Dekalb Board of Elections Meeting 8/10/23

PRESENT
Karli Swift (At Large) Chair
Vasu Abhiraman (D) Vice Chair
Anthony Lewis (R)
Susan Motter (D)
ABSENT
Nancy Jester (R)

1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
   4-0
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES of July 20, 2023, regular meeting.
   4-0
3. PUBLIC COMMENTS
   Marci McCarthy, DeKalb GOP Chair is dissatisfied with Vice Chairperson not being a Republican.
   Notes that SEB Chairman Duffey is now requiring a SEB member to be present at all voter
   challenge meetings over the next four months. Dissatisfied with lack of audit regarding CETL
   grant, and wonders why DeKalb is paying to belong to US Alliance of Election Excellence. Claims
   that nearly 160 DeKalb electors with birth dates of 1800, 1900, or 1901 voted in the midterms.
   Gail Lee says DeKalb’s 2021 procedures for voter challenges item 3B are problematic, claiming
   it states, “If no response to the BRE’s written notice of challenge is received from the
   challenged voter, the BRE shall inform the challenger that the challenge does not present
   grounds to contest the eligibility of the voter, to remain on the DeKalb County voter list and no
   further action shall be taken on the challenge.” Lee asks for county legal to review.
   Bill Henderson, a database manager, says he has found numerous problems with DeKalb’s
   voter database, including column name changes and ASCII control characters in voter fields. He
   says some voters lack addresses in the official database.
4. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
   A. DIRECTOR’S REPORT
   DIRECTOR SMITH says SOS has already mailed no-contact notices to about 11,000 DeKalb
   voters, and the county will send out NGE notices to about 15,000 other people, totaling 26K
   affected voters. Says GARVIS is improved somewhat. Items from the Stonecrest warehouse are
   being moved to Memorial Drive. She doesn’t anticipate any Special Election this fall. Smith
   describes Excellence in Elections training as including presentations from SOS, DeKalb Legal,
   Dominion Voting, KnowInk, and other vendors. She lists voter outreach events and says they’ll be put on the website, although they do not have a communications person right now. They are checking polling locations for ADA compliance and cell phone reception for the new Poll Pads. She presents the budget, noting a $185K reimbursement from the SOS for postage. Says Homeland Security and SOS in association with GMA (Georgia Municipal Association?) visited. Under Homeland Security’s SAFE program, they will be assessing the security of facilities, including warehouses, and issuing a report. DeKalb BOCC approved precinct boundary changes. SEB is now grouping election case hearings by county, and DeKalb was the first county at SEB’s 8/1/23 meeting.
5. MOTTER: Points out that all DeKalb residents will vote on a SPLOST item, as well as a tax commissioner items, in November.
6. LEWIS: Asks that voter registration statistics be placed on the county’s website. Discusses that the notice to inactive voters says they have 30 days to respond, but it’s not clear what counts as the first day. Abhiraman says the deadline is officially 40 days, but he isn’t clear about how that is
7. EXECUTIVE SESSION NA
8. COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD: Board members thank the public, those in attendance, and election workers. LEWIS says it takes courage for people to make public comments. SWIFT commends the Elections department for holding a poll worker appreciation event.

ADJOURN
5:15 pm

These meetings are open to the public by Georgia law.  

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