Meeting called to order at 4:00pm
All board members were present either in person or remotely plus Janine Eveler.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Janine stated that there were 20 people signed up to speak, so Phil Daniell decided to limit each speaker to 3 minutes rather than the usual 5 minutes. As Janine went down the list of people signed up to speak, there were quite a few who were not actually in attendance on the call or virtual meeting. I listed 25 individuals whose names were called. Of that number, 9 were not present. One stated that she had only meant to attend, not that she meant to speak. Fifteen people spoke at the meeting. The majority of those speaking were stating opposition to the current slate of legislation regarding voting procedures that will allegedly limit access to voting for certain demographics (people of color, seniors), many speakers demanding that the BOE oppose these bills. Only one speaker stated his support of the voter ID legislation being voted on. After the final speaker, Janine stated that the Board of Elections plays no part in whether these bills get passed or not. They just follow the rules and laws that are passed. The only speaker who veered from that main topic was Jacqui Bettadapur (Chair of Cobb Dems) who expressed her displeasure at having missed two specially called BOE meetings because the meetings were not widely publicized or posted. The only place where notice was posted was buried deep on the BOE website. She asked if there were recordings of these meetings available for the public and if there was someplace where she could sign up to receive notice of these meetings. One of the meetings she mentioned was earlier in the year and involved the eligibility of two voters to remain on the voter rolls. The other meeting was the one on February 25, 2021, which this observer also knew nothing about, that was a detailed presentation of all of the new legislation and whether or not it would affect the way things are handled by Cobb BOE.
[end of public comment]
Approval of the minutes from 2/8/21 and 2/25/21.
DIRECTOR OF ELECTIONS
Janine read a few thank you notes from 4H members who had toured the election office and learned about voting.
Janine then discussed various personnel who were resigning or retiring.
It was 5pm at this point and I had to exit the meeting for another obligation.
Next regular meeting is April 12, 2021 at 4pm.
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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