TITLE
Recommendation to receive and file the December 13, 2005 update to the 2006 Elections Plan, and if appropriate, refer to the Elections Oversight Committee for continued discussion.
DISCUSSION
On July 19, 2005, the City Council approved the 2006 Elections Plan. The Plan outlines strategies and activities within the City Clerk Department intended to facilitate a successfully administered elections process. At that time, we advised the Council that we would provide periodic updates as election day approaches.
Major changes and enhancements to the plan can be highlighted as follows:
Strategy 1: Budgeting and Accounting
12/13/05 Update: $2.1 million has been budgeted for the 2006 City Elections. All efforts will be made to cost-effectively comply with Department of Justice requirements which were not know at the time the 2006 budget was adopted by the City Council.
In late October 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice began to advise Los Angeles County cities that they intend to enhance their monitoring and enforcement efforts relative to compliance with language translation requirements set forth in the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a result, the Department will increase its outreach efforts to our City's language communities. While the cost for compliance to meet DOJ requirements have not yet been estimated, over the next month we will work with the City Attorney to review our compliance program.
Strategy 2: Poll Locations
12/13/05 Update: There will be 303 polling locations for the April election. Because of the concurrent election in June 2006, and in order to have the least impact on our voters, this Department has decided to consolidate elections precincts for April the same as the RRCC will consolidate for June. This means that consolidations will have no more than 1000 registered voters per precinct. In order for poll locations to accommodate a city poll and a county poll, NVCs will only be used in places large enough to accommodate 4 to 6...
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