PROPOSED PROTOCOL FOR KPFA LSB ELECTION 2009 BALLOT COUNTING PART II – Scanning Barcodes and Ballots

PROPOSED PROTOCOL FOR KPFA LSB ELECTION 2009 BALLOT COUNTING PART II – Scanning Barcodes and Ballots

Staff Election - Tuesday October 20 - 7 pm in Performance Studio at KPFA
Listener Election – Saturday October 24 (3 pm) & Sunday October 25th (as needed) at Bay Area Alternative Press (BAAP)

Note: Candidates are welcome to witness but may NEVER touch ballots.

The following is an outline of the suggested protocol for scanning ballot barcodes and scanning the barcodes themselves. All feedback is greatly appreciated. The objective is to provide a theoretical guide in order to facilitate the organization of the ballot counting process.

STEP 1: Preliminary Check that all Ballot Boxes are Intact, Recount and Resorting
- All participants will sign in at the door.

- When at least 2 witnesses are present we will check that the boxes packaged on Saturday October 18th are sealed and signed. Then we will open and verify the contents (written on the outside of the box).

- For staff there are 2 boxes (rejected ballot box with 3 ballots, valid good quality staff ballot box with 141 ballots, envelop with 32 poor quality ballots which require the transfer to new ballots before scanning)
- For listeners there are 6 boxes (5 boxes with valid ballots, 595, 610, 347, 543, 800, 1 problem ballot box, 66 total). For listener ballots we did not separate out ballots of poor quality which will require transfer to new ballots. The problem ballot box includes mainly ballots which lack a barcode, are written in red ink or ink of another color)

- For staff we will move on directly to step 3 as all barcodes have already been scanned.

STEP 2: Barcode Scanning

- All listener ballot barcodes will be scanned including those in the problem ballot box which have barcodes (those in red ink).
- The rejected ballots will be cross checked with the list of “live” listener barcodes to make sure that they were not wrongfully rejected.
- As ballots are scanned and found to be eligible votes, we will separate out the ballots of poor quality that require the transfer to a new ballot.
- A “Poor Quality Ballot: Red ink (or other color, not blue, black or pencil), Crosses or checks instead of filled in boxes, Entry mistakes requiring interpretation, and other markings which may affect legibility

- STEP 3 and STEP 4 can be done at the same time to speed up the process.

STEP 3: Poor Quality Ballot Vote Transfer

- For ballots of poor quality, with at least 2 witnesses representing different parties of interest we will transfer individual rankings to new ballots in order to process them.
- For staff - one person (the LES) will transfer information from the original ballot to the replacement ballot.
- For listeners, as we have many more poor quality ballots, we will have 3 people doing the transfer; one of these people will be the LES. All three will sit at the same table together with witnesses and 3 separate log sheets
- All ballots requiring interpretation will be discussed and the resulting interpretation will reflect the input of parties. In the event that there is a real division - the local election supervisor will make the call and this may be to not use the ballot.
- Each ballot which undergoes this process will be marked with a series code in this format, O (for Original) or R for Replacement), a number to document the sequence (1 to X, integers in BLACK INK, lower RIGHT corner) and the initials of the person doing the transfer. - A log of the process will be kept (hardcopy). Each log entry will document the series code (NOT the barcode) and the witnesses present. For the listener ballot log we will also keep track of time in the form of sessions as the process will be a lot lengthier. If a ballot was rejected as no interpretation was possible, then this will be noted. - After all poor quality ballots have been transferred to new copies - we will scan the replacements.

STEP 4: Ballot Scanning, Sorting & Trouble-shooting, Computer Software Processing

- Accepted Ballots (with a “live” barcode”, originals in good condition or replacements) will be scanned into the computer one by one.

- Every ballot (good quality originals and replacements) will be marked BEFORE SCANNING with a serial code to be able to track processing. The serial code format will be as such: O (for Original), a number to document the sequence (1 to X, integers in BLACK INK, lower LEFT corner) and the initials of the person assisting the person responsible for feeding the scanner (they can be one in the same. If there are two scanners (we hope), then the code will include an additional number (1 or 2 for scanner number 1 or 2)

- The computer software will then translate the images into numbers corresponding to the ranking on each ballot.

- The rankings will be used to compute the results based on the single transferable vote calculation.
- After all ballots have been processed the original ballots and replacement ballots (stapled together lower left corner) will be kept together in the order that they were scanned order, sealed and signed in a box together with the original copy of the transfer log. The log will be photocopied before sealed into the box in order to create an electronic file for purposes of transparency.

All raw scanned data will be available to any participant after everything has been processed.

KPFA Ballot Counting - Sunday October 18th - 10 am till 1130 pm @ BAAP (Bay Area Alternative Press)

Polls were closed on October 15th at 12 midnight. Rough numbers show that over 50% of KPFA staff voted in this election and approximately 13-14% of listeners.

KPFA Ballot Counting will occur - Sunday October 18th - 10 am till 1130 pm @ BAAP (Bay Area Alternative Press, http://www.bay-area-alternative-press.org/) - located at 1847 Alcatraz Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94703.

After discussions with the election committee and the national election supervisor and BAAP members, here is a proposed protocol and visual model to help guide the ballot counting process.

All feedback is greatly appreciated. Please circulate.

Doors are open to those wishing to witness and volunteer. Candidates can witness but cannot touch any ballot materials.

Please review the documents and contact myself or Sally Sommer of the election committee ("sally sommer" ) with your questions.

Thank you for your participation!

Renee Asteria

http://kpfaelection2009.net
SUGGESTED PROTOCOL FOR KPFA LSB ELECTION 2009 BALLOT COUNTING Sunday October 18th - 10 am till 11:30 pm at Bay Area Alternative Press (BAAP)
See MODEL Document

Note: Candidates are welcome to witness but may NEVER touch ballots.

The following is an outline of the suggested protocol for ballot counting. All feedback is greatly appreciated. The objective is to provide a theoretical guide in order to facilitate the organization of the ballot counting process.

STEP 1: Preliminary Check that all Ballots Pick-ups and Packages are present by reading Renee’s Pick-Up Log

- All participants will sign in at the door.

- At 10 am (or when enough witnesses are present) we will do a group check of all un-processed ballots which will be organized by pick-up and present in large marked plastic bags.

- We will do this by comparing pick-up by pick-up (back by bag) to Renée’s Pick-Up Log.

- Ballots were packaged in bundles of 50 (or less) with tape and marked with the date, pick-up number and signed by ballot- pick-up volunteers.

- Once this has been completed 1 pick-up bag will be kept for initial processing (step 2) and the rest will be locked in David’s office and taken out for processing when needed.

- Renée will move the ballots to and from the locked office.

STEP 2: Ballot Sorting Table
- All Volunteers will sign up – no candidates are allowed to process ballots.

- 5 Volunteers on either side of the table open up envelops and sort contents into the appropriate box (boxes: listener or staff ballot box, problem ballot (no barcode) box, donations box, junk mail & empty envelop box)
- At any onetime there are 10 volunteers processing ballots (5 on either side of the table)

- The empty envelop box and junk mail box will be reprocessed to ensure that no ballots or donations have been missed.

- A simple log (tally) will be kept to track the number of packages processed.

- Each ballot must be inspected to make sure it is anonymous. This may require the removal of any identifiable information such as names or addresses.

- Once the ballot boxes are full they are moved to the locked office until ready for step three.






STEP 3: Barcode Ballot Screening & Sorting

- Volunteers will sign up.

- All ballot barcodes will be scanned and screened for eligibility at 2 stations.

- Ballots will be either rejected or accepted and sorted into respective boxes.

- Each barcode is associated to a unique vote.

- This is done in order to remove the possibility of duplicate votes.

- Ballots which are rejected will be kept for follow-up.


STEP 4: Ballot Scanning, Sorting & Trouble-shooting, Computer Software Processing

- Ballots will be scanned into the computer one by one.

- Every scanned ballot will be marked with a number by order of processing.

- The computer software will then translate the images into numbers corresponding to the ranking on each ballot.

- The rankings will be used to compute the results based on the single transferable vote calculation.

- Problematic ballots will be kept aside for trouble shooting.

- The processing of problematic ballots may require the transfer to a new ballot in order to process the vote.

- If this is the case, the interpretation of ranking on the problematic ballot will be done based on the judgment of multiple parties who are not candidates.

All raw scanned data will be available to any participant after everything has been processed.

Staff Forum

The second staff forum was recorded in order to allow for staff who could not attend to hear staff candidate voices. Five of the 7 staff candidates running in this election participated. The format was an open ended discussion.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY Staff Forum Introduction

CLICK HERE TO PLAY Question One: Direction of KPFA as a form of participatory media

CLICK HERE TO PLAY Question Two: Balancing Music and Public Affairs

CLICK HERE TO PLAY Question Three: Pros and Cons of having Staff sit on a Board of Directors

CLICK HERE TO PLAY Question Four: Why Staff and Listener elections are separated
CLICK HERE TO PLAY Question Four continued: Why Staff and Listener elections are separated

CLICK HERE TO PLAY Question Five: Discussion of Programming and Program Council

CLICK HERE TO PLAY Question Six: Bringing new voices in while respecting tenured staff

Participants in this Discussion: Lewis Sawyer, Antonio Ortiz, Anthony Fest, Emiliano Echeverria, David Gans

Missing from the Discussion: Renee Yang-Geesler, Laura Prives

CLICK HERE FOR STAFF CANDIDATE STATEMENTS

Third and Final Local Station Board Onair Forum Series

FINAL ONAIR FORUM FORMAT

The final onair forum format consists of candidates asking other candidates a question. Each candidate will have a chance to ask 1 question to the others. The order of appearance was randomly assigned.

Each question will be answered by all candidates. Questions must be general directed to all other candidates.

After each candidate has asked a question questions were be taken from the public.

In each hour 3 to 5 candidates participate.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY 700 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - October 5th 2009

CLICK HERE TO PLAY 700 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - October 6th 2009

CLICK HERE TO PLAY 700 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - October 7th 2009

CLICK HERE TO PLAY 700 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - October 8th 2009

CLICK HERE TO PLAY 700 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - October 9th 2009 TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH ARCHIVE

CLICK HERE TO PLAY 1000 am: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - October 10th 2009 TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH ARCHIVE

27 Sept KPFA LSB Election Forum Broadcast

Here is the second listener -radio forum for KPFA’s 2009 local station board election.

All 28 candidates were invited and 13 participated in the second three hours of the show (the first three hours took place Sept. 20 and consisted of 12 candidates).

The questions asked to candidates represent concerns raised at the multiple in person forums we have had all over the Bay area.

The rules:
Each candidate has 30 seconds to introduce themselves.
The Moderator asks a question to 1 of the 4 candidates and that candidate will have 2 minutes to respond to the question at hand.
The other candidates will have 30 seconds each to, either challenge the candidate who spoke with a follow-up question or, make a comment or say Pass if they have nothing to add.
The candidate under question will then have 2 minutes to respond to the questions or comments made by the other candidates.
A unique question is given to each candidate.

Once all candidates have been questioned they will each have have 30 seconds to make a closing statement.

Calls from the public are accepted and each candidate is given 1 minute to answer the question or make a comment.

Moderator for the 3 hours - Renee Asteria (election supervisor).

Here is the audio archive:

KPFA LSB ELection Radio Show Part I

Hour 1 (candidates in order of appearance)
630-730pm
Shara Esbenshade - Conn Hallinan - Sasha Futran - Virginia Rodriguez

CLICK HERE TO PLAY 630 to 730 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 27 2009

Some of the questions covered (not including question from the calls):

1. Should KPFA make "Calls to Action"?
2. What do you think are the most serious problems at KPFA/Pacifica?
3. If there was one thing you could change at KPFA what would you do?
4. How can KPFA increase its outreach to young people?

Hour 2 (candidates in order of appearance)
730-830pm
Donald Goldmacher - Adam Hudson - Gerald Saunders
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 730 to 830 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 27 2009

Some of the questions covered (not including question from the calls):

1. Please comment on the purpose of the elected local station board. Do you think that KPFA should have a mechanism for listener-supporters to oversee the station’s decisions regarding the budget, programming and ensuring that the station is in compliance with the Pacifica Mission to promote Peace and Social Justice?
2. Please define “underrepresented community”. Can you name three specific things you would do to reach out to underrepresented communities?
3. How does listener democracy relate to the concept of community radio? Should KPFA be a community radio?

NOTE HOUR TWO SPILLS INTO HOUR THREE

Hour 3 (candidates in order of appearance)
830-930pm
Pamela Drake - Richard Phelps - Andrea Prichett - Jack Kurzweil - Andrea Turner (came in at last minute)
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 830 to 930 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 27 2009

Some of the questions covered (not including question from the calls):

1. What is the local station board capable of doing to restore the programming decision-making power of the Program Council? If elected, would you support restoring the program council?
2. As a member of the local station board do you have the opportunity to participate in the policy making process? If so, please explain the process. If not who makes policy?
3. There are multiple slates running for the LSB. Please explain how KPFA programming will be affected if your slate gains a majority on the Local Station Board.
4. What authorities should a board (please consider both the local station board and the national board) delegate to its managers to make policy?
5. As an alternative to, or, in addition to having local station board elections, what do you think of having other mechanisms to form the Local Station board? For example, by having some local station board members selected by active KPFA support groups in various cities around the signal area? And/Or having some local board members selected from communities of interest in the signal area, such as labor, peace, alternative economies (collectives, co-ops etc), or alternative media?

September 20, 2009 KPFA Local Station Board Election 2009 Second Radio Show Part I

Here is the second listener -radio forum for KPFA’s 2009 local station board election.

All 28 candidates were invited and 12 participated in the first three hours of the show (the second three hours, for the remaining 16 candidates, will take place Sunday the 27th of September 2009).

The questions asked to candidates represent concerns raised at the multiple in person forums we have had all over the Bay area.

The rules:
Each candidate has 30 seconds to introduce themselves.
The Moderator asks a question to 1 of the 4 candidates and that candidate will have 2 minutes to respond to the question at hand.
The other candidates will have 30 seconds each to, either challenge the candidate who spoke with a follow-up question or, make a comment or say Pass if they have nothing to add.
The candidate under question will then have 2 minutes to respond to the questions or comments made by the other candidates.
A unique question is given to each candidate.

Once all candidates have been questioned they will each have have 30 seconds to make a closing statement.

Calls from the public are accepted and each candidate is given 1 minute to answer the question or make a comment.

Moderator for the 3 hours - Renee Asteria (election supervisor).

Here is the audio archive:

KPFA LSB ELection Radio Show Part I

Hour 1 (candidates in order of appearance)
630-730pm
Akio Tanaka - Jim Weber - Stan Woods - Steve Zeltzer
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 630 to 700 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 20 2009
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 700 to 730 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 20 2009

Some of the questions covered (not including question from the calls):

As an alternative to, or, in addition to having local station board elections, what do you think of having other mechanisms to form the Local Station board? For example, by having some local station board members selected by active KPFA support groups in various cities around the signal area? And/Or having some local board members selected from communities of interest in the signal area, such as labor, peace, alternative economies (collectives, co-ops etc), or alternative media?

What should the board do if resolutions that they pass are ignored by management?

There are multiple slates running for the LSB. Please explain how KPFA programming will be affected if your slate gains a majority on the Local Station Board.

Please define “underrepresented community”. Can you name three specific things you would do to reach out to underrepresented communities?


Hour 2 (candidates in order of appearance)
730-830pm
Judith Gips - Dan Siegel - Rahman Jamaal McCreadie - Jaime Cader
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 730 to 800 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 20 2009
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 800 to 830 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 20 2009

Some of the questions covered (not including question from the calls):

How can KPFA increase its outreach to young people?

What authorities should a board (please consider both the local station board and the national board) delegate to its managers to make policy?

At a public forum last weekend one listener-supporter asked - How can we open a continuing discussion of technical innovation and support what listeners seek? For example, what can we do to restore the KPFA archive online where we have recently lost access to an enormous amount of public service programming? Should we start planning the adoption of digital broadcast standards?

Are you or your slate using financial support from any political party or other entity such as a non-governmental organization? If so please explain. Should the way campaigns are funded be openly debated? Should there be limits on the amount candidates can spend on a campaign?

Hour 3 (candidates in order of appearance)
830-930pm
Jim Curtis - John Van Eyck - Ann Hallatt - Henry Norr
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 830 to 900 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 20 2009
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 900 to 930 pm: Broadcast of KPFA LSB Candidates Forum Radio Show - Sept 20 2009

Some of the questions covered (not including question from the calls):

As a member of the local station board do you have the opportunity to participate in the policy making process? If so, please explain the process. If not who makes policy?

At a public forum last weekend one listener-supporter asked – why a large number of people who work at the station support the Concerned Listener slate? Please discuss this listener’s perspective.

What is the local station board capable of doing to restore the programming decision-making power of the Program Council? If elected, would you support restoring the program council?

At a public forum last weekend one listener-supporter asked – how can KPFA listener-members select a functional local station board which represents the diverse voices of KPFA listeners when the public seldom hears about the issues going on within the local station board?

September 14th, LSB Candidate Forum hosted by the MPJC in San Rafael

The Marin Peace and Justice Coalition (http://www.mpjc.org/) graciously hosted a forum in combination with their regular meeting and a delicious potluck. After coming to a consensus, questions were taken from the public and the election supervisor selected at random 5 names (drawing cards from a bowl with each of the 12 candidates present). Answers were timed and each candidate had 1m30secs to answer.

Here is the audio archive.

Click here for the Introduction Section Candidate Opening Statements

Click here for Question 1

Click here for Question 2

Click here for Intermission with MPJC Announcements

Click here for Question 3

Click here for Question 4

Click here for Question 5

Click here for Question 6

Please listen! These will be soon indexed by topic covered and participant. If you would like to help with this process write to election@kpfa.org.