Sedgwick County Voter Coalition Recommendations

League of Women Voters^®
Wichita - Metro

Recommendations to Election Commissioner Bill Gale about improvements for the November 2006 General Elections

Open Letter. Voting Recommendations. Appendix I.

Open Letter to Sedgwick County Election Commissioner

August 18, 2006
Mr. Bill Gale
Sedgwick County Election Commissioner
Sedgwick County Election Office
510 N. Main, Suite 101
Wichita, KS 67203

Dear Mr. Gale:
Earlier this week, the Sedgwick County Voter Coalition (SCVC) provided you with a copy of our final report documenting the observations we and voters made concerning the first county-wide Election Day test of the new polling sites, equipment, and procedures after the recent consolidation by your office. We hope you have or will soon read the report.
Today, the coalition presents you with our final formal recommendations for changes and improvements in the administration of elections for the November 2006 General Election. We ask that you read our recommendations and take action to implement them prior to the November General Election.
We would appreciate hearing from your office within 30 days indicating the changes and enhancements you intend to make prior to the November election. We have similarly asked County Manager Buchanan to respond indicating the measures the County will be taking.
We thank you in advance for your kind attention to this very important matter. We look forward to hearing from your office. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments about our recommendations.
Sincerely,
Betty Ladwig & Ernestine Krehbiel
Co-Chairs, SCVC
cc: Secretary Ron Thornburgh
Bill Buchanan, County Manager
Robert Lamkey, Public Safety Director
Board of County Commissioners

Recommendations for the November 2006 General Election

Based on our observations of the August Primary Election and comments made by numerous concerned voters, the Sedgwick County Voter Coalition makes the following formal recommendations for changes and improvements in the administration of elections for the November General Election:
1. Restore polling sites throughout the county based on a uniform standard of no more than 3,000 registered voters per poll site AND each polling location within 2 miles of any given voter's home. Schools and other public facilities should be given preference when designating (or re-designating) polling locations.
2. Sites designated for the civic act of selecting elected political officials should be public facilities(1). Voters fulfilling their civic duty must not feel intimated or ill at ease about voting on account of the nature or normal purpose of the venue where voting is to occur. The coalition asks that existing and future polling sites be placed in public facilities, such as public schools. The great majority of the 92 K-12 facilities in USD 259 are formally ADA-compliant and are, in general, in locations as convenient as the designated polling sites. There are also 17 senior centers and six neighborhood community recreation centers in the county not presently designated as polling sites that could also be utilized.
3. Poll sites should be secure and dedicated exclusively to voting. In situations where polling sites are located in places of worship or religious-affiliated facilities, the Election Commissioner's office should direct poll staff to remove or cover all religious and political literature in the area designated for voting.
4. Assure that all existing and/or potential polling sites are both formally and practically accessible by all voters. Voters with disabilities must be assured convenient and practical access to the polling area at all polling sites. Polling sites should also be within short walking distance to bus stops for voters dependent on public transportation.
5. Ensure that polling areas within facilities are of sufficient physical size and climate controlled for the comfort of poll workers and voters (2).
6. Expand satellite advance voting sites in areas of high population density and include high foot-traffic locations such as large commercial facilities. Satellite advance voting should be available, at a minimum, from 8 AM to 8 PM on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday prior to the election. Advance voting should also be available at all satellite locations on the Monday prior to Election Day as other large Kansas counties have done successfully.
7. Guarantee voters' right to vote in private in accordance with KSA 25-2703, KSA 25-1310, KSA 25-1327, and KSA 25-1332 (3). The Election Commissioner's office must establish uniform guidelines mandating that voting machines be arranged at each polling site to eliminate unscreened paths behind machines and to prevent voters (and those waiting to vote) from being able to see the screen on any given machine in use. The Commissioner, working with elected and appointed County officials, should procure and make available to all supervising judges materials necessary to ensure voter privacy--e.g., power extension cords, materials and assembly instructions for privacy screens or booths.
8. Devise and implement an active marketing strategy of polling sites and the new machines. Working with elected and appointed County officials, the active marketing strategy devised by the Election Commissioner's office should include, but not be limited to, the following:

Mail large, brightly colored cards to all voters identifying their designated Election Day polling site as well as information on advance voting options--mail-in ballot and satellite voting--prior to start of advance voting
Produce additional PSAs as well as paid advertisements
Conduct demonstrations of new machines throughout the county with a special emphasis on educating individuals who have limited technological savvy
Produce a virtual interactive or streaming video voting machine tutorial on the county website
Produce a 5-10 minute video explaining how to use the new machines, as well as providing other relevant voting information, and place it in heavy rotation on Cox Channel 7
Contact and coordinate with school districts throughout the county to educate high school students of, or near, voting age
Aid the print media by providing detailed, accurate county precinct maps for publication on or about Election Day

9. Ensure the consistent and uniform administration of provisional ballots by poll workers at all polling sites. In addition to circumstances when a provisional ballot is mandatory, poll worker training should require that the option of completing a provisional ballot be extended to all voters whose names do not appear in the registration book at any given site (4). Additionally, poll workers must be required to inform voters that not all provisional ballots cast will count and may not include contests specific to their home address.
10. Develop uniform procedures for and provide additional accurate, user-friendly county-wide poll site tools to poll workers on Election Day so they can accurately and efficiently assist confused voters identify their proper polling site. The procedures and tools developed to address confused or "lost" voters should be a point of emphasis in the training of poll workers.
11. Ensure voting accuracy and security by requiring supervisory judges at all polling sites to perform random periodic audits of touch-screen machine tallies against the paper trails of the machines being audited throughout Election Day.
12. The physical size of poll site-identifying signage, especially signs at street entrances, should exceed the standards established by election law.
13. Reduce the length of the work day for poll workers from 15 to 8 hours. Require supervisory judges to work the full Election Day, with the option of two shifts for other poll workers (5). Creating a shorter work day and schedule flexibility would likely increase the available pool of poll workers and, more importantly, ensure less fatigued and error-prone workers. According the Secretary of State's office, the amount of time a poll worker must work on Election Day is not explicitly stated in statute.
14. County officials, both elected and appointed, should once again provide whatever assistance is necessary and practicable to aid the Election Commissioner with changes and improvements to the election process. Further, since low voter turnout for the primary did not achieve a real test of the capacity and limits of the new equipment and poll site consolidation, SCVC requests that the County Manager's program of deploying trained county staff to provide assistance at polling sites to poll workers and voters continue and expand for the November General Election.

Footnotes
(1) Sixty three (63) polling sites have been designated for the November General Election. Only thirty five (35) percent of polling sites are located in public and/or community facilities and only one is located in a school-related site. Fully 65% of polling sites are located in places of worship or religious-affiliated facilities. See Appendix 1.
(2) During the primary election, the polling area at the Evergreen Recreation Center was in a cramped room (about 18 ft by 20 ft) that was not air-conditioned. Instead the site was cooled by one industrial fan.
(3) KSA 25-2703 requires that "County election officers shall arrange for voting places...to enable the voters to prepare their ballots, screened from observation....Each booth shall be designed so as to protect the privacy of the voter." KSA 25-1310 states that "[a] kind or make of voting machine approved by the secretary of state:... must provide for voting in absolute secrecy in voting, except as to persons entitled to assistance." KSA 25-1327 requires that "[a]ll voting machines used in any election shall be provided with a screen, hood or booth which shall conceal the voter and his action while voting." KSA 25-1332 requires that "[e]ach voting machine shall be placed at least three (3) feet from every wall and partition of the voting place and from any other voting machine, and at least four (4) feet from the table of the election board and other furniture."
(4) "When there is any doubt about a voter's eligibility to vote at the precinct where the voter attempts to vote, a provisional ballot should be provided, even if the voter is apparently unqualified. The facts of the matter can be investigated after election day before the county canvass." [KSA 25-409] Source: http://www.kssos.org/forms/elections/election_standards/ChapII-ElecAdmin.pdf at p. 49.
(5) SCVC's recommendation is supported by the findings and recommendations of a comprehensive empirical study of election administration processes completed by the League of Women Voters Kansas in 2003. Analysis of survey responses from election administrators in 101 or 105 Kansas counties led LWV-Kansas to adopt a consensus position that the option of split shifts for poll workers (excluding supervisory judges) on Election Day should be required. See http://www.lwvk.org/files/ea.pdf

Appendix I

APPENDIX 1: 2006 General Election Polling Places (as of August 16, 2006)

Polling Place Name Address Registered Voters Assigned

Andale City Building 326 N Main 743

Bel Aire City Building Community Room 7654 E Central Park 4,163

Bentley City Hall 150 S Wichita 565

Calvary Baptist Church, Derby 7600 E 63rd St S 4,174

Center for Health and Wellness 2707 E 21st St N 3,203

Central Christian Church 2900 N Rock Road 5,229

Cheney Fire Station 525 N Main 1,631

Christ the King Church-Charity Hall 4413 W Maple 3,704

Church of the Holy Spirit, Goddard 18218 W Highway 54 3,531

Colwich City Building 310 S 2nd St 1,106

Congregation Emanu-El 7011 E Central Ave 2,516

Country Acres Baptist Church 8810 W 10th St N 4,227

Countryside Christian Church 1919 S Rock Rd 4,368

Dawson United Methodist Church 2741 Laura 3.353

Eastborough City Hall 1 Douglas Ave 588

Eastminster Presbyterian Church 1958 N Webb Rd 3,939

Edgemoor Recreation Center 5815 E 9th St N 4,164

Evergreen Recreation Center 2700 Woodland 2,956

Faith Christian Church 2110 W 45th St S 4,501

First Baptist Church, Mulvane 1020 N 2nd Ave 3,163

First Baptist Church, Wichita 315 N Broadway 3,111

First Christian Church, Haysville 7465 S Meridian 3,574

First Mennonite Brethren Church 8000 W 21st St N 5,060

First United Pentecostal Church 1755 E MacArthur Rd 3,595

Glenn Park Christian Church 2757 S Glenn 4.154

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church 1101 River Blvd 5,209

Grace Presbyterian Church 5002 E Douglas 4,663

Greenwich Road Church of Christ 1746 S Greenwich Rd 5,110

Haysville Activity Center 7106 S Broadway 2,501

Health Department Administrative Center 1900 E 9th St N 3,812

Holy Cross Lutheran Church 600 N Greenwich Rd 3,886

Independent Living Resource Center 3033 W 2nd St N 4,111

Kechi City Building 220 W Kechi Rd 2,067

Larsen Community Center, Mount Hope 105 S Ohio 585

Linwood Recreation Center 1901 S Kansas 4,899

Machinists Building 3830 S Meridian 3,562

Maize Community Building 401 Khedive 1,670

Maranatha Worship Center 888 S Webb Rd 4,904

Metro East Baptist Church 333 N 143rd St E 5,351

Midway Baptist Church 5135 S Broadway 4,660

Mount Saint Mary's Convent 3700 E Lincoln 3,785

Northside Church of Christ 4545 N Meridian 4,397

Olivet Baptist Church 3440 W 13th St N 4,618

Park City Senior Center 6100 N Hydraulic 3,917

Park Place Assembly of God 2139 S Maize Rd 4,397

Pilgrim Congregational Church 6000 E Harry 3,424

Pleasantview Baptist Church, Derby 1335 N Buckner 4,683

Public Safety Building, Valley Center 616 E 5th St 4,040

Refromation Lutheran Church Parish Hall 7601 E 13th St N 4,196

Sedgwick County Zoo Learning Center 5555 Zoo Blvd 5,037

Sharon Baptist Church 2221 S Oliver 4,401

St Andrew's Lutheran Church 2555 Hyacinth Ln 4,624

St Anthony's Parish Hall, Garden Plain 635 N Main 1,017

St Elizabeth Ann Seton School 645 N 119th St N 4,948

United Methodist Church, Clearwater 130 N 1st St 2,388

Viola Community Hall Highway 49 306

West Evangelical Free Church 1161 N Maize Rd 4,525

West Side Church of God 1900 McCormick 4,469

Westlink Christian Church 2001 N Maize Rd 5,025

Westlink Church of Christ 10025 W Central 4,682

Westwood Presbyterian Church 8007 W Maple 4,083

Woodlawn United Methodist Church, Derby 431 S Woodlawn Blvd 4,577

WSU Metropolitan Complex 5015 E 29th St N 3,916

Source: Sedgwick County Election Office

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