Chatham County faces multiple early voting location closures 5-11-20

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Chatham County Board of Elections and Registration Held a Board Meeting on 5-11-20 

BOE Members:

Thomas Mahoney III Chair

Marianne Helmes

Malinda Hodge

Antwan Lang

Debbie Rauers

Russell Bridges Supervisor

 

Meeting Highlights from 5-11-20

More than 40,000 absentee ballots have been mailed out and 6000 have been received.

The registrar has reduced from 6 to 2 early voting locations.

A step by step PR campaign will be set up to get info out to the voters.

The next BOE meeting will take place on 6-1-20. (The format has not been decided.)

 

Notes from Chatham County Board of Elections and Registration Meeting 5-11-20

 

Absentee ballots/ Early voting:

R.B: We plan to use all 92 precincts. Absentee voting by mail started on 4-21 and will go until 6-5. Since 4-21 on behalf of Chatham county they have mailed out more than 40,000 absentee ballots and as of this morning about 6000 have been received back at the registrar’s office. Typical for this election we normally would see a couple thousand ballots. Typical for a presidential election we would see 6000 to 8000 ballots, so we are at the presidential level waiting to be processed already. The registrar is projecting 100,00 absentee ballots for Chatham county.

Early voting began on the 18th which is next Monday. The registrar has reduced from 6 to 2 early voting locations, they are opening their office for the normal 3 week early voting period. I’m not sure if the other location will be open for that same 3 week period or if it will only be open for the final week before the election.

 

Poll workers:

R.B: We are projecting to have about 675 poll workers. We have about 10 to 12 workers who have indicated concern about working, but at this point we haven’t had a major fallout from that.

We are going to be providing some training for clerks that had not been trained. All managers will be required to come in for additional training. Social distancing will be maintained during training.

 

Election day polling sites:

R.B: We have several polling places in senior residences and nursing homes. Some of these precincts have indicated that they will be unavailable due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so we are actively looking for alternate locations for election day. Two or Three churches including Jonesville Baptist have expressed concern about being open on election day, so we are looking nearby for other possible options in case they are needed. Elks Lodge is unavailable and Georgetown Elementary is unavailable due to renovations. We are reaching out to different Fire Stations to be possible alternate locations. Georgetown Elementary will be replaced by the Chatham Fire Station just off of King George BLVD. The Southside Fire Dept. has offered us the white bluff location to replace the Elks Lodge precinct. In the event that Savannah First Seventh Day Adventist Church in the Pooler area is closed, The Church at Godley Station (Pooler) or one of the Fire stations near by could be could be a possible alternate location if needed. The Christ Memorial Baptist Church will replace the Savannah Commons precinct because its still on lockdown. They are right across the street from one other. The Legacy and Oaks in the Pooler area will probably be replaced by near by Fire Stations. The polling precinct at the Tybee Island  Guard House has been moved to the Tybee Island Courthouse.

11 polling places are up in the air. 4 alternate sites have been confirmed and im in negotiations with 3 other alternate sites. The methods used to notify voters of polling changes could be sending out postcards as well as using the radio, newspaper and T.V. Polling changes could happen all the way up to the day before the election (6-9-20).

A step by step PR campaign to get info out to the voters will be set up.

The next BOE meeting will take place 6-1-20. The format has not yet been decided.

Meeting is Adjourned