Highlights:
- Public concern about early voting options.
- A motion to add a drop box was not approved.
- All 3 weeks of early voting will be at The Camden County Annex in Kingsland off of Gross RD
Board Members:
- Chair Joseph Michaels
- Barbara Hahn
- James Corbett
- Dr. Jannet Bradford
- Kyle Rapp
Election Supervisor Shannon Nettles
Public Comment:
- Gregory Lee: I live on the North side of the county and I wonder why we have early voting down in Kingsland for 3 weeks, but only have 1 week of early voting on the north side of the county.
- It would be 40 min. round trip for people on the N. side to drive down to Kingsland to do early voting. These are the people with the least amount of resources making it harder to get transportation to do early voting.
- I would like to see the Woodbine early voting location be open for 3 weeks of early voting as well as Kingsland.
- I would like to change the early voting hours from 8-5 to 9-6, because people are just getting off of work at 5.
- These hours limit working people from being able to do early voting.
- Tonya Glasbrook: While most people are concerned with the Presidential election there are local elections that are competitive in 2 Camden communities.
- There is a competitive race for district 1 county commissioner seat and since that district includes Woodbine and Woodbine is always open for early voting I assume that has already been addressed.
- There’s competition in all 3 of St. Mary’s city council races and the Mayoral race. There are no contested races in Kingsland.
- That fact suggests that there will be a greater turnout by St. Mary’s voters because of local elections. It may be appropriate to open an early voting location in St. Mary’s to accommodate that increased expectation of turnout.
- Mary Becklen: I agree with Mr. Lee’s suggestion that there be more early voting at the N. end of the county. Mrs. Glasbrook pointed out that there is a competitive race in District 1. It’s about time we stop disenfranchising the people on the N. end of the county on the grounds that it is more sparsely populated. These are the people with fewer resources to get to the south end of the community. I strongly endorse having a ballot box in the N. end or opening another advanced polling station in the N. end.
- James Corbett: We have a drop box at the Annex. The Annex is also an early voting location.
- Dr. Janet Bradford: Is there county or municipal property on the N. end that could be the site of a ballot box?
- Shannon Nettles: No ma’am not to my knowledge
- Dr. Janet Bradford: I would like for us to consider putting a ballot box at both Woodbine and at the Annex.
- Joseph Micheals: The Woodbine office accepts absentee ballots already.
- Dr. Janet Bradford: They do when someone is there to accept it, but the ballot box is available 24/7. It is a contact-less way of voting.
- Kyle Rapp: U.S. District Court Judge Ellenor Ross just issued an order saying that if your ballot is postmarked by election day and received by the elections office the Friday after the election it will be counted.
- A motion to add a drop box was not approved.
- All 3 weeks of early voting will be at The Camden County Annex in Kingsland, off of Gross RD
- Including Saturday voting on 10/24 and Sunday voting on 10/25.
- The first week of early voting will include Woodbine (10/13 thru 10/16).
- The final week of early voting will include W. St. Mary’s (Three rivers church).
- Early voting hours will either be 8-5 pm, 9-6 pm or 9-7 pm depending on the accessibility of the facility to accommodate those hours.
- Sunday early voting (10/25) will be 1-6 pm (subject to availability of pole workers).
- Shannon Nettles: The last day to register for 11/3 election is 10/5
- Early voting will be held 10/13 thru 10/30
Public Comment:
- Tonya Glasbrook: I am concerned that the board did not in open session in June, July or August. I ask that you make every effort to be open and transparent to have a safe, secure and fair election. The right of the citizens to interact with elected and appointed officials is essential to good government.
- Tom Canney: Even though the county’s website has greatly improved in sharing info it is still a limited resource and there are still many people out there that don’t use that and other online resources.
- The newspaper being a weekly publication is really the only other thing that we have. I urge you to come up with a campaign from now until election day to maximize answering questions to the public about where and how they can find out where their polling stations are and when the early voting dates are.
- Mary Becklen: With all due respect, effectively you have completely ignored requests of people to have more voting opportunities on the north end of the county.
- Keisha Kennedy: Due to possibility of potential delays with the Postal Service, I am requesting we have more drop boxes available, especially on the N. end. We should have early voting take place for all 3 weeks in all 3 locations to accommodate as many people as possible.
- Dr. Janet Bradford: The GA AARP will host a discussion with the SOS on 9/9 at 10 am about voting focusing on people over 50, so if you are an AARP member you can go to their website for details about the discussion.
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.
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