Chatham County Board of Elections Meeting 03/08/21

• Invocation/prayer (??)
• Pledge of allegiance 
• New member: James Hall (appointed by Republican party) – board is complete once again
• Approval of last meeting’s minutes
• Financial report
  • Update to financial report format to reflect when expenses are incurred as well as paid 
  • Dominion voting system charge question from the financial report
    • It’s a continued expense (more machines and maintenance)
    • Related to past elections
    • BoE bought a few new pieces of equipment between November and the runoff as well
• Update from Member Wooten:
  • Auditing records
    • 518 boxes that have been packed, audited, labelled, and stored 
    • 3 full years of election records
    • 202 boxes of records that will be disposed of because they are legally not required to keep 
      • Unused provisional ballots
      • Official documents (certifications etc)
  • 8 of temp staff have been laid off, 3 remain for this project
    • No work for the 8 and the Board was “over budget”
    • Temp staff will be called back as needed
  • Review of written forms and documents to develop a consistent look across all media
  • Developing new updated job descriptions for poll workers (with the onset of new machines and requirements)
  • Drafted a calendar with events and tasks to stay on top of deadlines (when to send notices out, when to send ballot proofs, etc)
  • Need new polling locations
    • At least one polling location, the owners are not retaining the building
    • Working to find a new location
    • If any members of public have suggestions for potential polling locations, “we’re all ears”
      • Looking for: handicap accessibility, parking, position w/in precinct and district, how easy for voters to get to, size, 
• Member Hall: Sometimes, precinct and district numbers are not consistent. Will work on it.
  • Sometimes, poll locations may be outside precinct boundaries especially in less dense communities
  • Member Scott Hodge: The Board may not see the location as an issue, but it might be an issue for residents. Would be good to look at a comprehensive list and see what the issues are.
  • Member Mahoney: Need a written report and recommendation from staff on this issue.
  • Concern from members about people knowing where they will vote 
• Annex of the warehouse project (“very exciting”)
  • They have a proposed plan for renovating the annex 
  • Members hope to get the board in one unified location
  • Member Marianne moves to hire an architect for the new building
• Budget Review
  • Budget office has recommended 2.1 million, about a 20% increase from last year

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

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