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Cherokee County Board of Elections Meeting 7/11/2022


Meeting called to order at 9:35 AM


Present: Alan Shinall, Chairman, Cindy Castello (R), Donald Sams (D), Rachel Kinsey (D), Mike Byrd (R),
Anne Dover, Supervisor; Anne Brombaugh, Attorney for the Board
Approximately 30 observers including myself


Chair Shinal noted that a report on the recent hand count and audit will be presented later in the
meeting by Anne Dover, Supervisor.
The agenda for today and the minutes of the June meeting were approved as distributed.
In following a recent practice, the Code of Conduct for attendees at a meeting was read by Rachel Kinsey,
Secretary of the Board.


Public Comments:
The following issues and concerns were expressed by members of the public:
The Dominion Voting machines were questioned relating to their accuracy, the patents that they have
received, and their ownership. Who controls the machines? Are there foreign owners? Why are we
seeding control of our voting process to a foreign entity who might be able to tamper with the results?
We are going to continue to rally to have the machines removed and return to paper ballots. There has
been too much fraud in the recent elections due to the machines.


Concern was expressed about the selection of the races that were reviewed by the hand count – how
were they selected?


How do we know that the names we see on the paper generated by the Dominion machines match
the QR codes that are read by the computer? This system is illegal and fraught with foreign interference.
Questions were addressed to the Board members during the public comment period but no response
was provided. Those asking the questions were frustrated although the procedure has been followed for
the last 6+ months.


Additional questions related to the number of votes not counted and the discrepancies that were noted
by the public observers. Thus, it was claimed that the Dominion machines represent voter suppression.
What are the laws that provide the authority to the Board to make these decisions?


Why do we not do a hand count on the day of the election when the ballots are being processed? This is
the way it was always done and we will happily volunteer to do the counting.


Several people spoke to praise the Board and staff for conducting a fair and honest election including
the effective use of the Dominion machines.


The emotional temperature of the room appeared to have cooled down from previous meetings.
The Board adjourned to an Executive Session to discuss a court case and Client privilege.
Upon reconvening, Anne Brombaugh, Attorney for the Board spoke to the question of an audit to be
done after the November election. However, for the Primary and runoffs, the law does not permit the
audit other than during a post-election process.

Anne Dover, a Supervisor, reported that the voting lists are being cleaned up as per normal procedures.
She thanked the staff for conducting the audit after the recent election and for the good job they did
throughout the process. Two staff members were asked to describe the procedures they followed
including the random selection of races from June 21 st, the percent of errors made varying from 0% to
1.69% in one precinct all of which were below the 10% error rate accepted by the state. Being a part of
the audit was challenging due to the high level of distractions, talking n the lobby, monitors walking
around, etc… This led to the possibility of human error. It was a very long day. There was also an
incident at one of the advanced voting locations that required law enforcement to be called in. The poll
workers were scared. The situation was handled properly and quickly.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:05 AM

Did you know that the public can attend Board of Registration and Elections meetings?

These meetings are open to the public by Georgia law. Georgia Open Meetings Act.

*These meeting notes were prepared by a Peanut Gallery volunteer

Become a Peanut Gallery Volunteer Monitor at our next training on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 6pm! visit https://georgiapeanutgallery.org/contact/ for more information!

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