Thread by @libdenk

New: @LACountyRRCC is before the L.A. County Board of Supervisors right now. @SupJaniceHahn lists March 3 primary election problems: long vote center lines, absentee ballots not getting mailed out, Measure FD left off many ballots.

Hahn: "I know, myself, I've lost confidence."

.@kathrynbarger on election worker training problems and reports of many vote center employees not showing up to work: "They felt like they were thrown in the middle of a pool and not taught how to swim."

Barger: at least 17,000 L.A. County vote-by-mail voters didn't get mailed a ballot.

"Between now and November, we have to restore confidence so that people know that we take this seriously and it's not going to happen again."

Supervisor @SheilaKuehl: Former Secretary of State Debra Bowen was an election worker volunteer in Los Angeles County.

She flagged serious problems with vote center training, calling it "stultifying" and the trainer "insulting."

Kuehl wants to move to a vote-by-mail system for all by the November election.

Also: the # of early voting days was 'generous' but not necessary -- Kuehl wants 2x the number of voting centers, but fewer early voting days (suggests 4).

(Unclear if this is allowed under VCA.)

.@HildaSolis asks for clarification if it's possible to reduce the number of early voting days -- county staff clarifies that some vote centers must be open for 11 days. It's required by election code (I assume this means the Voter's Choice Act).

Solis mentions an East L.A. vote center where "out of 12 machines only 6 worked," which caused very long lines.

Barger describes vote-by-mail ballots as an "insurance policy or a safety net." It would not take the place of the option to vote-in-person in L.A. County.

Hahn asks about voting machine vendor Smartmatic's liability over broken-down machines -- estimates at least 20% of ballot marking devices (BMDs) had technical problems and weren't working on Election Day.

(Implies that's poor performance for a $300 million dollar system.)

.@LACountyRRCC: "let me start by making the same statement I made to the media on election night. I hear you. And I hear the voices of the voters and our poll workers. It was not the implementation we hoped it would be. And I regret that and I apologize."

Logan: "That's not superficial. I have spoken to voters & poll workers. They're not nameless people (names individuals.) I've heard what their experiences were and I felt their experiences."

"I don't think the answer is to give up on this, I think the answer is to get it right"

Logan: "I am not opposed to the vote-by-mail recommendation."

"...My only point is that was not the only issue that happened on Tuesday."

Logan: "Going from 63% to 100% is 2.5 million additional ballots."

That's a different (counting) facility. That's a lot of materials and paper."

Logan: "The bottleneck was w/ the check-in system and with the e-pollbooks."

St. Louis just had the same issues.

"While there were issues with the ballot marking devices, those issues didn't affect people's abilities to vote. They weren't even able to get to the BMDs"

Logan says same-day registration also caused backups.

"I want to be clear -- it's not wi-fi. It's cellular connectivity."

Many locations, like the Ace Hotel downtown, didn't have available square footage to handle crowds.

Points out there are L.A. County elections coming up sooner than November: in April, May and June.

Logan: "I will do my level best," to regain the confidence of the board.

Logan: "I believe the voting model is a sound model. I believe the new voting system...is also sound."

"The implementation of that and the capacity to deliver on that solid model was lacking."

"For many voters, it was a good experience."

"There is evidence and data to support that the model is solid."

Highlights mobile vote centers reaching communities that have never been reached before. Cites @LoyolaMarymount exit poll project where over 3k voters were surveyed--results were positive. People liked the system.

Supervisor @mridleythomas wants county consultant to review Loyola exit poll results.

Supe. Solis says the county must also do its own assessment.

Public comment now -- first up an organizer from @CACleanMoney who says she visited South L.A. vote centers with no backup paper ballots, as required by @CASOSvote. Another organizer: "Young people are losing faith in our elections." Asks board to address election security

A vote center worker says she was on duty for at least 14 hours with "no food, no water" and had voters screaming at her about why they couldn't cast a ballot. She calls on Logan to resign.

.@RobQuan_ pushes back on curtailing early voting. Also says Registrar's office was dismissive when he raised issues.

LMU Soph. Glory Jones: "We full on lost power in the middle of the day...You can't expect students to deal with this." Describes other LMU students falling asleep in line trying to vote close to 10 PM. "At some point, we have to question what's the purpose of this inefficiency?"

.@TrentLange with @CACleanMoney: coalition of groups submitted a letter to @CASOSvote pointing out security weaknesses and potential paper jamming involved with new VSAP system -- plus concerns about L.A. County not providing hand-marked paper ballots. Wants that explored.

Melissa Nickelson from the L.A. County Democratic Party: "Dean Logan needs to go." "Voters didn't know how to use the voting computers -- that's not their fault." "I'm a concerned American, and I expect my election system to run smoothly."

Election worker--calls herself Jenny: she ran a center location w/ 50 BMDs. Theirs ran smoothly b/c they had technically capable folks working. "We knew how to work the machines, fix the printers & make sure e-poll books were synced. That was not told to us during the training."

I'm going to hop off now but public comment is still going -- you can watch here: lacounty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.ph…