083120IB.DOCX

Informal Meeting Minutes
Monday, August 31, 2020 Board Members
9:30 AM Clint Hickman, Chairman, District 4
Jack Sellers, Vice Chairman, District 1
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Steve Chucri, District 2
Maricopa County, Arizona Bill Gates, District 3
(and the Boards of Directors of the Flood Control District, Steve Gallardo, District 5
Library District, Stadium District, Improvement Districts,
Housing Authority of Maricopa County and/or Board of
Deposit) County Manager
Joy Rich
Clerk of the Board
"The mission of Maricopa County is to Fran McCarroll
provide regional leadership and fiscally
responsible, necessary public services to
its residents so they can enjoy living in Meeting Location
healthy and safe communities” Supervisors’ Conference Room
301 W Jefferson, 10th Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85003
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
The Board of Supervisors of Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona, convened in Informal Session at 9:30
AM on Monday, August 31, 2020, in the Supervisors’/Sullivan Conference Room, 301 W. Jefferson, 10th
Floor, Phoenix, AZ 85003, with the following members present: Clint Hickman, Chairman, District 4; Jack
Sellers, Vice Chairman, District 1; Steve Chucri, District 2 (telephonically); Bill Gates, District 3
(telephonically); Steve Gallardo, District 5 (telephonically). Also present: Fran McCarroll, Clerk of the
Board; Maria Ceaglske, Minutes Coordinator; Joy Rich, County Manager; and Emily Craiger, Legal
Counsel (telephonically).
PRESENTATION
1. PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE 2020 NOVEMBER GENERAL ELECTION
Presentation and discussion regarding Election Day planning considerations for the November
General Election and lessons learned from the August 2020 Primary Election. (C-21-21-004-
X-00)
Chairman Hickman welcomed all to the meeting. After roll call the Chairman introduced Scott
Jarrett and Rey Valenzuela who will be presenting this topic. Keely Varvel, Chief Deputy
Recorder was also on the phone.
Scott Jarrett began the presentation by commenting on the changes that Covid-19 has made
to a number of daily activities including the election process. The Elections team is committed
to planning for the November election with the needs of the voter in mind. They are mindful
that even the carefully crafted plans may need to be adjusted and adapted to changing
conditions as November nears. Mr. Jarrett reviewed the factors they are considering in the
preparation process including the following hurdles outlined on the following slide:

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Monday, August 31, 2020
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On the next slide Mr. Jarrett explained the issues related to changing from Precinct-based
voting to setting up Vote Centers. Adding additional Centers must also consider the increase
in the number of poll workers, available PPE, storage space and parking accommodations.
The goal is to secure 170 Vote Center locations.
Supervisor Gates asked about voter notification related to this change from Precincts to Vote
Centers. Mr. Jarrett replied that the issue of communicating this change to voters is one of the
lessons learned from the Presidential Preference election and the August Primary election. For
the upcoming election, the team has added additional public information funding to be sure
there are a number of ways that the message is conveyed about Vote Centers. Direct mail
information and sample ballots will all highlight this change and provide additional information
about how the voter can locate the most convenient Vote Center for their location. The goal is
to have a vote center within a 1.5 to 2.5 miles radius of a voter’s location.

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Rey Valenzuela introduced the next slide regarding Implementing Safety Protocols. The
planning team considers all of the CDC guidelines and sets up the layout for each vote center
following those protocols.
Mr. Valenzuela reviewed the next slide which reviewed voting options:
 Ballot by mail
 Early ballot secure drop boxes
 In-Person (Early, Emergency and Election-day voting)
This slide also outlined the enhanced factors at “Vote Anywhere” Vote Centers which includes
phased openings of centers, and weekends and evenings.
He also noted the conversations with the US Post Office to make sure the mail ballots would
be handled expeditiously. Following a question from Supervisor Gates about the Talking Stick
Arena, Mr. Valenzuela confirmed that they would not be able to use the Arena because of the
timing of the renovations and because of some accessibility issues. However, they were able
to secure the Phoenix Convention Center which is across the street from the Arena.

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Monday, August 31, 2020
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Supervisor Gallardo asked a question about the possible use of the Desert Sky Mall in the
West Valley as it seems to be the major “community hub” in that area. Mr. Jarrett replied that
although many of the malls in the valley will be used for voting centers, the Desert Sky mall
has continued to have fairly steady retail business, and there did not seem to be a location
within the mall area that was an adequate size for a vote center. There is still a possibility that
it can be utilized as a drop box location.
Mr. Jarrett continued the presentation by moving to the slide below regarding informing voters
on how to participate They plan to use traditional methods such as TV ads, billboards and print
media. In addition, emails will be sent to voters who have provided their email addresses, and
TV streaming services will have ads about vote centers and available days for voting. There
will be social media posts and a series of short “explainer” videos about how and where to vote,
voter ID’s etc. One other new option is a personalized voter dashboard called
BeBallotREADY.vote. This will give each voter their own voter ID information. The Vote Center
website has been redesigned to be more user friendly for voters to search for locations near
their homes or their places of work. This website will also provide information on wait-times at
various centers.
In response to a question from Supervisor Gates regarding people who may not be familiar
with computer programs or websites, Mr. Jarrett explained that voters can also call to get
needed vote site locations and a STAR Call Center operator will look up the information
requested and read it to the caller.

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Mr. Jarrett introduced a slide regarding reporting the results of the election. He thanked the
Board of Supervisors for the new tabulation equipment and the additional staff which will allow
them to tabulate to votes more quickly and report those results to the media and the voters.
He commented that the drop boxes would also allow the staff to prep those ballots for tabulation
more quickly. He reviewed the entire process regarding how early ballots are processed.
Supervisor Gallardo asked a question about the timeline for releasing the voting results from
the votes cast on election day. Mr. Jarrett explained the process for the delivery and tabulation
of votes cast on election day.
Mr. Jarrett and Mr. Valenzuela commented on the many partners that it takes to put on an
election. This collaboration included poll workers, County Departments, Cities and Towns,
Facility Owners and Community Groups. Each one of these partners provide essential services

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that all come together for a successful election plan and process. Both gentlemen thanked
these partners for their generous contributions to the process.
Mr. Jarrett also commented that political observers are welcome at vote centers to observe the
entire process. One of the very first items on the instructions for poll workers at the various
sites is to be sure that there is a place where the observers can observe the process without
impeding any of the steps in the process.
Mr. Jarrett moved on to discuss areas of improvement in planning for the next election. A
survey sent to poll workers helped to evaluate any needed changes. Their feedback was very
helpful. Part of this discussion was to more carefully track the voter wait-time at each location.
Additional training was added for the troubleshooters, especially regarding documenting steps
in a timely manner. Check lists at each step were revised to enhance the quality control
measures. Contactless drop box instructions were also updated.

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Mr. Valenzuela covered the next slide which tracked Early Voting Patterns. He commented
that the number of people requesting Early Voting ballots by mail has steadily increased over
the past few months. The slide shows over 1,900,000 voters on the Permanent Early Voting
list, however, that number is increasing daily. There has also been an increase in the “one-
time” ballot by mail requests. Mr. Valenzuela stated that he would send a further breakdown
by party of those signing up for the Ballot by Mail.
Mr. Jarrett then presented information about the trend of voters to choose early voting as
opposed to in-person voting. In 2006, approximately 50% of those who voted did so in person.
Even though more people are voting, the trend is steadily going down such that in 2018 there
only a little over 18% choosing to vote in person. All of the data is collected an analyzed in
order to make current decisions. One of the important data points was the time of day that
voters choose to go to the polls. This type of data has helped to determine the number of
Check-in stations needed at the various vote centers.

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Scott Jarrett commented on the next slide regarding projecting the turnout at the November
election. He provided statistics on several of the past elections and then stated that the turnout
this year could be 2 million voters with 85 to 90% of the voters choosing to vote early and 10
to 15% choosing to vote on election day which would be 200,000 to 300,000 voters on election
day. This is the model they are using to plan for the November election.
Mr. Jarrett reviewed each of the goals on the following slide. These were all developed from
the data and the lessons learned from the previous elections and in considering the continued
need to plan for election safety during Covid-19. Mr. Valenzuela added that the Clean Elections
organization will also have specific information in their distributed media about the number of
ways voters can access information about early voting, vote centers and drop boxes for their
ballots. Likewise, the Secretary of State’s information pamphlet will have all of this pertinent
information available also.

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Mr. Valenzuela commented that the next slide is the last slide. Often people think that
November 3 is “Election Day,” however, there are important dates prior to that day. All military
and overseas ballots must be mailed by September 14. Other important dates on the election
timeline were shown on the slide including the last day prior to the election to send early ballots
in the mail.
Mr. Jarrett also emphasized the importance of the dates on the slides and asked the Board if
there were any questions about the presentation.
Chairman Hickman stated that more than 20 people have registered on-line that they are
watching the presentation, and some of them have entered questions about certain points. He
said that the Elections personnel would be responding to those questions within the next few
days. However, he commented that he would share one or two questions at this point.

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First question: “If a voter is wearing a mask and a face shield, how do you verify their identity?”
Mr. Jarrett replied that the poll workers do not ask a voter to remove their mask or face shield.
The statute requires a voter to present I.D., however, it does not need to be a picture I.D. The
voter could present something like a bank statement. The I.D. must match the voter roster
which is the site-book check-in station.
Next question: Many Senior Centers are in lockdown. How are we making sure they have an
opportunity to vote?
Mr. Valenzuela replied that this is done through a digital connection. A Democrat and a
Republican go to the location. Since they cannot go inside, they send in an iPad to the voter
to assist with communication. Alternatively, the voter can use their own device to communicate
with the voting assistance team. They can talk back and forth with the voter through the iPad
and assist them in voting a ballot. The voter watches the vote team member mark the ballot
per the voter’s instructions.
The Chairman asked if Supervisor Gates had any additional questions. He indicated that he
had asked questions along the way, so he did not have additional questions. However, he
wanted to complement the gentlemen on the additional work they have done on election
planning from the lessons they have learned from the earlier elections.
The Chairman then asked if Supervisor Gallardo had any questions. Supervisor Gallardo also
complimented the gentlemen on their presentation, and they plan for the upcoming election.
He felt the presentation showed the extra work they have done to plan adequately for the
November election. He did state that he felt there were still some changes that could be made
through the legislature for future elections.
Supervisor Chucri commented that he was in agreement with the excellent work done by the
election team. He also complemented the Chairman on his focus on the election process from
the very beginning of his Chairmanship. He commented on one complaint that he had heard
that some of the cleaning products in the polling sites may be a bit too strong which might
cause headaches in the poll workers. Each comment has been addressed by the team and
he expressed his gratefulness for their diligent work in following up on these issues.
Supervisor Sellers stated that one of the most impressive things is that there was a constantly
changing environment for each election this year. The team continued to keep the Board
apprised of all of the issues, and asked for help along the way as was needed. He also
appreciated Scott’s availability to provide information or answer questions. Equally, Rey was
available to answer the question if it fell under his area. This was such an excellent display of
the teamwork between the two Directors.
The Chairman stated that they would probably be one or two more meetings as the election
plan for the November 3rd election is finalized. He also commented on the additional updates
the Directors continue to provide to the Board. He mentioned two outstanding questions or
issues that he wanted to follow up on as Election day approached. One is related to some
additional thoughts regarding safety at polling places. The other issue is that of continuing to
rely on and appreciate the number of County employees who had stepped up to help with the
hundreds of jobs that need to be done, especially on election day.

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2. EXECUTIVE SESSION
Vote to convene in Executive Session to consider the items on the Executive Agenda dated
Monday, August 31, 2020, for Board of Supervisors and relevant Special Districts pursuant to
the statutory authority listed for each item.
Motion to approve by Supervisor Jack Sellers, seconded by Supervisor Bill Gates
Ayes: Clint Hickman, Jack Sellers, Bill Gates, Steve Chucri, Steve Gallardo
MEETING ADJOURNED
After discussion on the Executive Session items and there being no further business to come before the
Board, the meeting was adjourned.
______________________________
Clint Hickman, Chairman of the Board
ATTEST:
____________________________
Fran McCarroll, Clerk of the Board