What experience and/or personal background qualifies you to hold this office? If elected, what would…
What experience and/or personal background qualifies you to hold this office? If elected, what would be your top three policy goals for this office?
Formally, I served as the Chief Deputy City Commissioner. I believe this gives me a head start of how the office operates, it also gives me great incite on the tremendous potential the City Commissioner’s office can do for the city of Philadelphia. My three goals are, Voter Education, Voter Registration, and Voter Participation.
Philadelphia is the only municipality in the country with three elected officials who do nothing but oversee elections. Additionally, City Commissioners seeking re-election do not perform most of their duties one year out of every four. If you were to design an optimal election apparatus from scratch, what would it look like and why?
The City Commissioners office is responsible for overseeing free and fair elections. Their duties cover much more if they are willing to do the work. There are many components of putting on an election. I will give you a summarize version of the process as I envision it working:
- Review Policy procedures and protocol with all staff pertaining to elections
- Assure all board of Elections are properly trained and updated with new policies and
procedures - Secure all polling locations (ongoing process)
- Voter registrations are updated and proper signatures are secured. This is a continuous
process, until the last possible moment under the required deadline - All items for polling place and absentee ballots are ordered and received. Protocols are in
place for receiving of absentee ballots - Make sure vehicles are rented for deployment of staff and temps for areas throughout the
city - Prepare staff and temps for the areas in the city
- Radio room (voting machine problems)
- Call Center (general questions and supplies)
- Staff deployment for drop off of polling place materials
- Staff deploy in all sections of the city for trouble shooting of voter machines
- At end of election night collect all data and calculate just the votes from the machines to
give a preliminary count
Now with new technology this process will be adjusted. This is important to have everyone on the same page and following protocols during Election Day.
Given that young people are the largest subset of the electorate with the lowest turnout, what is your plan for engaging the next generation of Philadelphia voters? What programs would you pursue to facilitate increased electoral participation and remove any barriers for under-voting groups?
Voter education is one of my three major goals. We have to approach getting our young people engaged and involved in the voting process by going back to the basics. We need to partner up with the education system, so we can put Civics back into the classroom on every level. Have more voting machines for the purpose of mock elections. Bring back Rock the Vote Concerts, so we can meet young people and educate them. After each election we will also have Town hall meetings, surveys throughout the City to find out what, when, and how we can improve. We need more interpreters at the poles, or access to call center that can handle many different languages. We should also develop voter action teams which would be assigned to various parts of the city that could address barriers for under voter groups.
What role, if any, do you believe City Commissioners play in educating the public about voting issues and the electoral process?
City Commissioner has the number one role in being the leader for Voter Education in Philadelphia you cannot get the public engaged in voting if you don’t actively have workshops, webinars classes, and conferences. It should be our priority making sure we partner with our Schools and Universities with the goal of creating a Voter Education Curriculum.
What do you believe are the most serious issues plaguing Philadelphia polling places on Election Day and what plan would you propose to resolve these issues?
Two major issues on Election Day are the functioning of the voting machines and not being able to verify registration. The solutions are invest in new voting machines and electronic poll books which both would be tied to the Central system. The long-term goal of verifying registrations would be able to advocate for same day registration.
Do you believe that any updates or improvements to Philadelphia electoral rules, such as early or mail-in voting, could facilitate greater electoral participation? If so, what changes would you like to see and what would you do to implement such changes?
I absolutely believe that mail in voting, early voting are some of the factors for creating greater electoral participation. I will work with our State legislature to bring about modern day solutions to better the voter experience and increase turn out.
Critical to a functional and efficient Election Day experience is the presence of trained and well-informed poll workers. What would you do to improve the pipeline of qualified workers for Philadelphia polling places? What, if any, changes would you make to the current training program or other aspects of the job (e.g., half-day shifts) for poll workers?
We have to offer more training in a variety of ways and year round. Recruitment should start with our Voter Education component in elementary, middle, and high school. Increase internships to get more people understanding the process. It’s important to build the recruitment of poll workers up before we get creative with the scheduling of poll workers.
Do you think the pros and cons of advocating for the purchase of new voting machines has been discussed and debated adequately with the public? If not, how would you have approached public education and debate on this issue differently?
No, Two years ago we should have had town meetings; also I would develop a survey and partner with different city agencies to get information out to the public. Having the two public hearings just to fill the requirement is not efficient.
What, if any, system do you think should be implemented to improve registered voter check-in systems on Election Day? What would your plan be to implement an improved system and on what timeline? Finally, if your plan involves the purchase of an electronic system, how do you believe that the security of the voter registration list can be maintained?
The electronic poll books will assist, but ultimately we need to move to same day registration. The improve voting system should be in before the 2020 election, but it needs much public input. I do believe voter registration list can be maintained. We have to ensure our auditing of the list processed is updated as well.
What actions would you take to ensure that the office of the Commissioners is fully transparent in its decision-making? What would you do to ensure that the public has full access to decisions made by the Commissioners?
I would suggest that we have our public hearings in different parts of the city and have some at night as well as making sure that we use all Social Media to broadcast our hearings. Publish our decisions in local papers when we are able. We also should partner with the city to stream our Public hearings live.
Given that the issues facing polling places and poll workers are often governed by state law, what changes would you advocate for in Harrisburg to improve the efficiency of Philly’s polling places?
Advocate for more resources for training and improvement to the polling place environment by increasing how much we pay for rent.
How do you think resources (including staff and budget) and duties should be divided among the three Commissioners?
All three Commissioners should submit their staffing and budget needs and it should be a vote to determine how resources are shared.