Fulton County Board of Elections Meeting 05/13/21

Attending:

Alex Wan, Chairperson 

Vernetta Keith Nuriddin, Vice Chairperson

Mark Wingate

Dr. Kathleen Ruth 

Aaron V. Johnson 

1. Minutes approved
   1. Regular meeting 4/15/21 – amended to say Dr. Ruth and not Chair Wan made a recommendation and approved
   2. Executive session 4/15/21 – will be presented at June board meeting
   3. Special meeting – work session – will be presented at June board meeting
2. Public Comment
   1. Bridget Thorne – ranted about Rick Barron and Aaron Johnson
   2. John Nance – supported Bridget Thorne
3. Operations
   1. November election 
      1. ESPLOST for schools
      2. Will present locations at June meeting. Expect 16 locations; locations being secured
      3. Waiting for legal for an answer on not putting a drop box at the annexes because there will be employees there to accept absentee ballots. Dropbox locations will be presented at the June board meeting
   2. Revising training curriculum; expedite poll worker payroll
   3. Equipment inventory is done and working on new purchases
   4. SB202 
      1. Can’t use mobile units; 
      2. We Will be use mobile units for education
   5. Registration
      1. Applications are low but in line with 2012-2014 numbers
      2. As of March, 32,835 applications
      3. Felons – 255 letters mailed
      4. Identifying nonresidential addresses
         1. 1280 letters sent
      5. Duplicate voters
         1. 2020 primary and runoff – SOS will determine if actual duplicate voter
   6. Administration
      1. Have regular meetings with all departments
      2. Resubmitted election budget because of ESPLOST
      3. Offer being sent for Deputy Executive Director
   7. Q&A
      1. Wingate – statistically the numbers reported for those moving out of county and out of state don’t make sense. 
         1. Ralph explained the notification process
            1. Voter or SOS notify the county 
            2. SOS is putting communication in place between states
         2. NOCA utilization not in play
            1. Run multiple times in odd years
            2. Status can’t be changed in even years
               1. 90-day moratorium to change voter registration in a Federal election
            3. Ralph will reach out to SOS to see when will run NOCA
         3. Bring in outside resource and get it right
      2. Johnson
         1. Are they going through and making sure addresses are correct for municipal elections?
         2. Are municipalities being asked for any information to clean up bad addresses?
            1. Changes are being made in the Fulton office
         3. Double voting
            1. Don’t we have safeguards to check if a voter voted early then tried to vote on election day? YES
            2. New poll workers for the June election may not have done due diligence. 
            3. Ralph said will get a report as soon as they know
      3. Ruth
         1. Double voting
            1. Were there any in January?
            2. State gave a list of 20 voters
            3. UGA audit – when are results expected?
            4. Barron: They are doing all the counties so may take a while.
         2. Training – have you thought about hiring a curricula writer?
            1. Barron will keep board abreast of training
      4. Wan
         1. Budget – $7.8 million for Happy Faces who is a state vendor
            1. Covers 2021, current expenses and November and December elections
               1. Municipal election and supplemental staff
            2. Used more temporary staff last year than any other time.
         2. Barron explained that most vendors on the state approved list do not have the number of workers available. Often, they are no shows. Happy Faces supplied workers at last minute.
         3. Consultant agreement
            1. Barron and Deputy end user 
            2. Project – 3 phases
      5. Wingate
         1. RFP (Request for Proposals for voting system) – board has no involvement in the process
         2. Potentially will not see results until 2022
      6. Ruth
         1. Encouraged Barron to have a timeline with dates for completion of the Project (all 3 phases)
            1. Barron said waiting until have specific vendors to go through each item
            2. Will work on rough deadlines
      7. Wingate
         1. Open records requests
            1. No record in monthly report
            2. Minutes and reports should be posted online
            3. Bodisson: Paused because couldn’t do open records requests in middle of election
4. Bylaws
   1. Public comment changes
   2. Considered other issues but no motion, no vote
   3. Director went into executive session
5. New Business – Nonresidential address voters
   1. 1280 letters mailed
   2. 65 voters updated their registration
   3. 1215 will be removed from registration and voters will need to register. They will receive a letter
   4. Do not know how many mailed were returned
   5. Letters mailed to people with addresses that did not have a residential address.
      1. Mailbox etc. and business addresses
      2. Received a call about nonresidential voters; county researched
      3. Unanimous vote to approve the process
   6. Wingate asked that the list is maintained with efficiency
6. Adjourned to Executive session at 11:24am

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