The Rockdale County Board of Elections met April 8, 2020, at 10:30 a.m. The following includes brief notes taken by a Peanut Gallery volunteer as a public service only. Contact the Rockdale County Board of Elections for questions or official information.
Covid- 19
Cynthia Williams is speaking ….
Minutes will be held from the last meeting until their next regular scheduled meeting.
In person voting will be limited
There are three areas that have been affected
62,356 active voters in Rockdale county and ballots have been mailed
Voting facilities ?
A lot aren’t available
Election Day facilities?
A lot are a no or we will see .
Additionally, workers have been dropping out. They won’t be available to work Election Day, respectfully understood.
Mail ballots?
Over 2,000 sent back. Most have been in email. In addition, like 500 in the mail this morning that will be processed tomorrow.They have brought in additional help to assist.
168 workers are needed for election
2 precinct managers said they won’t be returning to work on Election Day as well as 28 workers so far.
Plenty
Supplies for election workers?
They can’t get gloves, sanitizer, or masks or disinfectant as of today.
How do they move forward with this election ?
Even if the facilities are available, do we put our workers at risk?
Yesterday, the governor extended the Heath advisory until May 13
Early voting should start April 27
How does it impact us ?
We need to tell our voters to vote by mail. We should be having a conversation with the State later this afternoon.
Milstead Precinct (early voting precincts)won’t be available either, will magnet. Do we go for early voting? The Parker Road location would be my recommendation and we can provide a tent . A lot of details would need to worked out for this to happen. The judge would have to approve it, but first the board approved it. It would give us an opportunity to control the number of people allowed in the facility and have a huge tent in the parking lot where they can check in and wait in their cars.
Karen wants to know what assistance they could get from the State in terms of supplies?
Cynthia responds: she’s not sure the State said they will give us some, but they’ve been saying that for weeks. If they are forced to move forward, they will need a judge order for polling location changes. If we don’t have what we need then she doesn’t know.
You can only postpone a election once for 45 days legally. We have to push forward with the May 19.
The only person that can change that is the legislator
What’s the plan for the BOE to keep the public updated?
We would work with Secretary of State as well as our Public Affair Department
We will use every method we can
Parker Road only will have early voting from April 27-May 15.
2nd motion
We won’t have final numbers election night. Mail ballots will be the last. We have up until two weeks to count the ballots according to Georgia law.
Begin process of counting mail ballots at 7a.m. May 19 due to the value of mail versus it being at 5pm?
Everybody agreed.
May 28 is the next regular meeting. A time hasn’t been determined; it depends on the volume of mail.
The state can’t override any decision if the judge approves .
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