DOÑA ANA COUNTY ELECTION REVIEW PANEL

AUGUST 17, 2006

 Present: Lynn Ellins, Judy Baker, Sid Goddard, Vicky Harder, Connie Lee, David Lutz and Felicia Ybarra..  Guest: Bob Hearn taking minutes.

 This meeting was called to order at 3:00 instead of the usual 4:30, in order to conduct two conference calls with election supervisors from Santa Fe County and Otero County, one after another. Both election supervisors have had years of experience, and they pointed out that their permanent staffs also have years of experience. They discussed details of their routines which they have had in place for a number of years, and which work well in their particular counties. They will be sending forms, lists and documents to the Election Review Panel in order to help. Co-Chairman Ellins, who has just been named acting election supervisor in Doña Ana County, will also be in touch with both supervisors for more discussion. Some of the issues that were discussed included the need for cross training of the permanent staff, the difficulty in maintaining security when some precincts are in rural areas, and particularly with the use of paper ballots,  and the details of training sessions for poll workers.

 Of interest to the League was the idea of using split shifts for the poll workers. When asked about this, the election supervisor from Otero County said she would not want to try it. She doesn't have a problem finding poll workers willing to work all day and the idea of having to train so many new workers was too difficult for her. The supervisor from Santa Fe County was not asked that question.

 The members of the panel were anxious to adjourn after the two lengthy telephone conversations but there was a discussion about the need for straightening out the canvass routine as part of their recommendations. They also talked about the importance of finding good, dependable poll workers.

 The meeting was adjourned about 5:15 p.m..

Marnie Leverett

LWV of Greater Las Cruces