Entries from January 2009
Do you love to take photography? Do you have some pictures laying around in box somewhere? We’re looking for some great images that showcase San Mateo County — they can be of landscapes, homes, picturesque views, golf courses, businesses, urban imagery…pretty much anything. Our only requirement is that the photos be of San Mateo County.
Here’s some samples of what we have now (taken by our own Greta McElroy-White of the Elections Office):
Some legal stuff:
By submitting a photo, you acknowledge that we have permission to post it on our blog and our website. You would retain full copyright privileges…just make sure that you have the copyright privileges to begin with! We want your personal photos, not copies of someone else’s please! We do have the right to refuse photos.
To submit your images, email electwebadmin@smcare.org. Make sure to include your name, contact information, and a short description of your included images. Any questions? Just send it to electwebadmin@smcare.org!
We look forward to seeing San Mateo County through your eyes!
Categories: Graphics · Outreach · Web Stuff We Like
Tagged: blog, photos, San Mateo County, submit images, website
Reader Christopher Schmidt suggested that we take our Twitter feed and create blog stories out of it. We’re taking that suggestion to heart today as we tell you more about a “tweet” we posted on January 21 about a grant request we’re writing.
On December 9, 2008, the California Secretary of State’s office released a “Request for Application” for the “08-021 – VOTE Grant Program.” The VOTE (Voting Access for Individuals with Disabilities) Grant Program was previously known as “Elections Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities” or EAID.
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) has designated funds for improving voting accessibility to voters with disabilities. Using previously available funds, our Elections Office was able to mitigate various types of voting accessibility issues such as providing eSlates with “sip-n-puff” and “jelly switch” capabilities, curbside assistance, and more.
With additional grant monies, our office is hoping to make greater strides towards improving accessibility and empowerment for disabled voters. We want to be able to do things like provide ramps at polling places, improve Election Officer training on accessibility issues, reach out to disabled voters through better communication, and remind disabled voters of transportation options like SAMTRANS paratransit for rides to polling places.
Our grant application is due on January 30, so we’re working hard to get the application just right before we submit it. We’re actually working with leaders in the disability community to develop our application. Input from organizations like the Commission on Disabilities’ Ad Hoc Committee helps us identify and target the specific needs of disabled voters, allowing our understanding and mitigation of issues to be realistic and valuable. This organization has given us their full support and has even written a letter of support to accompany our grant application.
Want to check out the actual RFA? Visit http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/hava/vote-grant-rfa.pdf.
Categories: Outreach · Poll workers · Polling place · Reform · Voting · legislation
Tagged: disabled voters, grant funding, grants, HAVA
As I’m sure most of our readers have noticed, the San Mateo County Elections Office has been making strides towards becoming more transparent through the use of “Web 2.0.”
Our latest effort was becoming a part of the Twitter world.
On it’s home page, Twitter is self-described as a “service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” Updates are limited to 140 characters.
But one look inside the Twitter world, and its plainly evident that Twitter has grown from a simple tool for staying connected with family, friends, and co-workers, to an all-out social networking tool for people to connect with others around the globe to share tips, information, news, and general niceties. It’s truly become a marketing tool.
At the Elections Office, it’s been a great way for us to obtain and pass on quick bits of information pertaining to Elections or general government. Even California’s Secretary of State Debra Bowen has office accounts for the SOS Department to release Advisories to County Elections Officials (also known as CCROVs), as well as her own account for more personal and direct communication.
More than several of our election officers are on our “Followers” list, as are voters registered in the County. Using this service, they can ask us direct questions and we can (usually) immediately reply.
Overall, the social media networking world has been a positive experience for the Elections office, and we hope to continue to make greater strides towards transparency and openness.
By the way — If you haven’t seen our Twitter feed, you can visit it at http://twitter.com/smcvote.
Categories: Elections Office · Outreach · Web Stuff We Like
January 20, 2009 · 1 Comment
Our Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum was able to travel to Washington D.C. for the President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Our website, www.shapethefuture.org, as well as our twitter site at www.twitter.com/smcvote will be updated throughout the day with posts from Mr. Slocum direct from Washington as he witnesses the inaugural climate firsthand.
Make sure to check out these sites to keep up-to-date with Mr. Slocum!
www.warrenslocum.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/smcvote
www.shapethefuture.org
Categories: Outreach · Shape the Future
Tagged: inauguration, Jan. 20, Obama, President Barack Obama, Warren Slocum
The Secretary of State sent an advisory to county elections officials today, notifying us that a petition circulating to make Election Day a holiday failed to obtain the required amount of voter signatures.
Here’s the actual text from the petition:
ELECTION DAY HOLIDAY. INITIATIVE STATUTE, Declares a state holiday on
Election Day – the Tuesday following the first Monday in November during men-numbered
years. Sum- of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on
state and local government: Increased state costs once every two years of up to $20 miIlion.
(Initiative 08-001 3.)
Want to learn more about the initiative process? Check out this link from the CA Secretary of State’s website!
Categories: Campaigns/Political parties · Election Day/Night · legislation
Tagged: Election Day, election day holiday, initiatives, petitions
Lupe Sanchez, our filing officer, is the go-to person for all things filing related.
Persons interested in running as candidates for open seats, jurisdictions interested in holding elections, and officials and committees continuing in active status would contact Lupe to submit required paperwork and gather information about pending deadlines.
Lupe can be reached at 650-312-5293 or lsanchez@smcare.org.
Lately, our office has been the recipient of visits from various committees who are all trying to meet the deadline to submit their semi-annual 460s (Campaign Finance Statement Disclosures). Lupe’s been busy ensuring that their paperwork is fully complete, signed by the correct persons, date stamped, and filed by our office.
She’s also been getting calls from various jurisdictions inquiring about possible upcoming election dates and costs. Elections Code 1500 states that the first Tuesday following the first Monday in May of all years is a designated date for all-mail ballot elections. The deadline to submit a resolution to conduct an election in May is Feb. 6 at 5 p.m.
Unless the state calls for a special election for the budget, May 5 is the earliest possible date for an election this year.
Right now, the only confirmed election is scheduled for Nov. 3. For more information about the election in November, read our previous post.
Want more information about the Elections Code, which outlines our procedures listed above? Visit the online Elections Code reference site at http://tinyurl.com/7zf2ka.
Categories: Campaigns/Political parties · Elections Office · Web Stuff We Like · candidate filing · legislation
Tagged: candidate filing, Elections Code, elections staff, filing officer, lupe sanchez
Our previous post touched on the topic of certified destruction and recycling of unused elections material. We’ve gotten a couple requests for more information, so let’s delve into the topic a little deeper.
Before our vendor, Northern California Paper Recyclers, picks up the material for recycling, we do our part to first deface items like ballot paper. We take indelible markers and strike through each sheet. That’s our role in the “destruction” process. Once the material is in the vendor’s hands, they have their own process. Here’s an excerpt from their website:
Northern California Paper Recyclers, Inc. has one of the largest secondary paper processing plants in the State of California.
We have been under the scrutiny and walkthroughs of our destruction process from various departments from the U.S. Federal Government, State of California, and Bay Area County Services, as well as Hospitals and various Legal Institutions. We have been in the business for years; we are the professionals to choose.
We are a fully liability insured company and also carry additional insurance to cover the handling of confidential material in regards to compliancy of HIPPA, (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996) as well as GLBA. (Gramm-Leach-Baily Acct of 1999)
Employees are only allowed to enter and exit the building from the front entrance to start and end their workday. Supervisors monitor them as they check in and out each work period.
The material destruction process is constantly monitored by floor supervisors or managers.
The yard of our plant is enclosed by a chain link fence topped with a string of barbed wire. All of our metal rolling doors are chain locked by a prearranged time each work day.
All employees are monitored as they leave the building then one final walk through of the plant is completed by supervisors or managers. The building entrances are then secured and the security system is set. We use maximum security procedures to ensure that any materials sitting in our plant are secured from unauthorized viewing.
Destruction Procedures
1) Your documents or electronic media can either be delivered to our facility or be picked up in our enclosed trucks by our drivers.
2) Upon delivery to our plant in Hayward, the truck containing your confidential, and other recyclable materials, is unloaded and immediately weighed.
3) The material is then forwarded to our high speed, high volume shredder where in most cases, it is shredded in less than 24 hours.
4) The shredded material is then commingled with thousands of pounds of paper from other sources, bailed, and shipped directly to the mill [for pulping].
5) For each pickup of confidential material we process, a certificate of destruction is issued that guarantees the destruction and confidentiality of your documents.
The company we use is “diamond-certified,” which is a certification process that helps ensure maintenance and adherence to their quality of service standards.
Regarding “used” ballot materials, we store the election materials like voted ballots in our secured warehouse for the designated time frame. For federal elections, it is 22 months, and it’s six months for state elections. Once the “destroy date” is reached, the material goes through the certified destruction process.
When materials are destroyed, our vendor sends a “Certificate of Destruction” to our offices for record purposes.
Categories: Ballots · Elections Office · Uncategorized
Northern California Paper Recyclers, Inc., arrives this week to conduct certified destruction and recycling of unused ballot paper stock.
They’ve already come and conducted the certified recycling of materials during the November 2008 Presidential General Election, but now they are coming to pick up materials that remained unused. The unused ballot paper stock that’s being picked up this week had been stored in a secured location within the Elections Office.
Once the material is destroyed and recycled, Northern California Paper Recyclers will provide the Elections Office with a “Certificate of Destruction” for our records.
In the “quiet period” between elections, the Elections Office does much to organize and prepare for future craziness. You’ve read about our efforts to keep up-to-date on voter registration and update policies and procedures, and general archiving. Part of these efforts included the organization of our secured locations, resulting in the need to discard the unused ballot paper stock.
As of now, there are no other scheduled elections for 2009 until November. However, until then, our office will continue tomake these efforts to maintain and improve operations.
Categories: Ballots · Elections Office
Tagged: certified recycling, Election Procedures, unused ballot paper
