Remarks by Erik Weigand
71 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
- Play at 33:57
“Okay. But it can't be at the same location as the ones the County has.”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 34:08
“Okay. Let me shift gears a little bit to ballots in a foreign language. So there's a section 203 of the Voting Rights Act that counties with 10,000 or more, 5% of the total voting age citizens have to have a ballot translated. And Orange County has identified three of those languages. How does that play into Newport Beach on an election like this? Do we have to use the county rule, or since we're a municipality, we can forego translation in any type of language of either election materials or ballots based on a voter's requested language?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 35:07
“I'm sorry, I interrupted you. Could you proceed? Sorry.”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 35:33
“Okay. Yeah, so would that apply, does translation need to apply to arguments for and against as well? You know, so if the county or if the city wishes to provide some arguments against the initiatives? Do those, are those translated as well?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 35:59
“Okay. Switching gears to new registered voters, so the requirement is 15 days before the election was, and that's October 19th, that newly registered voters have the ability register, but 14 days prior an election day, they can vote conditionally. So the state of California does allow same day voter registration. How does a new registered or newly a new citizen of Newport Beach get that ballot in either of those windows, you know, 15 days or 14 days prior to election day? And then how do we handle those conditional ballots? Do you feel confident that you can administer that? You know, we have…”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 37:22
“Can you just remind me again what day we think the vote center will be open?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 37:40
“So there's select voting centers open in Orange County on the 24th, and then all are open on the 31st. So we'll kind of mirror the all that the county has. Let me switch gears here to how many days after the election day will ballots be counted? So the state says if you have a postmark, the rules now even change to greater, I think it was five recently, but now it's seven. So up to October, I'm sorry, November 10th, state of california allows for ballots to be counted up to that date as long as they have a postmark does newport beach look to deviate from that process or will that still allow…”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 38:47
“OKAY. AND A FEW OF THESE QUESTIONS LOOK LIKE I GOT ANSWERED. BALLOTS WILL BE RECEIVED ON WHAT DAY WE GOT THAT ANSWER. MILITARY, GOOD. OKAY. WHAT ABOUT CURING? HOW ARE WE, WHO IS HANDLING THE CURING PROCESS OF THE BALLOTS THAT COME IN THAT DON'T MATCH OUR STAFF? The County of Orange has the staff dedicated to reviewing signatures of every mailed in ballot, every single ballot that gets dropped off without an identifier. So if I come into a vote center and vote with a machine, that process is pretty more simplified. But if I mail in a ballot, if I hand in a ballot, or if I put one in a Dropbox,…”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 40:44
“How many bodies do you think you need to perform these tasks?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 41:21
“There's a date of December 3rd that the register of voters requires that the date of certification occurs. Do you think that your staff can accommodate that date or are we changing the date?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 41:52
“That's not a requirement? You just have to have it done by the 3rd? Or do we have a requirement date?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 42:11
“And I asked Lena, but I think it was before you jumped on the call here, what does happen to those Newport Beach ballots that get dropped off at county drop boxes?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 43:04
“What example can you give me that the county has dealt with that before?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 44:02
“THAT IS THE DATA THAT YOU NEED FROM THE REGISTRAR OF VOTERS TO MATCH EVERY SINGLE SIGNATURE, CORRECT? CORRECT. IS THAT DATABASE TEND TO BE RELEASED TO CITIES WITH EASE, OR DOES THAT REQUIRE SOME TYPE OF CONFIDENCE THAT SENSITIVE DATA IS PROTECTED? WHAT IS THE DATA? What's the rule there as far as them? They're giving us all of Newport Beach's database of every signature that they have on file in order to verify that the ballots submitted are correct ballots.”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 45:48
“Will Newport beach have our own drop boxes throughout the city?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 46:13
“So you can drop at City Hall, you can drop off at a vote center, and how many of those do you think we'll have?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 46:39
“Do you know the locations of the county's Dropbox locations? Do you know the location of the county's Dropbox locations?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 47:03
“Okay. Okay. Lena, have you conducted a statewide or sorry, a citywide special like this?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 47:12
“Okay, great. So you feel comfortable? Or do you? I probably shouldn't ask that question because I think that I probably know the answer. I want to ask the consultant, are you going to identify, indemnify the city and county against challenges from disenfranchised voters or candidates due to interference or confusion with the statewide and congressional election? So meaning, if this has the potential to confuse a voter, and somebody comes back and says I submitted at the wrong box, it didn't get collected in time, my vote didn't count, are you providing some protection against us with your…”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 48:46
“I'll ask the consultant, do you feel comfortable that this election in its accelerated timeframe and all the challenges that are required to get this done properly will not receive any challenge from anyone on either side? Or do you think that there's just, there's a bit of confusion when there's a countywide election occurring at the exact same time?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 49:50
“Is that community outreach done by you or is that done by us?”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 50:09
“Okay, I think I went through my list. I don't know if I wrote it on other sides, but those were kind of my initial questions that more could come up here soon, but I appreciate you answering those questions.”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 1:11:20
“Yeah, I'll echo those comments. You know, not here to talk about court case decisions that weren't successful. I'm here to talk about the process that is in front of us. And I don't feel comfortable asking all of the questions that I asked that the city of Newport Beach can conduct an election with an accelerated timeframe. without disenfranchising just one, that's all, one vote. And if one person can't correctly vote in an election, an election that to me seems like we're skirting state law, maybe we're within the rules, but we're not quite within the rules. the usual course of business when…”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 1:24:21
“Madam Mayor, I'll make a motion to deny all of these items on staff report.”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026
- Play at 1:24:46
“I MEAN, FOR ME, I WOULD BE OKAY BIFURCATING OUT ONE OF THE ITEMS, BUT IT WOULD BE WITHIN SECTION E BECAUSE I'M HAPPY TO GO TO THE COUNTY AND ASK THEM FOR HELP, BUT BY THE TIME WE ACTUALLY GET THAT ANSWER, WE'RE EITHER HAVING TO COMMIT TO AN ELECTION THAT, TO ME, IS FILLED WITH POTENTIAL PROBLEM FROM to overseas voters, to military voters, to our own voters here in town. I mean, think about a brand new voter, somebody who's just registered to vote. This is very confusing to that, or to somebody who's a long-term voter. So I'm happy to bifurcate our items, and i would love the county to uh have…”
City Council · Sep 11, 2026