Lowndes County Board of Election Meeting 07/14/20

Summary:

• County has generators for backup electricity in needed polling precincts
• There are 2,000 registered voters in 2 precincts which will be open for voting, Two Trinity and Naylor.
• County is going to need 239 poll workers for the runoff elections
• Discussion to consider changing the Northside polling location for the January 2021 election. 

Members Present:

• Deb Cox
• Ray Corbett 
• Carla Jordan
• Jackie Goolsby

Meeting Notes from Attendee:

• Meeting starts with a prayer by Corbett followed by pledge of allegiance
• Approval of minutes
  • Corbett Motions to approve minutes from last meeting 
  • Motion passed
• Public Comments
  • Public member Dennis Mark: Thanks the board for the opportunity to call in the meeting. Next he states that starting next Monday, counties are supposed to process the vote by mail ballots within 3 days and ask the election supervisor what has been the counties processing speed and has there been any problems.
  • Deb Cox: The standard is 24 hours.
  • Marks ask if the board can consider sending out vote by mail absentee ballots to all voters in the county.
  • Cox: the board will consider it.
  • Mark asks specifically for voters over 65 and at risk voters. He also adds that this can help with workflow as well.
  • Cox: this process is also costly and will strain on the budget
  • Marks suggests that the county start the process earlier than later.
  • Cox: ok.
  • There is also discussion about the advanced voting locations. He says that the location at the board of elections office has some issues with accessibility to voters. 
  • Suggests county should use the location Mildred Hunter Center due to the voters in the area having a lack of transportation or using a dropbox there. 
  • Cox: We have to consider the requirements for dropboxes at these locations.
  • Marks brings up another topic of poll worker recruitment. He says the county had to close down some locations last election due to lack of poll workers. He suggests that the county increase the pay and issue paid training for poll workers. Another idea he brings to light is to split shifts for poll workers to reduce workload.
  • Corbett: The county will look into it but are weighing options.
  • Cox says the county has tried this but it did not work before and the county does pay its  poll workers for poll worker training.
  • Marks says stress is another factor that he would like the county to look at to help with poll workers.
  • He wants to request the volunteers that work in the board of elections office wear a mask.
  • Cox: masks are not mandatory and we will not make wearing a mask required. 
  • Marks asks to consider the safety of the volunteers and Cox says she will consider the rule and move forward.
  • Marks asks about voter education and says the county and himself as well he has been slow to update and inform the public about voting processes and important election information.
  • Topic is shifted to talk about the County website for the board of elections.
  • Will the board consider talking to the editor about putting a link to the elections site to help people find the website better?
  • Cox says they can do this.
  • Updating the Facebook page more actively to inform the public about any updates could help as well.
  • Cox: will look at it.
• Public Comments end

• Cox: We have reduced from 2 to 1 supervisor
• County has generators for backup electricity in needed polling stations.
• We also need to consider changing the Northside polling location for the January 2021 election. 
• Cox: The county has a report card on election performance which grades how well the county did. We did well but the most area needed for improvement is the processing of ballots. The average speed is 50 seconds but the county took over a minute.
• Some locations will supply their own poll workers and the county will train them.
• Our regional meeting is on August 20th at 10am.
• Will open advanced voting Monday from 8-5
• We have 2,000 registered voters in 2 precincts which will be open for voting, Two Trinity and Naylor.
• We are going to need 239 poll workers for the runoff elections
• 2 young men from GSU will be on staff to be assistant poll managers for the runoff election.
• She also adds college students tend to be unreliable for poll work but high school students work more diligently and are generally more reliable.
• Meeting Adjourned

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