Board of Elections & Registration - Regular Meeting

This time we'll have roll call starting from your side. Miss Robin Robin Knight, District One. Joe Stale, District Three. Julia McCulla, District 4. Rick, District 5, present. Vernon Higgins, District 2, present.

Thank you. We have a quorum. Well, before we get started, um you might have noticed that we've got a bit of a change up here uh this month. And we'd like to say congratulations to Shannon as she's taken a new position with county administration as she's going to be working with the interim county administrator. Uh elections are going to be in great hands. We still have Rock and Dennis and Rock is going to be acting as election supervisor and Dennis will continue his role with the elections and equipment among many other duties. Um, even better news, we've got Miss Leona Fields and Deborah Felix, uh, returning, and that's always a great thing to be able to have them here to help with the upcoming elections. Um, Shannon will be available for guidance during this transition as needed, and we certainly thank you for all of your service, Shannon, and know that um, you'll do a good job of staying in contact with with Rock and his office. So, thank you for that. Okay. Uh, let's look at the adoption of the agenda. Do we have a motion?

So moved. Second. Good. I second. All those in favor? I I Okay. At the adoption of the agenda is complete. Uh at this time, let's take a look at the approval of minutes from the February 19th regular board meeting. We have a motion. Make a motion that we adopt the minutes from the February 19th meeting. Second. All right. Thank you. Do we have um all those in favor? I

opposed. Okay, those are approved from last month. Thank you. Um at this uh point, we have public comments and these are agenda items only. If you have any public comments. Okay, no public comments. We will move on to the financial report February month ending. Rock, I think you've got that. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Here to date we have spent so far $263,162 dogs. You able to put that on the screen, sir? packet.

Thank you. Can I go to the last page, please? Okay, there you go. Okay, we have spent $263,162.38 which represents 51.28% of our budget. Are there any questions?

None. Anything further for the month end report? Is that it?

Okay. Uh we'll move on to item seven, elections supervisor update. Good afternoon again. Um, want to just report that beginning March 22nd through the 25th of March, we will be attending the Gabrielle conference in Athens, Georgia. That'll be attended by Shannon Dennis, board member Holland, and board member Higgins, and myself. Also, I wanted to share with you the monthly voter registration activity. As of today, the 19th of March, we have 44,284 registered voters. Of that number, 39,222 are active, 5,62 are inactive. We from this um from last month's meeting until this month's meeting that increase in total registrance is 172 or that represents a 39% increase in our total voter registrations. Also, I want to let the board know that we have received over a 100 absentee by mail applications and also two uava stateside military applications for this upcoming election.

And we would also like to propose advanced voting hours. Now, these hours were based on discussions of hourly counts of foot traffic at the advanced polling places from previous elections and staff worked on these and we've come up with what we think are, you know, very viable solutions for the Canon County residents. The Kingsland Annex will be open for three weeks and two Saturdays. Woodbine from April 27th through May the 9th. They will also be open on both Saturdays. St. Mary's or the welcome center will be open from May 9th, that Saturday through May 15th. Now, the weekday hours will be from 8 to 5 for the first and the second week. The second uh I'm sorry, Saturdays will be 9 to5 and the final week we will open at 8 8 am and close at 6 pm giving extended hours for that final week. What we've noticed has been a very huge uptick in activity the final week, especially that last Friday. Any questions on the voting hours or

Okay. forward. Does anybody have any comments on the Okay. No. No. Okay. Continue. All right. And at this time, I will yield to Dennis and have him discuss our ballot proofs SB 214 and talk some about logic and accuracy. Thank you, sir. Uh, good afternoon, board. Good afternoon.

All right. So, if you'll recall last meeting, uh, we spoke at length about the Gabrio day at the Capitol wherein myself and Rock attended the state capital with other members of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, an attempt to advance legislative aims um, favorable to not only uh, election officials, but also the voters at large in the state of Georgia. So today I am pleased to report upon the passage of Senate Bill 214 through committee. Um I understand if you seem a little con if you may be a little confused as to how we were discussing it at um at the previous meeting. However, it was changed uh by House Member Victor Anderson and Senator Max Burns. Um, and now the updates are basically a Gabrio wish list and I've been working with Ethan Compton and Tony Adams, both members of Gabrio, and staying in constant communication with them through this project. Um, it's basically everything we could have asked for. Um, they have updated the bill to delay the implementation of the QR code ban until January of 2028. They have established a committee for a new voting system uh, with election official representation. There will be two election official representatives on the committee that will select this new voting system, which is two more than there was last time. Um, it defines ballot on demand printing as the new voting system that we will be adopting. So, that is a point where your ballot is printed prior to um, you filling it out as opposed to filling it out and then printing it. Um, and another big win for elections is it establishes the Secretary of State as the purchaser and the distributor of elections equipment. So we will not have to pay for our initial round of voting equipment. It will be the state that's paying for that and any extra that we want will be on us to purchase which is

exactly the way it is now. Um further um the BMDs are to be replaced with BMDs that do not print QR codes on ballots. Um this is for ADA compliance. So, every state has the same mandate from the federal government, the Help America Vote Act, where there needs to be at least one digital um vote casting machine for individuals with disabilities. Um, and then also it has changed the audit administration from the state secretary of state's office to the state election board. Um and and also with the new equipment and the new voting system, it directs the Secretary of State to begin distributing that voting system as soon as possible after February 1st, 2027. So well ahead of the 2028 election season. So all in all, SB214 is an incredible step forward. It's an amazing bill, and I want to thank everyone on this board that reached out to our local representatives when it was in a horrible state at the beginning. I want to thank everyone in our office for their relentless activism and making sure that this bill um gets passed with language that protects the voters of Camden County. And it's just a it's a great day all all around and it has until April 2nd to pass the not only pass a floor vote on the House but pass a floor vote to the Senate. So it is more than likely this is the last elections bill that will be passed in the Georgia state legislature for this ele this legislative session. So, does anybody have any questions about state bill 214 that I did not co or senate bill 214 that I did not cover in my initial um explanation?

Robin, any comments? Joe, um do we have an estimated cost to the county uh for training, everything else associated with any possible conversion? Not at this time. Um, however, that is something that we are going to be actively looking at for not only training election staff, but also poll workers on this new project on this new election system. Ryan, any questions? Yes, Mr. Dennis. Um, you say Senate Bill 214 passed out of House Committee out of House Committee onto the floor. It already went through the rules committee. Mhm. To the to the full house.

So, it was a previous So, it was previously it is from a previous legislative session. Um it was it was House recommended favorably by substitute. Okay. Have you talked to anybody see if it's going to come up for vote on the floor?

Yes. The intention it it from the way it sounds on on the committee and from the individuals that I have spoken to outside of uh outside of the legislators outside of the legislature. It will go to the floor for a vote. Um and now I cannot make any assurances on whether or not it will pass. It's not my it's not my you know area of uh area of work but it what we are hearing is favorable and um the senate seems to be the larger um larger larger hurdle than the floor house than the house floor.

So there's very good chance that once the house passes it back to the senate could go in conference and could could be a stalemate in conference and not go anywhere this year. Well, it is always possible that that is the case. However, this is their last chance to do anything for this legislative session. If it if it doesn't, then it's going to be up to the courts to decide what we do

um with with our elections equipment. And considering that there was a senator who was the original author of not only House Bill 24, Senate Bill 214, but also the Senate bill that was proposed this year. um uh that also had some differing language in it was there advocating on behalf of this bill. It's a very good sign for its passage in the Senate as well. All right. Thank you. No more questions. Mr. Vernon.

Yes. Uh Mr. Irvin, am I to uh you said that everything happened in this bill that we would have liked to happen? So are you saying definitely that the portion of that bill that addressed hand ballots has been eliminated? The portion of the bill that that required hand counting ballots was eliminated. Yes. Thank you, sir. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Okay. All right. Um anything you've got more to report? Okay.

All right. Uh so next uh another bit of good news is that Camden County yesterday received our ballot proofs for the May 19th election. Uh I worked uh through the afternoon yesterday and through the morning today on completing my first round of checks on these ballot proofs and that has been completed. Um and all that's left to do now is to send that back to the Secretary of State, our ballot builder, to issue some minor corrections, but the underlying data on the election is 100% correct. Um, and then a few fun facts. Um, something that might um, uh, something that might give anyone watching, uh, more respect for their local poll officer is that there are 67 different ballots that we are going to have to administer for this election. On those ballots, the we will have 140 different choices when accounting for write-ins. And there will be and each uh poll manager for advanced voting will have to manage 120 different activation codes. So 120 different types of ballots um throughout the whole county. So, uh just just something to if you see your your friendly election worker uh or or election clerk or poll worker, please thank them because this is uh this is something that comes around every every two years and um it's something that doesn't get talked about a lot how much they have to manage. So, I want to thank I want to thank them for everything that they do. And finally, uh, with that ballot proofing process, we can now get into the planning phase of logic and accuracy testing. So, I have an advertisement ready. We just need to send it over to the Tribune in Georgia, our legal organ, for posting. We intend to have it in next week's paper. Um, and I don't I don't have a a I don't have a definitive start date for you yet because the ad hasn't ran in the paper yet. Um, but it will be not only in the Tribune in Georgian, but also posted on our on our website, and I'm also going to see if we can't talk to

Claire to get it posted on our social media as well. We encourage everyone to attend. It's always open to the public, and you do not have to be affiliated with any political organization to attend. Um, everyone, please, if you have any questions, if you have just curiosity about how elections are set up, please come by and see me while I'm setting up this equipment. I would love to, you know, walk you through it and and explain the process. It's a it's always a great honor to be able to do that. Um, we have our distribution numbers ready for how many uh pieces of election equipment we would like to send to each polling location and overall we're ready to go. So, that's uh that's the end of my of my report. Does anybody have any more questions for me?

None. Thank you, Dennis. No problem. Okay. Okay. Um, can you put those um hours back up, Scott? Thank you very much. Okay. Uh, Rock um reported on proposed advanced inperson voting schedule for May 19th, 2026 general primary. They are on the uh on the board up there. Um, under new business today, we have the opportunity to uh approve those uh that schedule. Do I have a um do I have a motion?

I make a motion that we approve the proposed advanced inperson voting schedule as reported by the election office. Second. Okay. Do we have a vote, please? We have a first and a We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I opposed.

Okay, the motion carries. Thank you. Um, okay. We've got some important upcoming dates. Georgia voter registration election officials state conference as I stated earlier in Athens is Sunday the 22nd through March the 25th. Uh, poll worker training and we have a nice group of pole workers, don't we, Miss Leona? Very nice. Good. Um, April 1st through the 7th in Woodbine. We've got uh Good Friday County holiday on the 3. Our next regularly scheduled meeting is the 16th at 4 o'clock. That's April 16th. Advanced in-person voting is April 27th through May 15th. And um I think our next item is additional public comments. And I do just want to reiterate to our public the um code of ethics that we will be following. And when we're addressing the board, um please begin your remarks by stating your name and address. Direct your comments to the chair and please refrain from addressing any individual members of the board, staff, or other members of the audience. And finally, refrain from making personal remarks that challenge the integrity or the competency of any staff member in the building. And um and with that being said, we are now open for additional public comments. District three. I just want to um ask a question of clarification. Are the uh locations the polling locations uh Madam Chair, are they the same as in the the St. Mary's one is at the St. Mary's Welcome Center downtown

and and the um Woodbine would be the um the uh elections office up here. Is that the case? The election office says yes, you are correct. Okay. And go ahead and mention May 9th or 10. I mean, yeah. Uh I I um sorry to uh That's okay. But thank you for that. We've uh I I I I just wanted to make sure that we knew that it was May 9th. That is this the one Saturday that it's going to be at St. Mary's. I I um as Mr. Irvin uh said to me, look at your calendar. Uh so thank you. You imp Mr. Irvin, don't say that again. Okay,

Dr. Beckman, thank you as always for keeping us in check. I appreciate you. Okay, that was classic. Thank you. Any other additional comments by the board? Robin J. Mr. Bernard. All right. Okay. At this time, we will adjourn the regular meeting. Do we have a um motion to adjurnn? I move to adjurnn. All right. Second. All those in favor? I have a good evening. Thank you. Dr. distracted me. I saw her over there. I said it's going to be right.