1





          1

          2

          3

          4

          5

          6

          7

          8          ***************************************

          9            U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

         10                      PUBLIC MEETING

         11                     DECEMBER 11, 2007

         12          ***************************************

         13

         14

         15             UNITED STATES ELECTION ASSISTANCE

         16        COMMISSION PUBLIC MEETING was taken before

         17        April C. Balcombe and Michelle Robertson,

         18        Certified Shorthand Reporters in and for the

         19        State of Texas, reported by computerized

         20        stenotype machine at the Omni Austin Hotel

         21        Downtown, 700 San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin,

         22        Texas 78701, on December 11, 2007 commencing at

         23        the hour of 8:30 a.m.

         24

         25



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                  2





          1                    P R O C E E D I N G S

          2             >> DAVIDSON:  Good morning, everybody, I

          3        am going to call the meeting to order.  I would

          4        first like to everybody to please turn off your

          5        cell phones or turn it off vibrate so it won't

          6        interrupt the meeting.  And I would like

          7        everybody to please stand and we'll do the

          8        Pledge of Allegiance.

          9             >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

         10        United States of America and to the Republic

         11        for which it stands, one nation, under God,

         12        indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

         13             >> DAVIDSON:  Thank you.  Our acting chief

         14        general Council, Galvin Gilmour, would you

         15        please do the role call.

         16             >> GILMOUR:  Certainly.  Please respond

         17        verbally when I call your name.

         18             Chair Donetta Davidson?

         19             >> DAVIDSON:  Present.

         20             >> GILMOUR:  Vice Chair Rosemary

         21        Rodriguez?

         22             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Here.

         23             >> GILMOUR:  Commissioner Gracia Hillman.

         24             >> HILLMAN:  Here.

         25             >> GILMOUR:  Commissioner Carolyn Hunter?



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                  3





          1             >> HUNTER:  Here.

          2             >> GILMOUR:  All of the Commissioners are

          3        present.

          4             >> DAVIDSON:  Thank you very much.  If you

          5        would turn to Tab 1, the adoption of the agenda

          6        is up next.

          7             I move.  I move for the adoption of the

          8        agenda for today, December 11th, 2007.

          9             Do we have a second?

         10             >> HUNTER:  Second.

         11             >> DAVIDSON:  All those in favor say

         12        "aye."

         13             >> Aye.

         14             >> DAVIDSON:  Any opposing?

         15             All right.  Moving on.  We have the

         16        minutes of the public meeting, and I would ask

         17        if the commissioners have any changes or if

         18        there is a motion to approve?

         19             >> RODRIGUEZ:  I move for adoption of the

         20        minutes of the last meeting held on

         21        November 13th, 2007.

         22             >> DAVIDSON:  Thank you very much.

         23             Do we have a second?

         24             >> HUNTER:  Second.

         25             >> DAVIDSON:  I have a motion made and



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                  4





          1        seconded.  Would everybody vote on the motion,

          2        please, vote approving the minutes?  Aye.

          3             >> Aye.

          4             >> DAVIDSON:  Thank you.  We know we want

          5        to get done with our meeting right away,

          6        because we have a lot scheduled for the day and

          7        for this week to come.

          8             But I want to take a moment and welcome

          9        everybody and say good morning, and I wanted to

         10        say, it is really great having you in Austin,

         11        Texas, to be here with us this morning.

         12             I want to thank our Standards Board and

         13        our Board of Advisors members that are here

         14        today in coming in early in taking part.  And

         15        we appreciate their continued hard work to

         16        advise the commission.  So welcome to

         17        everybody.  Thank you for being here.

         18             Also, if you can see, we are using a

         19        C.A.R.T. process here, which is also a

         20        closed-caption service, to make sure we have

         21        everything identified.

         22             Anybody who is doing a presentation, would

         23        you please make sure that you give your name,

         24        and we have to be careful that we don't

         25        interrupt each other, because if we speak over



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                  5





          1        each other, we will not get it captioned

          2        correctly up on the board.

          3             So saying that, we'll move on and we'll go

          4        into old business -- or new business, I mean.

          5             And we have the election of officers.

          6        This is the last meeting that I will be serving

          7        as Chair of the E.A.C.  It has been a -- really

          8        a great Chair year, and I think, as you will

          9        see from the staff that is going to be doing

         10        presentations, you'll see why I am so proud of

         11        our staff and of the Commission.

         12             But as we move forward, it is time to

         13        elect a new Chair, and Vice Chair of the

         14        Commission.

         15             With that, I am going to open the floor

         16        for the nomination of Chair, but I am going to

         17        take the prerogative of -- since I am the

         18        Chair, to nominate Rosemary Rodriguez for Chair

         19        of the Commission.  Are there any other

         20        nominations for Chair of the Commission?

         21             Seeing none, I would like to close the

         22        nominations on the floor and call for a vote.

         23             All those in favor for Rosemary Rodriguez

         24        for Chair, please say "aye."

         25             >> Aye.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                  6





          1             >> DAVIDSON:  Opposed?

          2             Congratulations, Commissioner Rodriguez.

          3             I will now move forward, and the Chair

          4        will open up the floor for Vice Chair of the

          5        Commission.  Are there any nominations for Vice

          6        Chair?

          7             Yes, Commissioner, Rodriguez?

          8             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.  I

          9        would be very pleased to put nomination of seat

         10        for Vice Chair of the Commission, Commissioner

         11        Carolyn Hunter.

         12             >> DAVIDSON:  Are there any other

         13        nominations?  Seeing no other nominations, the

         14        floor is closed on nominations.  I will call

         15        for a vote.  All those in favor for

         16        Commissioner Hunter as Vice Chair, please say

         17        "aye."

         18             >> Aye.

         19             >> DAVIDSON:  Opposed?

         20             Well congratulations to both of you.

         21             I am going to turn the floor over to each

         22        one of them for their remarks.  But before I

         23        do, I would like to say a few words about each

         24        one of them.

         25             First and most important, Rosemary --



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                  7





          1        congratulations, Commissioner Rodriguez -- she

          2        is a fellow Coloradan, so you know that means a

          3        great deal to me, and I know personally that

          4        our Commission will be in good hands.

          5             Prior to coming to the E.A.C.,

          6        Commissioner Rodriguez served in the great city

          7        of Denver in several ways.  I am going to name

          8        the main ones:  First, as city clerk and

          9        recorder and then as -- in the city council,

         10        and then finally, she served as president of

         11        city council in 2005 and 2006.

         12             In these roles, Commissioner Rodriguez

         13        worked hard to help voters to register to vote,

         14        making voting accessible to all citizens, and

         15        to help assure that elections are accurate and

         16        transparent.

         17             Since coming to the E.A.C., she has

         18        continued to focus on the same principles.  She

         19        has recently started a series of brown bag

         20        lunches in order to allow an open dialogue

         21        between E.A.C. and all of those who were

         22        working to improve elections.

         23             Also, Commissioner Rodriguez has focused

         24        on ensuring that the E.A.C. continues to make

         25        itself as open and transparent as possible.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                  8





          1             Commissioner Rodriguez, thank you for all

          2        of your hard work, and I look forward to

          3        working with you in the future.  And I know

          4        that our agency will be in good hands with you

          5        as Chair.

          6             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.

          7             >> DAVIDSON:  Commissioner Hunter,

          8        Commissioner Hunter has worked with the states

          9        on state laws and regulations as the Help

         10        America Vote was implemented.

         11             First, prior to coming to the E.A.C,

         12        commissioner Hunter served as the deputy

         13        director of the White House Office of Public

         14        Liaison.  And prior to that, she was an

         15        Executive Officer for the Department of

         16        Homeland Security.

         17             Since coming to the E.A.C., Commissioner

         18        Hunter has continued to work hard hand-in-hand

         19        with the states and local officials in order to

         20        ensure that they are able to best serve their

         21        voters while meeting the laws of HAVA.

         22             Congratulations, Commissioner Hunter.  I

         23        will give each one of you a time to have a bit

         24        of a conversation.

         25             So Commissioner Rodriguez, you're the new



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                  9





          1        Chair to be, so I will give you the opportunity

          2        first.

          3             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair, I

          4        will be very brief because we have a meaty

          5        agenda.

          6             I look forward to the coming year.  I've

          7        learned a lot from each of my fellow

          8        commissioners over the last year, and I know I

          9        am prepared for 2008, look forward to it, and I

         10        hope that -- hope that it will be a good year.

         11        Thank you.

         12             >> DAVIDSON:  I am sure it will be.  Thank

         13        you.

         14             Commissioner Hunter.

         15             >> HUNTER:  Thank you, Madam Chair, and I

         16        look forward to serving with Rosemary

         17        Rodriguez.  We started the Commission on the

         18        very same day, so it will be a lot of fun to

         19        work together next year and thank you for Madam

         20        Chairman, and Donetta Davidson, I have enjoyed

         21        and look forward to another 2008 as well.

         22        Thank you very much.

         23             >> HILLMAN:  Madam Chair -- you keep

         24        rolling right along here -- and I want to take

         25        this moment to thank you for your service this



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 10





          1        year.  It has been one heck of a year, one heck

          2        of a roller-coaster ride.  And you served us

          3        well, and I appreciate very much what you have

          4        done for E.A.C., as well as your hanging in

          5        there with us.

          6             And also, too, Commissioner Rodriguez, for

          7        your service as Vice Chair and looking forward

          8        to your service as Chair next year, and looking

          9        forward to when we can hear, you know, sort of

         10        about what the direction is and where you will

         11        go, and to Commissioner Hunter as well, serving

         12        as Vice Chair.  Congratulations to both of you.

         13             And just for the record, Madam Chair, when

         14        will this take effect?

         15             >> DAVIDSON:  Commissioner Rodriguez, have

         16        you exactly set the date for sure?  I think --

         17             >> RODRIGUEZ:  I haven't set the date.

         18        The installation will be in conjunction with a

         19        meeting of the commission in January, and I

         20        will work with everybody on their agendas.  It

         21        has been hard for me to know what to do and not

         22        jump the gun, and so I will start on that

         23        immediately.

         24             >> DAVIDSON:  Thank you.  Well, I do want

         25        to say congratulations to both of you, and I am



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 11





          1        looking forward to working with you.  And I

          2        think the four of us, we have a lot to do as we

          3        well know.  And working together and figure out

          4        how we can work together and as always, we have

          5        been in a learning process so it has been an

          6        interesting year.  Moving forward, as I said

          7        earlier, this is the last meeting of 2007.  And

          8        so I ask for a report from the senior staff and

          9        our director Tom Wilkey, and I will turn it

         10        over to him to give the end of the year report

         11        along with his senior staff.

         12             >> WILKEY:  Thank you, Madam Chair.  I am

         13        joined here today by three of our senior

         14        program managers, Brian Hancock, Edgardo

         15        Cortes, and Karen Lynn-Dyson, and they will be

         16        sharing with me with great pride some of the

         17        work that we have accomplished during 2007.

         18        These include establishment of the federal

         19        government's first voting systems certification

         20        program, information distributed to assist

         21        election officials in the administration of

         22        elections, which was very well received.  We

         23        launched our language accessibility program.

         24        We had two new commissioners join the EAC, and

         25        we looked inward, working to make internal



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 12





          1        changes to ensure efficiency and transparency.

          2             Under voting system testing and

          3        certification, Brian will go into detail in a

          4        few minutes.  But let me just go over a few of

          5        the major milestones.  We launched our full

          6        certification program in January.  We now have

          7        four accredited test labs and we have 11

          8        registered manufacturers.  Eight voting systems

          9        are currently being tested.  We have also

         10        launched the voting system report clearinghouse

         11        which contains reports about voting systems

         12        that have been conducted by state and local

         13        officials.  And of course, we have already

         14        issued the -- through the TGDC the recommended

         15        Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, and they

         16        are available during this public comment period

         17        on our website, which I will be refer to often

         18        EAC.gov.  Under election assistance or

         19        assistance for election officials, again you

         20        will hear more about what we have done from

         21        Brian, but I want to spend just a few minutes

         22        discussing one of the most popular and

         23        successful E.A.C. initiatives and everywhere I

         24        go, I hear from election officials how pleased

         25        they have been with this particular project.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 13





          1        And that is our election management guidelines

          2        program and the accompanying quick start

          3        guides.

          4             We issued this information to over 6,000

          5        election officials throughout the country.

          6        They include such issues as absentee testing --

          7        acceptance testing, absentee voting, and vote

          8        by mail, our certification, contingency and

          9        disaster planning, media and public relations,

         10        manage and change, polling place and vote

         11        centers, voting system security.  Our research

         12        director Karen Lynn-Dyson has also issued some

         13        very valuable information to election

         14        officials.  She is going to discuss that in a

         15        few minutes.  But I want to recognize her

         16        efforts in getting these valuable resources

         17        out.

         18             As all of you know, finding and keeping

         19        poll workers continues to be a major challenge

         20        throughout the nation.  That is why we issued

         21        the successful practices for poll worker

         22        recruitment retention training in our guide

         23        book for recruiting college poll workers.

         24        Ballot design is also crucial in the successful

         25        administration of elections, the effective



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 14





          1        design of federal elections which covers not

          2        only valid design but also polling place

          3        signage.  It also covers how to best serve

          4        voters with limited English proficiency.

          5             Karen has also issued the 2006 Uniform and

          6        Overseas Assistance Voting Act survey.  She

          7        also convened a very productive conference

          8        about how to better serve these voters.  And of

          9        course, she is responsible for the 2006

         10        Election Day survey, which we will be

         11        discussing later today.

         12             One of the programs we have been very

         13        pleased about is our language accessibility

         14        program.  This is another E.A.C. initiative we

         15        are very proud of.  Edgardo Cortes and Laiza

         16        Otero oversaw the successful adoption of the

         17        Spanish glossary of election terminology.  The

         18        first time this glossary has been updated since

         19        1972.  We have also translated the national

         20        voter registration form into Spanish.  Next on

         21        the agenda is to issue a similar glossary in

         22        five Asian languages as well as provide a

         23        translation of the national forum.  You will

         24        hear more about this under our how to

         25        management program from Edgardo.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 15





          1             We of course welcomed two new

          2        commissioners to the E.A.C. this year, Rosemary

          3        Rodriguez and Carolyn Hunter.  Both have

          4        brought valuable knowledge and experience to

          5        the E.A.C.  It has been a smooth transition, I

          6        know the staff has enjoyed working with both of

          7        them, and we appreciate their support as well.

          8             We have been looking inward, increasing

          9        transparency and accountability.  The E.A.C.

         10        has produced a lot of valuable resources and

         11        launched a very ambitious voting system program

         12        this year.

         13             But we have recognized the need to look

         14        inward and make some changes.  The E.A.C. has

         15        received criticism over the way it handled some

         16        of our research, and we have been accused of

         17        not acting in a transparent manner.  We take

         18        this criticism very seriously.

         19             That is why our Chair, with the support

         20        all of all of the Commissioners, asked our

         21        Inspector General to review the Vote Fraud and

         22        Intimidation Research Project.  We anxiously

         23        await that report and will make whatever

         24        changes are necessary.

         25             The IG report will be made public and



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 16





          1        provided to Congress.  E.A.C. provided more

          2        than 40,000 pages of documents to Congress

          3        regarding this issue, and the Commission voted

          4        to release all of them to the public.  E.A.C.

          5        also has a lot of work to do regarding our

          6        internal procedures and policies.

          7             We have already been working to properly

          8        document our administrative procedures in the

          9        Code of Federal Regulations.  E.A.C. has

         10        contracted with ICF International to assist in

         11        the process and to establish an aggressive time

         12        line to accomplish its administrative

         13        regulation codes.

         14             The following is a summary of the

         15        activities undertaken to date.  The E.A.C.

         16        established a CFR site at 11 CFR, Chapter I-II

         17        parts, 94 through 94-99.  The E.A.C. has draft

         18        organizational structure for its CFR site.

         19             The E.A.C. staff and counsel are presently

         20        reviewing and editing draft regulations in the

         21        following areas:  Freedom of Information Act,

         22        Confidential Business Information and Trade

         23        Secrets, Government and the Sunshine Act,

         24        Federal Advisory Committees Act, Privacy Act,

         25        Nondiscrimination of E.A.C. programs, grants



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 17





          1        Management, Document and Witness Production in

          2        Civil Litigation.

          3             I will also include under this that staff

          4        has been working with Council and others and

          5        with our Inspector General on a new

          6        organizational chart, which will be presented

          7        to you in January for your approval.

          8             After initial review, staff will present

          9        the regulations for review and approval before

         10        going through the federal regulatory process.

         11        We have already made changes to increase

         12        transparency which includes a very aggressive

         13        notification program about developments and

         14        updates voting system program, a newly designed

         15        website that is updated daily, sometimes more

         16        than once a day.  We have already had 3,678,318

         17        hits.  Top page destinations include register

         18        to vote, voting system testing and

         19        certification and laboratory accreditation of

         20        2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines and the

         21        Spanish glossary of election terms.  The most

         22        popular download was the National Voter

         23        Registration form.

         24             In addition to information about voting

         25        systems and voting system test laboratories,



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 18





          1        official minutes and agendas of registered

          2        voters, public meeting and hearing schedules,

          3        E.A.C. studies and research and more

          4        information about election administration and

          5        HAVA are all available at eac.gov.

          6             It includes a foyer reading room which

          7        provides direct access to the most frequently

          8        requested documents, including the 40,000 pages

          9        that we provided to Congress.  Commissioner

         10        Hillman spearheaded the establishment of a

         11        virtual meeting room at the E.A.C. website in

         12        which the public can observe draft documents as

         13        well as the comments submitted by our advisory

         14        and standard board members.

         15             Vice Chair Rodriguez has made transparency

         16        a top issue and priority.  Her first statement

         17        as commissioner addressed this very issue.  She

         18        also established the brown bag lunch meeting

         19        program concept for the public to share ideas

         20        and discuss issues with the commissioner.

         21             Chair Davidson has established bipartisan

         22        subcommittees to oversee budget, research in

         23        the voter registration act.  Commissioner

         24        Hunter has also demonstrated her strong support

         25        of operating transparently as evidenced by the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 19





          1        posting of her proposed NVRA internal procedure

          2        prior to the commission vote.

          3             The commissioners have also insisted on

          4        taking more votes in public instead of through

          5        our tally vote process.  Looking ahead, as we

          6        move into 2008, the E.A.C. will focus even more

          7        of its efforts to support election officials as

          8        they prepare for a busy election year.  Our

          9        certification program will continue to

         10        experience an increase in activity, and we will

         11        continue to keep the public updated.  We will

         12        likely make tough calls in the future but we

         13        have a responsibility to put voting systems

         14        through a thorough and rigorous certification

         15        process.  We have an aggressive research

         16        agenda, and we plan to increase our efforts to

         17        provide a national clearinghouse of information

         18        about election administration.

         19             E.A.C. will continue to seek public input

         20        into our activities through an accessible and

         21        transparent process.  Just as we have already

         22        done for the transfer of the NVR regulations

         23        and the draft VVSG.  I must close by saying

         24        that I am very proud of the E.A.C. staff.  They

         25        do a lot with very little.  We have confidence



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 20





          1        in them and I want them to know how much I

          2        appreciate all that they do.  Thank you very

          3        much for this opportunity to address you.  I am

          4        now going to turn the next portion over to our

          5        director of certification, Brian Hancock.

          6             >> HANCOCK:  Thank you, Mr. Wilkey, Madam

          7        Chair, commissioners.  This morning I am happy

          8        to give you the year-end report for 2007 for

          9        the testing and certification division.  What I

         10        would like to do is go through each of the four

         11        functional areas within our division and give

         12        you a little briefing on what went on this

         13        year.

         14             We will start with the management

         15        guidelines portion of our program.  Mr. Wilkey

         16        certainly covered this, but I would like to

         17        reiterate that we did release seven new quick

         18        start guides this year and again, they were

         19        voting systems certification, acceptance

         20        testing, absentee voting and vote by mail,

         21        contingency and disaster planning, media and

         22        public relations, managing change in an

         23        election office and polling place and vote

         24        centers.

         25             We are currently finalizing the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 21





          1        accompanying chapters in the management

          2        guidelines manual detailing more specifics in

          3        all of these important areas.  We believe these

          4        will be ready for approval by the full

          5        commission very early next year.  I also wanted

          6        to note that all of these documents, including

          7        the manual, are available on the tables outside

          8        of this room for any members of the audience

          9        that would like to pick up one.  So we

         10        encourage you to do that.

         11             Our next area within our division is the

         12        laboratory accreditation program.  This year,

         13        as Mr. Wilkey noted, we accredited four voting

         14        system test laboratories under our HAVA

         15        mandated program, working in conjunction with

         16        our partners at the National Voluntary

         17        Laboratory Accreditation program, NVLAC at

         18        NIST.  These labs are iBeta Quality Assurance,

         19        SysTest Laboratories, infoGard Laboratories,

         20        and Wyle Laboratories.  We expect to have other

         21        laboratories be presented to the commission

         22        from lab this year, and we will do our due

         23        diligence looking at these labs and forward

         24        them to the commission for a vote as we have in

         25        the past.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 22





          1             We have also spent considerable time this

          2        year in conjunction with our general counsel's

          3        office on developing our draft of the new

          4        laboratory accreditation program manual.  We

          5        hope to have this manual posted, draft manual

          6        posted on the E.A.C. website later this week

          7        and the document will also be noticed in the

          8        Federal Register for a 30-day public comment

          9        period in conjunction with a 60-day public

         10        comment period required under the Paperwork

         11        Reduction Act.  This is very similar in fact

         12        exactly what we did where the testing and

         13        certification program manual last year.

         14             Let's move on to the testing certification

         15        program.  At the December 2006 E.A.C. public

         16        meeting, the commissioners voted to adopt the

         17        E.A.C. testing and certification program

         18        manual, which I just spoke.  This document

         19        outlines and the detail E.A.C. process and

         20        procedures for moving of voting system through

         21        our certification program beginning with the

         22        registration of a voting system manufacturer

         23        and ending with a certified voting system

         24        product.

         25             Pursuant to the requirements of the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 23





          1        manual, in 2007, the E.A.C. staff processed

          2        eleven manufacturer registrations, eight

          3        applications for testing voting systems, one of

          4        which has since been terminated.  We have

          5        issued six interpretations of the 2002

          6        Voluntary Voting System Standards or the 2005

          7        Voluntary Voting System Guidelines.  We have

          8        issued five notices of classification regarding

          9        various aspects of our certification program

         10        manual.  We have drafted and released at least

         11        ten notices of noncompliance and other

         12        correspondence to either voting system

         13        manufacturers or test laboratories.

         14             In addition, the E.A.C. has posted test

         15        plans and will of course post final test

         16        reports on the E.A.C. website as well as any

         17        other relevant information related to voting

         18        systems and voting system testing.  Finally, we

         19        will talk a little bit about what we have done

         20        on the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines this

         21        year.

         22             Technical Guidelines Development

         23        Committee, TGDC, recommendations for the next

         24        iteration of the Voluntary Voting System

         25        Guidelines were received by the E.A.C. from our



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 24





          1        partners at NIST on August 31st, 2007.

          2        During September and October, the E.A.C. worked

          3        to developed a plan for the public review and

          4        ultimate adoption of these guidelines and to

          5        develop an HTML version of the documents and a

          6        web-based comment portal to provide easy access

          7        for members of the public wishing to comment on

          8        this document.

          9             The initial public comment period began

         10        with notice in the Federal Register on

         11        November 6th, 2007.  This 120-day public

         12        comment period will end March 5th, 2008.

         13        This initial phase is only the beginning of the

         14        process for the adoption of the next iteration

         15        of the guidelines.  Work will continue well

         16        into 2008 and likely into 2009 so that the

         17        E.A.C. can receive as much input as possible

         18        from all of our stakeholders both on the

         19        current TGDC recommendations and later on the

         20        E.A.C. draft of Volunteer Voting System

         21        Guidelines.  A full description of the process

         22        for reviewing and adopting the guidelines for

         23        the next iteration of the VVSG is available on

         24        the E.A.C.'s website.

         25             Finally, none of us here at this table



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 25





          1        could succeed without the great assistance from

          2        all the other staff members at the E.A.C.  I

          3        would like to particularly thank Laiza Otero

          4        and Matt Masterson who have done excellent work

          5        this year for the testing certification

          6        program.  With that, move to Edgardo.

          7             >> CORTES:  Good morning, Commissioners.

          8        Thank you, Brian.  I have a Power Point because

          9        I have a couple of figures that I thought would

         10        be helpful to have up for the public to see.

         11             The Election Administration Support

         12        Division had a very busy year this year.  First

         13        off, we have a couple of major program areas

         14        that we are responsible for.  Probably the

         15        biggest is management of the HAVA payment and

         16        this includes the whole gamut of oversight

         17        functions from the distribution of the money to

         18        resolving audits.

         19             We also are responsible -- or the division

         20        is responsible for National Registration Act

         21        implementation.  We have recently been tasked

         22        and will be working with the other division in

         23        the office of general counsel on the title

         24        three voluntary guidance required under HAVA.

         25        Tom mentioned and I will get into a little bit



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 26





          1        more detail concerning the language

          2        accessibility program, the Help America Vote

          3        college program which includes grants which we

          4        hope to have some funding from Congress this

          5        coming year to give out more grants for that

          6        program, the general E.A.C. poll worker program

          7        and the national parent student mock election

          8        grant program.

          9             Start off with the oversight of HAVA

         10        payments.  One of the big things that we are

         11        proud of this year is that we were able to

         12        finally put together a big training session

         13        during the NASS and NASED winter meetings

         14        concerning allocable uses of and the accounting

         15        for the funds the states received under

         16        sections 101, 102, and 251.  This training was

         17        very well received by election officials.

         18             There is a Power Point presentation of

         19        that that is posted on our website.  We also

         20        this year, prior to the reporting deadlines,

         21        put together a sample annual financial

         22        reporting forms so that states could -- we were

         23        still getting complaints that folks weren't

         24        sure how to fill out and submit their annual

         25        report properly so we took that on as a step to



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 27





          1        give people the information they needed.  And

          2        again all those training materials are posted

          3        on E.A.C.'s website.

          4             Very big project this year for us was the

          5        first report that E.A.C. has issued to Congress

          6        on states' use of HAVA funds.  This covered

          7        Section 101 and 102 funds as of December 31st

          8        of 2006 and Section 251 funds as of

          9        September 30, 2006.

         10             This report disclosed at approximately

         11        $1.8 billion of HAVA funds had been spent,

         12        about 1.3 billion was remaining, and that

         13        states had -- as of the close of the reporting

         14        period, states had earned approximately

         15        152 million-dollar worth of interest on HAVA

         16        funds.

         17             And HAVA has set up a very unique program

         18        for the federal government -- in the realm of

         19        federal government funding where states

         20        actually get to keep the interest, and it goes

         21        back to supporting the HAVA programs.

         22             We also have here -- I am not sure how

         23        clearly it shows up for the audience -- but

         24        here is a breakdown basically in terms of the

         25        major categories that HAVA funds could be used



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 28





          1        for.

          2             I think the biggest thing here is that

          3        over 75percent of the funds went to either the

          4        purchase of new voting systems or the

          5        implementation of the statewide voter

          6        registration databases.

          7             Those were the two big ticket items in

          8        HAVA and the report that we are able to put

          9        together based on the information provided by

         10        the states shows what this really is what the

         11        funds have been going for.

         12             The category of improving administration

         13        of federal elections, a lot of that was

         14        training related to implementing these things,

         15        so...

         16             Also, this is a little bit updated list,

         17        since we issued our report.  We've had six

         18        states so far, certified to the E.A.C., they

         19        have complied with all of the requirements of

         20        HAVA, Title III, and those are American Samoa,

         21        Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, and

         22        Pennsylvania.

         23             We expect that in the coming year, we'll

         24        probably be getting more certifications that

         25        states have met the requirements of Title III.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 29





          1             During fiscal year 2007, our division

          2        issued 26 audit resolution reports.  Nine of

          3        those were for audits conducted by the office

          4        of inspector general, and 17 were done under

          5        the Single Audit Act.

          6             Now, as you can see, over 10 million --

          7        under the office of the Inspector General

          8        reports, over $10 million were repaid to state

          9        election funds for questions of costs, for

         10        missing state matching funds, and lost

         11        interest.  About 68,000 was repaid to the U.S.

         12        Treasury for unallowable costs.

         13             Again, under the single audits, about 1.3

         14        million was paid to state election funds for

         15        those reasons and 90,000 was repaid to the U.S.

         16        Treasury.

         17             The money that went back to state election

         18        funds will be available obviously for those

         19        states to be used towards HAVA programs in the

         20        future.

         21             One of the items that we're very proud of,

         22        and Tom mentioned, and is our Language

         23        Accessibility Program.  We released in April of

         24        this year our "Glossary of Key Election

         25        Terminology in English and Spanish," and that's



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 30





          1        a -- that stems from a publication that the

          2        F.E.C. last published in 1979 and had not been

          3        updated since then.

          4             This glossary now contains 1,843 terms

          5        dealing with election administration and has

          6        been very well received by election officials

          7        around the country.

          8             When we go to the public meetings and we

          9        have out the hard copies, they go pretty

         10        quickly.  It is also available for download on

         11        our website.

         12             One very exciting thing is that we will

         13        add to the same -- the same 1,843 terms, we'll

         14        have five additional glossaries coming out by

         15        this coming summer, and those are in the five

         16        Asian languages that are covered by the Voting

         17        Rights Act.

         18             That will be Chinese, Japanese, Korean,

         19        Vietnamese, and Tagalog.  We will also, in

         20        connection with the Management Guidelines

         21        Program, in the late spring, be starting work

         22        on dealing with how election officials can deal

         23        with getting information to nonwritten

         24        languages.

         25             You know, this -- actually Lyso Tharrell



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 31





          1        [phonetic] who is under the testing and

          2        certification program who does a lot of work on

          3        the Language Accessibility Program.  She is not

          4        here today.  She is actually in Arizona

          5        attending an event dealing with providing

          6        assistance to native Americans, so it is a very

          7        exciting project that we have going on.

          8             The last thing that I'll -- that I'll go

          9        over are actions under the National Voter

         10        Registration Act this year.  Tom mentioned that

         11        the National Voter Registration form is

         12        actually the most downloaded document on our

         13        website.  And that is a consistent thing from

         14        month to month, where it is the biggest

         15        download.

         16             We have prepared and presented information

         17        on NVRA issues at every public meeting since

         18        the September meeting.  We also went through a

         19        public comment period -- and I'll be talking

         20        about this a little bit later in the meeting --

         21        but went through and recently finished a public

         22        comment period on whether or not the Commission

         23        should transfer the regulations which were

         24        previously adopted by the F.E.C.

         25             We've also provided the Commission with a



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 32





          1        framework and time line for the NVRA

          2        rule-making progress.  Again, I'll be talking

          3        about those issues a little bit later in

          4        today's meetings.  Those are the major

          5        activities that went on this year.  Thank you.

          6        I will pass it on to Karen.

          7             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Good morning.  I have a

          8        number of slides here, because we did a lot in

          9        the research department this year.  I am going

         10        to quickly go through them, and just highlight

         11        the major projects and products, actually, that

         12        came out of our work this year.

         13             As, I know the Commissioners know, the

         14        public, to refresh their memory, E.A.C.'s goal

         15        is to satisfactorily conduct and report to

         16        Congress the sorted research studies that are

         17        described in HAVA approximately $1.1 million in

         18        E.A.C.'s budget is to go to research studies

         19        and surveys.

         20             And the research work that I undertake

         21        with our contractors results in guidance and

         22        guidelines and identifying best practices and

         23        collecting and disseminating key data the

         24        conduct and administration of elections.

         25             Thus far, we have completed or are in the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 33





          1        process of completing 17 research projects.  A

          2        couple of following slides enumerate the

          3        projects that we are presently undertaking or

          4        have actually completed:  The NVRA report for

          5        2005, 2006, the UOCAVA survey report findings,

          6        the 2006 election administration and voting

          7        survey report key findings.  And you'll be

          8        hearing much more in a few moments about the

          9        findings from the 2006 survey.

         10             Tom mentioned earlier our considerable

         11        work we did this year around the recruitment

         12        training and retention of poll workers in the

         13        form of the series of guidebooks that we

         14        created.

         15             He also mentioned our effective designs

         16        for the administration of federal elections

         17        work, and our UOCAVA study which culminated in

         18        a conference this September.

         19             We have coming in the next, really month

         20        or so, the results of our -- and we will

         21        present to the public, the results of our

         22        first-time voters who register to vote by mail

         23        study.

         24             >> LYNN-DYSON:  This September we have

         25        upcoming in the next month or so the results of



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 34





          1        our -- and we will present to the public the

          2        results of our first-time voters who registered

          3        to vote by mail study, our voter hot lines

          4        report, our information website study, our free

          5        absentee ballot posted return study, our

          6        alternative voting methods study, and finally,

          7        the ongoing work that we do under a three-year

          8        contract with the National Academy of Sciences,

          9        related to the ongoing implementation of

         10        statewide voter registration databases.  A

         11        visual here you have of the first three big

         12        studies that were done, and you will hear more

         13        about again the Election Administration Voting

         14        survey study that includes in it the NVRA

         15        report that came out in June, the UOCAVA report

         16        which came out in September.

         17             I am going to skip over the -- quickly go

         18        through the NVRA report, the findings

         19        essentially.  We found that there was an

         20        increase in the number of persons registered to

         21        vote from 2002 to 2006, but it was a decrease

         22        from numbers reported in 2004.  Our UOCAVA

         23        report found that we are required by HAVA to

         24        provide two basic numbers, that is the number

         25        of UOCAVA votes cast and the number of votes



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 35





          1        counted.  You will see on the slide here that

          2        we had almost a million UOCAVA absentee ballots

          3        were requested and a little more than a

          4        thousand UOCAVA ballots were cast or counted.

          5        Kim Brace will talk a little bit more about

          6        some of what we found in terms of reporting

          7        these kinds of numbers and some of the

          8        tremendous difficulties we have encountered in

          9        collecting this information.

         10             I will skip over the 2006 survey slide

         11        since Kim will be talking about that in a few

         12        minutes.  Here again, a slide that kind of

         13        captures the key studies and products which

         14        came out of our work related to poll workers.

         15        In July and in August distributed in our first

         16        round of printing these guidebooks on

         17        successful practices for recruiting and

         18        training and retaining poll workers and in the

         19        general public as well as college poll workers.

         20        We also with that project, did a compendium of

         21        state poll worker requirements which captured

         22        the state laws and regulations related to poll

         23        workers early last year.  As you all know, in

         24        the elections field that is somewhat of a

         25        moving target.  And we hope to continue to



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 36





          1        update those statutes and those requirements in

          2        the coming years.

          3             We -- I am very excited to say that we are

          4        on the second printing of these guide books and

          5        I anticipate that the general poll worker guide

          6        book, the compendium, and the college poll

          7        worker guide book all in their second printing

          8        will be distributed to over 6,000 jurisdictions

          9        by the end of December.

         10             You see in this slide the good work that

         11        we did in our effective designs for the

         12        administration of federal elections, quite a

         13        mouthful project.  This was a project which was

         14        undertaken by the American Institution of

         15        Graphic Art and its nonprofit affiliate Design

         16        for Democracy.  It resulted in a very, very

         17        useful set of -- they like to call them

         18        exhibits, products, if you will, related to

         19        polling place signage and ballot designs.

         20             There are actually some 600 polling place

         21        signs, many of which are in Spanish and

         22        Chinese, along with English.  We have ballot

         23        designs, as you can see from this slide, that

         24        relate to optical scan, full face D.R.E.,

         25        rolling D.R.E., voting machines and this series



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 37





          1        of CDs are also in their second printing and I

          2        anticipate by the end of December over 5,000,

          3        closer to 6,000 of those CD's will have been

          4        distributed to election officials throughout

          5        the country.

          6             So they will have an opportunity to take

          7        and use, we hope, liberally, the ballot design

          8        prototypes and working with their vendors in

          9        the polling place signs that their local

         10        election officials can actually use directly.

         11        And just have them printed.  Our UOCAVA study

         12        concluded its primary work in October until

         13        which we had a series of case studies that were

         14        done, as you can see by the slide, in the case

         15        studies were done in Illinois, Florida, South

         16        Carolina, and Montana.  There are very good

         17        series of best practices recommendations that

         18        accompanied this study.  The study also

         19        included an international survey of over 5,000

         20        UOVACA voters, and as you all know, the

         21        commissioners know, they attended this

         22        conference in late September in Washington in

         23        which over 40 local election officials came

         24        together and talked about serving UOCAVA

         25        voters.  I anticipate that work will be



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 38





          1        available to the public in the early part of

          2        2008.

          3             In conclusion, we have a couple of studies

          4        whose work has just been completed in the last

          5        week or so actually.  Our first time voters who

          6        registered to vote by mail study, our voter

          7        hotline study, our free absentee ballot posted

          8        study and our alternative voting methods study.

          9        All of these studies have components to them

         10        which include national surveys of voters or

         11        national surveys of government agencies in the

         12        case of voter hotlines report, and focus groups

         13        of voters, and my hope and my expectation is

         14        that the results from these studies

         15        particularly the alternative voting methods,

         16        the first time voters who register to vote by

         17        mail studies, and the free absentee ballot

         18        posted studies, we will work closely with the

         19        National Association Secretary's of State to

         20        unveil the results of these important projects

         21        at NASS's winter meeting taking place in

         22        Washington.

         23             So with that, I will just say that has

         24        been an extremely busy year, and I look forward

         25        very much to getting these projects and



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 39





          1        products out in the public domain so that our

          2        election officials have tools to conduct

          3        effectively their work in the coming election

          4        season.

          5             >> DAVIDSON:  Thank you very much.  I

          6        would like to say, extend a thank you to all of

          7        senior staff, and also I would like to your

          8        staff that is at home still working, I would

          9        like to say thank you for all the hard work.

         10             And one other thing I like the mention

         11        because everything that you do goes out on our

         12        website and the hard work that Jenny Layson and

         13        Brian Whitener, meeting the needs of getting

         14        everything out and trying to run, you know,

         15        everything out and available and making us more

         16        transparent, and I do want to thank them also.

         17        They don't get the thanks that we need to be

         18        given.  But everybody in our organization

         19        obviously works very hard and I do thank you.

         20        Open it up now for questions.  Commissioner

         21        Hunter, do you have any questions you would

         22        like to ask any of the panelists?

         23             >> HUNTER:  One comment for Brian Hancock

         24        and then a really quick question.  Brian, thank

         25        you and thank you to Matt Masterson for putting



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 40





          1        on the panel that is going to be conducted I

          2        believe in this room today from 1:00 to

          3        6:00 with most -- I believe all computer

          4        scientists to discuss some of the security

          5        aspects of the VVSG.  And I believe you plan

          6        similar kind of public forum to discuss with

          7        different -- variety of different groups so I

          8        appreciate your organizing that.

          9             And one quick question for you was, you

         10        characterized -- I think you said there were

         11        ten reports from the certification program.  I

         12        am trying to remember what you exactly called

         13        it.  I wonder if you could characterize those

         14        for us.  Not list out each one.  I think it was

         15        called notice of noncompliance.  If you could

         16        characterize what types of issues have come up

         17        in this report.

         18             >> HANCOCK:  Yes, Madam Commissioner.

         19        That's correct, we had ten various types of

         20        communication, essentially, with either voting

         21        system manufacturers or test lab

         22        representatives.

         23             These came about from various means,

         24        information that we received, information that

         25        we perhaps have gotten from the test labs about



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 41





          1        activities that might be going on during the

          2        testing process that they found out that we

          3        needed to ask some additional information of,

          4        say, a manufacturer, you know, to see if, in

          5        fact, they were following the procedures set

          6        out in our Testing Certification Program

          7        Manual, those types of things.

          8             And they certainly varied.  There was no

          9        one consistent topic for all of those.  There

         10        are a number of different things.  It is, as

         11        you know, a very new program and we certainly

         12        expect more questions in the future.

         13             We expect us, our staff, to do continuous

         14        clarifications, our Testing and Certification

         15        Program Manual, as well as ongoing

         16        interpretations of the VVSG.

         17             And I think it is important to keep the

         18        avenues of communication open.  That is the way

         19        we think that will improve the program, by

         20        doing these types of things and getting

         21        feedback from the manufacturers, the labs, and

         22        frankly, from the election officials and the

         23        general public as well.

         24             >> HUNTER:  Thank you very much.  One last

         25        comment on Edgardo Cortes' report -- thank you



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 42





          1        very much for that.  I had to laugh when you

          2        said we had been talking about NVRA since

          3        September, and will do so again today and

          4        probably in January and maybe even in February.

          5        So thank you for your patience on that.

          6             I just wanted to publicly thank

          7        Commissioner Hillman for her work on the report

          8        that you referenced, the preparation of the

          9        report to Congress on the states' use of HAVA

         10        funds.  I think it was a very useful report,

         11        and it inspired a lot of good conversation

         12        around the states.

         13             The states, a lot of them, sent in amended

         14        reports, and I think it was good thing.  I

         15        thank her for her leadership in working with

         16        you on her committee to produce that report.

         17             That's all I have, Madam Chair.

         18             >> DAVIDSON:  Commissioner Rodriguez?

         19             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.

         20             I don't have any questions, but a comment,

         21        and I do think it is important to note that we

         22        have not been at full staffing of the

         23        organization and have been able to move a

         24        number of important projects along.

         25             And I just want to thank you -- take this



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 43





          1        opportunity to thank all of you and your crews

          2        for -- for moving things along with limited

          3        staff.

          4             I know we have authorization for

          5        additional staff, and I hope that you-all get

          6        staffed as soon as you can so you can continue

          7        this remarkable work.

          8             >> DAVIDSON:  Commissioner Hillman?

          9             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you, let me just begin

         10        by echoing Commissioner Rodriguez's comment.

         11        To receive a report like this is very useful to

         12        remind, I think, even the Commission of the

         13        incredible work that we do.

         14             We were, and have been since inception in

         15        the unenviable position of having to construct

         16        an agency, develop policy and procedures, and

         17        execute at the same time.

         18             We did not have a period of time in which

         19        we could get organized and then start our work.

         20        HAVA required that we begin our work

         21        immediately from the day the first four

         22        commissioners were appointed.  And so I think

         23        it is useful to take a step back and appreciate

         24        all of the hard work that the agency has done.

         25             And I do have a few quick questions, so



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 44





          1        Mr. Executive Director, in your report, you

          2        said when you talked about the internal

          3        procedures and policies and the work that is

          4        being done by ICF International, that E.A.C.

          5        has established an aggressive time line.

          6             Can you just remind me what the time line

          7        is during which we will be able to actually

          8        take action on the regulations and items that

          9        you've listed?

         10             >> WILKEY:  Yes, Commissioner, I may have

         11        to refer to counsel on this.  Yes, Counsel has

         12        indicated in my report, is reviewing a number

         13        of the drafts as we speak, and I am going to

         14        defer to him as to the time line, because I

         15        believe that many of these things will have to

         16        be put up -- out for public comment.  Galvin?

         17             >> GILMOUR:  Well, as Mr. Wilkey noted, we

         18        actually have a draft of each of the reports we

         19        need.  We got those very early last week.  So

         20        we are currently in the process.  We are in the

         21        process of a review of the procedures, first by

         22        counsel, and then we'll have to send them out

         23        to each of the staff members that which it

         24        impact.

         25             We want them to be able to make sure to



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 45





          1        look at that and that the policies are useful

          2        and reflect practices and so on.  They are

          3        going to review that.  We are then going to go

          4        back to the contractor and proceed through

          5        there.

          6             Each one, depending upon the specific

          7        administrative procedure laid out, some have to

          8        go through as a comment, and those comment

          9        ranges minimum of 30 to 60 days, most of them I

         10        think 60 days.

         11             So there is a considerable amount of

         12        process, anywhere between 120 to 210 days'

         13        estimate at this point to getting towards the

         14        process of completing that.

         15             >> HILLMAN:  Okay.  Thank you.

         16             For Mr. Hancock, in your report you talked

         17        about the seven quick start guidelines, how

         18        many total have we put out?  Could you remind

         19        me?

         20             >> HANCOCK:  I believe with the ones this

         21        year, that will be 11 right now.  I believe

         22        that is correct.  We will have additional ones

         23        next year.  The initial management guidelines

         24        project is a three-year project, so we will be

         25        coming out with some additional ones next year



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 46





          1        as well.

          2             >> HILLMAN:  And under laboratory

          3        accreditation, again, to remind me, you said we

          4        accredited four test labs in 2007.  Do we have

          5        four total, or do we have more than four now?

          6             >> HANCOCK:  We have four total.

          7             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you.

          8             And I think my next question is for -- I

          9        don't remember whose report this is -- oh,

         10        Edgardo Cortes -- compliance with HAVA, Title

         11        III.

         12             Can you just briefly say why only six out

         13        of 55 states have submitted certifications?

         14             >> CORTES:  Well, let me back up.  We are

         15        not the agency that deals with compliance with

         16        Title III.  The Department of Justice actually

         17        is charged with enforcing compliance with Title

         18        III of HAVA.

         19             These certifications stem from -- in the

         20        use of the requirements payment funds.  Those

         21        funds have very limited usage in terms of --

         22        they can only be used for complying with the

         23        requirements of Title III.

         24             The only way to use it with other things

         25        is the state has to certify to E.A.C. that they



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 47





          1        have done one of two things:  The first thing

          2        they can certify is they won't use more than

          3        what is known as the "minimum payment amount"

          4        for other purposes, and that amount is -- it is

          5        about $11.6 million, and it is the amount that

          6        those minimally funded states received.

          7             The other option is that they can certify

          8        to the E.A.C. that they have met all of the

          9        requirements of Title III, and therefore, any

         10        remaining requirements payments they have can

         11        be used for other purposes as to meet the

         12        requirements.

         13             As to why there are only six so far that

         14        have certified that they met the requirements,

         15        I am not sure.  I think there is a variety of

         16        reasons.

         17             >> HILLMAN:  Is certification required?

         18        Are the states required to certify?

         19             >> CORTES:  If they wish to use

         20        requirements payments money for something other

         21        than Title III requirements, yes, it is

         22        required.

         23             >> HILLMAN:  Is it something that E.A.C.

         24        maybe needs to remind them, or do you think

         25        states won't use those funds?  I want to see



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 48





          1        where we are in this.

          2             >> CORTES:  We have done a lot to remind

          3        them.  We have done it in our training earlier

          4        this year, and have done it in our

          5        conversations with the states when we're in

          6        contact with them about use of funds.

          7             But in terms of pushing states to do it, I

          8        am not sure if there is anything we can do to

          9        force states to do it.  But we have reminded

         10        them consistently that it is something, if they

         11        wish to use requirement payments for these

         12        other purposes, then they need to file

         13        certification.  It actually is an issue that

         14        has come up in a handful of audits as well.

         15             >> GILMOUR:  It might be worth noting that

         16        one of the charts that Mr. Cortes put out

         17        demonstrated that the vast majority -- I think

         18        over 75percent of the funding did go towards

         19        Title III elements, purchasing voting systems

         20        and the statewide databases.

         21             And the reality is that number could

         22        reflect the fact that states don't really need

         23        to spend requirements payments on anything but

         24        Title III requirements.

         25             >> HILLMAN:  That 75 percent wasn't of the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 49





          1        vast amount of the monies granted from the

          2        state so there is still that as of the report

          3        that we submitted, we don't know the states

          4        will spend, but I appreciate the comment but I

          5        just hope we will keep an eye on it so that

          6        states don't find themselves in positions of

          7        having inadvertently spent the funds and not

          8        understood the procedure they had to go

          9        through.

         10             And my last question is probably to the

         11        Executive Director.  It speaks a lot to our

         12        research agenda, but it was something that and

         13        I think Caroline, Commissioner Hunter will

         14        agree with me that we were needing from the

         15        report that while it is nice take a look back,

         16        it would be useful to know what is in front of

         17        us and so if a simple chart couldn't be done

         18        listing all the HAVA mandated things E.A.C. has

         19        to do and what is left to be done, particularly

         20        in the research area.

         21             Because that would have been my question,

         22        and I am not going to ask that we spend the

         23        time doing it now, but of all the research

         24        things we have done and are on the way, what is

         25        left?  And that would address any other issue



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 50





          1        because it is hard, and I know the staff

          2        appreciate the brilliance of all four

          3        commissioners and our ability to stay on temper

          4        of every minutia and detail, but sometimes I do

          5        get lost in terms of what we have done, what we

          6        have accomplished, what we have completed and

          7        what is in front of us.  Thank you.

          8             >> LYNN-DYSON:  If I might just say, more

          9        than happy to do that for Executive Director

         10        Wilkey and for the commissioners and to let you

         11        know that we have approximately half a dozen

         12        studies which are described in HAVA and remain

         13        to be completed.

         14             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you.

         15             >> DAVIDSON:  My only I guess two things.

         16        Follow-up, Ms. Dyson, is any of those half a

         17        dozen that is left is that part of what is

         18        setting right now that we just delivered this

         19        last week that our council was talking about or

         20        is that six additional studies that haven't

         21        been started?

         22             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Chair Davidson, that would

         23        be six additional that have not been begun.

         24        And approximately four of those six can be

         25        found under section 241 of HAVA which are



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 51





          1        described as, and I use this term very loosely,

          2        possible optional studies.

          3             >> DAVIDSON:  So they not mandated as

          4        optional studies?

          5             >> LYNN-DYSON:  That's --

          6             >> HUNTER:  I would say that the studies

          7        are required.  E.A.C. can determine when the

          8        studies would be done but they are required.

          9        So I am trying to get a handle on the remaining

         10        required activities that E.A.C. has to do under

         11        HAVA so that we can have a sense of not only

         12        budget but timeline issues.  The only other

         13        thing, Ms. Dyson, I would like for you, for the

         14        audience, to explain a little bit of what an

         15        alternative voting is.  I think that that --

         16        sometimes that term is misleading, exactly what

         17        it is.  And you don't have to go great deal

         18        into it, I just wanted a brief --

         19             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Let me ask my trusty

         20        friend to put the slide up.  You will see from

         21        this slide, in particular, Chair Davidson, the

         22        bullets which describe the half a dozen or so

         23        queries that were done on these particular

         24        issues.  Election day as a holiday.  Weekend

         25        voting, early voting, vote by mail, and vote



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 52





          1        centers.

          2             And Puerto Rico was used as an example of

          3        how they handled as a territory, how they

          4        handled alternative voting practices.  So there

          5        are some very interesting preliminary findings

          6        I think in particular from this national survey

          7        that was done of voters and their attitudes

          8        about these different approaches, alternative

          9        approaches to voting.

         10             >> DAVIDSON:  Okay.  Thank you very much.

         11        I think that concludes the report, and I do

         12        appreciate it and thank you again, all the

         13        staff for the hard work, and I think that we

         14        have accomplished a great deal this past year.

         15        Obviously, we have a lot more to do.  But I do

         16        thank each and every one of you.  Thank you

         17        very much.

         18             And I think at this time because of the

         19        fact that we need to set up and give a little

         20        bit of a set up period, I am going to take a

         21        ten-minute break, and then we will come back

         22        and finish the meeting.

         23             (Break)

         24             >> DAVIDSON:  If everybody would take

         25        their seat.  Okay.  We are going to start back



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 53





          1        up.  And next we will have the presentation and

          2        adoption of the 2006 Election Day survey.  As

          3        many of the election officials are aware, after

          4        every federal election, the E.A.C. is mandated

          5        by the Help America Vote to conduct election

          6        day survey of UOCAVA, and we have conducted

          7        surveys of other areas in the United States.

          8             One of things I like to say is data is

          9        powerful.  And actual reliable data is vital in

         10        understanding elections.  Without the

         11        participation of elections officials in surveys

         12        like this, we are forced to turn to other

         13        sources for data.  I encourage all election

         14        officials to participate in survey that good

         15        reliable data exists concerning elections.  As

         16        in 2004, the E.A.C. to conduct the 2006

         17        surveys.

         18             Mr. Brace is one of leading experts in the

         19        field of elections statistics.  Joining

         20        Mr. Brace is Karen Lynn-Dyson which is the

         21        E.A.C. Director of Research.  I want to thank

         22        both of you for being here today, and we look

         23        forward to your presentation about the 2006

         24        Election Day survey.  I want to turn it over

         25        now to I think Kim, are you going to go first?



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 54





          1        Kim Brace.  No Karen is.  All right.  I was

          2        wrong.  Wrong guess.  Turn it over to

          3        Ms. Dyson.

          4             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Thank you.  Commissioners,

          5        Mr. Wilkey, and Deputy General Counsel Gilmour,

          6        I come before the commission today with the

          7        recommendation that it adopt, pending the

          8        suggested edits, the 2006 Election

          9        Administration and Voting Survey report.  That

         10        contains data gathered from the 55 states and

         11        territories along with an analysis of these

         12        data that was performed by the contractor,

         13        Election Data Services and inside contractors

         14        Clark Benson of Polidata, Incorporated and Paul

         15        Gronke of Reed college.

         16             This reports represents the culmination of

         17        the work the E.A.C. began in June of 2005 to

         18        create a survey that would be administered to

         19        all 55 states and territories for the 2006

         20        midterm general election.

         21             The 2006 survey is the E.A.C.'s second

         22        attempt to collect from each of the states and

         23        territories, election data that HAVA requires

         24        to be reported, along with additional types of

         25        election administration data, that is of



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 55





          1        particular interest to individuals and

          2        organizations that track election data.

          3             The process used to develop and vett the

          4        2006 survey instrument included a number of

          5        workshops and sessions held with election

          6        officials, academics, and voter information

          7        groups.  This review also included an

          8        opportunity for the public to review and

          9        comment on the survey instrument once a draft

         10        of the survey had been posted in the Federal

         11        Register.  A draft of the survey was made

         12        available to state election officials in

         13        May 2006; OMB granted final approval of the

         14        survey in November 2006 and states were asked

         15        to submit their 2006 election day survey data

         16        by March 2007.

         17             The process used to enter and verify the

         18        election data states had collected for the 2006

         19        survey was involved.  E.A.C. staff, the

         20        contractor responsible for operating the

         21        web-based survey data collection process,

         22        Humanitas, and the contractor responsible for

         23        analyzing and verifying the states' data,

         24        Election Data Services, worked intensively with

         25        the states from March to September 2007 to try



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 56





          1        and ensure the data collected was complete and

          2        accurate.  This was the E.A.C.'s attempt to

          3        collect for the first time county level

          4        election data from each of the states, a task

          5        that was for E.A.C., its contractors, and

          6        especially for the states, a monumental effort.

          7             The election data which are presented in

          8        this report should be viewed by the public as a

          9        beginning effort on the part of the E.A.C. to

         10        collect detailed elections information from

         11        every state in order to provide a national

         12        picture of key election statistics.  The

         13        process E.A.C. is using to try and collect

         14        these data for each general and federal

         15        election is an iterative one.  Efforts are

         16        already underway to improve the approach E.A.C.

         17        will use to collect data for the 2008 Election

         18        Administration and Voting Survey.

         19             For 2008, I look forward to working

         20        closely with all of the states and their staffs

         21        to help ensure that the information E.A.C. is

         22        required to collect and that states are

         23        mandated to report is accomplished in a

         24        reasonable and responsible fashion.

         25             In closing, allow me to publicly



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 57





          1        acknowledge my appreciation and thanks to all

          2        of the states and their staff for their

          3        enormous efforts to complete and respond to the

          4        2006 election day survey.  I recognize the

          5        financial and staff limitations under which

          6        election offices must operate and that the

          7        effort that was required to complete this

          8        survey was extraordinary.  Thank you.

          9             >> DAVIDSON:  Mr. Brace.

         10             >> BRACE:  Madam Chairman, Commissioners,

         11        I appreciate the opportunity to be before you

         12        and to talk about the 2006 Election Day survey.

         13        On behalf of our subcontractors and myself we

         14        have spent a lot of time this year putting

         15        together a lot of information, a lot of data

         16        that was collected.

         17             And like Karen, I also would like to thank

         18        the states and local governments of this

         19        country for assisting in this effort in getting

         20        as much data as possible.  I am going to go

         21        through and talk a little bit about some of the

         22        findings that we have had.  But you can't start

         23        a discussion about elections in this country

         24        without looking at some basic election

         25        administration facts.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 58





          1             And the main thing is that size is an

          2        important factor to remember.  That over

          3        one-third of the nation's counties have fewer

          4        than 10,000 registered voters in each of them.

          5        Very, very small.  Over half of the nation's

          6        counties have less than 16,000 registered

          7        voters in them.

          8             There is only 343 jurisdictions that have

          9        more than 100,000 registered voters, and there

         10        is only 14 counties in this country that have

         11        more than a million voters.

         12             The smallest county in this country is

         13        right here in the state of Texas, Loving,

         14        Texas, that has only 136 registered voters on

         15        it.  The largest is Los Angeles County with

         16        3.9 million registered voters.

         17             And it would like 930 of the smallest

         18        counties in this country to make-up with what

         19        Los Angeles deals with.  So it is rather

         20        phenomenal in terms of what goes on in this

         21        country.

         22             As far as the election process from a data

         23        perspective for 2006, we were looking at total

         24        population, we were looking at voting age

         25        population, and citizenship voting age



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 59





          1        population, registration and turnout.

          2             And in each of these instances, the

          3        numbers goes down in terms of the different

          4        size of the electorate, as we get to each stage

          5        of the process.

          6             The demographics change at each stage of

          7        this process, but it is truly a steppingstone

          8        coming down of the stairs of democracy in

          9        looking at participation.

         10             Compared to 2004, you see in this graphic,

         11        for the first three bars, the population,

         12        voting age, and citizenship, that actually

         13        there has been a slight increase since 2004 in

         14        all three of those categories.

         15             But of course, as it gets into specifics

         16        of registration and turnout, the actual

         17        mechanics of elections, you actually see a

         18        decrease.

         19             That is, of course, in a normal sense

         20        going from a presidential election to an

         21        off-year election, so you would see that kind

         22        of a decrease in 2006.

         23             As it relates to registration, not all

         24        states report registration the same.  There are

         25        24 states in the District of Columbia that say



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 60





          1        the active voters are the numbers that they

          2        report for their registration.

          3             Twenty-five states combine both the active

          4        and inactive counts, and say that is the way

          5        that they report their registration.

          6             So there is a great dichotomy in this

          7        country.  One state, California, that -- we

          8        were finding differences within the county

          9        levels, in terms of how they report

         10        registration.

         11             In 2004, we saw that active -- you see

         12        here in red, active; and inactive in green, and

         13        then the states themselves in 2004, where it

         14        was down at the local level, with the

         15        break-aparts by the counties.

         16             In 2006, it was different again.  There

         17        was similarities but there were some changes.

         18        One of the most significant things in the

         19        asterisk here in the chart shows where the

         20        states -- there is about 10 of them that do not

         21        report inactive registrations at all in terms

         22        of their registration.

         23             In many instances, those are the states

         24        covered by statewide voter -- I am sorry -- by

         25        election-day registration, and, therefore, tend



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 61





          1        to be exempt under HAVA from requiring to

          2        follow the inactive procedures in terms of

          3        registration.

          4             In terms of 2006, we -- as we noted

          5        before, more than 12.1 million voters more than

          6        2002.  However, there was 3.3 million less than

          7        2004.  That's steppingstone effect again -- a

          8        great deal of increase from 2002 to 2004, and

          9        then after the presidential, comes down a

         10        little bit.

         11             The country continues to grow larger in

         12        terms of population on the AP.  But this

         13        downturn in 2006, again, was the normal

         14        decrease that happens after presidential

         15        election.

         16             As it relates to registration as a

         17        percentage of voting age population, we simply

         18        put together state-level data that shows the

         19        northern part of this country has a higher

         20        registration rate than elsewhere in the

         21        country.  In 2006, that is the same pattern we

         22        have seen since we have been collecting data

         23        back to 1948.

         24             In terms of citizenship voting age

         25        population, on the next graph, shows a similar



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 62





          1        pattern but a little bit different and more

          2        extreme in terms of out west, in terms of when

          3        citizenship comes into being, you drop down in

          4        terms of registration.  And you see that in

          5        Nevada and in Arizona.

          6             When we looked at it on the next graphic,

          7        we looked at that data --

          8             >> HILLMAN:  I am sorry.  I hate to

          9        interrupt you, but your last comment makes me

         10        very nervous, because out of context, it

         11        doesn't sound right.

         12             You said when citizenship comes into

         13        being, the rate drops.  Could you please

         14        explain what you mean when you talk about the

         15        total voting age population to the citizenship

         16        age population so that it doesn't sound like

         17        people who aren't citizens are voting in these

         18        huge numbers on this chart?

         19             >> BRACE:  Yes.  You're correct, Madam

         20        Commissioner.

         21             What I meant to say was that when you deal

         22        with citizenship voting age population, there

         23        is a lower number of people that fall into that

         24        category, of citizenship voting age.  And,

         25        therefore, you find differences in terms of



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 63





          1        registration rates.  And this chart

          2        demonstrates that.

          3             We see, like we did in just total voting

          4        age population, the west tends to have a lower

          5        registration rate.  And you see that both in

          6        total voting age population, as well as

          7        citizenship voting age population.  And that's

          8        what the data seems to indicate in terms of

          9        registration rates.

         10             >> HILLMAN:  We'll come back to that,

         11        because I am still unclear.

         12             >> BRACE:  Okay.  No problem.

         13             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Is it because the

         14        population -- the younger population, with a

         15        higher percentage of noncitizens?

         16             >> BRACE:  Yes, you have a higher

         17        percentage of noncitizens out west.

         18             When we looked at -- down at the county

         19        level, we see a great deal of differences

         20        across the country looking at percent

         21        registered of voting age population.

         22             And we do have, in terms of data, when you

         23        start putting data against each other, you

         24        start seeing anomalies, and inevitably, we find

         25        there are some counties in this country with



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 64





          1        more than 100percent of their voting age

          2        population registered.

          3             They tend to be very small jurisdictions,

          4        and it raises the question of whether or not

          5        those small numbers are what is causing that

          6        kind of a circumstance on that.

          7             As its relates to turnout, as a percent of

          8        registration --

          9             >> DAVIDSON:  Can I also interrupt there?

         10             >> BRACE:  Yes.

         11             >> DAVIDSON:  I think one of the other

         12        things -- another reason why there is more of a

         13        percentage of people registered than what the

         14        citizens -- than what is shown on the citizens

         15        graph that is qualified to be registered is

         16        because growth in states.

         17             I know we experienced that in Colorado,

         18        and -- a high growth, it was prior to the

         19        census, and so, therefore, you can have that

         20        happen, especially in small jurisdictions,

         21        because it doesn't take many to get above those

         22        numbers.

         23             >> BRACE:  That is precisely correct.

         24             As it relates to turnout as a percent of

         25        total registration, again, we looked across the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 65





          1        country in terms of where there are higher

          2        turnout as it relates to registration.

          3             It appears that the higher turnout is out

          4        to the west.  And in Georgia, there was a hot

          5        contest there, also, that raised their turnout

          6        rates on that side.

          7             In terms of how the votes are cast, where

          8        do votes come from?  The E.A.C. had identified

          9        four possible sources of votes.  Those that are

         10        cast in a polling place, we found that there

         11        was 78 percent of all of the votes cast came

         12        from voting in a polling place, that is, on

         13        election day.

         14             There is another in absentees, there is

         15        another almost 14 percent of the votes that

         16        came from absentee ballots.  And then in terms

         17        of early votes, they contributed another

         18        6.4 percent of the votes across the country and

         19        provisional ballots added another percentage to

         20        the total of all the votes that were coming

         21        from around the country.  But again, state

         22        variation was great, as we looked around the

         23        country.  In the report, we have a graphic that

         24        shows the source of the ballots across the

         25        country.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 66





          1             And if you look closely, you see in the

          2        eastern part of the country, it is more heavily

          3        tilted towards voting in the polling place,

          4        going down south and then further out to the

          5        west, early voting and absentee ballots become

          6        more larger and an important part of the voting

          7        process.  And you see that in that graphic

          8        there.

          9             Specifically in terms of persons that

         10        voted in a polling on election day, this

         11        graphic shows the higher concentration in the

         12        east on those that voted in a polling place on

         13        election day.  And as far as absentee ballots

         14        go, the study ended up finding that there was

         15        1.2 million absentee ballots were cast in 2006.

         16        That amounted to about 6.5 percent of the

         17        registered voters and it was, as I said before,

         18        almost 14 percent of all the votes cast came

         19        from absentee ballots.  There were 10.6 percent

         20        of those ballots that were cast that were

         21        counted.  So that makes 94 percent of those

         22        ballots that were cast were ultimately counted,

         23        according to the study.

         24             The reason for rejecting absentee ballots,

         25        the two largest ones we found was almost



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 67





          1        40 percent of the absentee ballots came back as

          2        undeliverable.  This was a fact that came into

          3        being in terms of this study but also

          4        significantly in the UOCAVA study that we also

          5        performed for the E.A.C.  There were a large

          6        amount of absentee ballots came back

          7        undeliverable.  The second largest category was

          8        that they came back after the deadline of a

          9        particular state, almost 20 percent of the

         10        absentee ballots came back after the deadline.

         11             As it relates to the states and what

         12        percent of the total votes cast absentees, we

         13        see the western tilt in this map and again,

         14        anchored out in the state of Washington where

         15        87 percent of their votes were cast via

         16        absentee ballots.  It is not in the polling

         17        place.

         18             And with vote by mail, it will go up even

         19        more as it does in the state of Oregon.  The

         20        other category was early votes, what votes were

         21        being cast early in the process before election

         22        day.  This is a phenomenon that started in the

         23        state of Texas and Texas continues to be the

         24        largest state in the nation with the highest

         25        number of votes that were cast as early votes.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 68





          1        Texas upwards of 45 percent of their votes were

          2        cast before election day.

          3             Nevada, Florida, and Tennessee are also

          4        states where early votes are increasing and

          5        growing source of the ballots that come out in

          6        turn out to vote.  As it relates to provisional

          7        votes, over 790,000 persons sought to cast the

          8        provisional ballot.  That is about 1.3 percent

          9        of all persons that went to the polling place,

         10        because that is after all where they would find

         11        themselves in the circumstance in need of

         12        provision ballot.  So it was about 1.3 percent

         13        of people that went to the polls and about half

         14        of -- this was in 2006, this was half the

         15        amount this was cast in 2004.  It was over

         16        almost 1.5 million provisional ballots cast in

         17        2004.  Now it is 794,000.

         18             Of that 794,000, 629,000 were actually

         19        counted by the states.  That is about

         20        79 percent of the ballots that were cast were

         21        ultimately counted.  That was up from the

         22        64.5 percent that was counted in 2004.  So what

         23        we are seeing in 2006 was a decrease in the

         24        number of provisional ballots being cast.  But

         25        when they were cast, more of them were counted



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 69





          1        in this time.  Again, there is great variations

          2        by state across the board.  And I have got a

          3        graphic on that in a second.  The reason for

          4        rejecting provisional ballots, the largest

          5        group was ultimately when jurisdictions took

          6        those ballots back to do the research as

          7        required, 43, almost 44 percent, found that the

          8        persons were simply not registered at the time

          9        of the election.

         10             The other large category was almost

         11        16 percent noted that the provisional ballots

         12        were cast in the wrong precinct and under their

         13        state law, that meant that they were not

         14        counted also.  When we look at provisional,

         15        what percent of the provisional ballots were

         16        counted of cast?  Some of the lowest

         17        percentages are here down in the south.  I

         18        believe Texas is the lowest percentage.  Again,

         19        it means that we need to take more look at and

         20        research in terms of what is causing this.  But

         21        we see kind of the mid point of the country

         22        where the lowest percentages of provisional

         23        ballots being cast are being counted of being

         24        cast.

         25             Provisional ballots, the implementation



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 70





          1        varies by the laws implemented by the states.

          2        As it relates to percent of polling place

          3        votes, in states that allow voters to vote

          4        anywhere in a jurisdiction, in a county or a

          5        township, 2.3 percent of the ballots were being

          6        cast as provisional.  But when you looked at

          7        states that required the persons to vote in

          8        their own precinct, that amounted to only

          9        eight-tenths of a percent of the overall

         10        polling place votes being counted as

         11        provisions, being cast as provisionals.

         12             >> DAVIDSON:  Can I interrupt?  The one

         13        question I would like to ask you, is that 2.3,

         14        are you talking within the whole state or

         15        within the county?

         16             >> BRACE:  These are state laws and so it

         17        is the entire state that is considered whether

         18        or not it is counted if you are in the polling

         19        place or counted in the jurisdiction.

         20             >> DAVIDSON:  So there is a different

         21        figure for those within counties?  That is not

         22        reported here?

         23             >> BRACE:  It will vary across the

         24        individual state, and we can generate those

         25        kind of graphics in addition.  But yes, you are



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 71





          1        correct.  As it relates to the percent of

          2        ballots that were counted, there is again a

          3        difference.

          4             In states that allow voters to vote

          5        anywhere in the jurisdiction in the county or

          6        the township, 84.9 percent of the ballots that

          7        were cast were counted.  On the flip side, in

          8        the states that require persons to vote in

          9        their own precinct, the amount that was counted

         10        was only 71.8 percent.  So there is a

         11        difference in terms of how the provisional

         12        ballots are implemented according to their

         13        laws.  As it relates to the procedures that

         14        were done for the survey, just in conclusion,

         15        there was a lot of time, as Karen had

         16        identified, spent in trying to make sure the

         17        data was correct and came into us properly.

         18             At the very beginning we found all of

         19        these states here where they instead of using

         20        the web-based survey, that the E.A.C. put up,

         21        they simply sent in their own spreadsheets and

         22        the E.A.C. in terms of temporary workers as

         23        well as staff on our staff, were responsible

         24        for then data entering that information.

         25             There were differences as we looked across



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 72





          1        the various questions and how much response we

          2        received.  Here is a graphic here that looks at

          3        how many jurisdictions provided us data on

          4        in-person voting and voting at the polls.

          5             We found that there were 608 counties in

          6        the country that did not provide that data in

          7        that instance, and there is different pockets,

          8        depending upon different states.

          9             As it relates to the least response that

         10        we received was, in fact, asking the question

         11        of:  What was the undervote for federal

         12        offices.  And there, we found over two-thirds

         13        of the jurisdictions were unable to provide

         14        counts of undervotes, particularly for house

         15        candidates in this instance.

         16             So, each question varied, depending upon

         17        the question and, therefore, as we were dealing

         18        with the data and all of the data reports or

         19        the tables that are in the final report, it

         20        shows for each question how many jurisdictions

         21        responded, and that is one of the key things in

         22        analyzing and looking at the data in the

         23        reports to keep in mind.

         24             With that, I will be happy to answer your

         25        questions.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 73





          1             >> DAVIDSON:  I thank both of your for

          2        your presentation.  And as they both have

          3        said -- and I think I would really like to

          4        stress to the public -- this is a very

          5        difficult study to do.

          6             And one of the reasons why it is so

          7        difficult to make conclusions in the slides and

          8        everything is because every state has a

          9        different law.

         10             And what means "provisional" in one state,

         11        may not mean "provisional" in another.  What

         12        means "active" in one state, sometimes varies

         13        in another state.

         14             So I think -- I just want to make sure

         15        that the audience is aware that this is a very

         16        difficult process that we're in, in trying to

         17        collect actual data and put it in statistics

         18        that are shown.

         19             And I do appreciate all of the hard work

         20        that the staff and all of our contractors have

         21        done, and it is not easy.

         22             To that, I'll hope it up with questions

         23        from --

         24             Commissioner Rodriguez, I'll let you go

         25        first if you have questions for them.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 74





          1             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you for your

          2        presentation.

          3             I don't have any questions on the data

          4        that was presented right now.

          5             >> DAVIDSON:  Okay.  Commissioner Hunter?

          6             >> HUNTER:  I, too, don't have any

          7        specifics about the specific data.  I was

          8        interested in hearing more from both Karen and

          9        Kim about the -- going forward.

         10             I know Karen has been doing some work on

         11        how we can improve the data collection and some

         12        of the issues that came up with respect to this

         13        year's survey, but I don't know.  That might be

         14        better to later to discuss that.

         15             >> DAVIDSON:  I think what I'll do is go

         16        to Commissioner Hillman, and I'll come back and

         17        allow you to ask those questions.

         18             >> HILLMAN:  Yes, thank you.

         19             A couple of division, Ms. Lynn-Dyson, when

         20        you made your remarks, you said it was the

         21        second time that E.A.C. had implemented the

         22        election day survey to collect the data.

         23             And just for the record, I want to

         24        establish that prior to E.A.C. moving to

         25        collect this data, is this not the first time



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 75





          1        that the federal government has sought to

          2        collect this data?

          3             I mean, I think we're all very familiar

          4        with the Census Bureau reports on voter

          5        registration and participation and turnout

          6        rates and so on and so forth.

          7             But with respect to drilling down to the

          8        kind of data we're collecting, is this not the

          9        first time the federal government is doing

         10        this?

         11             >> LYNN-DYSON:  I defer to Mr. Brace who

         12        has been in the business of collecting election

         13        data for 30 years.

         14             >> BRACE:  You are correct in the vast

         15        majority of the data items that are being

         16        collected.

         17             The only exception is, there was, from the

         18        Federal Elections Commission, for the NVRA,

         19        they started collecting data on registration

         20        and NVRA practices back in 1993.

         21             Again, those have been picked up now from

         22        the study, and so that was the first study of

         23        the three that we did as it relates to the

         24        study.

         25             But for the other two, you are correct,



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 76





          1        this is the first time this has been done.

          2             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you.

          3             Mr. Brace, you noted the dramatic increase

          4        in registration from 2002 to 2006 as reported

          5        in this survey.

          6             Do you attribute that to the data

          7        collection methodology we used, or was it, in

          8        fact, in the United States, there was such a

          9        huge increase in registration from 2002 to

         10        2006, despite the fact that it fell slightly

         11        from 2004, which is the normal results, a huge

         12        increase from 2002 to 2006, and what would you

         13        attribute that to as we are reporting it?

         14             >> BRACE:  I would agree with you.  That

         15        was because -- it was not because of the

         16        methodology in terms of the data collection.

         17        It was simply a fact that there were vast --

         18        larger number of persons registered.  By the

         19        time we got to 2006, most of that increases we

         20        had noted took place between 2002 and 2004.

         21             >> HILLMAN:  So it was a leftover from

         22        2004?

         23             >> BRACE:  Yes.

         24             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you.  Now, to have our

         25        conversation about total voting age population



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 77





          1        and citizen voting age population, back in the

          2        day, before you and I had gray hair, we were

          3        all using census bureau data as a guide with

          4        respect to levels of registration and turnout.

          5        And that was based on total voting age

          6        population -- all people in the United States

          7        who were reported to be ages 18 and over.  Is

          8        that correct?

          9             >> BRACE:  That is voting age population.

         10             >> HILLMAN:  Voting age population.  Okay.

         11        So in the '80s and '90s, to the best of my

         12        recollection, though we would acknowledge that

         13        not everybody in the voting age population was

         14        eligible to vote, those were the only numbers

         15        that we had to work with as predictors and to

         16        keep track of levels of participation.  Is that

         17        correct?

         18             >> BRACE:  That is correct.

         19             >> HILLMAN:  Then sometime around 2000 or

         20        thereafter -- and I sort of lost track as to

         21        when it happened -- people began talking about

         22        citizenship voting age population to be able to

         23        identify people who were eligible to register

         24        and vote?

         25             >> BRACE:  That's correct.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 78





          1             >> HILLMAN:  Okay.  So when you talk about

          2        the differentiation between the numbers that

          3        somebody would see when you look at percentages

          4        against the VAP, total voting age population,

          5        and you look at the numbers against the

          6        citizenship voting age population, help me

          7        understand, it does not mean that noncitizens

          8        were participating, and, therefore, collected

          9        in the total voting age population.  That is

         10        not why we're making the differentiation, is

         11        it?

         12             >> BRACE:  No.  That is correct.

         13             What we are saying is that when you look

         14        at total voting age population, it gives you

         15        one mix of the potential of people that are

         16        there that could vote.

         17             Under most state laws, you have to be also

         18        citizens, and so that pulls down the eligible

         19        number of persons that could be voting.  As you

         20        get in with the -- in states that have larger

         21        numbers of noncitizens in their populations,

         22        that brings down those numbers even larger.

         23             And so what -- what is important to take a

         24        look at and be able to analyze and know both of

         25        those numbers and see what impact they might



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 79





          1        have in terms of the eligibility and how people

          2        would, then, participate.

          3             >> HILLMAN:  And for the purposes of our

          4        study report, we're dealing with federal

          5        elections only.  Right?

          6             >> BRACE:  That is correct.

          7             >> HILLMAN:  And so, therefore, we are

          8        acknowledging that all persons participating in

          9        the process have to be citizens?

         10             >> BRACE:  Yes.

         11             >> HILLMAN:  And so it is slightly

         12        confusing as to why we are focusing on voting

         13        age population that includes people who are not

         14        eligible to vote.

         15             I know why we're tracking the numbers and

         16        it is sort of a leftover, and you have got this

         17        overlapping.  But for the purpose of tracking

         18        the people who are eligible because they're

         19        citizens and ages 18 and over, it is the

         20        numbers captured under the citizen voting age

         21        population.  Is that correct?

         22             >> BRACE:  That is the ultimate.  Now,

         23        that still leaves out two other categories that

         24        are still there.  Most state laws prevent

         25        persons voting if they are mentally



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 80





          1        incompetent, as well as -- there is one other

          2        category -- I can't remember.

          3             >> HILLMAN:  Felons?

          4             >> BRACE:  Felons, yes.

          5             Both of those sets of data are basically

          6        nonexistent.  You don't really know either in

          7        terms of those things.

          8             >> HILLMAN:  We're only talking about

          9        eligible, in terms of meeting age and

         10        citizenship requirements.

         11             >> BRACE:  That's correct.

         12             >> HILLMAN:  We're not talking about

         13        eligible as it relates to each specific state?

         14             >> BRACE:  Yes, that's correct.

         15             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you.

         16             And my last question -- and it doesn't

         17        have to do with the E.A.C.'s report but just in

         18        general, and it was triggered by the

         19        provisional vote cast and count -- of the

         20        people who -- of the people who thought they

         21        were registered to vote, but it turns out they

         22        weren't registered to vote, has any survey been

         23        done that sort of captures why people thought

         24        they were registered to vote when it turns out

         25        they weren't?  Because we're talking about



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 81





          1        several hundred thousand people.

          2             >> BRACE:  Certainly we are, and that is a

          3        very good point.  We don't know.  That is one

          4        of the great questions and that is certainly

          5        would be something that is potential for

          6        research.  We do know, you know, if we were to

          7        work with different states or local

          8        governments, to be able to go and take a look

          9        at those provisional ballots and go back to

         10        track down those people that thought they were

         11        registered and were not to figure out why.  It

         12        is a very large category in that, as we have

         13        noted.  And it is rather significant.

         14             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you.

         15             >> DAVIDSON:  As we move forward, would

         16        you like to go ahead and ask our questions.

         17        How we are moving forward in the next year as

         18        we look forward to collecting data in the

         19        future?

         20             >> HUNTER:  Sure.  As I mentioned before,

         21        we acknowledge in the report, and we have done

         22        so in other forums that there were problems

         23        with the data collection and you know some of

         24        it was based on the web-based surveys and some

         25        states just don't collect the information as



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 82





          1        much as they may want to, and they are not

          2        required to collect it by any kind of law and

          3        so their systems aren't set up to do.  So I was

          4        wondering if the two of you might provide us

          5        with a little bit of an overview of the work

          6        you have done recently to improve the data

          7        collection.

          8             >> LYNN-DYSON:  I am happy to say and

          9        report Commissioner Hunter that with Kim and

         10        his subcontractors assistance, Clark Vincent

         11        and Paul Gronke, we were able to undertake what

         12        I thought was an incredibly important and

         13        helpful series of teleconference calls last

         14        week in which we were able to discuss with

         15        43 --

         16             >> BRACE:  43 states.

         17             >> LYNN-DYSON:  43 states, not only their

         18        experiences with the -- their attempts to meet

         19        the requirements and accommodate the E.A.C. and

         20        its request for data for the 2006 survey

         21        questions.  And moving forward Kim will be

         22        capturing what we heard in those

         23        teleconferences, making a series of

         24        recommendations to the E.A.C. about how best to

         25        proceed.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 83





          1             It is my expectation that in January, we

          2        will work to develop a new request for quotes

          3        to issue a contract in which the winning bidder

          4        would work with us to develop a new survey

          5        instrument, to identify the key data sets that

          6        we wish to collect based upon what we heard in

          7        last week's conference calls, we anticipate

          8        that we are likely to develop a series of

          9        templates in which states will, for 2008, be

         10        given a choice of instruments that they can use

         11        to actually report the data.

         12             We are talking about for example Excel

         13        spread sheets, Access spread sheets.  And I

         14        think it is important to note for the record as

         15        I did in all of the conference calls, that as

         16        you all well know, the public may not know this

         17        as much, that we as an agency are required to

         18        submit to the Paperwork Reduction Act and go

         19        through a public vetting and hearing process

         20        for our survey instrument.  What that means for

         21        us as an agency is that we must work very, very

         22        quickly to get to the states as close to a mock

         23        survey instrument and to the public get this

         24        document out so that we can begin this OMB

         25        clearance process, Paperwork Reduction Act



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 84





          1        clearance process, which takes 120 days.

          2             So we have expressed to the states that we

          3        certainly expect and anticipate that they will

          4        have a draft and an idea of what they will be

          5        working with in January and that we -- it is

          6        our sincere plan and hope that they will have

          7        no later than May the finalized document.  So

          8        that is the outline of the plan beginning in

          9        early January.

         10             >> BRACE:  I would add to that that when

         11        we started our contract with you for the 2006

         12        study, in May 3rd I believe it was, and we

         13        began talking with the states and hearing some

         14        of their English in terms of dealing with the

         15        data, dealing with the web-based survey and all

         16        of that, I became very much committed early on

         17        to make sure that their views were

         18        correspondingly transmitted to the E.A.C.

         19             And I am very much thankful to the

         20        commission for giving us the second contract to

         21        implement that.  And in doing the series of

         22        five teleconferences that we did last week,

         23        that some of you listened to and participated

         24        in, and Karen ended up attending all five of

         25        them.  It was very informative in terms of the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 85





          1        experiences that they went through.  But also,

          2        106 the differences that there are out there in

          3        the states.

          4             We are a nation of 50 states and that is

          5        why we have 50 different election laws, and it

          6        is important as we try to collect data that we

          7        understand those differences.  And I think that

          8        started very much so in terms of these

          9        teleconferences.

         10             >> DAVIDSON:  Okay.  Thank you very much.

         11        I appreciate that.  Thank you.

         12             All right.  As we move forward, we have

         13        the report in front of us for approval.  I know

         14        there has been some changes made that we have

         15        in front of us here.  How would you like to

         16        proceed?  Ms. Rodriguez.

         17             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.

         18        The process that we operate under is that we

         19        post as soon as we adopt something, we post it

         20        on the website.  And so if Ms. Layson is here,

         21        is she here?  Any way, we post these things as

         22        immediately as we adopt them.  And there is a

         23        great deal of interest in this product.

         24             Yesterday I attended an election line

         25        seminar on the 2008 election and a number of



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 86





          1        reporters were looking forward to the release

          2        of this report.  I understand that you have

          3        made some minor, very minor, edits to the

          4        report that you gave the commission about ten

          5        days ago.  And I just wondered if you would put

          6        in the record those edits.

          7             I don't know if the commissioners will

          8        have questions or anything, but if you would

          9        put in the record those edits so that

         10        Ms. Layson can post the report with the

         11        additional information that it will be very

         12        slightly revised.

         13             >> DAVIDSON:  Can I ask, when you say put

         14        in the record, my hope is that we will take the

         15        time now to go through them; is that what you

         16        meant by putting in the record?

         17             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Yes.

         18             >> DAVIDSON:  Okay.  Which one would you

         19        like, Ms. Dyson, will you be leading this?

         20             >> LYNN-DYSON:  I am happy to do so.  We

         21        can begin with the letter to the public.

         22        And --

         23             >> DAVIDSON:  Can you do it --

         24             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Quickly?

         25             >> DAVIDSON:  Yes.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 87





          1             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Essentially what we have

          2        done in our letter to the public is we have

          3        softened our seal in which we talk about how

          4        invaluable this document is, and we just think

          5        that it will help.

          6             >> HILLMAN:  Do you have a page number or

          7        something?

          8             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Page one.

          9             >> DAVIDSON:  I think there is a year

         10        change in the instruction.

         11             >> LYNN-DYSON:  No, that one has not

         12        changed.

         13             >> DAVIDSON:  Sorry that I interrupted.

         14             >> LYNN-DYSON:  That is okay.  In the

         15        letter we also note that we have --

         16             >> HILLMAN:  I am sorry, could you just

         17        read the language that will be used.

         18             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Is that the way you would

         19        like to proceed?  Okay.  Once again, in the

         20        letter that you all issued to the public, you

         21        are saying the information we collected will

         22        help the American public better understand what

         23        is happening throughout the country.

         24             It originally read as the information we

         25        collected is invaluable in helping the American



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 88





          1        public better understand.  We have now struck

          2        from the letter the sentence the survey also

          3        helps this agency meet its statutory

          4        requirements to study various portions of the

          5        election process and report to Congress.

          6             Moving forward, Executive Summary, Page 3,

          7        the language in the draft report reads:

          8        "Persons have to be at least 18 years of age,"

          9        parens, "voting age population or VAP."  Next

         10        sentence, "Some states require those persons to

         11        also be United States citizens."

         12             The language now reads as one sentence:

         13        "Persons have to be at least 18 years of age,"

         14        comma, "be United States' citizens, and,"

         15        comma, "some states prohibit felons and

         16        mentally incompetent persons from

         17        participating."

         18             Down to the third paragraph in the

         19        Executive Summary, there was an error --

         20             >> DAVIDSON:  I am sorry.  The one I am

         21        looking at, say the "States' citizens," are we

         22        just saying "be citizens"?

         23             >> LYNN-DYSON:  Yes, should be "United

         24        States citizens" or can say "be citizens."

         25             Moving down to the third paragraph, there



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 89





          1        was an error.  It should read, "the National

          2        Voter Registration Act of 1993" and not 1992.

          3             Moving to Page 4, the third full

          4        paragraph, in the original draft text, the last

          5        sentence -- last portion of that sentence read,

          6        "states only require voters to cast their

          7        ballots in their own overall jurisdiction for

          8        the provisional ballot to be counted."

          9             It now will read, "Only require voters to

         10        cast their ballots in their own county or

         11        township, for the provisional ballot to be

         12        counted."

         13             >> DAVIDSON:  Would it not pertain to

         14        cities?

         15             >> HILLMAN:  For example, it is my

         16        understanding that cities, particularly in new

         17        England and maybe Chicago and others administer

         18        federal election?

         19             >> BRACE:  Yes, that is correct.  We can

         20        make that change, yes.

         21             >> DAVIDSON:  Go ahead, Commissioner

         22        Rodriguez.

         23             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.

         24             In Colorado, you can cast your provisional

         25        vote in your jurisdiction.  So that



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 90





          1        jurisdiction point would be correct for some

          2        states.

          3             >> BRACE:  And in Colorado, jurisdiction

          4        is defined as what?

          5             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Your voting district.

          6             >> BRACE:  Your precinct.

          7             >> RODRIGUEZ:  No, not your precinct.

          8        Your district.

          9             >> BRACE:  Your district, okay.

         10             >> RODRIGUEZ:  So it is your -- I mean, I

         11        could vote in a congressional district in a

         12        county in which I did not reside if -- as long

         13        as -- if as long as I were in that

         14        congressional district.

         15             >> BRACE:  Okay.

         16             >> HUNTER:  I have a suggestion on

         17        something that may clear this up a little bit.

         18             Instead of saying -- instead of striking

         19        "overall jurisdiction" and replacing it with

         20        "county or township," one way, I think, to do

         21        this would say, but "a smaller number of states

         22        require voters" -- wait, excuse me, "a smaller

         23        number of states do not require voters to cast

         24        their ballots in their precinct for the

         25        provisional ballot to be counted or partially



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 91





          1        counted."

          2             So we're drawing a distinction between

          3        states that require you to vote within your

          4        precinct and states that don't, because there

          5        are so many varieties.

          6             And Colorado is a good example of a state

          7        you can vote just for president in any part of

          8        the state, I think per commissioner Davidson's

          9        order, when she was Secretary of State, but I

         10        think that is a plainer way of saying it.

         11             >> BRACE:  Yes, I think that would be a

         12        better way of saying it.

         13             >> DAVIDSON:  Did you get that language?

         14             >> LYNN-DYSON:  I did, Madam Chair.  "But

         15        a smaller number of states do not require

         16        voters to cast their ballots in their precinct

         17        for the provisional ballot to be counted."

         18             >> HUNTER:  Say that again.  Sorry.

         19             >> LYNN-DYSON:  "Most states require to

         20        have voted in their home precinct for their

         21        vote to be counted, but a smaller number of

         22        states do not require voters to cast their

         23        ballots in their precinct for the provisional

         24        ballot to be counted."

         25             >> DAVIDSON:  Or partially counted.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 92





          1             >> HUNTER:  I think I said "or partially

          2        counted."

          3             >> LYNN-DYSON:  "To be counted or

          4        partially counted."  Okay.

          5             And finally, on Page 5, Commissioners,

          6        again recognizing the difficulty in the

          7        iterative process we are going through in terms

          8        of trying to create a good survey instrument,

          9        this is the second report I am voting produced

         10        by the E.A.C., the first, the 2004 report was

         11        released in September 2005.  Rather than

         12        "significant improvements," we will say

         13        "improvements, which are detailed below, were

         14        made for the 2006 survey process."

         15             >> DAVIDSON:  With those changes read into

         16        record, how would the Commissioners like to

         17        proceed?  Do I have a motion?

         18             >> HUNTER:  Okay.  I move to adopt the

         19        2006 Election Administration and Voting Survey

         20        with the changes that were read into the

         21        record.

         22             >> DAVIDSON:  I have a motion.

         23             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Second.

         24             >> DAVIDSON:  I have a motion and a second

         25        to adopt the 2006 Election Administration and



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 93





          1        Voting Survey with the changes that have been

          2        read into the record.

          3             With the motion and a second, I call for a

          4        vote -- or is there any discussion?  Excuse me.

          5             Seeing no discussion, I'll call for a

          6        vote.

          7             All those in favor say "aye."

          8             >> Aye.

          9             >> DAVIDSON:  Opposed?

         10             Thank you very much.  I appreciate it.

         11        Job well done.

         12             >> WILKEY:  Madam Chair, just for purposes

         13        of clarification, for our communication staff,

         14        we did indicate to the media that we would

         15        release these data sets today.

         16             Since it appears we're only talking about

         17        some minor language changes on the document, we

         18        would like to move forward with doing that

         19        release, if that is all right.

         20             >> DAVIDSON:  I see no problem with doing

         21        that.  I think the only thing you are going to

         22        do is make a statement at the bottom or

         23        something saying that there would be a few

         24        changes in the -- you know, that have been read

         25        into the record, minor changes, because I think



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 94





          1        we all agree they were very minor.

          2             >> WILKEY:  Thank you, Madam Chair.

          3             >> DAVIDSON:  All right.  Thank you very

          4        much.  I appreciate it.

          5             We're going to take like a three, four

          6        minute break, so don't run off.  We're taking a

          7        three to four minute break, so don't run very

          8        far.

          9             (Recess taken)

         10             >> DAVIDSON:  As soon as we have

         11        Commissioner Hunter in the room, we'll get

         12        started again.

         13             All right.  I am going to get started

         14        again, and next on the agenda, you will notice

         15        that it says, "Discussion of E.A.C. policy

         16        regarding voting system reports," and I -- we

         17        have, right now, two reports that has been

         18        posted on our web, that is from California and

         19        Kentucky as a part of the E.A.C. clearinghouse

         20        function.

         21             And Commissioner Hillman had requested to

         22        discuss -- a discussion regard the E.A.C.

         23        voting system reports clearinghouse policy.

         24             I will turn it to you, Commissioner

         25        Hillman.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 95





          1             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you.

          2             In early August or late July -- I forget

          3        exactly when -- E.A.C. adopted a policy where,

          4        upon appropriate submission from a government,

          5        either state or local government official

          6        regarding a report on a voting system through

          7        its clearinghouse responsibilities, E.A.C.

          8        would post the reports.

          9             By broadly stating government officials,

         10        it could be any official, whether an attorney

         11        general or possibly even, you know, a district

         12        attorney or a state legislator.  We would

         13        receive the report, consider that it came from

         14        an appropriate source and post it.

         15             In the process of doing that, my -- my

         16        concern, and I am urging the E.A.C., that we

         17        adopt a procedure, if not part of the policy,

         18        that we will notify the state -- the chief

         19        state or the chief local election official when

         20        a report has been received from an official

         21        that is not the election official.

         22             And I say that because HAVA requires

         23        E.A.C. to work to improve the administration of

         24        federal elections and we do that work with a

         25        lot of our constituencies, but principally with



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 96





          1        the election officials.

          2             And I think it is E.A.C.'s responsibility

          3        to make sure that election officials know that

          4        a report about the voting system they have

          5        responsibility for has been submitted to E.A.C.

          6        and will be posted on E.A.C.'s website.  We can

          7        call it a courteous heads-up, if you will.

          8             My concern that we don't have currently

          9        written procedures to implement the policy, and

         10        so I guess what I am encouraging is that we

         11        quickly develop those procedures and that we

         12        make it as a part of the ongoing procedure

         13        that, whenever a report like that comes from an

         14        official who is not the chief state or chief

         15        local election official, that we would provide

         16        them notification at the time that we receive

         17        the report, so they will know that the report

         18        is being posted.

         19             >> DAVIDSON:  Any other comments or

         20        concerns?

         21             None.  We'll move on in our agenda.

         22             >> HILLMAN:  Before we move on, I saw a

         23        nodding head from the executive director, but I

         24        don't have any feedback whether I am talking

         25        for the record, whether my colleagues agree on



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 97





          1        that, or where we are on this.

          2             >> WILKEY:  I totally agree with you,

          3        Commissioner.  I think it is a great

          4        suggestion.  We want to put as many of these

          5        reports up as we can.  I think we took great

          6        care when we adopted the initial policy to make

          7        sure we included other people that may be

          8        involved in the election process, such as the

          9        attorney general or it could be a chairman of a

         10        state legislative committee that deals with

         11        elections.

         12             But I think your comment is we will make

         13        that a part of our procedure.  I think my only

         14        question will be, and we could have a further

         15        discussion at the time -- at some other time,

         16        if you wish, is that:  If the jurisdiction that

         17        is involved wants to make a comment, would that

         18        comment also be posted along with that report?

         19        Because that is likely to happen.

         20             >> HILLMAN:  Yeah, I don't -- you know, I

         21        don't -- I mean, I would certainly hope so, but

         22        I -- it is just not something that's come up

         23        yet, and the question is how we anticipate --

         24        or how we develop a procedure around an

         25        anticipated possible happening.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 98





          1             So I would hope that E.A.C. would be

          2        willing to allow the official who has the

          3        responsibility for the voting system in

          4        question to be able to respond.

          5             And I am not at all suggesting the

          6        procedure is a way to hold up or prevent the

          7        posting of any reports, but rather, a

          8        professional courtesy notification to the

          9        officials.

         10             >> WILKEY:  Okay.  We will proceed with

         11        that recommendation.  I think it is a good

         12        recommendation, and then we will also have some

         13        further discussion about how we will proceed

         14        with what I just mentioned and go from there,

         15        perhaps even into the next meeting.

         16             >> DAVIDSON:  Any other comments?

         17             Yes, Commissioner Rodriguez?

         18             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Yes, thank you, Madam

         19        Chair.

         20             But Mr. Wilkey, only bring it to us if it

         21        requires our action.  That's all I ask.

         22             >> WILKEY:  So noted.

         23             >> DAVIDSON:  Now moving forward, Edgardo

         24        Cortes.

         25             >> CORTES:  Good morning again,



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                 99





          1        Commissioners.  There are two items up on the

          2        agenda concerning the National Voter

          3        Registration Act.  The first one that I will be

          4        talking about, I mentioned earlier, but on

          5        December 3rd, we finished a public comment

          6        period regarding whether or not the E.A.C.

          7        should administratively transfer the

          8        regulations, the NVRA regulations previously

          9        adopted by the F.E.C.  The agency that was

         10        previously responsible for NVRA implementation.

         11             I provided a memo to commissioners last

         12        week summarizing the comments and have the

         13        comments as an attachment as well as some other

         14        information.  That was posted on our website

         15        and is still available on our website under

         16        meeting materials.  I will say that since

         17        the -- since the September meeting, during

         18        which the commissioners voted to have us do

         19        that public comment period, we have done a

         20        couple of steps to get to where we are today.

         21        The first one, Mr. Wilkey mentioned, was that

         22        we have established a code of federal

         23        regulations site.  In order to move the

         24        regulations or transfer the regulations over we

         25        need that site in place.  We currently have a



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                100





          1        draft organizational structure that is being

          2        finalized and as Mr. Wilkey mentioned, it is in

          3        title eleven, chapter two of the Code of

          4        Federal Regulations.  The NVRA regulations are

          5        tentatively set to occupy parts 9430 and 9431

          6        of that chapter.

          7             Again, we received five comments during

          8        the public comment period.  They were provided

          9        to the commissioners.  The majority of them

         10        were in support of the administrative transfer

         11        with the note that of course there was an

         12        expectation that as commissioners move forward

         13        in amending those regulations that there would

         14        be ample opportunity for public comment and

         15        participation.

         16             At this juncture the commissioners have in

         17        consultation with the office general counsel,

         18        we think there are two possibilities for the

         19        commissioners to do at this point.  The first

         20        one would be to approve the administrative

         21        transfer of those regulations and which case

         22        the E.A.C. staff would coordinate with F.E.C.

         23        to enter into joint rule making process.  That

         24        will require a extensive work with several

         25        E.A.C. divisions as well as some folks on the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                101





          1        F.E.C. side to draft that and get that into

          2        place.

          3             Once that joint rule making process has

          4        been done and the note is published, those

          5        regulations would become E.A.C.'s regulations.

          6        At that point, the E.A.C. would need to enter

          7        into a rule-making process to amend those

          8        regulations.  The reason I say this is because

          9        the current or the NVRA regulations in the

         10        F.E.C. past were passed prior to the passage of

         11        HAVA, and there are several items that require

         12        bringing the regulations into compliance with

         13        the HAVA requirements.

         14             The second option before the commission is

         15        that the -- y'all would reject the

         16        administrative transfer and the E.A.C. would

         17        simply begin a full rule-making process to

         18        develop NVRA regulations.  So those are the two

         19        items or the two possibilities before you this

         20        morning.

         21             >> DAVIDSON:  Mr. Cortes, I appreciate you

         22        explaining this to us and going through it, and

         23        I think it is very important as we move forward

         24        to be able to make NVRA compliant as we

         25        obviously move forward and as HAVA requires,



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                102





          1        they must end up at the E.A.C.  So I am going

          2        to open it up for a motion from the commission

          3        to take action.  So would one of you like to

          4        make a motion on the -- how we move forward?

          5             >> HILLMAN:  Madam Chair, I would move

          6        that the election, the U.S. Election Assistance

          7        Commission approve the administrative transfer

          8        as described by Mr. Cortes and provided.

          9             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Second.

         10             >> DAVIDSON:  We have a motion and a

         11        second to approve the administrative transfer

         12        of the rules from the F.E.C. to the E.A.C.

         13        using the suggestions that you have in the

         14        memo, which I believe is option one?

         15             >> CORTES:  Yes, ma'am.

         16             >> DAVIDSON:  Is there any discussion on

         17        the matter?

         18             >> HILLMAN:  I would like to speak to the

         19        motion.  But let me just defer to what the

         20        general counsel has to say.  And then I will

         21        speak to my motion.

         22             >> GILMOUR:  Based on the present motion,

         23        I want to make sure that you are approving

         24        staff of the executive director to take action

         25        to transfer.  We just want to make sure to the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                103





          1        public that we are not suggesting that this

          2        action results in the immediate transfer.

          3        There are still procedures in place, and they

          4        must be followed.  I think that is understood

          5        by everyone here.  We want to make sure that

          6        those words to include that.

          7             >> DAVIDSON:  I definitely appreciate

          8        that.  Thank you very much.

          9             >> HILLMAN:  I was -- I am pleased to make

         10        the motion because I think that it is

         11        critically important for the Election

         12        Assistance Commission to be moving as quickly

         13        as possible to engage the rule-making process

         14        for our responsibility to the NVRA, the

         15        National Voter Registration Act.

         16             And as I understand it, following up on

         17        the general counsel's technical correction of

         18        what the motion would be, that we are just not

         19        simply going to accept the transfer of the

         20        regulations but that we will engage in a

         21        full -- not fool -- full rule-making process to

         22        amend the E.A.C.'s NVRA regulations to make

         23        sure they are HAVA compliant and make any

         24        changes that are determined appropriate by the

         25        E.A.C. commissioners.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                104





          1             In the meantime, we have some things

          2        pending, and I am hoping that the commissioners

          3        will be able to do two things.  One, is to

          4        identify those changes to the state specific

          5        instructions, the process that we can agree on

          6        now as temporary procedures through whatever

          7        process we have to go through as quickly as

          8        possible, and diligently work those things

          9        where the commissioners may not be in agreement

         10        on.  But just encourage that we continue moving

         11        this forward, and there will be lots of

         12        discussions about NVRA but that we can get

         13        procedures in place quickly.

         14             >> DAVIDSON:  We have a motion on the

         15        floor to -- and a second.  Commissioner

         16        Rodriguez?

         17             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.  I

         18        just want to take this opportunity to thank the

         19        individuals and organizations even though one

         20        of the comments wasn't particularly helpful for

         21        the groups that are watching this process and

         22        took the time to write thoughtful feedback and

         23        reaction to the transfer.  We -- this is going

         24        to be a long process.

         25             Just like every other process where you



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                105





          1        make sure that you comply with every possible

          2        regulation, but I am pleased that we have

          3        agreed -- well, I will be pleased to support

          4        the motion to start the process of working with

          5        the F.E.C. to transfer the regulations.

          6             >> DAVIDSON:  Any other comments?  Seeing

          7        none, I will call for the vote.  All those in

          8        favor of starting the process of moving the

          9        regulations over from the NVRA regulations from

         10        the F.E.C. to the E.A.C. and taking option

         11        really one and really outlines the steps that

         12        has to be taken, say aye.

         13             >> Aye.

         14             >> DAVIDSON:  Oppose?  The motion is

         15        carried.  Okay.

         16             Over the last few months --

         17             >> HILLMAN:  I am sorry.  May I just ask a

         18        question in terms of the next two steps in

         19        anticipated length of time now that the motion

         20        is passed?

         21             >> CORTES:  Well, our next step will be

         22        later this week we will contact F.E.C.  They

         23        actually have within their office of general

         24        counsel have part of their legal team assigned

         25        to working on regulations.  Because they issue



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                106





          1        other regulations as well.  And so we will

          2        contact them to see about the length of time

          3        that it will take for us to get through this

          4        process.

          5             As I said, it will require development of

          6        a Federal Register notice, that meets not only

          7        Administrative Procedure Act but several other

          8        requirements that are out there regarding the

          9        administrative transfer of regulations.

         10             So we'll begin working with them.  I can't

         11        give you a specific time line at this point,

         12        obviously I want to get it done as quickly as

         13        possible, but a lot of it will be dependent on

         14        F.E.C.

         15             >> GILMOUR:  There are a number of

         16        determinations that have to be made regarding a

         17        variety of other statutes and executive orders

         18        which we believe we have a good handle on, but

         19        ultimately, we will have to rely on a number of

         20        other entities whose activities are somewhat

         21        beyond our control, but we will be pushing as a

         22        team hard to get this done.

         23             >> HILLMAN:  In addition to the F.E.C.,

         24        what would another entities beyond our control

         25        be?



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                107





          1             >> GILMOUR:  Depending upon some

          2        determinations, a number of statutes, it could

          3        be O.M.B.  They have two different offices

          4        there.  There is OIRA and of course, the Paper

          5        Reduction Act folks.  There are some

          6        determinations there, which unfortunately, I

          7        think we have a handle on that, but because the

          8        F.E.C. is exempt and we're not, there could be,

          9        unfortunately, some more complicated issues

         10        there, but our effort will be to proceed as

         11        quickly as possible.

         12             >> HILLMAN:  Thank you.

         13             >> DAVIDSON:  Okay.  As we move forward,

         14        over the last few months, the Commission has

         15        tried to reach consensus on the interim policy

         16        of the process of states' requests.  No

         17        consensus has been reached at this time.

         18             The ideal situation would have been first

         19        that we had adopted an interim policy and then

         20        applied it to the states' request, but we

         21        cannot wait any longer.

         22             We have specific requests from five states

         23        to change the instructions on the form, and we

         24        have a responsibility to the voters to make

         25        sure that the national form is accurate and up



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                108





          1        to date.

          2             That is why I've called for the Commission

          3        to vote on each request.  The voters expect and

          4        deserve leadership and action from the E.A.C.

          5        on this issue, and they expect and they deserve

          6        it now.

          7             Every day that we do not make a decision,

          8        we run the risk of disenfranchising voters.  I

          9        thank the E.A.C. staff for working with all of

         10        us to try to reach consensus.  You have done

         11        your job, and now it is time for the

         12        Commissioners to do our job.

         13             Edgardo Cortes of the E.A.C., I would now

         14        ask you to go through each one of the states'

         15        requests separately, so it is not confusing for

         16        the Commissioners, and we'll take a vote on

         17        each one of them as we go through them.

         18             Thank you.

         19             >> CORTES:  Thank you, Madam Chair.

         20             Again, last week -- well during last

         21        month's meeting, I presented a memo that

         22        detailed requested changes from four states.

         23        Early last week, we got an additional request

         24        from the state of Delaware, and so I added that

         25        to the memo and reissued it at the end of last



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                109





          1        week on December 6th, so that was also posted

          2        on our website under the materials for the

          3        meeting.

          4             Would you like me to read the specific

          5        changes or detail what it is they're --

          6             >> DAVIDSON:  I definitely feel the

          7        Commissioners need to be aware of what they

          8        were so that they -- they can vote and make

          9        sure that they understand each and one of them.

         10             >> CORTES:  The first one I have here is

         11        Rhode Island, and Rhode Island has requested a

         12        change in the language and instructions for

         13        number 9, which deal with their state

         14        eligibility requirements.

         15             In particular, we're looking at a change

         16        previously.  To register to vote in Rhode

         17        Island, you had to be neither -- and this is

         18        quoted in the memo, the exact language -- this

         19        is what is currently on the form.

         20             It said, "You must be neither serving a

         21        sentence, including probation or parole for

         22        which you are imprisoned upon final conviction

         23        of a felony imposed on any date, nor serving

         24        any sentence, whether incarcerated or

         25        suspended, on probation or parole upon a



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                110





          1        finally conviction of a felony committed after

          2        November 5th, 1986."

          3             Since that time -- in the past year, the

          4        state of Rhode Island has amended their

          5        constitution regarding that requirement, and

          6        they now wish it to read -- and this is in

          7        accordance with their state constitution --

          8        that "to register in Rhode Island you must not

          9        currently be incarcerated in a correctional

         10        facility due to a felony conviction," so that

         11        is the specific change which they request.

         12             >> DAVIDSON:  All right.  Do I hear a

         13        motion?

         14             >> HUNTER:  I move to adopt that specific

         15        change and reflect it in the state instructions

         16        portion of the Federal Voter Registration form

         17        under the state of Rhode Island.

         18             >> DAVIDSON:  Is there a second?

         19             I will second it.

         20             All those in favor of --

         21             >> HILLMAN:  I would like to speak to the

         22        motion, please.

         23             >> DAVIDSON:  All right.  Is there any

         24        discussion?

         25             >> HILLMAN:  Yes.  On Friday of last week,



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                111





          1        December 7th, I put before all of the

          2        Commissioners and the senior staff a proposed

          3        policy that would allow us to adopt

          4        temporary -- a temporary policy and procedures

          5        so that all requests from states for changes to

          6        the state instruction portion of the Federal

          7        Registration Form could be considered the same.

          8             And I agree with you, Madam Chair, that

          9        E.A.C. has a responsibility to the states and

         10        to the voters of this country, but I also

         11        believe that E.A.C. has a responsibility to

         12        take actions under adoptive policy, and that to

         13        take the requests state by state puts us in

         14        jeopardy of, one, not having in place the

         15        appropriate authority that we have been told

         16        this year that we should have in place; and

         17        two, that state requests would not be treated

         18        the same.

         19             And I think it is really important that,

         20        when these decisions are made, we are making

         21        them under policy.

         22             >> DAVIDSON:  Commissioner Hillman, I

         23        agree with you, and I appreciate your hard

         24        work, and I am sorry that it wasn't done

         25        earlier, where we could amend our -- our



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                112





          1        Federal Register notice to make sure that it

          2        had been properly noticed on the agenda to be

          3        discussed today, your procedure.

          4             And I publicly will say that I support in

          5        moving forward in a policy in working with all

          6        of my fellow Commissioners in getting one

          7        addressed.

          8             But last month I was criticized for not

          9        having addressed it with the Federal Register,

         10        and I really had, and I feel that it is

         11        important, as we move forward, trying to be

         12        transparent, that we move forward and treat it

         13        all the same.

         14             And I realize we have all been very busy,

         15        and I do look forward in working with you and

         16        all of the others in trying to get to a

         17        resolution.

         18             But we are really close to the election --

         19        presidential elections that is right there upon

         20        us.  And we take -- we are right now in the

         21        process of disenfranchising voters who could

         22        possibly be voting and don't know what the

         23        rules and regulations are for the states.

         24             So that's why I took the urgent need to go

         25        ahead and put them up for vote.  I think we can



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                113





          1        vote on them fairly, on each and every one of

          2        them, as we move forward, and that we must do

          3        so.

          4             I noticed it.  I even called the

          5        Commissioners several weeks ago and let them

          6        know that I intended to put it up this way so

          7        that it was done in a public setting.

          8             So is there any other discussion of the

          9        manner?

         10             Ms. Rodriguez?

         11             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.  I,

         12        too, am abstaining from this vote absent a

         13        policy with which we deal with the problem.

         14             >> DAVIDSON:  Then we'll proceed with the

         15        vote, and then you can cast your vote as you

         16        wish.

         17             Would you take the roll?

         18             >> GILMOUR:  Commissioners, please state

         19        your vote -- Commissioners, please state your

         20        vote for the record after I call your name.

         21             Commissioner Carolyn Hunter?

         22             >> HUNTER:  Aye.

         23             >> GILMOUR:  Commissioner Gracia Hillman?

         24             >> HILLMAN:  Abstain because we do not

         25        have a policy.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                114





          1             >> GILMOUR:  Vice Chair Rosemary

          2        Rodriguez?

          3             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Abstain.

          4             >> GILMOUR:  Chair Davidson?

          5             >> DAVIDSON:  Aye.

          6             Would you continue on with Colorado, the

          7        address change?

          8             >> CORTES:  Yes.

          9             >> GILMOUR:  Madam Chair, could you please

         10        state for the record the results of the vote?

         11             >> DAVIDSON:  The record showed that there

         12        was two yes votes and two that abstained,

         13        because we did not have a policy.

         14             >> CORTES:  Yes, ma'am.

         15             >> GILMOUR:  Madam Chair, could you please

         16        state for the record the results of the vote.

         17             >> DAVIDSON:  The record shows that there

         18        was two yes votes and two that abstained

         19        because we did not have a policy.

         20             >> GILMOUR:  And that motion will not

         21        carry?

         22             >> DAVIDSON:  That's correct.

         23             >> CORTES:  Madam Chair, the second

         24        request pending is from Colorado.  They have

         25        requested a change in their mailing address as



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                115





          1        their -- since they have switched location, the

          2        forwarding to -- mail forwarding from their

          3        previous location has expired.  The previous

          4        mailing address was 1560 Broadway, Suite 200 in

          5        Denver, Colorado.  That address has been

          6        changed to 1700 Broadway, Suite 270, Denver,

          7        Colorado, and that is the change that the state

          8        has requested.

          9             >> DAVIDSON:  Any discussion?  Is there a

         10        motion?  I move that we changed the address for

         11        Colorado.  Is there a second?

         12             >> HUNTER:  Second.

         13             >> DAVIDSON:  Discussion?  I will take a

         14        vote.  Roll call, please.

         15             >> GILMOUR:  Please state your vote for

         16        the record after I call your name.

         17        Commissioner Caroline Hunter?

         18             >> HUNTER:  Aye.

         19             >> GILMOUR:  Gracia Hillman?

         20             >> HILLMAN:  Abstain.

         21             >> GILMOUR:  Vice Chair Rosemary

         22        Rodriguez?

         23             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Abstain.

         24             >> GILMOUR:  And chair Davidson.

         25             >> DAVIDSON:  Aye.  Let the record show



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                116





          1        there was two yeses, two abstains, so the

          2        motion has failed.  Continue.

          3             >> CORTES:  The next request is from

          4        Delaware, it pertains to their registration

          5        deadline.  Previously their registration

          6        deadline was 20 days prior to the general

          7        election and 20 days prior to the primary

          8        election.

          9             They have since changed their state law,

         10        and they have requested a change, the change

         11        registration deadline to read, the fourth

         12        Saturday before a primary or general election

         13        and ten days before a special election.

         14             >> DAVIDSON:  Is there a motion to address

         15        the issue from Delaware?

         16             >> HUNTER:  I move to make a change in the

         17        state instructions for the registration

         18        deadline for the state of Delaware.

         19             >> DAVIDSON:  I will second the motion.

         20        And I see no discussion.  Would you go ahead

         21        and call roll please.

         22             >> GILMOUR:  Please state your name for

         23        the record after I call your name.

         24        Commissioner Caroline Hunter?

         25             >> HUNTER:  Aye.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                117





          1             >> GILMOUR:  Commissioner Gracia Hillman?

          2             >> HILLMAN:  Abstain.

          3             >> GILMOUR:  Vice Chair Rosemary

          4        Rodriguez?

          5             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Abstain.

          6             >> GILMOUR:  Chair Davidson.

          7             >> DAVIDSON:  Aye.  Let the record show

          8        there are two ayes and two abstains so the

          9        motion has failed.  Edgardo, New Jersey I

         10        believe is next.

         11             >> CORTES:  Yes, Madam Chair.  New Jersey

         12        has also requested a change to their voter

         13        registration deadline information.  Previously

         14        or as listed currently in the form, the

         15        registration deadline was 29 days before the

         16        election.  They have since changed their state

         17        law and the registration deadline is now 21

         18        days before the election.

         19             >> DAVIDSON:  Is there a motion?  On the

         20        New Jersey?

         21             >> HUNTER:  I move to amend the New Jersey

         22        state instructions to reflect their new

         23        registration deadline of 21 days before the

         24        election.

         25             >> DAVIDSON:  I will second the motion.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                118





          1        Discussion?  Counsel, will you call the roll,

          2        please.

          3             >> GILMOUR:  Please state your vote for

          4        the record after I call your name.

          5        Commissioner Caroline Hunter?

          6             >> HUNTER:  Aye.

          7             >> GILMOUR:  Commissioner Gracia Hillman?

          8             >> HILLMAN:  Abstain.

          9             >> GILMOUR:  Vice Chair Rosemary

         10        Rodriguez?

         11             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Abstain.

         12             >> GILMOUR:  Chair Davidson.

         13             >> DAVIDSON:  Aye.  Let the record show

         14        that there are two who voted aye and two that

         15        abstains.  So the motion has failed.  Last one.

         16             >> CORTES:  Yes, Madam Chair.  Arizona has

         17        requested the following change in the section

         18        labeled I.D. number in their state

         19        instructions.  The big change here to know and

         20        I can read the entire thing if you would like.

         21        Essentially after the language with the I.D.

         22        number, they have also asked the E.A.C. to

         23        reflect on the form a new requirement which

         24        they have listing documentation regarding

         25        citizenship, and they have then a list of



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                119





          1        acceptable documents to show a potential voter

          2        citizenship.  So that is the change.  I can

          3        read the entire thing if you would like.

          4             >> DAVIDSON:  I think that we have all

          5        read it and at public meetings in the past.  Is

          6        there a motion to address the Arizona request?

          7             >> HUNTER:  I move to adopt the language

          8        detailed in the memo by Mr. Cortes to properly

          9        reflect the state law in Arizona regarding

         10        eligibility to vote.

         11             >> DAVIDSON:  I second the motion.

         12        Discussion?  Counsel, would you call the roll,

         13        please.

         14             >> GILMOUR:  Please state your vote for

         15        the report after I call your name.

         16        Commissioner Caroline Hunter.

         17             >> HUNTER:  Aye.

         18             >> GILMOUR:  Commissioner Gracia Hillman?

         19             >> HILLMAN:   Abstain.

         20             >> GILMOUR:  Vice chair Rosemary

         21        Rodriguez?

         22             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Abstain.

         23             >> GILMOUR:  Chair Davidson.

         24             >> DAVIDSON:  Aye.  And let the record

         25        also be shown here that two voted aye, two



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                120





          1        abstained.  The motion has failed.  Yes, go

          2        right ahead, I don't know who was first but

          3        okay, Commissioner Hunter.

          4             >> HUNTER:  Thank you, Madam Chair.  I

          5        would like to point out for the record, I

          6        believe and Mr. Cortes can correct me if I am

          7        wrong, that the E.A.C. has made changes to the

          8        state instructions in the past since the

          9        inception of the E.A.C. absent a policy.  So

         10        that is one comment I would like to make.

         11             Another is, I proposed a policy as did

         12        Commissioner Davidson in previous public

         13        meetings on this subject, and you know, I

         14        posted and it was discussed and it did not

         15        pass.  And as Commissioner Davidson pointed

         16        out, everybody agrees that we should try to

         17        come up with a policy that we can use in making

         18        these kind of decisions but unfortunately

         19        nobody has been able to come up with one that

         20        can get three votes.

         21             So one of things I plan to do at the next

         22        public meeting is to reintroduce not my policy

         23        again because it has already failed.  But the

         24        F.E.C. policy, that the F.E.C. used to deal

         25        with this matter when they were still handling



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                121





          1        the voter registration form, and especially

          2        since we have now transferred the regulations

          3        from the F.E.C., may be that is a policy we

          4        could use at least in the interim until we come

          5        up with another one.

          6             So I plan to propose that at the next

          7        public meeting, and I also plan to propose a

          8        disclaimer to be added to the federal form to

          9        note that the Election Assistance Commission

         10        knows that the state instructions portion of

         11        this form is inaccurate.  And I think that is

         12        irresponsible.  I regret that we are in this

         13        position.

         14             But I think the public should be made

         15        aware of that fact.  And these are the only

         16        five issues we know about.  Mr. Cortes told us

         17        in the last public meeting that there may be

         18        other issues with the state instruction that we

         19        are not aware of because I believe he, the way

         20        he described it in the last meeting was he

         21        doesn't have the adequate staff to go out there

         22        and determine what the actual state instruction

         23        should be in each state.  And last time on the

         24        record with all of this conversation in

         25        previous meetings, but I do think that the



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                122





          1        state instruction should properly reflect, you

          2        know, the state law of the states.

          3             The states obviously have a Constitutional

          4        right to establish eligibility and the state

          5        instruction portion is just a mechanism to

          6        reflect to voters in that state what their

          7        state law is.  Thank you very much.

          8             >> DAVIDSON:  Commissioner Rodriguez?

          9             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.

         10        And I appreciate Commissioner Hunter's

         11        frustration.  But when the minutes we approved

         12        earlier in this meeting, we approved that

         13        discussion that we had last month about the

         14        absence of the policy and Commissioner

         15        Hillman's reluctance to vote on the state's

         16        requests absent a policy.  And she is not --

         17        commissioner Davidson and Hunter are not the

         18        only ones that have proposed a policy.

         19        Commissioner Hillman also did but it wasn't in

         20        time for us to consider at this meeting.  I do

         21        want to note that for the record.

         22             I am not taking a qualitative position on

         23        any of the states' instructions.  I wish we had

         24        a policy so that we could adopt them.  But the

         25        fact that we, in the past, have made decisions



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                123





          1        ad hoc doesn't to me be a good enough reason to

          2        continue to do things ad hoc.

          3             And so I commit to work with my colleagues

          4        to try to come up with something that we all

          5        agree on that may be the F.E.C. policy, I am

          6        willing to consider that formally.

          7        Commissioner Hillman suggested we might even

          8        work with a facilitator to at least knock out

          9        the areas that we can agree on.  These are

         10        very, in my opinion, some of the most important

         11        issues that we are working on at the E.A.C.

         12        But there should be an easy way for the simple

         13        administrative changes to be reflected on the

         14        form and in the state instructions.  I just

         15        simply will say again that I am not willing to

         16        adopt them without an overarching policy.

         17             >> DAVIDSON:  Thank you.

         18             >> HILLMAN:  Let me also say that my

         19        position has nothing to do with the proposed

         20        changes submitted by the states but rather that

         21        E.A.C. responsibly needs to be making decisions

         22        under policies.  As you noted, Madam Chair, you

         23        would not support the policy proposal I put on

         24        the table because it hadn't been noticed for 30

         25        days.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                124





          1             So I would submit that E.A.C. must make a

          2        commitment to figure out what it is going to

          3        put, notice the 30 days.  We cannot wait until

          4        our January meeting to find ourselves in a

          5        position where we won't consider a proposed

          6        policy because it hadn't been out for public

          7        comment for 30 days.

          8             Where we aren't going to consider a

          9        proposed policy because it hadn't been out for

         10        public comment for 30 days.  Thirty-day public

         11        comment, plus time for the staff to analyze

         12        the -- to be brought back to the Commission for

         13        discussion and consideration means minimally 45

         14        days.  So that means we are well into February.

         15             So I would say, Commissioners, that we

         16        have a responsibility.  As we have a

         17        responsibility to timely respond to matters

         18        brought before us, we have a responsibility to

         19        move post days to figure out a way that we can

         20        agree on the things that we can move forward

         21        with.  When I put my proposed policy out, I

         22        identified those things based on previous

         23        conversations that I believed we could come on

         24        agreement today if we put our minds to it, that

         25        there are other components of the NVRA that we



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                125





          1        don't have agreement on.

          2             There are some things which E.A.C. has

          3        little or no discretion because of the U.S.

          4        Constitution or because of the requirements of

          5        the National Voter Registration Act and the

          6        Help America Vote Act.  There are other things

          7        where we don't agree as to what the extent of

          8        the discretions are.

          9             And I believe that it is our

         10        responsibility to capture the things we can

         11        agree on and move forward with those, and if

         12        we're going to be consistent in this, then any

         13        policy that comes before us for consideration

         14        has to be noticed for 35 days, and let's just

         15        accept that means we won't be discussing it

         16        again until February

         17             And the longer we wait to come up with a

         18        proposed policy, the longer it is going to take

         19        before we can move forward on these items.

         20             Thank you.

         21             >> HUNTER:  Madam Chair, point of

         22        clarification, I don't recall your saying

         23        this -- maybe you did -- that we have a 30-day

         24        requirement for any posting of policy.

         25             That was not my understanding, and perhaps



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                126





          1        the general counsel could speak to that.

          2             >> GILMOUR:  I don't think I understand,

          3        either, what we're referencing.

          4             >> HILLMAN:  My comment is that whatever

          5        we discuss at our public meetings and whatever

          6        we take a vote on in our public meetings should

          7        be in the Federal Register.  It is not a 30-day

          8        period for the Federal Register, I believe,

          9        more like --

         10             >> GILMOUR:  It is a one-week minimal time

         11        period.

         12             >> HILLMAN:  Well, there seems to be the

         13        confusion of two things.  There is -- what I

         14        heard you tell me earlier, was that the

         15        proposed policy should be up for public comment

         16        30 days before the Commissioners take it

         17        under -- excuse me, this is something that

         18        Commissioner Davidson shared with me.

         19             I am perfectly willing to say if it is a

         20        week out there for public comment, if it is 14

         21        days, but we can't sometimes say it can be

         22        three days or 14 days that we agree, that if

         23        we're going to consider a policy proposal on

         24        this issue, that the proposal itself be

         25        available for public review and comment or not.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                127





          1        I just want to get some clarification on that,

          2        then.

          3             If we're only talking about what is on the

          4        agenda and materials made available for public

          5        review, or are we talking about putting

          6        something out for public comment?

          7             >> DAVIDSON:  My clarification -- and I am

          8        sorry if I confused the issue -- is that I feel

          9        that -- and in being transparent, as an agency,

         10        we need to have anything that we discuss or a

         11        vote that is taken at a meeting be on the

         12        Federal Register and up on our website and

         13        listed into our agenda.

         14             That was what my concern was, is that it

         15        had not been, I felt like, properly noticed to

         16        the public because of the Federal Register and

         17        because it wasn't on the agenda that had been

         18        out for a week.

         19             >> HILLMAN:  Well, my request is in

         20        response to Commissioner Hunter, that we not

         21        just individually come in with proposals, but

         22        that we make a commitment for the four of us,

         23        whether it is through the assistance of a

         24        mediator or somebody on staff or somehow,

         25        because the four of us can't discuss this



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                128





          1        unless it is at a public meeting, that we find

          2        a way that we can agree on what will go in the

          3        proposal so that we can move past where we are.

          4        We have been here for 90 days and that is 89

          5        days too long.

          6             >> HUNTER:  Of course I am willing to do

          7        whatever it takes to come up with a policy, and

          8        we can certainly talk two of us at a time, and

          9        I think that is maybe something we also ought

         10        to do more of.

         11             >> DAVIDSON:  I agree, that, number one,

         12        we need to come up with a policy immediately,

         13        as soon as we possibly can, so it can be

         14        presented and voted on at the next meeting.

         15             And I give my -- I plan on putting as much

         16        as I possibly can.  I will be talking with each

         17        and everybody to see how they feel

         18        individually.  I mean, it does slow down our

         19        process obviously because we can't sit down

         20        together, and if we think a mediator to help us

         21        come up with those and to record them -- I know

         22        our staff is extremely busy, so maybe that is

         23        the approach we need to take, that they can

         24        work with two of us at a time and come up with

         25        those.



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                129





          1             But you've got my willingness to do that

          2        along with -- I think everybody in the audience

          3        has been made aware that all four of us are

          4        committed to come up with a policy as quickly

          5        as possible so that we can address the issues.

          6             I am sorry to cut the meeting short, but

          7        we are supposed to be out of the room about

          8        five minutes ago.

          9             So this concludes my last meeting, and I

         10        do want to say thanks to my fellow

         11        Commissioners.

         12             >> GILMOUR:  I am sorry to interrupt you.

         13        I want it to be clear for the record that there

         14        was no decision or vote just previously made.

         15             >> DAVIDSON:  That's right.

         16             >> GILMOUR:  The goal, of course, is to

         17        move forward on this issue, as fast as we

         18        possibly can, consistent with the requirements

         19        for a public meeting.

         20             >> DAVIDSON:  That is correct.

         21             As I started to say, I do want to thank my

         22        fellow Commissioners.  They have been very

         23        supportive through my year as the Chair, and

         24        I -- I thank the staff for their tireless and

         25        their -- all of their work and how much their



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                130





          1        efforts has meant to me in standing behind me

          2        in trying to accomplish everything that they

          3        have in presenting it.

          4             So at this time, it is in order to have a

          5        motion to adjourn the meeting.

          6             >> HILLMAN:  Madam Chair, I know we're in

          7        a hurry to leave, but I just want to take a

          8        point to acknowledge some literature that was

          9        given to me just a minute ago at the beginning

         10        of the meeting.

         11             Pat McCarthy who was the Pierce County

         12        Auditor in Washington state, are you still

         13        here?  Yes.  Okay.

         14             A year or so ago, I, in making speeches,

         15        referred to poll workers as champions of

         16        democracy.  And in dialoguing with election

         17        officials, encouraged them to do whatever they

         18        could to highlight, thank, promote, call

         19        attention to the incredible work that poll

         20        workers do.

         21             And Ms. McCarthy has gone ahead and taken

         22        the term "champion of democracy" and uses it on

         23        her literature to promote and highlight her

         24        poll workers, and I am proudly wearing my

         25        "champion of democracy" pin, and just as an



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                131





          1        example that communication and exchanges of

          2        ideas do work, and so I want to thank you for

          3        that very much.

          4             >> DAVIDSON:  Any other comments?

          5             >> RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Madam Chair.

          6             I, too, want to thank you for your year as

          7        Chair.  It certainly made my transition to the

          8        E.A.C. feel like a homecoming because we have

          9        our shared Colorado roots and our shared home

         10        sickness sometimes.

         11             And you had, I think, an amazing year with

         12        the movement of the Voluntary Voting System

         13        Guidelines, the progress you've made in testing

         14        and certification and in the leading, all of

         15        the technology aspects and access to reliable

         16        equipment, aspects of the E.A.C. and I

         17        personally, too, want to thank you for a good

         18        year.

         19             >> DAVIDSON:  Thank you very much.

         20             Okay.  Now we're ready for that motion to

         21        adjourn.

         22             >> RODRIGUEZ:  So moved.

         23             >> DAVIDSON:  Second?

         24             >> HILLMAN:  Second.

         25             >> DAVIDSON:  All those in favor say



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                132





          1        "aye."

          2             >> Aye.

          3             >> DAVIDSON:  We are adjourned.  Thank

          4        you.

          5             (Meeting adjourned)

          6

          7

          8

          9

         10

         11

         12

         13

         14

         15

         16

         17

         18

         19

         20

         21

         22

         23

         24

         25



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210
                                                                133





          1   STATE OF TEXAS
              COUNTY OF TRAVIS
          2
                             REPORTERS' CERTIFICATE
          3       UNITED STATES ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION
                                 PUBLIC MEETING
          4                     DECEMBER 11, 2007

          5             We, the undersigned Certified Shorthand

          6        Reporters in and for the State of Texas,

          7        certify that the above and foregoing

          8        proceedings were taken down, as stated in the

          9        caption, and reduced to typewriting under ou

         10        direction, and that the foregoing represent a

         11        true, correct, and complete transcript of the

         12        said proceedings.

         13             SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO under our hand and

         14        seal of office on this the 23rd day of

         15        December, 2007.

         16                  ________________________________
                             April C. Balcombe, CSR, CRR, CCP
         17                  Texas CSR 5752
                             Expiration:  12/31/09
         18                  TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                             310 East 34th Street
         19                  Austin, Texas  78705
                             1-512-480-0210
         20

         21
                             _______________________________
         22                  Michelle Robertson, CSR, RPR
                             Texas CSR 4268
         23                  Expiration:  12/31/09
                             TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
         24                  310 East 34th Street
                             Austin, Texas  78705
         25                  1-512-480-0210



                               TEXAS CLOSED CAPTIONING
                     310 East 34th Street, Austin, Texas  78705
                                    (512)480-0210