1999-08-25 Charter Commission Minutes (2)

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minutes 8-25-99Page 29 of 60 RAY: Okay, excuse me. A follow-up in regard to the cycle of going into next year elections and how all that would work. KOZOHARA: I don’t have anything earth shaking to say but after the ‘79 election, which was 20 years ago, I made a critique to my bosses that because of the low turnout and because of the cost, that we should have Special Elections held together with the General, and that was 20 years ago and I still make that same recommendation to this body. RAY: Sue. IRVINE: It was mentioned that I have been observing at elections for probably 20 years. I think I was there in ‘79 too. I can’t remember. But I’ve been through the punch cards. I can’t imagine us even dreaming of trying to use punch cards again to try to count elections. We were just praying that the equipment wouldn’t fall apart and that the volunteers who were taking care of it could work with those old cards. People who’d been to college in the 60's and did their punch cards then and they were still trying to use these machines. The other thing is, I’m not confident without a paper trail, as far as elections are concerned, yet. If we hadn’t had a paper trail for our last election, we would have had the public in real doubt about the integrity of the electoral system. RAY: Daryl. KUROZAWA: Just for the record, for the Commission, we spoke, when we first started meeting, about the possibility of doing election by mail, and according to our rules, if we just had a County election, would that be possible or would that be totally - KONISHI: I don’t believe that’s possible. There was a bill at the Legislature but it did not pass to authorize that. RAY: Marni. HERKES: I’ve worked in the elections for probably the last six elections, well I’ve worked in them for a long time and I want to compliment you on your training crew. They are excellent and I can’t imagine any of them going home and crying. They sent us home to cry but none of them go home at night and cry. They are really very good. They do it fast. They do it efficiently. They make us shut up. They make us listen and they make us read the books, so thank you very much for that. I just wanted to say that before we went through. RAY: George. MARTIN: Question. Take the Special Election out of your mind. Forget about it for a moment. KOZOHARA: Thank you. MARTIN: On a serious note, when do we need to be finished for you to place it on the ballot of the next election? KOZOHARA: More important than that, you’d have to decide the date of the election, if you’re going to have an election, first. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 8-25-99.html7/1/2011