Fulton County Board of Elections Special Meeting 11/03/20

November 3, 2020 – 6:30pm

Attending:

• Mary Carole Cooney, Chairperson
• Vernetta Keith Nuriddin, Vice Chairperson
• Mark Wingate
• Dr. Kathleen Ruth
• Aaron V. Johnson

1. Agenda
   • Two additions:
     • Intergovernmental agreement with the city of Atlanta for a homestead exemption and an ad valorem tax for municipal purposes. No additional cost to Fulton County
     • Intergovernmental agreement with Union City for a homestead exemption and an ad valorem tax for municipal purposes. No additional cost to Fulton County
     • Comments: follows standard form and procedures; why reaching the BOE tonight as polls are ready to close?
   • Agenda and additions were approved
2. Public Response – Senator Vincent Fort is concerned about the conduct of the 39^th district’s special election. The SOS required poll workers to ask voters if they wanted to vote in the special election. He feels this is voter suppression. Many voters don’t know to ask for the special ballot. Many poll workers were not trained to ask voters. He puts the blame on the SOS for requiring this. Two of the four campaigns knew about this. His son’s campaign did not know about this. This is unacceptable. As the saying goes, “somethin’ in the cotton is rotten”. He strongly recommends the board conduct and independent investigation. Poll workers were not trained and the notification was poorly written. He wants to know who knew about it and when did they know. Rick Barron was very open with the documentation. This is an embarrassment. Voters should be able to vote for all elections they are eligible for.
3. The two intergovernmental agreements were passed.
4. November 3^rd election     
   • Brower reported that the election was uneventful. There were equipment issues where delivery vendor cancelled.
   • Water pipe burst at State Farm Arena at 5:30am and was down for 4 hours. No ballots were destroyed. The water drained away from the ballots. State Farm cleaned up everything.
   • 14,152 in person ballots
   • 598 provisional ballots
   • Jones reported they plan to work through the night. They are 30,000 ballots behind.
   • >260 polls
   • 315,656 early votes cast
   • Dropbox closed at 7pm November 3^rd; people stationed at every dropbox; the ballots will be taken to process then to State Farm for scanning
   • Barron is in court because Bethune Elementary School opened 40 minutes. There is a discrepancy if they let people vote earlier with paper ballots.
   • Ponce de Leon library opened 20 minutes late due to equipment issues. The library will close at 7:20pm.
   • Absentee Ballots:
     • 86,191 scanned
     • 130,517 received
     • Tuesday mail has not been counted
     • 750,000 to be scanned
     • Expect to scan 20,000 into Wednesday. Hope to finish end of day Wednesday
     • Rejected ballots:
       • 363 which need to be cured by Friday
       • Adjudicated 700 first day
       • Adjudicated 1000 second day
       • 75,000 scanned need to be adjudicated
5. Friday, November 13 at 10am is the next board meeting and the election will be certified at the meeting.

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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