Minutes
State Board of Elections Meeting
State Capitol, Pierre
December 17, 2003
The meeting was called to order by chair
Chris Nelson at 8:00a.m.on December 17, 2003 with the
following members responding:
Present
Absent
Chris
Nelson Gail Brock
Nelva Kristofferson
Linda Lea Viken
Carol Klumper
Karen Layher
Beth Benning
Kea Warne, Jennifer Jacobson and Chad
Heinrich, Secretary of State's staff; Julie Pearson,
Pennington County; Sue Roust, Minnehaha County;
Jodean Joy; Ken
Herricks, Pierre City Finance
Officer; Dwight Neuharth,
Executive Director SDACO; Joseph
Tallone and Mike Ma, Avante
International Technology Representatives.
Moved by Viken
and seconded to approve the minutes of the May 15th,
2003 meeting.
Passed.
Moved by Layher
and seconded to approve Sequoia Voting Systems AVC Edge DRE
4.1B. Passed
Moved by Brock and seconded to approve the
minor changes in the operating firmware for ES&S model 100
OMR Precinct Counter Versions 4.7.5 & 4.7.6. Passed
Joseph Tallone
and Mike Ma were present from Avante
International Technology, Inc. seeking certification for the
Vote-Trakker DRE 4.7.4. Mr. Ma
and Mr. Tallone demonstrated the
system including the card activator unit, voter cards,
and the printing unit. Mr. Ma presented a document
stating that the system meets each of the certification
criteria but that they were demonstrating the 4.7.4 version
instead of the NASED certified 4.7.3 version. Mr. Ma gave
the board a copy of the review summary for the 4.7.4 and
stated they were in the last phases for certification. All
other criteria appeared to be met by the unit with the
possible exception of ARSD 5:02:09:02.02(10) which requires
the unit to meet the disability voting requirements of the
Help America Vote Act. It is unclear at this time whether
the Act requires DRE machines to have the capability to
accommodate "puff and sip" technology for disabled access.
Board members and members of the audience test voted on the
DRE.
Moved by Viken
and seconded to certify
Avante International
Technology’s Vote-Trakker 4.7.4
DRE with the provision that they submit the NASED
certification number for the 4.7.4 before the certification
would be issued and that if it is determined by the Election
Assistance Commission that "puff and sip" compatibility is a
requirement of HAVA, the certification of this model would
be revoked.
Passed.
Discussion and action was taken on several
legislative proposals as follows:
Moved by Viken
and seconded to amend the proposed change to SDCL 12-19-2 by
adding that the copy of the voter’s identification card not
be public record and also adding back into this section the
federal requirement to send out an absentee ballot for each
federal election through two general elections to voters
covered by the Uniform and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting
Act. Passed.
Moved by Brock and seconded to amend the
proposed changes to SDCL 9-13-6, 9-13-7, 9-13-9, 13-7-5,
13-7-6 and 13-7-10.2 by moving the filing process back two
weeks. It was also suggested to change the word “desires”
in 13-7-6 to read “specifies on the petition”. Petition
filing deadline if mailed by registered or certified mail by
five p.m. on the Friday four weeks before the election was
changed to read “five and a half weeks”.
Passed.
Moved by Viken
and seconded to amend the proposed changes to SDCL
12-20-13.1 and 12-20-13.3 by changing the wording to state
“the person in charge of the election” instead of referring
to each county auditor for determining the time for
provisional ballot count and added clarification of which
notifications are given for certain elections. Passed
Moved by Layher
and seconded to amend the proposed change to SDCL 13-8-23 by
changing (4) to read “His ceasing to be
a resident of the school district or representation
area where elected” to clarify an event causing a vacancy on
a school board. Passed
Moved by Viken
and seconded to amend the proposed change to SDCL 13-8-7 and
13-8-7.1 to remove similar wording that has already been
removed from other statutes pertaining to incorporated and
unincorporated representation areas for school board
members. Passed
Moved by Brock and seconded to amend the
proposed change to SDCL 9-13-7 to remove business address as
a requirement on a municipal petition. Passed
Moved by Layher
and seconded to amend the proposed changes to SDCL 9-13-9 to
remove the word “subdivision” throughout this statute and
add “A petition signer in municipalities of the third class
is not restricted in the number of petitions which the
person may sign.” Passed
Moved by Viken
and seconded to amend the proposed changes to SDCL 9-13-21
and 13-7-13 to state how many ballots a finance officer and
business manager provide for their elections. The
suggestion was made to make the wording regarding the ballot
position determination to be identical in both statutes.
Passed
No action was taken on the proposed section
of SDCL 12-18.
Moved by Brock and seconded to amend the
proposed changes to SDCL 12-18-9 by prohibiting a candidate
from serving as a pollwatcher in
the polling place where that candidate is on the ballot and
stating the candidate may only be present to
cast their own vote during
voting hours. Clarify proposed change to not exclude
candidate from counting process. Passed
with majority vote. Viken
wanted us to look at putting these proposed changes in SDCL
12-18-3 and Nelson said he would look at that.
Moved by Brock and seconded to add the
proposed section to Title 12 to define the Election
Equipment Replacement Fund. Passed
Moved by Viken
and seconded to amend the proposed changes to SDCL 13-27-6.1
to allow a student at least 18 years old and is an appointed
precinct election official during an election, to be excused
from school. Passed
Moved by Brock and seconded to add the
proposed section to SDCL 12-19 to allow a voter to fax the
absentee ballot application back to the person in charge of
the election. This proposed section would require the voter
to supply a phone or fax number that the person in charge of
the election shall attempt to call if the application is not
legible. Jodean Joy gave the
presentation for this proposed legislation. Nelson added
that we should put an emergency clause on this bill to
ensure the voters serving in the military the opportunity to
use this in the special congressional election and the June
1st primary election. Passed
Moved by Viken
and seconded to add the proposed section to SDCL 12-4 to
allow a person that is a victim of domestic abuse or
stalking to use the mailing address for the Office of
Secretary of State for voter registration and absentee
ballot purposes. Viken wants
the amendment to include “adjudicated victim”. Nelson will
have representative from States Attorney’s Association to
review this to see if “adjudicate” should be included.
Passed with amendments
Moved by Layher
and seconded to amend the proposed
changes to SDCL 12-18-6.1 to allow a high school
identification card to be included as a valid form of
personal identification. Changes at the
beginning of this section to read “At the time of the
request for a ballot, the voter shall present a valid form
of personal identification”. Passed
Moved by Brock and seconded to amend the
proposed changes to SDCL 12-17B-7 to have the instructions
be given if requested, for the proper procedure for marking
the ballot in jurisdictions that use automatic tabulating
equipment. Passed
Moved by Viken
and seconded to have Nelson promulgate rules if he finds it
necessary in order to obtain gubernatorial votes in each
district. Our office with check with the
county that combined the votes to direct him to use a
procedure where the breakdown of votes can be accurately
recorded. Passed
Moved by Layher and seconded to amend the
proposed change to SDCL 12-1-4 to remove the thirty day
durational residency requirement. This requirement is not
allowed under federal law for federal elections. Passed
Moved by Brock and seconded to amend the
proposed changes to SDCL 12-11-3 to move the filing deadline
date for independent candidates and party nominations to the
first Tuesday in April or the second Tuesday in August if
combined with primary or general election. This proposal
also contains and emergency clause. Passed
The Board discussed the question as to
whether or not the new voting system by Vogue Election
System called the Automark would
have to go through a certification process. The board
decided this would not since it is not a counting machine
only a marking machine.
Adjourned.
____________________________
_______________________
Chris Nelson, Secretary of
State Kea Warne, Recorder