Recommendation to receive and file the Elections Plan for the 2020 Primary Nominating and General Municipal Elections.
Clark will move to item six in place. Report from City Clerk recommendation to receive and file the elections plan for the 2020 primary nominating and general municipal election. Here to present information on future of L.A. County elections and the new voting system is Los Angeles County Registrar, Recorder County Clerk Dean Logan. And thank you. Bring my book for signature. Those of you who don't know, Mr. Logan is now a published author. His book came out a few weeks ago. You remind us what it's called. So set. Have to look on Amazon. It's exciting. Case Studies on elections administration is one chapter, but I'm very pretty appreciate that. We got some stories here in Long Beach we would like to share with you. So good evening. Council Members. Dean Logan, Registrar, Recorder County Clerk for Los Angeles County. I really appreciate the opportunity to to come to speak before you today and to share some information about the new voting experience that we are rolling out in Los Angeles County, starting with the 2020 election cycle. And before I get too far into it, I want to take this opportunity to to thank your city clerk, Monique Della Garza, and her staff, who have been absolutely integral partners with us throughout this process. And we could not be where we're at with the success of this effort and with the hard work that still remains ahead without without her support and all the work that she's done. So thank you, Monique, for that. So I'm very pleased to share with you that that after ten years of of work and research and engagement with the public, that we are ready to move towards a revolutionized form of voting in Los Angeles County. And when I say revolutionized, I'm talking about the voting experience we have in Los Angeles County from the perspective of a voter walking into a voting location on Election Day. The voting experience really hasn't changed since 1968, when punch card voting was first unrolled here in Los Angeles County. A lot of things behind the scenes have changed and updated since then, but from that voter experience, it really has remained the same and a lot has changed since 1968. And it is time for new opportunities, new options and new choices for voters in that voting experience. And we hope that through the work that we've done that, that we're doing this in a way that is going to increase participation, but also live up to the significance of that voting experience for our 5.4 million registered voters in Los Angeles County. I only have a brief period of time this evening, so I'll focus on on the significant elements of that change in voter experience. So gone will be the single day, single location, voting on a random Tuesday between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.. And we're moving towards a vote center model where voters in Los Angeles County can go to any vote center in the county over a period of 11 days to cast their ballot, which means we will have two full weekends of voting and we will give voters the opportunity to choose to vote at a location that is either convenient or more significant to them. So if it's easier for them to vote close to their home, we'll have vote centers in that area. If it's easier for them to vote somewhere close to work, somewhere close to where they drop their children off at school, or somewhere where they go shopping on the weekends. That the idea here is to be present in the community and to meet people where they are. And so so if they watched a debate on television the night before and they feel engaged and they feel like they're ready to cast their vote, that while they're out in their community, they will see a place that's available for them to do that. So the vote centers are really the most significant change in that that allows voters to vote anywhere will open those starting 11 days before the election, four days before the election will increase that to a larger number of locations. And again, those are available anywhere in the county at those vote centers. You will also be able to register to vote and vote on the same day. You can update your voter registration. So if you had an address change or if you had a change in party preference, you will have the opportunity to make those changes as well, drastically reducing the the need for provisional ballots, which often extend the canvass period in our elections process. So we're very pleased to be able to offer that. The way that we will be able to do that is through the use of an electronic pullback. So when voters arrive at these vote centers, they will check in using an electronic tablet poll book. We will be able to access all registered voters in the county. This is also our security mechanism so that if you do go vote somewhere close to work and then you try to go vote somewhere close to home, we will know that you have already voted and and we will be able to prevent any any attempts to vote more than once. They this will replace the paper roster. So you may recall in 2018 we had some issues with our paper rosters in L.A. County. One of the great things about this model is over that 11 day period, it really gives us a better opportunity to to recover and respond to any unexpected conditions that might happen during the election process. Another feature that we will unroll that we're very excited about is an interactive sample ballot, and this is an option that will be available to all voters. It's option. It's not required. But just as we mail everybody a paper sample ballot, we will now make the sample ballot available as an electronic app that you can download on your personal device or access through our website. You can then go through your process and press make your preselections by marking those on your electronic sample ballot. Take that with you to the vote center, scan it into the voting device, and it'll pre populate your choices so that you can print your ballot and have an expedited voting experience. We think that's a game changer for voters who are used to interacting with their personal devices. It still allows for the security because the ballot that you cast at the vote center is that. Paper ballot that's produced app on the device. You can change your mind at that point. But we also know with all of the consolidation of elections, with the local districts and municipalities now on the even year cycle, that our ballot is going to be very long, especially in March and the presidential primary. It's going to be a long ballot. So the ability for voters to have that option, to have an expedited voting experience is particularly important. That ballot marking device that you will encounter at our vote centers is that is been a labor of service and a labor of love on this project. It is designed truly to be a voting solution for all people, meaning that that voters with disabilities can use the same voting device that all voters use. They will no longer be relegated to a single device in the back of the room that that the poll workers are less familiar with. Everybody will vote on the same device. It allows, to a large degree, voters to customize their voting experience. So it has audio capability, it has a tactile keypad. It has the ability for voters to select the language that they wish to see or hear their ballot in. It has an adjustable touch screen so that voters in wheelchairs or voters who are particularly tall can use the same device by adjusting it. And ultimately, the device produces a human readable paper ballot that is the official record of the ballots cast. That's what's going to come back to my office to be tabulated. So there is security and transparency involved in that can be fully audited and and recounted as necessary. So for us right now, we two weekends ago, we had a mock election. We opened 50 vote centers in the community, two right here in Long Beach to introduce this to voters. We're now in a four month period of rolling this out through public education and outreach campaigns. We have a demonstration center in your lobby. Thank you to the clerk's office for that. That will be live here on Long Beach through the end of this month. We have street teams that are out in the community demonstrating this everywhere we possibly can. Right now, that's really the point, is to get the word out, because while this was designed by and for the voters of Los Angeles County, we are all creatures of habit. And unless we get the word out, people will expect that voting is the same as it has been in the past. So any assistance and partnerships for for people who are here tonight, people watching, and certainly our partners in the city, we have staff ready and available to to assist with those processes. And we look forward to delivering a new and exciting voting experience that lives up to the significance of our electoral process for the March 3rd, 2020 presidential primary. And just to note that those vote centers will begin opening on February 22nd. So we are very close to that process. And in it, I understand there's a debate tonight going on on on television, but it does seem clear with our primary being in March that California is going to have a stake in the nomination process for the the presidential campaign. So we're excited to to roll this out and to do it in a way that gives our voters a chance to be heard and to be confident that their vote has been cast as they intended to do. Thank you very much. Thank you. Public public comment time is there we have Mr. Good you excellent and Mr. Roberts and so is the individual to come up and speak. Mr. Good you accent. Next time we. Wobblies. Yes, this is. I think they're behind me and ready. But my name is Amy Ericson, and I'm a resident here in Long Beach for my entire life. I'm here with the Long Beach Suffrage 100 tonight to thank our city clerk, Monique, too, for bringing the new voting machines to the city and allowing us to come and try them out. We've been putting the word out through our circle of women that has been put together. We also are here going to be here every month to honor women through this year of the suffrage. And this is the perfect agenda item to do that on tonight, because the 19th Amendment was really set up for making sure that everyone can vote. And I think that's the important piece of what we're doing this year as we're having our events, as you're seeing us in the community. It's to remind everyone that we are here to share the idea of getting out into the community and doing good work, but also voting for the things that we need and as well as working on the census. So you'll be seeing us working around that as well this year. And we wanted to be here tonight to honor our first women that we're going to honor throughout the year. And in this case, because yesterday was Indigenous People's Day, we wanted to honor, honor some tongva elders. I think that's important to be aware and honor the space that we live on here in Pomona and make sure that we are thinking of those people. So we have a great man here who's going to speak about his own mom, who was one of those elders here in the community. But I think it's also important for everyone here to know, as well as the council people that we are honoring women throughout this year that did things here in Long Beach over the last hundred years. There is an honorary there is a recommendation form on our website. We'd like each of you, including the council people, to bring up bring forward women that we should honor through your districts. We want to see every district honored in this way and anyone here in the audience to go and find that and share that with us. And we'll be choosing those and bringing them to council one or two at a time through each month. We don't want to take a presentation time or extra time. We want to be able to fit this into the regular work of the council, and we're going to find good moments to do that in each of these times . So thank you again. Some of the women of the suffrage 100 group are here. Appreciate them standing back there. If you see us around in our whites or in our sashes, it's because women are being talked about and honored in our city. We came to the library opening to honor Billie Jean King being there. And we appreciate all that you guys are doing as the council to help us through this year. I'm going to give the rest of my time to Louis Robles. Some like me. Um, yo. Yo MC Tax Tokyo Visa Pool. Good evening, Honorable Mayor. Glad you could join us. And city council members, citizens. Of Long. Beach. Welcome and good evening. Happy to be here. My name is Louis Park. Epifanio Valenzuela Ramirez, Jr. Just call me Louie. You have to remember all that. I'm a member of the one in your band of Mission Indians, a Hashim Em nation. We're state recognized as a native peoples of Orange County. Our traditional land extended from here in. Long Beach, throughout, throughout Orange County, down into San Juan Capistrano. But more importantly, I'm a lifelong resident of Long Beach. I grew up in North Town, attended. McKinley, Long Beach, Jordan, Long Beach City. Cal State, Long Beach graduate. My parents moved to Long Beach in 1948. They bought their dream house just on the other side of the airport because they wanted to be in the country. The north Long Beach of that time was pastures, open land. They have memories of coyotes, horses. So that's what brought my. Family to Long Beach. You know, but I'm going to take you back. Before Long Beach was one more city, before there was Rancho Los Cerritos. Before there was Rancho Los Alamitos, there were the villages of Tex Sanga, a Wanga, a manga Pavone, all Indian villages here within the boundaries of the city of Long Beach. Some of those were occupied until the mid 1800s, you know, and those. Villages were occupied by strong. Women. There's an old saying that when you want to get words, you bring in the men. But when you want to get things done, you bring in the women. And so it's been traditional that the women of the native tribes are the ones that got things done. And my mom was a strong descendant of that. My mom believed there were there were forth there. Three things you didn't you told my mom. You never told my mom. You never told my mom can't. Don't or you shouldn't because we're all things that she was going to push against and get through. My mom grew up one. Of eight and she always. Wanted to go to school, but she couldn't. She stayed home, helped raise her younger brothers and sisters. My grandma was a single mom. She went to the bank and sat in there. This is in the 1930s. She sat in the bank until the bank president would give her a loan so she could open her own flower shop . So she was a single mom and a business owner in the thirties and forties. So this strong spirit has been going on since Native women all to this time. And I think as we honor 100 years of suffrage, it's that strong spirit that started with the warrior native women that carries on today. And so from my family, it was just a real honor that my mom was was singled out. And my mom would say, I can hear her up in the stars going, I'm just one person. Don't I'm nothing special, you know? And so I just honored all the grandmothers here, all the mothers. You're the ones that get things done, you know. And so it's those same women that that pushed for suffrage and 100 years. That's just a blessing, really. But thank you for this time. Thank you for honoring my mother. And this celebration will go for a year. And you're going to hear a lot about some incredible citizens of our city. 2 seconds. All right. Thank you very much for all the stories we tell. The stories. Good evening. Council Members Thank you again. I want to just commend our city clerk, Monique Delgado, for all the work and recommendations you're doing for the election plan 2020. It is definitely a plan that will bring more diverse communities to the election booth, underrepresented groups into the election booth and women into the election booth. And it's just amazing to have a city clerk at this time, at this 2020 time, when we celebrate the right to vote. We will send you a book on Lillian Valenzuela Robles so you can learn more about her work and many other women who made who gave women agency to go to work in their communities and then also represent the communities and ultimately have the rights that all other people have. Lastly, within this year, suffrage is an unfinished business. That is are our motto. That's what we represent, that this election plan is part of making suffrage hopefully one day finished. But as of now, suffrage is unfinished business. And thank you for your time. Thinking of Suarez. I want to just to add, Mr. Logan, I saw most representation in the back. It is plain back there. I just want to just commend you and your team and just thank you for how available you are. You just you and your team do a fantastic job for the entire county. I know you have a great partnership with our Clark, but I also know that the amount of work that you all put in to ensure that we have safe and fair elections is really important. I know 2020 is going to be a huge shift in the way elections are are operated, and certainly with technology and the way the pulse centers will be working. And so I just wanted to thank you for your work and for just continuing the partnership. So thank you very much. Mr. Logan. Councilwoman Mongo. I want to also commend you. I got to, as a county employee, attend some of the early meetings and to see a organization as large as the county of Los Angeles make critical changes, and to be so innovative and really think about keeping it lean and what does it mean and how do you honor our past and make sure that people have confidence in the voting system? It's really impressive work during a time when transitioning large systems has been seen across the country as very, very, very difficult. So cheers to you and the work that you and your team have done. Hopefully you'll stay with the register recorder for many, many more years. Thank you. Councilor Pearce. I yes. On top of congratulating you guys for job well done. I think it's always important to remember why we are doing what we're doing and we know that the city of Long Beach, there's been times when we've had 10% voter turnout. And so that this is not just to be up with technology, it's not just to kind of change the way that we've done things. It's to really make sure that we strengthen our democracy in the city, that everybody that is eligible to vote does vote and knows that there are different formats to get that information. And so I really applaud you guys for thinking outside the box on how to reach those difficult to reach communities. And I applaud the awesome women here today, and I look forward to seeing the diversity of women and people that have either been a part of the suffrage movement or people that are joining. So thank you guys very much. All right. Thank you. And with that, please cast your votes. Councilman Price. Councilman Austin. Motion carries. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Logan. And to everyone that that attended. Next up is item 27, which is the MWI lease.