OBSERVERS WELCOME AT POLLS IN BURLINGTON

Report from CAO Bob Rusten, Burlington.   Dec 15, 2014.

Candidates have contacted the City expressing concern about the City’s position that poll watchers had to be formally registered as a representative of a candidate prior to their be allowed to function in that role. Section 2564 of Title 17, Election Law states in pertinent part the following:

a) Each organized political party, each candidate on the ballot not representing an organized political party, and each committee supporting or opposing any public question on the ballot shall have the right to have not more than two representatives outside the guardrail for the purpose of observing the voting process and challenging the right of any person to vote. In no event shall such representatives be permitted to interfere with the orderly conduct of the election, and the presiding officer shall have authority to impose reasonable rules for the preservation of order. However, in all cases the representatives shall have the right to hear or see the name of a person seeking to vote, and they shall have the right to make an immediate challenge to a person's right to vote.

It is the responsibility of the Ward Clerk to maintain order at the polls. The City’s practice of having poll watchers formally registered as a candidate’s representative, prior to their serving in the statutory capacity, was to help maintain order and ensure a person was actually a representative for a candidate.

Based on our legal research, we find that there is no statutory requirement that a poll watcher formally register at any time, and therefore we will no longer require any form of registration. In addition, our legal research indicates that there is no prohibition as to the number of people who may observe an election from outside of the “guardrail”.

Observers and Side-Checkers Barred from Polls

A last minute ruling by Burlington City Clerk caught many people by surprise on Election Day, and blocked observers from polls in the North End and elsewhere in the city. Election law specifies that side-checkers must be accommodated, and nowhere does it say people can't observe.  Traditionally members of the non-partisan League of Women Voters have observed voting procedures in Vermont and across the country.

A member of the League of Women Voters has filed an on-the-record hearing request with the Secretary of State, and a Ward 7 candidate has filed a complaint with Burlington's Board of Civil Authority (aka City Council).

~League of Women Voters:   LWV interests are described here: http://lwv.org/blog/observing-elections-and-protecting-voters-wisconsin -  "the election observer program is a statewide volunteer observer corps that protects voters on Election Day and provides valuable evidence for the League’s nationwide advocacy for clean, accessible elections."  

Hearing request:  If a law doesn't specifically exclude something, it is not excluded. This is an important foundation for maintaining access and transparency in government affairs.  Elected Ward Clerks have authority at the polls to allow orderly observation by, for example, the League of Women Voters, and have traditionally done so. Burlington City Clerk exceeded his authority in blocking members of the League of Women Voters,  and citizens generally, from observing voting procedures at the polls. 

~Candidate [Michael Ly, District 6.1 legislative candidate]: Request hearing with Board of Civil Authority to make voters aware of three major issues that occurred during this election cycle [Nov. 4, 2014] that could have affected the results of the race and the integrity of the election:

• Bad Ballots: The Burlington Clerk’s office left five Justice of the Peace candidates off the original ballots, affecting over 400 voters and specifically over 90 voters in District 6-1. Fortunately, the error was caught early enough by the Burlington Republican Committee so that the Clerk’s office could correct the error and resend the ballots to affected voters. Unfortunately, this mistake error taxpayers $10,000. 

• Voter District Error: Less than two weeks before the general election, 87 voters were notified that they were switched from District 6-1 to 6-2, removing them from my race. These voters had voted in District 6-1 in 2012 as well as the 2014 Primary Election, but they should have been voting in District 6-2 according to the redistricting boundaries set a few years ago. The Burlington Clerk’s office chose not to notify the candidates nor the respective political parties of this change. Kurt and I only found out about this change because we happened to run into one of the voters who showed us the letter they had received. Transparency is of utmost importance in any election and notifying the candidates and parties could have also saved precious campaign time and money. 

• Side checkers: As is customary with many campaigns, it is common for a candidate or political party to have their own volunteers stand at the polling places to track which voters have showed up to the polls (aka Side Checkers). I contacted the Ward Clerks for both polling stations in my District and let them know the names of the volunteers that would be showing up for me. I asked specifically if there was anyone else I needed to contact and was told specifically that was all I had to do. On Election Day, my volunteers were asked to leave the polling station because I had not submitted their names to the Burlington Clerk’s office who required a list of volunteer names be submitted in person. I was never informed that this was a requirement and my side checkers had never experienced this as an issue before in previous elections.

Because candidates and voters deserve to have fair and transparent elections, I am urging the City Council to request a formal review of the Burlington City Clerk’s election practices. The mistakes above may have provided me grounds to contest this race, but I have chosen not to do that. I care more about a fair and transparent election process than contesting this race into a possible court decision or special election.

8 Wards, 4 Districts. New Ward 8

A new Ward 8 was created in the area of the city where growth has occurred, mainly around the university. Campus housing expanded, and university enrollment increased, while elsewhere in the city population stayed measurably the same.

Each ward in the city has a Neighborhood Planning Assembly (NPA), and Ward 8 will have one also. Members of stakeholder groups and residents who live in the new Ward 8 will be gathering to elect an interim steering committee for their NPA on May 13. They will discuss issues governed in by-laws, and plan for the first official Ward 8 NPA meeting in September.

Preserving small ward democracy in Burlington maintains door2door campaigning that energizes civic participation in the city. It strengthens the tradition of multi-party representation on City Council, and brings a diversity of opinion to the tables of local government.

Ward 8 is the little ORANGE salamander.