their Union Leader or boss.
7. Executive Session – None
8. Adjournment
At 7:50 p.m., a motion to adjourn was made by Deputy Mayor Delnicki; was duly seconded by Councillor Pelkey; and approved, unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Vanessa Perry
Assistant to the Clerk of the Council
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