Background
The League of Women Voters, concerned about ensuring that new citizens (read: recent immigrants) are able to vote, contacted Clayton County to ensure that there wouldn’t be any issues on Election Day.
The board responded that after information about the new voters is put into the system, it must be verified by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Driver Services.
Chairman Harry A. Osborne:
- asked if there would be a problem on Election Day
An individual who appeared to be a county representative:
- If a problem is encountered on Election Day, the system can be overrided. Provided that the individual has his/her naturalization paper in hand, the county has been instructed by the Secretary of State to override any issues in the system and allow the individual to vote.
The City of Jonesboro will release six (6) Direct Recording Electronic machines, six (6) memory cards, four (4) encoders, access cards, supervisor cards, and some additional kits. They will have all the support they need on Election Day.
Sunday or Saturday Voting
The board announced that Sunday or Saturday voting will not be taking place in Riverdale because of the lack of a federal candidate on the ballot. Only if there is a federal candidate on the ballot is Sunday and Saturday voting mandated.
Contacting the Riverdale City Clerk
Chairman Osborne asked that another member (and then a second member) motion and second that the chairman is authorized to contact the Riverdale City Clerk to ensure that the City Clerk submits a sworn affidavit to the Board of Elections confirming that all necessary public notices necessary prior to the election have been carried out.
Chairman Osborne met with the Riverdale City Clerk and let him know that the Board of Elections didn’t think it was the responsibility of the board to notify the public of the election because it is not the board’s election (it is the City’s).
The Board of Elections does feel, however, that it is within their purview to ensure that Riverdale conducts their own City election with the proper public notices.
To that end, Chairman Osborne wanted to contact the City Clerk and ask the clerk to submit to the board of elections a sworn affidavit stating that everything that needed to be done in terms of public notification of the election had been done. This way the Board of Elections would “know,” without having to check, that the necessary public notifications had been made.
- the motion was moved and seconded
- Chairman related that he thought it was “completely unreasonable” for the board to be tasked with ensuring that the public is notified of the Riverdale election
- the motion carried unanimously
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