FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN DELAWARE? - AUGUST 19, 2021

Introduction hey welcome anthony alex uh we're glad to have you here to talk with our peace and justice support group today and other guests uh let me just give a few brief words his introduction uh anthony has served with the delaware department of elections since 2007 and he currently serves as state election commissioner he also has a role with the national association of election officials known as the election center chairing its postal task force which serves as the national election community's liaison with the u.s postal service he also represents the election center on the postal service services mailers technical advisory committee and served on the boards of the national association of state election directors and the electronic registration information center so he brings lots of expertise to us tonight prior to working elections anthony led and managed non-profit organizations serving youth and young adults worked in the fields of adult and youth leadership training as well as in the banking industry a lifelong resident of wilmington he is very active in and holds leadership positions in a number of community service organizations here in delaware so welcome anthony we look forward to getting an update on delaware elections and being able to throw all kinds of questions at you so that we where we are okay all right well thank you and uh thanks for having me tonight um and uh happy to be here and hopefully uh share some information with you and mention perhaps answer some questions you may have and uh um basically you know uh in delaware uh just to give you uh a brief kind of overview before i go into some of the slides i have um in delaware as probably the number of you probably know especially if you're have been around delaware any length of time perhaps um delaware's elections structure is unique really in the country elections normally is administered um at the local level in most jurisdictions and when we say local level in most states uh that is generally at the county level or even a city you know municipality level township whatever that local unit may be in delaware since um for many many years and in particular since 2015 uh we have had a single unified statewide department of elections which is what you see on the screen here so um we have a um a single department that handles everything on a statewide level so we have uniformity in all respects you know pretty much here uh which is very helpful cristela being small you know there's a lot of things in our state that are handled at the statewide level that maybe will be handed at a more local level in other jurisdictions and for elections in particular i think it's very helpful because we have as i mentioned uniformity not just the laws of course which are statewide in the delaware code you know primarily but um uniformity in terms of equipment um uniformity and some mundane things like forms documents you know that sort of thing makes it a lot easier you know for us so um yeah we're very fortunate and uh i think delaware you know is also very fortunate is that we have a tradition of being very you know completely nonpartisan in election administration um and uh we're very uh i very much value that certainly and we model that and what we do and it's always been a tradition you know even before i served in elections we've always had that so um it's an honor to be here tonight and it's uh honor represent our department and uh share some information so um first thing i'd like to uh talk I Vote about i always mention i vote some of you may be familiar with this where this is our voter portal i would like to put that up first just because it's a good point of entry in elections in general we've had i vote available for over 10 years now we refreshed the format of it a couple years back made some updates and you see there's a ton of things that you can do in iboot it really is a self-service kind of point of contact for voters and we try to make as much information available on our website um as we can we recently embarked on a project over the past year or so it's still ongoing and will always be ongoing truthfully um to centralize our website um and to ensure that it's as user friendly and kind of information rich as possible um and in delaware our elections administration as i mentioned to our state with single statewide agency we handle everything in elections so we administer [Music] school board elections school referenda we provide this support um for municipal elections um we do even outreach type elections we will if a school contacts us to do our election with regards to their homecoming you know prom queen school mascot you know we've kind of done it all uh all the way up to obviously the the statewide elections with local state and federal offices but i encourage you you know circling back to ibo to check it out um it's really a wealth of information and it's kind of a gateway to our website where you can find a ton a ton of information current and historical information such as election results documents things of that nature so check it out at your leisure um some of the things you can do when i Voter Registration vote um you know as i mentioned is check and update your registration here in delaware you know we're connected very closely with the dmv probably many of you that has been your primary point of interaction perhaps with voter registration or voter updates um and we've had provisions in delaware law for a number of years now where students uh i say students young people i should say uh who are at least um at the point where they're reaching the age to get their driver's license or state id where they can actually register to vote at this at the same time um and be automatically become active by the time they are 18. as long as they are 18 by the date of the next general election they will be eligible to vote so um we have that process in place we've had it in place for a number of years now um also we offer voter registration services through health and social services primarily that's handled by i vote these days even before covid they were switching a lot of their service delivery models to self-service as well as department of labor division of vocational rehabilitation in particular and then of course our website or coming to our our office which again is not quite as popular these days and particularly since covet is certainly not um certainly maybe not the preferred approach but there's a lot of ways basically to register and update your registration again we try to make it as convenient as possible for you i vote is a you know really the 24 7 tools that's out there for you um let's talk about Challenges in 2020 some challenges and it's one of the items we wanted to you know certainly cover tonight i mean 2020 was a challenging year all around lord knows for all of us um what did we face in elections obviously we were caught up amidst um you know 2020 was kind of kind of going along and uh you know we were expecting obviously to be a big election year certainly of course with the presidential election and you know certainly we had new you know we were rolling out new voting equipment uh in delaware and we you know expected that to be probably the the most uh the largest or most significant thing we would be facing in 2020 you know like all of us little did we know what was coming uh in 2020 um so there was a host of things obviously that added to that mix um we had rescheduling of elections as you will recall you know based on uh based on the um emergency declarations that were that were um declared by the governor due to the health emergency that we moved elections around the presidential primary school board elections things of that nature municipal elections many of them were postponed we actually changed the approach to the presidential primary you know in addition to the date being changed um the presidential primary since there is only a single office on that ballot unlike other elections where there are local offices based upon you know your residence of course this was a single statewide office for anyone in delaware just based on your party affiliation and your primaries in delaware are open to democrats or republicans the same is true for a presidential primary so we we were basically directed to take a different approach under those emergency declarations we essentially had what are known as vote centers we didn't have the full number of polling places open um again presidential primary turnout generally is a bit lower than other elections so certainly that was um you know certainly workable and that was obviously very early days of covid and um at a very heightened level of concern at that time then of course we had the major shift to vote by mail and absentee um you know per the uh the health emergency and the governor's emergency declaration as you may recall of course absentee ballot applications were mailed to voters for the presidential primary and then the general assembly subsequently passed legislation to enact vote by mail which is functionally very similar to absentee but um unlike absentee does not require a reason to request the ballot um the general assembly authorized that through legislation for the 2020 election cycle um that was for this the primary and general election that legislation when and the way it was written it uh sunset it as they call it so when i it essentially automatically repealed itself in january of this year january 12th of 2021 so it was the way it was written it was always intended to be just for the election cycle so what did that mean um we of course had the subsequent mailings of applications again to those eligible voters again in the primary democrats republicans all eligible voters in the general election completely changed the way we approach things so in addition to as we moved again into the primary in general in addition to recruiting the poll workers in the midst of kobed trying to ensure we had polling places in the midst of covet we were mailing out many many many uh ballot applications um and then obviously we saw our volume of ballots rise significantly delaware historically you guys coming in here had had a um 20 about 25 000 absentee ballots was the maximum number of absentee ballots in delaware in a prior election um so we had uh almost 200 000 for the general so tremendous increase so we needed to to scale up obviously automate a lot of the processes because a lot of what we did historically was was done by hand very manually because of the volume um and we had to very quickly obtain equipment and supplies with automation equipment machines to handle the mailing the incoming the outgoing and really literally do that you know overnight i mean sometimes almost literally in the span of days um things that normally would take weeks or months so it was really pretty pretty tremendous and unbelievable in many respects and of course the the challenger challenges continued you know obviously i mentioned poll workers in polling places we had poll workers obviously had concerns i mean some of you in fact you know maybe poll workers or may know poll workers and you know trying to retain them trying to make them provide a safe environment some polling places decided to no longer be a polling place because out of concerns around covet obtaining ppe and the personal protective equipment that was really a scramble certainly earlier in the year got a little better as we proceeded through the year and supply chains got a little more regular uh a little more regular and a little more structured um but it was a challenge certainly especially for the presidential primary and then adapting our you know our procedures again not just ppe but trying to maintain distancing um getting the word out educating voters about the changes is a ton of changes um and obviously very short time to communicate them a lot of disinformation you know obviously you all i'm sure look quite familiar with that very false information out there in addition to the challenges and that just compounds the situation certainly i mentioned the roll out of the equipment which again we thought would be the initial you know primary focus we would be having in 2020 um and then time frames delaware elections and this is distinct from anything to do with covet certainly delaware elections um as all of you know so i'm sure you know being an informed group um our primary election for example our state primary is very late you know in the year relatively late in the year you know it's in mid-september um generally the second tuesday of september so it's extremely tight turnaround for um the the general election and i mentioned what's called you acaba voters i try not to use a lot of acronyms but i apologize for some uh you acaba um is an acronym standing for uniform to oversee citizens absentee voting act that's the federal law and a few laws over the years but the original federal law that provided a lot of a lot of safeguards in place for military and overseas citizens what that means in practical terms to us is that ballots for those individuals have to be out within 45 days prior to an election um so to give you an example where we were with the september primary um by the time the primary was september 15th we generally um have the results confirmed and certified by the 17th so it was tuesday then a thursday that saturday the 19th was when those absentee ballots for military and overseas citizens had to get out in the mail so meaning that everything had to be transitioned over in an incredibly short period of time um so again very you know obviously very stressful for all our staff and then the general election canvas canvas means the certification of results in delaware um the general election and this or special election which is essentially a general election to fill a vacancy um the canvas is conducted by what's called the board of cannabis which is superior court the superior court in each county sitting as a board of canvas that convenes at 10 a.m on thursday following the general election so you immediately you really again very little time for transition so all those timelines are tight in a a perfect situation if you will not that anything's ever perfect but you add all the coveted uh challenge to that and it really really was quite a uh quite a year um you know our staff we have one of the things i really value is our tremendous staff and they really were tremendous our permanent staff and then our temporary folks that came in they really really went above and beyond they do well anyway and they certainly did more so under extraordinary circumstances this year Future Plans um let's talk about the future kind of what we're planning uh in the future and i'll mention some more in detail a little bit down the line um obviously we're gonna have more time to share information with voters particularly about any of the changes that are coming up and i'll mention some changes that are um that'll be coming down the line based on recent legislation uh we're we are looking to um and in the process of increasing our presence on other uh social media channels we've always had a good online presence i mentioned the website and such but broadening our footprint and social media and other other channels uh to spread the word um adapting to changing voter behaviors we know a lot of voters for 2020 um shifted to voting uh by absentee ballot or by mail um obviously i mentioned some of the legislative considerations you know for the future but you know longer term you know perhaps more people may shift to absentee you know perhaps if vote by mail returns you know how how many people will adapt to that um uh and use that as their primary approach early voting is coming i'll mention that in a bit too so again that's considerations and then of course maintaining the voting equipment i mentioned we have you know recently obtained when i say recent past couple of years now new voting equipment obviously that always needs to be maintained to the highest standards of certification and then always one of the things we're mindful of is adapting to any future legislatively mandated updates or changes based on what the general assembly or perhaps the federal government um you know may enact Municipal Elections so uh coming up uh 2022 excuse me municipal elections i know you know many um you know people you know for example some folks here are city wilmington residents you know and i'm a city wilmington resident myself city wilmington elections by state law are on the the general election ballot or the primary ballot i mentioned earlier municipal elections that we administer delaware has it believe it or not has 57 municipalities and um not all of them necessarily have elections but many do um so again i mentioned we administer those those are all over the map and generally many times of the year any week any weekend saturday there's a municipal election going on somewhere in delaware that our office is supporting um delaware uh just a little side note on that in municipal elections in delaware by delaware law delaware code each municipality has a municipal board of elections so that the municipal board actually is who technically by law administers the election oversees it our department provides support as i mentioned to that what what does that mean that means that we provide uh the equipment they're mandated by law to use the voting equipment the state voting equipment we prov we obviously prepare those prepare the ballots based on their specifications offices up for election things of that nature we provide not just the machines but we provide all the materials that they need a lot of the documents which are really adapted from what we use on the statewide level um we provide training to their boards um to them to the staff of the municipality on election administration as well as to their poll workers and usually our folks are actually always our folks are there on election day and generally you know opening and closing the the polls or certainly or i should say assisting in some cases the the local poll workers with that school boards come up may may 10th they're always the second tuesday in may except last year of course when everything was different they're usually i should say the second tuesday in may um school district referenda as many of you know of course uh delaware law permits a a school district board of education to authorize a referendum election to raise additional tax revenue um could be for operating expenses could be for capital expense such as a building or such um that as course is authorized by the school district under state law we conduct all those elections we have a full election calendar at elections.delaware.gov the 2021 calendar is up now we'll have the 22 calendar up as soon as it's available it's basically in development right now Vote by Mail um vote by mail i mentioned that that was available for 2020 uh was house bill 346 uh to be specific that um authorized that as i also mentioned that expired and that was in the original the drafting of the legislation expired on january 12 2021 so vote by mail does not per se exist now in delaware it would have to be you know authorized by legislation again um absentee voting continues to and always existed in delaware law even when vote by mail was in place and again absentee voting in its broadest sense is if one is unable to go to your polling place on election day for a reason provided on the the affidavit uh the affidavit basically is the ballot request form reasons are defined by state law um delaware has and all has always been a self-affirmation state meaning that uh if you request an absentee ballot you are affirming you know under penalty of law um that you're authorized to vote by absentee uh ballot that you're unable to appear at your polling place again it's a self-affirmation we do not require additional proof or documentation for that that's the way it's always been in delaware law so it's it's up to the voter a little bit more about how absentee Absentee Voting voting works many of you may have used it in the past um we can mail ballots um up to four days prior to the election best practice though and you heard in the intro i work a lot with postal service some kind of a male geek if you will amongst other geekiness i guess um definitely you know we have a great rapport with the postal service and the postal service you know by and large in my experience certainly dealing with elections apparently our local people do a really great job fantastic job it's always the best practice though to request your ballot um at least at the latest seven days in advance just makes sense just to avoid any you know any any um stress um we do offer um and we have historically offered in-person absentee voting in our offices i mentioned early voting and i'll get to that in a moment but we do offer that um up to noon the day before the election so you know for example historically if you found yourself in a situation where um you have a sick relative you have an unexpected business travel um some other situations are risen and you didn't have time you didn't anticipate voting by absentee ballot you could come into our office up to noon the day before the election um to request a ballot and to vote now delaware is for returning ballots on the other end we are what's called a ballot enhanced state meaning that the ballot must be returned the voted absentee ballot the completed absentee ballot must be returned to our office the office in fact that issued the ballots would be in the respective county in which you reside by close of polls time eight o'clock on election day delaware is not a state that um abides by postmarks or anything of that nature some states have those requirements we are a ballot in hand as it's called state one of the primary reasons for that is because in our law technically in our constitution is where that board of canvas requirement is that i mentioned a few minutes ago for example um where the the certification of the election starts that thursday um following the election day and for the primaries you know we we have to get that done immediately because of the absentee ballot and overseas requirements so that's another one of the primary reasons that is that we have to have everything pretty much in-house by that time so we can begin that canvas process Military Overseas i did mention military and overseas um it's a similar process for domestic citizens if you will there's this particular form um that the um these folks can use um there are some additional extended deadlines and they do have an opportunity to receive them we have a secure means to send them uh electronically um that is also uh permitted by st federal and state law we've done that actually for a number of years but there are some special provisions made from military and overseas per the acaba Permanent Absentee um for absentee voting delaware permits um a number of options a single election all elections in an election cycle or permanent absentee status um delaware's had a permanent absentee status for many you know for a number of years more than uh 12 years i would say now at this point um and that allows you again it's all self-affirmation as i mentioned um if you haven't some of those reasons listed such as ongoing health issues mobility issues things of that nature you can request to be a permanent absentee voter and then you will never have to request a ballot again now that doesn't mean just so you know that doesn't mean that you're always required to vote by permanent but permanently by absentee if you're even even if you're on permanent absentee status you always have that option to come to the polling place uh most people choose not to you know they have a specific reason why they're permanent um and you always have the option to cancel your permanent absentee status as well if you ever change your lifestyle or life situation changes you certainly have that right to do that but it's available to you Accessible Voting voters with disabilities again a primary reason um one of the primary reasons folks vote absentee but certainly we welcome all voters at the polling place of course mentioned permanent status we have the accessible options for the ballots um but however our new voting i still call it new even though it's really not brand new anymore um it's relatively new since the pre-order prior equipment we had was 20 almost 25 years i still call it new equipment um the um the voting machines that we have now and again just because of the way technology's advanced is they have tremendously um enhanced accessibility features um some of you may have seen these or experienced them or seen a demo um things such as the ability to adjust the size of the text and contrast on this on the screen we have a universal voting council and i'll show an image of that in a moment the universal voting council it provides a lot of modalities for individuals um they're braille braille interpretations of the various buttons on this console there are different shapes different colors raised edges they have a compatibility for headphones because you can anyone can hear any and anyone can use the ubc i try to reiterate that anyone can use it even you just like to try it um there is a uh compatibility in the uvc for a complete audio presentation of the ballot um which can be sped up or slowed down in terms of speed by the voter um the the device has full compatibility with assistive devices for folks with limited mobility like sip and puff devices someone has a significant um physical challenge like up in their upper body strength or significant mobility issue and they operate through a sip and puff type of modality you may have seen those uh types of uh those types of devices that's compatible with our voting machines there's also always the option to bring someone uh to assist um i put that disclaimer in there that is in law it's kind of one of those older provisions of the law cannot be the employer agent of the employer or could it can be a child up to age 16 you can invite someone to assist you in the polling booth if you wish or if you aren't unable um you need assistance you have no one with you ask for assistance from election officers we would we generally would have two election officers of different political affiliations again we try to keep that balanced in the polling place try would send those an individual individuals in with the voter try to provide us maintain as much privacy for the voter but provide whatever assistance the voter desires it's really the comfort level of the voter how much assistance they need and we instruct our poll workers in their training you know again to be respectful of the voter how much assistance they desire or wish to have please you know offer it be helpful but you know certainly let the voter be as independent as possible talk a little bit about excuse me pardon Election Security me election security measures we know that's a major concern certainly you know over many years and certainly very recently we have a number of security measures end to end in place voter registration applications as you know many many of the voters obtain their registration or update their registration through the dmv as i mentioned um no dmv has has and that's the vast vast majority of our registrations overwhelming majority of our registrations uh the dmv has provisions in place that confirm citizenship status and ensure that only those individuals who are authorized to register to vote based on their citizenship status being i.e being a u.s citizen or naturalized u.s citizen are provided that opportunity to register also all applications and and and even existing applications for those currently registered do pass um uh felon check now uh in delaware delaware law has changed in a number of ways over the years with regards to um enfranchisement of those convicted of a felony as delaware law stands today um essentially only individuals unless uh you're convicted of what's called a disqualifying felony there's certain you know quite serious crimes that can permanently restrict one um from registering about things such as capital crimes such as murder sexual offenses um misuse of public funds other than that um individuals who may have been convicted of a felony if they complete the terms of their of their confinement as well as any probation or parole they are permitted to register again in recent years the changes have included um dropping any requirement for financial remuneration fines and restitution as they usually call it um and then delaware used to have actually a five-year waiting period in addition to serving terms of your sentence payment of fines and there was a five year waiting period those two have been dropped the waiting period and the fines that have been dropped um for voting equipment we have um pre-election we call it logic and accuracy lna testing and certification um and these are things that are posted you'll see on our website as we get close to elections there are actual public meetings you can come and observe it at our facilities and our warehouses all the machines and you know one of them excuse me one of the um prerequisites when we purchased the new equipment when we went to to bid for the new equipment was of course that we wanted a paper ballot backup that was one of the one of the prerequisites um so that's what that large neck and accuracy test entails you know running in a um a test mode um running the machines running sample votes on the machines obtaining the paper ballots and comparing those results at the end again doing this on a test environment on the machine so that the machines are you know then ready to go out you know on to the polling places um and then physically reviewing all those materials okay physically reviewing those paper ballots comparing them to the actual readout tapes from the machines um and again i'm always you know very happy to say certainly you know we've done many many hundreds thousands at this point in logic and actually testing of the machines um and always come 100 accurate um always 100 accurate and i also want to make sure to just to mention this and to be very very clear crystal clear about this our voting equipment is never capitalized intentionally never connected to the internet nor even capable of being connected to the internet that was a prerequisite in the machines when we went to bid for the equipment the machines have no no equipment in in the devices at all that are capable of connection uh would even permit a connection to the internet in any shape or form and that's also tied in with um our machines are certified by state law to the most current federal certification of the voting equipment and that's also a requirement there um we have safeguards to prevent voting by more than one method and and certainly this came into play this past election cycle when we had so many people voting by absentee or mail ballot uh when you check in at the polling place in the recent elections you may Poll Book have experienced you have a polled book which is the kind of device tablet device in a stand where you sign in versus the old paper poll list we have um protocols in place now uh certainly and that was a prerequisite when this equipment was purchased again looking to the future thinking about when we would you know have things like early voting um or and or increased use of absentee voting that individuals um who have voted for example buy an absentee ballot who requested an absentee ballot and returned an absentee ballot uh for example if uh someone i was using the situation if someone by mistake by accident you know requested an absentee ballot many months ago and maybe you know forgot to doing so we you know had some cases of doing that and someone then went to the polling place they are already noted as having a ballot returned and they are therefore unable to vote now the the system does give us flexibility so that if you have a situation let's say where someone did request an absentee ballot i mentioned those mailings last year maybe someone requested an absentee ballot for all elections early in the year when the first mailing went out before the presidential primary by the time the general election arrived yes they may have received an absentee ballot in the mail or or vote by mail ballot at that point but then they decided they did not want to vote out by that that means in which to go to the polling place systems also provide that capability to show that yes a ballot was mailed but it was not returned so that individual still maintains their ability to vote at the polling place so there are those you know those safeguards in place and after the election and i've mentioned pre-election election day after the election we do have the post-election audits um that are in delaware code again these are also posted to public meetings and they're randomly selected machines and districts where we literally do a hand recount of the ballots compare those to the results that are produced you know on election day and again i'm happy to say we've done that many many times now always 100 accurate and then in addition to that we have post-election reviews of voting history again checking just to ensure that there is um you know an individual there are no individuals that have voted more than once and you know any instances you know in any instance if that were to happen those are referred to law enforcement our elections is not a law enforcement agency we don't have law enforcement powers we're an administrative agency but any situations like that we work you know hand in hand with the department of justice delaware department of justice the attorney general's office which handles law enforcement so certainly anything of that nature would be referred to the attorney general's office um certainly for follow-up cyber security protocols very rigorous cyber security protocols delaware is very fortunate our department of technology and information um which is the state's technology arm is our very close partner we have i.t staff on we have an it team uh you know a fairly small team because we're a fairly small agency but we work with dti hand in hand and and as well as our federal partners you me you know you perhaps have heard of um cesa the federal agencies under homeland security um that are concerned with cyber security again we work very closely with them they have representatives in this that work with the state um and again all that um is an ongoing not just an election cycle that's an ongoing uh process constant interaction with them constant vigilance constant proactive activities to ensure uh the highest level of security and then voter registration list means you might take a quick drink here maintaining the voter registration list Voter Registration List um you know it's certainly very important especially last year obviously a lot of mailings went out um and to folks to whom you know perhaps we have not uh mailed anything in a long time and that's you know proved very helpful to us the mail that was returned to us um as not deliverable is used to maintain the voter registration list the first item and again going to try to avoid a lot of acronyms but sometimes you need it um the first item under that voter registration list maintenance nvra sets the national voter registration act in a nutshell that's the federal law which delaware law also mirrors incorporates um there are certain provisions in place in federal law and against state law that are certain safeguards meaning that for voter registration lists we are not permitted to just simply take someone off the rules without documentation so i say return to mail in parentheses here what does that mean basically per the provisions of nbra the key provision of voter list maintenance is if an item sent to a voter is returned either from us from another state agency for example some of you receive postcards like from your legislators happy birthday cards you know just use that as an example if things like that are returned we send the mailing out to po to a voter it's returned that is the in allows us to initiate the list maintenance process meaning that um after that initial mailing is returned we send what's called a confirmation mail account that generally would go either to the same same address if we do not have a supplement a supplemental address or if the individual you know has information from the postal service for example indicating the moved and the forwarding address is provided we'll use that address and we contact the individual asking them to reconfirm their status um are you still at the address we have could it have been a mistake you know maybe there was an alternate mail carrier on the route that day you know maybe even the regular mail carrier made a mistake you know who knows um you know was it a mistake you know do you still live there have you moved somewhere else in this in the state do we need to update your address or you know subsequently have you moved out of state especially if we receive an address um from the postal service that someone moved out of state we will again mail to that address and ask them um have you moved out of state we'll cancel your registration um and we generally you know we get a good amount of those back however you know many we don't um but if we don't get that returned piece of con that confirmation mailing back the process continues and basically uh once we have sent that confirmation mailing either we hear back if we don't hear back after a period of 60 days that person becomes what's called inactive meaning that they're still a voter but that there's a flag in our system that they need to verify their address and if we have no further contact with the voter and two consecutive general election cycles passed that person is removed from the rolls doesn't mean they can't re-register in the future at some point say if they moved back to delaware but um that this process was put into place nvra passed in 1993 it was put into place to standardize the procedures nationwide for list maintenance um and it provides certain safeguards so that there's not arbitrary removals of folks but it provides a structure for that which which is great now quick note on that if someone is in an active status let's say again you know a mailing was returned we sent a confirmation mailing we didn't hear back for whatever reason and that voter then um wishes to vote on election day uh let's say they in fact have not moved again it could have been a mistake with the mail i mentioned that they were flagged in our system if that voter were to request a ballot or would show up at their polling place on election day there is a flag in this in the system on the poll book that will indicate that the poll worker must verify their address before the person is allowed to vote ensuring they must produce documentation that they in fact live there and let district and are eligible to vote and then we can update their records and make them active again so that that's a key provision of that so that existed for many years we also have the division of idol statistics which is another state agency that provides us monthly updates of individuals who are just who have passed away who are deceased um so that helps us again to maintain our roles um that's become used to be a manual paper system now it's been automated for a number of years um it's a very helpful system and it really is very instrumental the next one is eric again sorry another acronym the electronic registration information center this has probably been the biggest advance we've made in maintaining voter registration list delaware was a founding member of eric eric's a consortium of now 31 hopefully soon to be 2 3 ideally eventually all 50 states that have entered into an agreement and this is permitted by delaware law delaware law had to be updated several years many years ago now to permit us to participate in this project eric is a consortium of states as i mentioned more than 30 now um where information is shared from voter registration files as well as motor vehicle files the division of motor vehicle or whatever the respective motor vehicle licensing agency is in the state and that is a tremendous tremendous boon to us because that we've received reports delaware receives them monthly and we process them monthly where we receive updates through eric of individuals who are believed to have moved out of state because they've either registered to vote in another state or obtained a driver's license in another state and that allows us then to kind of streamline that contact process i mentioned earlier under nvra so we can mail directly to a what is generally always a very good new address and have the person confirm that they have in fact moved out of state and then we can cancel their registration we've done that for uh we've been in eric now for more than eight years almost nine years that's been tremendously helpful for us and then finally um we have a self for close relative cancellation process delaware law permits this so you can certainly suffer report to us that you've moved out of state um which we greatly appreciate um or if you've had a close relative who's moved out of state an adult child we have that on our website there's a cancellation form that you can submit as a parent for example or if you've had a spouse or a your own parent maybe who's passed away um you can report that to us as well Delaware Elections Updates what are some updates in delaware elections i've covered some of these but i'll just go through them briefly i mentioned uh the paper audit trail in technical terms the elections world it's called the voter verify paper audit trail meaning it's the paper ballot that you can view in the voting machine and it is an auditable ballot as i mentioned that's what's used in the audit process um and then again easier to use in uh voting equipment with greater accessibility options we mentioned the poll books and all the all the tools that gives us uh we have advanced enhanced reporting on election night uh we've revamped how the results are reported on election night uh it's much more the appearance is much more modern but more importantly than that there's a lot more tools to analyze the results they used to be more of a flat if you will presentation not graphical now there's a lot more tools it looks better but it also is more ways to slice and dice the data especially this piece right here is just a quick reference card kind of again just kind of goes over how the machines work um in the polling place again as many of you you may have experienced them in an election already where you check in at the poll book you get a the paper ballot um that uh is a blank ballot that will become your voted ballot use the machine to make your selections review them and then press vote and the ballot goes into the secure ballot box and as i mentioned on this screen here we have a complete another one of our security measures is physical i mentioned cyber security testing uh pre and post election testing and auditing we also have the the nuts and bolts kind of security as well such as chains of custody on all our all our devices serialized physical seals locks things like that seals on the machines that are logged on the documentation and the polling place to ensure that the machines have been when they are sealed and leave the polling leave our warehouse and go to a polling place location you know that they have been undisturbed um similarly at the end of the night um additional um serialized seals are applied to the machines as they are closed out and when they're transported back to the to our warehouses to maintain that complete chain of custody and be documented throughout the entire life cycle of the election also like to mention uh again trying to debunking you know any any false information that's out there um you know barcodes on ballots questions about um can ballots ever be tied back to the voter they cannot um if you've used the excel machine you've probably seen there are barcodes on the balance that's how the ballot um is in one way how it is read and also our gives us the capability to for example if if we have a i would have a large recount where it would be impractical to hand recount all the all of the ballots you know we have our equipment that can scan the ballots just like our absentee our new equipment again i still call it new is all inter-compatible our absentee and our polling place equipment but you know just want everybody to know there this bar codes simply identify the the style of the ballot meaning the offices that are on the ballot based on the district in which you live and um your selections that are on there there's no personal identifiable information it doesn't even tell us it tells us the election it tells us the district you live in doesn't tell us what machine you use doesn't tell us the time to date stamp um i mean the elect i should say the election dates on there i beg your pardon it doesn't have any anything like a date time stamp that can tie it back to you certainly um and that's by design again by design this is that universal voting console i mentioned earlier i'm using what you can using my cursor here if you don't mind and the raised edges the different colored and shaped buttons the braille translation the um interconnection for your headphones for the audio representation of the ballot and then the assistive device interface for a sip and puff or other assistive device i mentioned post-election audits those audits are three-phase just so you know it's random selections of an individual machine uh um again this is based on per county or the city of wilmington is also carved out in this random machine random district in the random statewide office always selected from different election districts so you get a wide cross-section of machines as i mentioned in manual accounts of the human readable text these are open to the public these audits and we've had certain members of the public come there and even help us um under you know with us you know with our staff of course they're obviously supervising but have even helped us physically count the ballots we want people to see that you know to see hands-on how it works um and it's very interesting Other Elections Updates what's also coming up in delaware elections i mentioned early voting there'll be a vote center i mentioned those vote centers back kind of similar to what we did for the presidential primary that there'll be a vote center um meaning that everyone in a county anyone who resides in a certain county could vote at any of the early voting locations in that county you wouldn't be tied to the individual polling place like you would be on election day starts in 22 um excuse me minimum of ten days so ending on the sunday preceding the election day minimum location so certainly of course we're planning for more um but that is the what's in the law so that's new um also starting next year or excuse me starting when the end the legislation signed uh into law which is not yet is there'll be background checks for school district candidates school board candidates will be required uh to pass to submit to a background check for child serving agencies that is new that was legislation passed this this recent session um municipal elections i mentioned we do those um as i mentioned they're governed by local boards of election they're also governed uh ultimately by the municipal charter each municipality has a charter um which dictates um various ways they operate and elections is always um spelled out in that charter so some municipalities have changed their charters um in this past election excuse me this past legislative session uh for example they've made a number of changes but some of them have moved to move using the state's voter registration system versus requiring local registration meaning you no longer have to register with the town but if you're a registered voter in the state and you reside in the boundaries of the municipality you can vote in that election without an additional need to register with the town there was also some updates to our campaign finance laws our office also manages that that for those who don't know that is what candidates are required to report um publicly available reports showing what they've collected and expended there were some changes to for example the um the limits at which reporting some certain types of reporting are required that was passed by the general assembly there was also automatic voter registration which will be available at the dmv so anyone who is not registered they will automatically paste based on legislation the general assembly passed they will automatically be registered to vote we don't have a date that will be rolled out yet it is um up to a three-year window uh up to three years for that to be implemented uh we're anticipating based on some of the uh behind the scenes types of work that needs to be done that'll probably be after the 22 election is when that'll come into play we're anticipating Redistricting um redistricting all of you probably heard about that we all know about the census and how the census was impacted by the 2020 um about the pandemic i should say um the 2020 census data or i should say the redistricting data which is what the various entities that redistrict their their various representative districts used was just released on 812 was actually scheduled to be released this past monday 8 16 but it was moved up to the 12th um so we in the department of elections where we come into it is for example the general assembly after they redraw the house in the senate which in our case the general assembly does that they handle that then we would adjust the election district which are called precincts in many places we call them ed's here election districts that we would be updating them we also provide support for local um governments for example newcastle county council by stellar law the county council redistricts their districts and the city of wilmington by municipal code wilmington code they have a commission as well like newcastle does um newcastle has a commission which is a representative of each of the districts it's not any sitting members um the wilmington city council the wilmington city registering commission is a little bit different does include some members of the city council again that's all governed by code and or municipal authority we provide the support we do not make any decisions about district lines um again we work on the election districts level and that's purely administrative but we don't make any decisions that's up to their respective bodies they will be in effect for the 2022 primary in general those new districts and also in 22 um again like we do before all elections um polling place cards are mailed to individuals before the election with your polling place listed certainly you'll be seeing information about early voting coming out as well if you ever make a change to your record a polling place card generally is sent for that as well to confirm that as well understand any initiated changes or as well as i mentioned any polling place changes if we have a need to change a polling place which we certainly try not to outside of redistricting unless it's an emergency like coven um we would send an update as well polling place card or perhaps even a letter Poll Workers um so i'm getting close to the end of my uh slides here um ask you to serve as a poll worker if you haven't done so we encourage you to consider doing so get paid it's fun you learn a lot there's great training um and it's very exciting and our co-workers are always our heroes because they get the job done and they were our heroes even more this past election cycle lord knows um and more information is on our on our website as well and i Website mentioned our website earlier tons and tons and tons of info current as well as historical go to find a ton of information do research a lot of people do students researchers just general members of the public it's a lot to offer there and then follow us on social media i mentioned we're expanding our social media presence so we can try to get that as much out there as we can deadlines information about candidate filings useful information news news you can use sort of stuff so that is it i will stop sharing my screen now if i can do that yeah there we go there we go so thank you i know it's talked a lot so i apologize sounds a lot a lot of talking i'm sorry thank you that was wonderful that was so educational really appreciate it sure um if folks don't mind i will keep the recording going through the q a figuring folks who want to um catch us on the other side of this will be able to benefit from that as well if anyone would like to ask something that they don't want recorded just let me know and i will turn it off and with that with that we'll open up the floor to questions and i did mute some of you so please um on mute as needed sally yes i have a question yes i think sally had her hand up first sally you want to go and then we'll go to norm um thanks um anthony i i want to say first of all i had some questions um in the last election and i contacted the department of elections and and you all were just extremely helpful i really appreciate that especially with all that you had going on so thank you and i have one question i think you answered this but um in the case of some i'm in case it's a question about who goes off the voter rolls the case of someone uh you haven't been able to contact and they haven't voted for two cycles they go off the rolls what happens if they show up at a poll to vote after that after that they would have to re-register because that after that point their registration is in fact cancelled so they would actually have to re-register in that case um because at that point they are considered removed from the roles and they literally would have to register again thank you norm if the people school districts periodically have referendum rate to raise school taxes do you have any role in that uh we do yeah that's uh when i say we do we administer the election we provide the support basically to it it's the school the individual school district board of education that authorizes that um they actually authorize the election authorize the the actual vote uh mechanically um the way it works in addition to us you know setting up polling places having absentee voting that sort of thing um they do have to give us um they're required to provide us the notice of election and we do have an opportunity to review that and offer our suggestions on that you know we realize that a lot of times those are quite complex especially if they're tax referenda uh types of questions i mean they're always financial but um but we try to offer feedback um and you know certainly with can we confirm we're we can't offer legal you know advice to the school boards per se but we offer advice on perhaps how to make the ballot a little clearer or as clear as possible um but we realize it's it's still often you know there's a lot especially when they're multiple questions but we do administer those many years ago some of you may remember many years ago the school districts in fact administered school elections and there was a change in delaware law more than 15 years ago now that brought that under um under our umbrella um and we make sure that we administer that until we do yes so the school board can be determined the date they announce there's going to be a referendum and they select the date of the referendum they do they consult with us they are asked to consult with us but ultimately they set the date so we really don't per se have the authority to refuse a date you know we certainly would discourage them like for example from doing it you know a day before the general election um but we've had some that are quite close um as well and um the uh it's uh yeah it's one of those it's one of those situations where um sometimes it's balancing it now just so you know and many of you may know this by delaware law um a school district may run two referenda in one calendar year that's not a i should say a 12 month period not a calendar year only if the and you i'm sure you've seen this certainly in your experience too if one doesn't pass they may run it again or request to run it again but it's a maximum of only two elections in a 12-month period if there and there have been situations where two have been run they both failed then the school district would have to wait you know that period you know and then they would have to wait until at least the 12 months has elapsed since the first one before trying again that really hasn't happened too much sometimes there'll be a break you know but um yeah but we've had them all around year round we've had them right before christmas we've had in the summer those citizens let's say can go to florida for the winter the referenda is announced in november after they've gone they hold the referenda let's say in march and the people come back from florida in may and they find out their school taxes are raised and they have no chance to vote they weren't even aware of it and it will one thing on that if you're following um you know if you're following the news let's say like online let's say delaware online or just use them as an example you know certainly you see about that you know certainly if that ever happens to anybody contact us and get an absentee ballot because absentee voting is definitely available in school elections just like regular elections so we we certainly would encourage you um to do that as well um yeah for sure absolutely yeah and uh school boards as well um absentee is available one and i apologize to st maryland hannah i just want to say one real quick thing about and i didn't mention this in the presentation but just a little anomaly little anomaly not if you will or not anomaly i should say but a little unusual factor in delaware law many people don't know is that you actually don't need to be a registered voter to vote in school elections um that's actually historically it's been the case for forever um you just need to be 18 years of age or older by the day of the election a resident of the school district and of course a citizen of the united states but you don't have to be registered voter now practically 99 really or more are but um if you you could come in every election cycle we have a handful maybe a dozen um and pref referenda possibly more folks who do that and we have a provision for those folks to vote they complete an affidavit affirming their eligibility and they're permitted to vote even if they're not registered thank you marlis um i have a question about if an individual does not drive a car so doesn't apply for a driver's license how do they go about becoming a registered voter sure you can um if you have access to um the internet well i'm gonna be back up even before then even if you're not a driver if you have a state id you're also offered that option as well um the other agencies if you if you do seek services at either health and social services or department of labor but if you don't certainly um you can always go online you can go to i vote the voter portal ivo.de.gov and register there we have other options as well you can print a form out even from the website if you prefer just to do that and mail it in you could call our office request an application or you could come into our office and we'll fill it out a lot of our you know a lot of people that don't have access to the internet are not that's not an easy process for them so where where is that process or is that process outlined anywhere other than on a website or other on the internet how would it end um a lot of it is primarily i will say on the internet to be honest with you but you can certainly contact uh you can always for example call our office if someone wants to call like if are most people here in newcastle county for example on here um our group is yes okay just yeah i can get those voters that are not the ones that are present at this kind of approach no i was just going to even give the phone number you know if you wanted you know but um you can always just contact our office um you know even for example um dela for example delaware has some other um tools such as the uh you may have heard even like the 211 the delaware information line that's just general if you call if you just call that 2-1-1 they can connect you write to us to elections and we can help you out get your mailing application um postage-paid envelope for example we can do it all by paper that's certainly possible as well yeah and we still service people in-house by phone you know anyway a lot of it is online but certainly not exclusively you mentioned something about the state service centers or or for example if someone had an uh housing um section 8 housing certificate would that qualify them to register or would they still yeah you just yeah you just need to have to register you just need to have some proof of identity and some proof of residence it could be um we don't have an exhaustive list or an exclusive list um i mean granted many people yes have a driver's license or state id but you could have another form of id maybe you have a work id um for example or you have um you know some other sort of identification card and you have uh mail to document um you know your mailing address or your your physical address we register you at your physical address um you can always have a mailing address but we do require a physical address for your registration because that is where we assign you based on your district as well but we don't have an exclusive list and just like it's very similar delaware law i think is intentional in that way at the polling place as well you know delaware does we do ask for identification at the polling place but it's not the photo id is not required at the polling place um and i know it's a little off registration but just a note on that is that at the polling place for example if you arrive on election day at the polling place and you either don't have identification with you or you choose not to show identification which is your choice um and you are on the poll list you're at the correct polling place you're an active voter i mentioned earlier about inactive voters people with mail issues you know everything's good you're an active voter you can sign an affidavit um affirming your identity and you're permitted to vote that's always been a provision of delaware law so we have a lot of flexibility on that we don't have any defined lists of ids so anything that just prove basically can show us your identity and your residence like example to register is what we need i have a question about electronic voting there was a brief period after covet started um before the new legislation was passed um but after the state of emergency was declared that there was guidance saying that anyone could go on to ivote and request the absentee uh voting without having to give one of the usual reasons right and i was one of those who did that and i had an electronic voting option which i found interesting rather than just the mail-in right so i just have questions about that how comfortable you are with the security of that and whether you see that expanding over time um as being another way that would become part of the norm of how people vote yeah delaware law um has perm has allowed actually federal law requires that we uh at least provide some electronic access to um military and overseas voters that's been in place since 2010 and then in delaware law started uh in 20 excuse me actually really 2009. the 2010 and then 2012 delaware expanded it to those who were who voters were sick or disabled so um again we've offered that for quite some time even you know even pre-coded and again like i mentioned earlier it's a self-affirmation so you you you affirm that and we do have electronic delivery and return options as you are familiar with um i always like to stress and very intentionally that it's not actual voting online in any means it's basically how you receive and return the ballot uh because that's what we do on our end is that ballot uh once it's received it is actually um there are non-partisan bipartisan or non-partisan uh depending on the party affiliation teams that actually review those ballots and they're actually reproduced on a physical ballot just like a mailed ballot that are scanned and we always maintain that documentation um we have very rigorous security around that um i was mentioning a little bit in the presentation about our technology and information department here in the state we work really hand in hand with them so that there's multiple many layers of security on that and since the vote itself is not actually cast online it's just actually how the marked ballot is returned um again and our our procedure is such that always a physical p a physical balance reproduced and there's always backup documentation showing what you said to make sure it matches so yeah it's it's a challenge i mean i know there's um i know it's a challenge because people on both sides maybe people want access and we want to provide access but i know that not everyone's comfortable with the security but um we the security i can tell you is very robust on that and we have a lot of safeguards there's a lot of talk about voting online literally voting online um my opinion for you know is that um we're not there yet securely perhaps someday perhaps someday but we're not there yet um there needs to be more development of and more discreet ways of maintaining that security thanks sandy i just wanted to say um just uh singing anthony's praises in the uh 2020 election we my husband roger and i had chosen to um request the absentee ballots and for the primary the ballot didn't come in time we called it was a couple of days before and we called anthony and he said i'll go get one and drive it to your house come on you can fill it out oh i remember that man and we we said thank you we didn't take your kind off her uh we put our masks on and went over to hb and it it wasn't a real busy time so that worked out but i just want to say that is certainly going above and beyond the call of duty especially at such a crazy time and everything went smoothly for the we did absentee vote uh we did our absentee ballots during the general election and everything arrived on time and why not but um thank you for your dedication appreciate i remember that now i look at your name i remember that now it was certainly an interesting year let me tell you an interesting year not oh none ever hopefully like not ever again i have one other question in terms of sort of the audits afterwards where the almost 20 states that are not yet participating in that collaborative how do you know if someone is double voting you know here and in one of those non-collaborating states is there any audit that's done to try to check for that kind of thing happening we um there sometimes we are contacted by those other states you know it could be another individual state that has some evidence some reason to suspect someone has has voted twice i will say that um you know when you hear some of these numbers tossed around and um you know it's true it really is accurate because i i've you know myself have done research and have read up a lot on this you know since now the number is you know bit higher but since the year 2000 um there's something on the order of 1 or 1.1 or 1.2 billion votes have been cast in the united states in all elections and there's fewer than 50 instances of true voter fraud meaning voting more than once in one in jurisdiction um i'm not saying that that means that's all that ever happened certainly you know but um i know from our experience in dealing with those 30 plus states um it's exceedingly rare exceedingly rare what you do see and what eric helps with tremendously is that situation of people possibly being registered in more than one state which in and of itself is not a crime you know usually it's an oversight um when you vote more than once yes that is a crime for sure but um yeah and eric really helps us with that and usually the good news with eric you catch that early before that potential is there um eric i can't say enough about that that has been just a such a tremendous asset you know i was very personally very fortunate to be involved in the beginning when we were putting eric together um it was actually a there was actually it was the the pew i'm sure you've heard of the the pew charitable trust pew center for the states um was where that initiated from that was a project of the pew center and they spun that off into its own non-profit now and um that was gosh 10 years ago now and um it was really kind of a radical idea at the time and and you know there was a ton of meetings and a lot of it you know it was pre zooms a lot most it was in person back then was pre-code too of course um and um you know getting that right i think that's probably the biggest advance we've made is is that because to get that information now you know and i mentioned 30 31 we're hoping it's going to be made up to 35 36 this year hopefully um and eventually hopefully all 50. there are some states where it may not ever happen the environment is such that it may not ever happen but most are i mean it's bipartisan the number of states represented you know in there there's you know you have states that are deeply read and to deeply blue states now all who see the value of it which it is tremendous value so yeah it's been a real boon for us i think it's my best thing to be done well if there no oh what does it stand for um electronic registration information center and they have a website ericsstates.org um it kind of gives you like a quick overview of what it is there's some cool like diagrams on there it shows like all the inputs of the data yeah the people that developed the the matching it's it's an extremely rigorous like algorithm or algorithms i should say where they match the potential so it's a very high level of confidence so that there's not false matches because you certainly don't want to remove or or potentially remove someone from the list you know unless you're absolutely sure now even though eric helps us you know um again you still have those safeguards in place you know again even though through eric you generally are getting a good address you're not for example sending something to a bad address to reconfirm you're getting a good address if we still don't hear back from that person we still have those that that kind of that kind of circuit breaker in place where we have to wait we still can't automatically remove that but people from eric generally we hear back from them a very high percentage of those people because we're getting them at the right address in their new state and they want to respond and they send it right back and it's postage paid it's very easy you know very quick susan did you have a question i just had one comment that i i have totally appreciated this experience tonight anthony you are a wealth of information and i appreciate your being with us but i hope that this kind of presentation is being done for our youth in high schools and in college because i i have to tell you i have learned so much tonight that i never learned in high school or college so hopefully i don't know how this works but i hope that with all the things that we're trying to say are important for high schoolers and college students to learn this is paramount to me thank you very much thank you we do yeah we definitely try to do as much outreach as we can um schools and and uh yeah it's very important i agree that the young people learn about this and the value yes yes for our country it's very important it's our it's our democracy you know it's very these days just having a video of you doing the presentation like you did for us this evening and making it available you know on online publishing publicizing it through the things that they watch and listen to through their social media outlets might be a good way of you know getting the word out there right well i want to bring this to a close because we are way past our time we usually say we're going to do a hard cutoff by 8 15. we've gone well over so thank you so much for your time this evening anthony we have greatly appreciated it oh thank you thank you so much everybody thank you for having me it's a pleasure to be here thank you lynn liz yes i have a question uh one question anthony is his sparkle did delaware take part in the crosscheck program uh that predated eric no we did not uh delaware was never part of of cross check um prior to eric and um there was um many years ago there was some talk about that uh you know possibly you know many many years ago but it was determined that um at that time that it wasn't something we were going to participate in but uh eric you know basically takes on um a lot of the aspects of of of what crosstrek wasn't really even enhances them even adds a lot of added value to it crosstalk was not very effective yeah that was one of the the challenges that it faced yeah but eric definitely is effective for sure [Music] all right so i'm glad you were able to get that last question in there all right well once again thank you thank you everybody thank you and good night take care bye thank you