To: Municipal Clerks and Registrars

Department of the Secretary of State

Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions

Matthew Dunlap Julie L. Flynn Deputy Secretary of State Secretary of State Memorandum

To: Municipal Clerks and Registrars From: Julie L. Flynn, Deputy Secretary of State Date: October 23, 2017 Re: Instructions for processing Voter Participation History (VPH)

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide instructions for processing VPH in CVR following the November 7, 2017 Referendum Election. The statutory completion date is 45 business days after the election, or by January 17, 2018. “Completion” means that VPH has been entered, PROOFREAD, and discrepancies identified and resolved by the January 17th deadline. No municipality should be late in completing VPH unless there are extenuating circumstances that are brought to my attention. Meeting the VPH deadline is critically important to federal reporting requirements and statewide maintenance procedures.

The timely and accurate completion of VPH is also important for several other reasons, including each voter’s right to accurate data; our use of the data to determine the number of absentee ballot envelopes and ballots to provide for future elections; and to assure that candidates and other persons or entities qualified to receive voter data from CVR are given accurate and current data.

Please do not wait until the second week in January to begin entering VPH. You should begin entering VPH as soon as you have updated absentee records and entered new registrations and changes after the election, the statutory deadlines for those activities being Wednesday, November 15th and Friday, December 1st, respectively. Your completion of VPH sooner than January 17th allows for adequate time to get voter/date corrections made by our IT department or the vendor, and staff assistance in resolving discrepancies.

Processing VPH is the Municipal Clerk’s responsibility under the law (Title 21-A §721). Regardless of who is assigned to do the work, such as a Deputy Clerk or the Registrar, it is the Municipal Clerk’s responsibility; we will direct any follow up communication to Municipal Clerks, and expect Municipal Clerks to manage resolution of any discrepancies or untimely completion.

In order to process VPH accurately, and with minimal time resolving discrepancies, it is important to follow proper pre-election and Election Day procedures. These have been discussed in separate mailings, and include:

 Keeping CVR current on a daily basis.

 Reviewing your voter list and resolving any duplicate active voters before the election.

 Making sure that correct dates of registration are entered for new voters and when pulling voters from another municipality. Refer to section 2-D of the Post-Election Activities Reminder & Checklist included in this mailing.

 Entering absentee voter information in CVR as each step occurs (requests; issuances; returns).

 Using the Incoming Voting List (IVL) from CVR (the list with barcodes, and specifically for the November 7, 2017 Referendum Election), not an IVL from a past election, an Alpha List or some other list.

101 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333-0101 www.Maine.gov/sos/cec; tel. 207-624-7650  Making sure election workers and deputy registrars are properly trained in all tasks. These include:

1. Make sure all new voters, and current voters who request changes (such as address or party) complete the registration process before going to the IVL line (do not direct voters to vote, and then return to complete the voter registration process – this is not proper procedure, and many times the voters do not return to complete the registration process).

2. If new voters, or voters requesting changes, do get in the IVL line before registering to vote, send them to the Registrar’s table to complete the voter registration process. You can allow them to go to the front of the IVL line after the voter registration process is completed.

3. Get a voter registration application from the voter (even from current voters who have requested changes), and inspect it for completion before issuing a Certificate of Registration (COR). Make sure (a) that all required sections have been completed, (b) that the residence address provided by the voter is an actual residence address in your municipality, and (c) that the application is signed by the voter. If you discover after the election that the voter registration application is missing information or is not signed, you must enter the voter in CVR as Active, because the voter was allowed to vote.

4. Get a SOS-designed COR that has been completed by the Registrar (not the voter). The yellow copy stays with the Registrar; the white copy is given to the voter to give to the election clerks.

5. Before any ballots are issued, hand-annotate the new voters’ names to the IVL addendum pages (merely attaching the COR to the IVL does not meet the requirements of the law, and makes resolving VPH discrepancies difficult), and indicate on the IVL that the new voters did vote (i.e. checkmark or horizontal line next to the voters’ names).

6. Be extremely careful to check off the correct voters on the IVL, and follow procedures outlined in law to make sure that voters get the correct ballots.

101 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333-0101 www.Maine.gov/sos/cec; tel. 207-624-7650 7. Do not allow voters to vote a 2nd time if they discover they missed one side of a ballot, or if they discover they were given a ballot for the wrong district (this is not allowed if the ballot has already been deposited in the ballot box or tabulator). NOTE: Although there is only a one single-sided ballot statewide for November 7, 2017, this situation might arise if you also have a municipal election on this same day.

8. Do not hand-count ballots that have already been tabulated in DS200 municipalities.

9. Do not include spoiled ballots in Total Ballots Cast (spoiled ballots are not cast, so they are not included in Total Ballots Cast).

10. Follow proper procedures for counting ballots, processing absentee ballots, and completing tally sheets and the Returns of Votes Cast.

11. Follow proper procedures for packaging election materials.

12. Do not make any voter registration or voter requested changes in CVR on Election Day. On Election Day, CVR is for voter lookup, and entering absentee ballot return information, only (entering new voters, pulling voters from other municipalities and making changes on Election Day leads to complications with voter records and results in VPH discrepancies).

More detailed information about procedures for entering VPH will be provided in a post-election mailing. This will include information on adjusting your local TBC for UOCAVA voters whose state ballots were returned and accepted; post-election activities that must be completed before VPH is entered, and VPH completion guidelines and troubleshooting techniques. The statutory deadline (January 17, 2018) for completing VPH includes: (1) Complete entry of VPH, with discrepancies identified and resolved; (2) Electronic notification through CVR that VPH entry is completed; and (3) Submission to the Division of Elections of a paper Statement of Completion.

101 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333-0101 www.Maine.gov/sos/cec; tel. 207-624-7650