CITY OF LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA BOARD OF NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSIONERS JOY ATKINSON President 20TH FLOOR, CITY HALL ELI LIPMEN 200 NORTH SPRING STREET Vice President LOS ANGELES, CA 90012 TELEPHONE: (213) 978-1551 MAGGIE DARETT-QUIROZ TOLL-FREE: 3-1-1 FAX: (213) 978-1751 LEONARD SHAFFER E-MAIL:
[email protected] DEBBIE WEHBE RAY REGALADO GRAYCE LIU GENERAL MANAGER SUSAN AVAKIAN-KOROGHLYAN ERIC GARCETTI www.EmpowerLA.org MAYOR TELEPHONE: (213) 978-1551 September 22, 2017 Honorable Herb J. Wesson, Jr., Council President Los Angeles City Council Councilmember, Tenth District Los Angeles City Hall 200 N Spring Street, Room 430 Los Angeles, CA 90012 Honorable Council President Wesson: On August 22, 2017, the Health Education and Neighborhood Council Committee unanimously passed nine recommendations relative to election timing, online Neighborhood Council elections and election outreach funding. The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners wishes to express its views on these recommendations and encourage the Los Angeles City Council to act upon its recommendations. The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners supports all the recommendations made by the HENC Committee. In 2015, BONC authorized the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to utilize online voting in the 2016 election cycle. BONC approved the contract for Everyone Counts, which created the platform for voting. Concerns were expressed at the time about online voting and today concerns remain regarding voter registration, security, and integrity of the election. Specifically, the voter registration process was onerous in some circumstances and created a stumbling bloc for some voters, security of some candidate data was compromised, and the integrity of certain specific Neighborhood Council elections were called into question based on online voting concerns.