From: Liana C
To: mike.wasserman@bos.sccgove.org <mike.wasserman@bos.sccgove.
Cc: Tracy Ellenberger <tellenberger@sccl.org>; Nancy Howe <nhowe@sccl.org>; steve.chessin@cfer.org <steve.chessin@cfer.org>; Alice Smith <alice.smith@gmail.com>; Jean Anton <jean.anton@cob.sccgov.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 7, 2018, 9:51:26 AM PDT
Subject: Request for Reconsideration of Unconditional Support of Voting Activities Inside Libraries and Near Library Entrances, 6/7/2018
Dear Chair, Vice Chair, Members, and Alternate Members of the Joint Powers Authority Board for the Santa Clara County Library District:
NOTE: While I serve as a Library Commissioner for the City of Cupertino, I write to you today as a Cupertino resident only and not a spokesperson for the Library Commission. The views expressed here are entirely my own.
Following the JPA Board's 4/26/2018 decision to "cooperate with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters (ROV) to increase voter participation. This cooperation may include libraries serving as a polling site and/or locating ballot return boxes inside County Library facilities if requested by the ROV." (JPA-9, Scharf dissenting), I urge the Library District to consider that the issue of voting inside libraries and near library entrances has real consequences for the communities where it operates. I also urge the Board to recognize that the 100-foot, necessary and legally required, "zone of silence" imposed by ballot boxes placed inside libraries and near library entrances interferes with two Core Values of the Library District:
"The library fosters life-long learning, promotes cultural enrichment, and supports education."
- Santa Clara County Library District, Core Values, Item 5
"The library ensures that physical spaces are welcoming, safe, clean, and accessible."
- Santa Clara County Library District, Core Values, Item 8
In Cupertino, for 29 days in May and June, community members were subjected to a ballot box that was placed near the library entrance such that the 100-foot zone of silence extended for dozens of feet inside the library.
Elections Code, Chapter 4, Definition 319.5, item (e) defines that prohibited activities within 100 feet of a ballot drop box include loitering near the ballot boxes:
“Electioneering” means the visible display or audible dissemination of information that advocates for or against any candidate or measure on the ballot within 100 feet of a polling place, a vote center, an elections official’s office, or a satellite location under Section 3018. Prohibited electioneering information includes, but is not limited to, any of the following:
...
(e) At vote by mail ballot drop boxes, loitering near or disseminating visible or audible electioneering information.
On Saturday, June 1, I was one of probably hundreds of people in my community who violated Elections Code 319.5 when, in full view of and less than 50 feet from the mail ballot drop box, I chatted with library staff who were signing up patrons for the library's summer reading program. Was my behavior "purposeful" or loitering as I chatted in the shadow of the ballot box? Who decides?
No where does the Elections Code state that loitering or "hanging out" is permitted within 100 feet of the mail ballot drop box as long as the 100 feet is contained within public building.
In fact, in all my travels to and from the Cupertino Library since the mail ballot drop box was located there on Monday, May 7, I have noticed many people "loitering" near the ballot box. "Loiterers" are community members enjoying refreshments from the nearby cafe, sitting on picnic blankets in the nearby grass, splashing in water from the nearby fountain, chatting with community members during breaks from community events happening in the library's main programming venue, Community Hall. All of these "loitering" behaviors are expected and encouraged in our public spaces, except when they are made illegal by the placement of a ballot box near the library entrance for the 29 days leading up to Election Day.
Folks who champion the placement of Free Speech-suppressing ballot boxes in our popular and well-trafficked public venues like to cite how mail ballot drop boxes boost voter turnout, but where is the evidence to support this assertion?
All the people who dropped their mail-in ballots in the boxes located inside libraries or near library entrances had to have already completed the following tasks:
+ retrieve their ballot and ballot pamphlet from their mailbox
+ research even a little bit at least one (and probably more than one) candidate or one ballot measure enough to form an opinion and cast at least one vote
+ tear off the ballot receipt stub and store it in a safe place so they can confirm later that their ballot was received by the ROV in time to be counted
+ sign the addressed, postage-paid return envelope that accompanied their ballot with their signature exactly as it was recorded with the ROV at the time they last registered to vote
It is difficult to accept with a straight face that anyone who has completed the necessary bare minimum steps described above to cast even one vote by mail would then toss up their hands in despair at the prospect of needing to find a location other than the ballot box located inside a library or near a library entrance where they can safely return their ballot.
Every USPS mailbox is a safe, secure, and accessible location where voters can return their ballots through Election Day. Every mail-in ballot in Santa Clara County includes an addressed and postage-paid envelope, so voters who return ballots by mail are not burdened by additional costs not borne by those who return their ballots to ballot drop boxes.
75% of registered voters from California voted in November 2016.
83% of registered voters from Santa Clara County voted in November 2016.
When compared to State returns, Santa Clara county residents returned ballots at a rate that is above average. But what about the 17% of registered voters in Santa Clara County who did not vote at all in the November 2016 General Election?
The 17% are the voters that nobody reached. These are the voters who could not find a candidate or ballot measure that moved them enough to cast even one vote.
If we are going to worry about voter behavior, it’s the 17% of registered voters who did not vote in 2016 who warrant our concern. For the 17% of registered non-voters from 2016, it made no difference at all that there was a drop-off ballot box located inside a library or near a library entrance. However, had those non-voters had the opportunity to chat with a neighbor about local issues in a public venue, that conversation might have been just enough to motivate one or more of them to learn more and vote.
I urge the Board to reconsider its position of unconditional support of multiple day voting activities located inside libraries and near library entrances, as support for voting activities silences Free Speech in our well-trafficked public spaces at the critical times leading up to elections when citizens are seeking information about ballot measures and candidates.
Sincerely,
Liana Crabtree
Cupertino resident
NOTE: While I serve as a Library Commissioner for the City of Cupertino, I write to you today as a Cupertino resident only and not a spokesperson for the Library Commission. The views expressed here are entirely my own.
Following the JPA Board's 4/26/2018 decision to "cooperate with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters (ROV) to increase voter participation. This cooperation may include libraries serving as a polling site and/or locating ballot return boxes inside County Library facilities if requested by the ROV." (JPA-9, Scharf dissenting), I urge the Library District to consider that the issue of voting inside libraries and near library entrances has real consequences for the communities where it operates. I also urge the Board to recognize that the 100-foot, necessary and legally required, "zone of silence" imposed by ballot boxes placed inside libraries and near library entrances interferes with two Core Values of the Library District:
"The library fosters life-long learning, promotes cultural enrichment, and supports education."
- Santa Clara County Library District, Core Values, Item 5
"The library ensures that physical spaces are welcoming, safe, clean, and accessible."
- Santa Clara County Library District, Core Values, Item 8
In Cupertino, for 29 days in May and June, community members were subjected to a ballot box that was placed near the library entrance such that the 100-foot zone of silence extended for dozens of feet inside the library.
Elections Code, Chapter 4, Definition 319.5, item (e) defines that prohibited activities within 100 feet of a ballot drop box include loitering near the ballot boxes:
“Electioneering” means the visible display or audible dissemination of information that advocates for or against any candidate or measure on the ballot within 100 feet of a polling place, a vote center, an elections official’s office, or a satellite location under Section 3018. Prohibited electioneering information includes, but is not limited to, any of the following:
...
(e) At vote by mail ballot drop boxes, loitering near or disseminating visible or audible electioneering information.
On Saturday, June 1, I was one of probably hundreds of people in my community who violated Elections Code 319.5 when, in full view of and less than 50 feet from the mail ballot drop box, I chatted with library staff who were signing up patrons for the library's summer reading program. Was my behavior "purposeful" or loitering as I chatted in the shadow of the ballot box? Who decides?
No where does the Elections Code state that loitering or "hanging out" is permitted within 100 feet of the mail ballot drop box as long as the 100 feet is contained within public building.
In fact, in all my travels to and from the Cupertino Library since the mail ballot drop box was located there on Monday, May 7, I have noticed many people "loitering" near the ballot box. "Loiterers" are community members enjoying refreshments from the nearby cafe, sitting on picnic blankets in the nearby grass, splashing in water from the nearby fountain, chatting with community members during breaks from community events happening in the library's main programming venue, Community Hall. All of these "loitering" behaviors are expected and encouraged in our public spaces, except when they are made illegal by the placement of a ballot box near the library entrance for the 29 days leading up to Election Day.
Folks who champion the placement of Free Speech-suppressing ballot boxes in our popular and well-trafficked public venues like to cite how mail ballot drop boxes boost voter turnout, but where is the evidence to support this assertion?
All the people who dropped their mail-in ballots in the boxes located inside libraries or near library entrances had to have already completed the following tasks:
+ retrieve their ballot and ballot pamphlet from their mailbox
+ research even a little bit at least one (and probably more than one) candidate or one ballot measure enough to form an opinion and cast at least one vote
+ tear off the ballot receipt stub and store it in a safe place so they can confirm later that their ballot was received by the ROV in time to be counted
+ sign the addressed, postage-paid return envelope that accompanied their ballot with their signature exactly as it was recorded with the ROV at the time they last registered to vote
It is difficult to accept with a straight face that anyone who has completed the necessary bare minimum steps described above to cast even one vote by mail would then toss up their hands in despair at the prospect of needing to find a location other than the ballot box located inside a library or near a library entrance where they can safely return their ballot.
Every USPS mailbox is a safe, secure, and accessible location where voters can return their ballots through Election Day. Every mail-in ballot in Santa Clara County includes an addressed and postage-paid envelope, so voters who return ballots by mail are not burdened by additional costs not borne by those who return their ballots to ballot drop boxes.
75% of registered voters from California voted in November 2016.
83% of registered voters from Santa Clara County voted in November 2016.
When compared to State returns, Santa Clara county residents returned ballots at a rate that is above average. But what about the 17% of registered voters in Santa Clara County who did not vote at all in the November 2016 General Election?
The 17% are the voters that nobody reached. These are the voters who could not find a candidate or ballot measure that moved them enough to cast even one vote.
If we are going to worry about voter behavior, it’s the 17% of registered voters who did not vote in 2016 who warrant our concern. For the 17% of registered non-voters from 2016, it made no difference at all that there was a drop-off ballot box located inside a library or near a library entrance. However, had those non-voters had the opportunity to chat with a neighbor about local issues in a public venue, that conversation might have been just enough to motivate one or more of them to learn more and vote.
I urge the Board to reconsider its position of unconditional support of multiple day voting activities located inside libraries and near library entrances, as support for voting activities silences Free Speech in our well-trafficked public spaces at the critical times leading up to elections when citizens are seeking information about ballot measures and candidates.
Sincerely,
Liana Crabtree
Cupertino resident
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