- I arrived about 2:05pm and the meeting had begun. The board was discussing what eligibility requirements they wanted in place for Poll Workers. They brought up background checks but decided against that. The final decision was any Poll Worker 18 years or older would have to be a registered voter. Anyone 16 yrs or 17 years old would need a recommendation from a teacher/school, political party or organization of which they are a member. All poll workers will be checked against a Sexual Predators list. The staff was asked to prepare a formal motion for the next meeting re: poll worker requirements.
- There was a discussion regarding the fact that one of the Board members, Mr. Brown, was not officially appointed until August 6th and this is due to something that happened in the mid 2000s. All the other members have terms which expire in May. They want to get all 5 positions aligned with term renewal dates. They are going to meet with their attorney and determine what they need to do to make this happen.
New Business
- SB 202
The BoE members and staff focused on what they needed to do to implement the new law changes. The staff person estimated it would cost an additional $5,500 to keep the polls open for the extra Saturday of early voting and noted they were required to keep open on Saturdays from 9am-5pm.
The staff person highlighted the following items which were discussed and reviewed:
- Runoffs have to occur within three weeks of the general election.
- No signature match is required, only to ensure that a ‘mark’ is made on the signature line.
- A Drivers License # or State ID number must be included on the ballot
- An oath on the back of the ballot must be signed by anyone assisting the voter with ballot completion
- Glynn County will only have one absentee ballot box that will be located in the early voting area inside the Glynn County offices at 1815 Gloucester. Only will be available during early voting hours.
- No out of precinct ballots will be cast prior to 5pm on election day. Most of the out of precinct ballots have historically been cast at St. Williams, Bullard and Howard Coffin precincts.
- State requires that vote totals be posted everyday by 5pm of the day following the early voting. Total votes must be sent to the SOS office three times on election day. The SOS will post totals on its website.
- The state plans to upload all ballots to the SOS website for review by the public.
- The “takeover’ rules where the State can take over from a Board of Elections can only be availed of in 4 counties at a time. The Glynn County folks do not anticipate that this rule will effect them, since they strive to be among to be among the ‘best’ counties.
- All challenges to votes must happen by the day before the tabulation begins.
- Tabulation will go from 8am-6pm and must close down at 6pm and restarted the next day, even if there are only a few hundred ballots left to count.
- The BoE is planning to hold public meetings to disseminate the new rules of SB202.
- They staff is planning to attend the State conference on SB202 scheduled for August 2021 on Jekyll Island.
- Noted that potential runoff for 2022 would be 12/6/22.
- Poll watchers are now required to have some kind of training by their party.
- The SPLOST election cost the BoE $54,000.
- Absentee ballots will be required to be printed on some kind of special paper (ghost?).
- Discussion about new BoE building/space -plans for CVS building.
- They are requesting 2 new employees be added to their staff-an election technician and an administrative technician.
- Meeting adjourned at 4:50pm.
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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