Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder-Elections

October 9, 2008

Contact:
Warren Slocum, Chief Elections Officer
Phone: (650) 363-4988 E-mail: wslocum@smcare.org

Alternate:
Bob Marks, Director, PenTV
Phone: (650) 867-7391 E-mail: rmarks@co.sanmateo.ca.us

Live Election Night Broadcast Take County Viewers behind the Scenes
Co-sponsored by the Comcast, PenTV and the SMC Elections Office

Redwood City, CA –To commemorate this November’s historic Presidential General Election, the San Mateo County Elections Office, PenTV/Channel 26, and Comcast have teamed up to create a unique telecast that will combine local election results and newsmakers with national news, commentators and results and an insiders look at how an election is conducted. The broadcast will air from 7 p.m. – midnight on cable Channel 26.  For people who are interested in watching the broadcast that do not live in one of the PenTV cable communities, the broadcast will be simulcast on PenTV’s website at www.pentv.tv . Election night results will be posted on the Elections Office website, www.shapethefuture.org, throughout the evening; the first returns will be issued at 8:05 p.m.

“This Election night broadcast will be a first-in-the-nation democracy-based ‘edutainment’ that will include real-time segments that show viewers the elections process from inside the Elections Office on Election night. Viewers will see just how their Elections Office counts the votes and what it takes to make that happen,” said Warren Slocum, Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder for San Mateo County.

Slocum explained that, “There is never a perfect election—it involves so many people, places, and moving parts.”

“The quality of an election is not whether things go perfectly, it’s the quality of the contingency plans that are prepared to handle every possible situation that can arise,” Slocum explained. “That is why the broadcast of an election from inside an elections office has never been done before. Our goal is to make our process completely transparent so that San Mateo County voters can see for themselves how elections are conducted and know why they can have confidence in the election results.”

Election night guests will include members of Congress and the local representatives in the California Legislature, the Chief Elections Officer, city council members, school board trustees, newspaper editors and reporters and national and state political consultants talking about county issues, California races and the Presidential election. Anchors Mark Simon and Bob Marks will co-host this event with reporters Kevin Mullin (South San Francisco councilman) and Dani Gasparini (former Redwood City mayor). 

This evening’s broadcast will highlight the County’s growing institutional network, the INET. This network will make it possible for remote broadcasts, joint meetings, educational seminars and training and the transport of data between governmental agencies throughout the County. When completed, sixty-six remote locations will be available in San Mateo County. The INET connection at 40 Tower Road in San Mateo where the Elections Office is located will be the first remote broadcast on this new network. The City of Foster City will be the site for the main broadcast; Kevin Mullin will provide live updates and interviews direct from the Elections Office at 40 Tower Road in San Mateo throughout the evening. The show will originate at the Foster City Council Chambers.

Attachments:   Guests
                        Bios of Election Night Hosts and Reporters

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