1. Chair Karli Swift – participating remotely
2. Vasu Abhiraman – Vice Chair and chairing the meeting
3. Nancy Jester – Absent
4. Susan Motter – present
5. Tony Lewis – present
2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Agree to move Item 6A Certification to Item 3
Passes 4 – 0
3. ITEMS FOR DECISION
A. Certification of the December 5, 2023, General Municipal Election Runoff
DIRECTOR KEISHA SMITH details number of voters, number of votes, etc. in the four municipalities conducting runoff elections on Dec 5, 2023.
LEWIS: asks how the county decides on the rate it charges municipalities to run elections. Smith explains the board approved the formula in 2021.
Certification passes 4 – 0
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
A. November 14, 2023, Scheduled Meeting
Passes 4 – 0
5. PUBLIC COMMENTS
Naomi Bock: Wants an explanation of why some BRE members did not vote to certify the 11/07/2023 election. Appreciates extended days and hours for advance voting.
Vic Tripp: Says that DeKalb will save time in the long run if it responds to his group’s voter challenges promptly, because doing so would cause there to be fewer challenges in the future.
Gail Lee: wants voters to verify their registration info on MVP.SOS.GA.gov. Ask the county election office to encourage such actions and to do a public awareness campaign about the difference between mailing addresses and residential addresses.
Nancy Arnold: said that SEB member Dr. Jan Johnson said SEB would come up with new guidelines for the process of voter challenges. Arnold asks if the State Election Board has created any new guidelines yet.
Bill Henderson: says he found over 8000 DeKalb residents on the rolls who should be designated “inactive” because they are listed as having “no contact” with elections since prior to 2014. He wants to know why they are still there.
Elizabeth Shackleford: says that the numbers of people being challenged are not statistically significant, and that challenging them takes a disproportionate amount of time from Elections administration. She offers the example of the compromise of election software in Coffee County as a more significant risk in terms of fraud.
Carmen Tripp: suggests a public service announcement could say that voters can notify their county election office to update their registration information.
Jane Steward: wants an explanation from BRE members who did not vote to certify the 11/07/2023 election. Feels non-certification would disenfranchise voters.
Pam Woodly: wants a written explanation from BRE members who did not vote to certify the 11/07/2023 election. Says many voters are busy or have other difficulties in updating their registration. She says she doesn’t believe challengers really value “clean rolls” as their real reason for bringing challenges.
ABHIRAMAN: notes that Chair Swift is no longer participating remotely.
6. EXECUTIVE SESSION
9:48 – 10:12 am
7. ELECTED OFFICIAL COMMENTS
No EOs present
8. BOARD COMMENTS
LEWIS: Thanks staff and public.
MOTTER: Thanks staff, public, attorneys, and election partners.
ABHIRAMAN: says he thinks MVP.SOS.GA.gov is important and encourages collaboration to educate voters about how to use it to update their voter registration information. Thanks staff for their work and says they can be ministers of good information about how elections work.
9. ADJOURNMENT
10:17 am
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