Kahlil Williams

I have spent my entire professional career working on voting rights and elections, and I want to use those experiences to benefit the City of Philadelphia. As a congressional fellow in 2006, I worked to help reauthorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a policy analyst at the Brennan Center for Justice, I advocated for redistricting reform, campaign finance reform, and the restoration of voting rights to individuals with felony convictions. And as an attorney, I have trained and overseen hundreds of volunteers working for Election Protection through the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. I am well-prepared for the myriad problems that occur on Election Day and to tackle the issues that plague Philadelphia between elections, including low voter engagement and a lack of information about voting.

If elected, there are numerous policy initiatives I would enact with the goal of reforming the office. First, my office would organize or advocate for certain types of election reforms. I would champion the adoption of no-fault absentee balloting, early voting, and same day registration at the state level. Second, I would promote a move to randomized ballot positions for municipal offices, in hopes that Philadelphia could be a model for state level change in judicial races (e.g., the court of common pleas). Third, I would also recommend that the Commissioners target resources (e.g., voting registration drives, poll worker trainings, voter education) to parts of the City with low turnout and participation.

If starting from scratch, Philadelphia would have a non-partisan Board of Elections appointed by the Court of Common Pleas, who, being elected to 10-year terms, are comparatively insulated from politics and influence by party insiders. The Board would be larger than 3 people (perhaps as many as nine members) in order to account for the geographical, racial, and socioeconomic makeup of the city. The Board would sit in various parts of the City throughout the year (rather than one location on Delaware and Spring Garden) and would report to City Council twice a year for hearing that would be open to the public. The Board would serve staggered terms to ensure continuity across elections, while providing for predictable turnover.

The reasons for this structure are relatively straightforward: Philadelphia should have election officials that are responsive to the needs and desires of the public, and any election office should be set up to further that objective. Moreover, I believe the Commissioners’ office, in its current state, is part of a series of elections that are low-information and, thus, result in many citizens choosing officials that are ill-equipped for the position, and appointments would tend to ensure that highly qualified people oversee our elections.

Of course, as our system currently exists, voters choose our elected officials, and stripping that right away is difficult, and, as of now, lacks sufficient political support. As such, we must elect competent, qualified people to the job, which is my main motivation for running.

Elected officials in Philadelphia have a duty to engage and educate the next generation of voters, and create a more inclusive voting experience for under-voting groups in the City. While the current Commissioners Office has a educational program of voting in Philadelphia schools, I would formalize the curriculum, instead of it being ad hoc, and target schools in communities with lower rates of participation. Commissioners would work with teachers in the school district to create a curriculum for middle school and high school students on voting, which includes teaching students how to look for information to research candidates, the mechanics of using a voting machines, and the rules around voting. Part of the curriculum I plan to implement for Philadelphia schoolchildren will include a voter registration component, so that we ensure more children are registered when they turn 18, and are ready to participate in the political process.

In order to increase voter turnout in communities that usually face barriers at the polling place, City officials need to meet Philadelphians where they are. As a policy initiative, I would push the office to hold its publicly-stated meetings in different parts of the City, so that citizens have better access to the Commissioners. If voters in various communities feel connected to and respected by public officials, they are more likely to turnout on Election Day. My plan to put the Commissioners’ office in more neighborhoods is targeted, in part, at increasing awareness in low-turnout areas about how and when to register to vote, and making people more familiar with the electoral process.This effort would be compounded by my plan to advocate at the state level for election reform will include a push for same-day registration, which will increase the number of registered voters citywide.

We also need to think critically about how people–especially young people–participate in the political process. Our campaign will be hosting a event in April 2019 on voting by phone, and talking about how the process, now in its nascent stages, could be implemented in Philadelphia in the coming years. Youth participation will also be influenced by election reforms like no-fault absentee ballots, which allows for greater flexibility on when and where people vote.

The Commissioners’ Office has a vital role to play in public education on voting and the electoral process. That role drives my desire to design a curriculum for middle and high school-aged kids and to put the Commissioners office in more neighborhoods, particularly those with lower turnout, about how and when to register to vote, and making people more familiar with the electoral process. Additionally, I will use the office as a platform to inform voters that the key to making progress on the other issues they care about (e.g., public education, gun violence prevention, health care, jobs) is to vote and expand access to voting.

The Office should also be cognizant of the differing needs of Philadelphia’s communities, and develop solutions that help different aspects of the “public.” For instance, we need to do a better job of making disabled voters aware of how to get a proxy to deliver their absentee ballots; in communities where English is not the primary language, we need to deliver translations on charter questions to those communities ahead of time, and work with them to identify persons in the community that can assist at the polls. For young and older voters, we need to be thinking about how the Commissioners’ website is designed, to ensure that they can get the information they need in an effective way.

The three most significant problems at polling places on Election Day are a reliance on poll workers that are improperly or insufficiently trained, long lines during high-turnout elections, and, in communities of color, a dearth of volunteers or officials that provide language assistance.

To solve the poll worker problem, we must overhaul the training program designed by the Commissioners, which is particularly important given the City’s adoption of new voting machines. The training must do far more to include scenarios in which problems arise, and must be solved by the poll worker before continuing the training. The training should be easily accessible so that workers can refer to it–on paper or online–at any time, including on
election day.

The long lines can be mitigated by better organization at the polling place. Simple fixes include signposts directing voters to line up by last name (e.g., A-L, M-Z). Clear signage can cut down on confusion and lead to more order at the polls. In the longer run, the problem is best solved by pushing no-fault absentee balloting and early voting, which has strong bipartisan support. Voters are demanding more flexible ways to participate that only voting on one day at one time. Those solutions would be massively helpful to reducing congestion, as shown in other states.

Language issues are best mitigated by focused and sustained recruitment in these communities, as well as partnership with organizations that serves language minorities. Having run large-scale election protection programs, I’ve seen the benefit of having AALDEF and PERLDEF in the room during discussions about upcoming elections, to troubleshoot potential issues before they arise. The Commissioners must be sure to engage communities containing language minorities well in advance of the election, and work with them through the year to develop trust and confidence that these communities will not be disenfranchised by language barriers.

Yes, same-day registration, early voting, and no-fault absentee balloting would be extremely helpful in increasing electoral participation. As discussed above, these fixes allow more people to participate because they remove our currently arbitrary restrictions on how and when people can vote. I see the no-fault absentee option as most crucial because of Pennsylvania’s incredibly restrictive absentee ballot rules, which hamstring people who live and work in Philadelphia, but travel long distances or work long hours on election day. No one should have to choose between working and voting, but our laws force folks to make those choices all the time.

I would remove the restriction of limiting poll workers to their divisions or wards, and draw from a deeper pool of students, including law students, that could be deployed across the city to administer elections. Philadelphia has colleges and universities that are full of people that want to become more involved in their communities and intend to make Philadelphia home. Recruiting these folks to help run elections helps to infuse more technological awareness into each polling place, and it creates incentives for students to visit and explore other parts of the city. For law students, I’d work with the Pennsylvania Bar Association to offer pro bono hours for those who help administer elections., which would make these jobs more attractive.

Additionally, just like progressive legislative initiatives like predictive scheduling, the City Commissioners ought to be more flexible in its scheduling of poll workers. In the poorest large city in the US, we need to be more accommodating and help people work around their work and/or child care schedules. Adding half-day shifts is one way to attract more people for whom a 15-hour commitment is a hardship, though it’s worth noting that poll workers are hard to find and train in a number of cases, so you could end up with numerous half-commitments.

As for changes to training, my recommendation are set forth in Question 5.

Not at all. A couple months ago, I attended the City Commissioners’ meeting requesting public comment on new voting machines. The Commissioners had previously made no public statement that the City intended to purchase new voting machines, so the announcement of the meeting was the first real notification to the public. Commissioner Deeley announced the meeting on her Facebook page a full day before the meetings were announced to the public.

Despite the short notice, concerned citizens attended, listened, and gave incredibly insightful comments, which was particularly impressive since Philadelphians had zero visibility into the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, and the RFP itself was difficult to locate. Anyone who wanted to comment was required to go out and study the vast array of options, then make educated guesses as to which system would be preferable.

This closed-door approach to election integrity is unacceptable, and it’s something I’ll work to address on day one as City Commissioner. Indeed, I made my concerns about the process plain at a public comment hearing, and recommended that the Office do three things to improve transparency: 1) Make the RFP more accessible by posting it on their own website; 2) Make the transcripts from the hearings available online for free or provide recordings; and 3) Explain the Office’s rationale for choosing to roll out new voting machines in 2019 and when that decision was made and announced to the public.

The Commissioners publicly declined my invitation to explain their decision to roll out these machines on an expedited schedule. As of March 4, 2019 the Commissioners have not posted the RFP on their website nor made transcripts of the public comment sessions available.

Along with the new voting machines, the Commissioners have purchased new electronic poll books, which should alleviate the problems with voter check-in. These should be made available during the November 2019 municipal general election.

It should be noted that these particular poll books–KnowInk–are cloud-based and, thus, are vulnerable to hacking. The Commissioners must work with election-security and cybersecurity experts to ensure that intruders can be detected, and I’d hope to harness the power of tech professionals in Philadelphia to assist in those monitoring efforts.

First, as in City Council, all publicly-stated (Sunshine) meetings ought to be streamed live and then the video recordings archived online and available prominently on the Commissioners website. Groups like Indivisible Philadelphia have recorded meetings with mobile phones, so there are no credible objections based on cost or privacy concerns.

Second, I will ensure that the agenda for each publicly-stated meeting of the Commissioners be published at least 48-hours ahead of time so that Philadelphians know what is to be debated and can arrange to appear in person for question and answer sessions and/or submit their questions or statements online in advance.

Third, the Commissioners should have meetings across the city during the year to ensure that all Philadelphians have an equal opportunity to attend and have their voices heard.

The next four years will be critical for all sorts of election reform issues, including same day registration, no-fault absentee ballots, and early voting. In addition, advocates will be pushing for changes to the redistricting process to avoid gerrymandering. The Office should provide resources for citizens who want those reforms, and should help to organize other county boards of elections and Philadelphians to make those changes happen. As a former Brennan Center staffer, I understand the importance of advocacy and (vocal) buy-in from public officials make these changes a reality.

I think it generally makes most sense that the Chair of the Commissioners have the largest budget and staff (similar to a Speaker of the House or a Council President) who would take the lead on technical policy initiatives and communications, and I would expect that the Chair is chosen on the basis of their ability to lead on those issues, rather than some other criterion. In addition, I think that increased oversight by City Council and the public would ensure that the Chair best reflects the Office’s goals and priorities, and is best prepared to address them.