SEC. 13.104. DEPARTMENT OF ELECTIONS.
§ 13.104
The City establishes a Department of Elections headed by a Director appointed by the Elections Commission to conduct all public elections, manage voter registration, and oversee ballot processes. The Director serves a five-year term, can be removed for cause with 30 days' notice and a hearing, and may appeal removal to the Civil Service Commission. Elections Commission may request the Board of Supervisors waive conflict-of-interest rules for temporary Department staff working 30 days or fewer per year.
San Francisco will have a Department of Elections run by a Director chosen by the Elections Commission. The Director's job is to handle voter registration, run elections, create ballots, prevent fraud, and recount votes if needed. The Director gets a five-year contract and can be fired only if the Elections Commission gives written reasons at least 30 days before a hearing. If fired, the Director can appeal to the Civil Service Commission. About a month before each five-year term ends, the Elections Commission picks the next Director. The Director and all Department staff must follow conflict-of-interest rules, but the Elections Commission can ask the Board of Supervisors to temporarily waive those rules for employees working 30 days or less in a year if the Department needs extra help.
- Complex:The section contains multiple nested procedural rules about appointment, removal, appeals, and conflict-of-interest waivers that require careful reading to understand the full process and interplay between the Elections Commission, Civil Service Commission, and Board of Supervisors.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
A Department of Elections shall be established to conduct all public federal, state, district and municipal elections in the City and County. The department shall be administered by the Director of Elections, who shall be vested with the day-to-day conduct and management of the Department and of voter registration and matters pertaining to elections in the City and County. The Director shall report to the Elections Commission.
For purposes of this section, the conduct of elections shall include, but not be limited to: voter registration; the nomination and filing process for candidates to City and County offices; the preparation and distribution of voter information materials; ballots, precinct operations and vote count; the prevention of fraud in such elections; and the recount of ballots in cases of challenge or fraud.
The Director shall be appointed by the Elections Commission from a list of qualified applicants provided pursuant to the civil service provisions of this Charter. The Director shall serve a five-year term, during which he or she may be removed by the Elections Commission for cause, upon written charges and following a hearing. The Elections Commission shall present the written charges to the Director no less than thirty days before the hearing. If the Elections Commission votes to remove the Director, he or she shall have the right to appeal to the Civil Service Commission. On appeal, the Civil Service Commission shall be limited to consideration of the record before the Elections Commission; however, the Civil Service Commission may independently evaluate and weigh evidence and may in its discretion consider evidence proffered to the Elections Commission that the Commission excluded and may in its discretion exclude evidence that the Elections Commission considered. The term of the Director shall expire five years after his or her appointment. No less than thirty days before the expiration of the Director's term, the Elections Commission shall appoint a Director for the next term, who may but need not be the incumbent Director. Subject to the civil service provisions of this Charter, the Director shall have the power to appoint and remove other employees of the Department of Elections.
In addition to any other conflict of interest provisions applicable to City employees, the Director of Elections and all other employees of the Department of Elections shall be subject to the conflict-of-interest provisions in Section 13.103.5. The Elections Commission, may upon the recommendation of the Director of Elections and a finding that the Department will not have adequate staffing to conduct an election, request from the Board of Supervisors a waiver of the conflict-of-interest provisions in Section 13.103.5 for employees working no more than thirty days in a single calendar year. The Board of Supervisors shall approve or deny such requests from the Elections Commission by motion.
(Amended November 2001)