Whitfield County Board of Elections Notes 09/09/21

Members present: Stephen Kelehear (chair), Carol Byers, Rob Cowan

Registrar: Mary Hammontree

Old business

GAVERO training—M. Hammontree reported she and staff attended online training put on by the state association of elections and voter registration officials. She said it provided a lot of explanation about the new law, and they got a number of ideas for managing next year’s elections. It was for three days. The next training will be in Athens next March. 

New business

1. Municipal ballots—Hammontree reported the municipal ballots have been approved. There will be contested races in Dalton, Varnell, and for a school board seat. 
2. Laptops—Hammontree asked for input on their need for additional laptops. She has enough funds available to purchase two laptops this year, but they would need to request more funds from the county commission to purchase three more next year. After a short discussion, S. Kelehear said he would give it some thought but that this suggestion would probably be the best course.
3. 2022 budget—Hammontree brought up several budget items for the board to consider. The first was to purchase a maintenance agreement for the voting equipment. In the past, her staff or county staff have provided the maintenance, but she said purchasing an agreement would cost them no more funds and would be to their advantage. The second item was security paper for the ballots. She provided a handout with cost information and explained the law requires they use security paper and have extra paper available at each voting site. A third item was poll worker pay. She said she will request funds from the county to increase early voting workers’ pay from $8 an hour to $10, and she also wants to request each worker get $25 for attending training. The board members agreed with her suggestions.

Discussion

Hammontree said seven precincts will be having elections this year. She also said they are keeping a list of absentee applications because if a voter makes a second request, “they could get in trouble.”

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