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NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MANHATTAN DELEGATION

Board of Elections Democratic County Commissioner
Questionnaire

Thank you for your interest in being considered to be a County Commissioner for the Board of
Elections. To be considered, please submit the following questionnaire completed in electronic
form by Monday, July 21, 2014 to Yume Kitasei at ykitasei@council.nyc.gov and Louis
Cholden-Brown at lcholden-brown@council.nyc.gov.


Introduction
Name:

Contact Information
Mailing Address:

Email: Phone Number:

References
Name Affiliation/Title Relationship to
You
Email Phone




1. How did you learn of this position?



2. What qualities do you possess or what experiences have you had that qualify you to be a
Commissioner?


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Experiences with Elections and Electoral Policy
3. What experiences, if any, have you had with elections in New York City?






4. Please indicate your level of experience using a scale, from 0 being none to 5 being
expert:
Voter registration: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Candidate petitions: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Campaign finance: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Poll watching: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Poll workers: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Recruiting 0 1 2 3 4 5
Training 0 1 2 3 4 5
Supervising 0 1 2 3 4 5
Voting machines: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Absentee ballots: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Canvass/Recount: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Public education: 0 1 2 3 4 5
Districting: 0 1 2 3 4 5

5. Please describe your management experience, including whether you have managed
multi-department entities in the past.

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6. Do you fulfill the requirement of being registered to vote in the County of New York as a
Democrat? ( ) YES ( ) NO

7. Are you registered as a voter in Manhattan? ( ) YES ( ) NO
How long have you been registered?

8. Have you voted in the last 3 NYC Primary and General elections?
( ) YES ( ) NO
If not, why not?

9. Have you voted in the last 3 NY State Primary and General elections?
( ) YES ( ) NO
If not, why not?

10. Have you ever voted absentee in NYC?
( ) YES ( ) NO
When and what were the circumstances?


11. Have you ever worked as a poll worker in New York City? ( ) YES ( ) NO

12. Have you ever worked for the Board of Elections in any other capacity in New York City?
( ) YES ( ) NO
If yes, in what capacity?

Improving the Board of Elections
13. What experience do you have with HAVA and other election topics (for example, making
the ballot available in multiple languages, accessibility of poll sites)?


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How do you think that the BOE can improve language access and poll site access for
disabled?





14. Do you have any experience with election audits? ( ) YES ( ) NO
If so, what have they been?


Is there anything you would change about the Board of Elections policy that might affect
audits?



15. Would you commit to cooperating with an investigation by the Department of
Investigation should one arise? ( ) YES ( ) NO

16. What are some positive and negative examples of the Board of Elections performance in
past elections, and what are some ideas, if any, that you have to improve the Board of
Elections performance?




17. Do you commit to appearing before the Committee on Governmental Operations upon
request of the Council? ( ) YES ( ) NO

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Values
18. Do you intend to make patronage appointments to the Board of Elections?
( ) YES ( ) NO

19. If so, on which person, position, or entitys behalf will patronage appointments be made?

20. Have you read the Department of Investigations Report on the New York City Board of
Elections Employment Practices, Operations, and Election Administration (the
Report) issued in December 2013?
( ) YES ( ) NO
21. Do you agree with everything in the Report and will you use your role as a Commissioner
to require the New York City Board of Elections to comply with the law and the
recommendations set forth in this Report? ( ) YES ( ) NO

Specifically, which of the following recommendations would you agree with?
a. Filing a Corrective Action Plan that is accepted by the Department of
Investigations ( ) YES ( ) NO

Employment Practices
a. Standardizing hiring and screening process for all positions
( ) YES ( ) NO

b. Public posting of all available positions on the websites of the Board of Elections
and NYC.gov websites in human and computer readable format
( ) YES ( ) NO

c. Requiring background checks for certain employees ( ) YES ( ) NO

d. Enforcing anti-nepotism and require disclosure of family member in government
( ) YES ( ) NO

e. Enforcing rules against requiring or punishing political activity
( ) YES ( ) NO

f. Conducting regular performance evaluations ( ) YES ( ) NO

g. Reviewing fairness in disciplinary process and providing employees with notice
of Whistleblower protection rights ( ) YES ( ) NO

h. Adopting civil service exams for employees ( ) YES ( ) NO

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i. Modernizing employee time keeping ( ) YES ( ) NO

Election Administration

Voter Rolls
j. Reviewing cancellation procedures ( ) YES ( ) NO

k. Subscribing to Social Security Death Master File ( ) YES ( ) NO

l. Proactive of cancellation of deceased voters upon match of Social Security
number, date of death and location ( ) YES ( ) NO

m. Printing age in years on voter roll and training poll workers to review birth dates
( ) YES ( ) NO

Ballots
n. Adopting a readable font size on ballots ( ) YES ( ) NO

o. Reporting on ballot security in Manhattan ( ) YES ( ) NO

p. Ballot printing in New York City or at DCAS ( ) YES ( ) NO

Poll Workers
q. Professionalization of training ( ) YES ( ) NO

r. Increase use of hands-on/role play training for poll workers
( ) YES ( ) NO

s. Improved training on voting instructions, poll worker applications and privacy
( ) YES ( ) NO

t. Poll worker certification by task ( ) YES ( ) NO

u. Voter education for ballot proposals and against "vote down the line"
( ) YES ( ) NO

Election Day and Results
v. Discontinuance of voter cards ( ) YES ( ) NO

w. Electronic filtering of write-in votes ( ) YES ( ) NO

x. Eliminating old buff cards ( ) YES ( ) NO

22. Please describe what your priorities will be if appointed to the New York City Board of
Elections?
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Conflicts
23. Do you have any actual or potential conflicts of interest if you are appointed to the New
York City Board of Elections? (If so, please disclose) ( ) YES ( ) NO
24. Are you associated with the applicable party committee, the City Council or its Members
or employees? ( ) YES ( ) NO
If so, please list name of person you are associated with and how you are associated
below:



25. Have you ever worked, volunteered, been appointed or endorsed?
( ) YES ( ) NO

26. Have you ever contributed to a candidate running for elective office in New York City?
( ) YES ( ) NO

27. What paid, unpaid, elected, and appointed positions in government do you or do your
immediate family members currently hold in the past year?





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28. If applicable, do you intend to resign from any political positions you currently hold if
confirmed as Commissioner of the Board of Elections ( ) YES ( ) NO ( ) N/A ( ) YES ( ) NO
29. Would you make a commitment to resign from the Board of Elections before initiating a
campaign for office? ( ) YES ( ) NO


Name: Signature: Date: