DEKALB BOARD OF REGISTRATION AND ELECTIONS 10/13/22

October 13, 2022 

4:30 PM by Zoom Conference 

BRE Members present:  

Dele Lowman Smith, Chair 

Nancy Jester 

Tony Lewis 

Susan Motter 

Karli Swift 

1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 

3. PUBLIC COMMENTS 

Judy Sophianopolis of 3005 Briarcliff thanked the board and elections office for their work. 

4. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION 

A. Director’s Report  

Director K Smith gave statistics on processing registrations, re-registrations, and de-registrations. (see materials with the agenda) 

The Elections office will begin on Monday to post about L+A on their website, including specialized terms and definitions, a summary of what has been completed, testing outcomes,  and comparisons of results to expected outcomes. Smith said the public is welcome and that L+A is still ongoing.  

She noted the number of Absentee ballots processed and noted DeKalb Elections’s numerous community outreach activities, including registration events at high schools with the ACLU. Also they are running digital advertisements in local papers with links to alternate-language materials. 

Profile PR is trying to clarify what media photography is permitted at polling locations (presumably because SB202’s ban on photography was struck down). Profile PR is working on signage for Election Day. 

The director is working on the safety of the votes as well as a safety strategy for the public and for poll workers. 

Tony Lewis wanted to know about the event ACLU partnership, and the discussion didn’t do much to clarify. Director Smith did mention that the county sends people to the high school events “if it’s able,” suggesting that they are staffed primarily by the ACLU. Lewis asked to see correspondence about how this program was set up. The events also included recruitment for poll works, line ambassadors, and monitors.

Susan Motter had questions to which Director Smith responded:  

– Schedules for Vote Review Panels (VRP) will be sent to political parties by Monday. – In November she will present a list of confirmed polling locations for the runoff, which will probably the same as locations for the original (November) election. 

– Early tabulation should commence October 24^th. 

– She will provide to parties the contact information for a staff member for Election Day. – They have lined up 1600 poll workers which is their initial goal, but they are still accepting applications in hopes of having extra (about 50) trained staff if needed.  Hence, they are adding a Saturday training and will schedule additional training as needed. 

Motter commended their creating collateral material in various languages. 

Director Smith assured K. Swift that they will have adequate lead time regarding printing of absentee ballots by Fort Orange Press. 

Director Smith noted that currently there are less than 4K registrations in que to be processed,  and they will work through the weekend and hire temps to get all registrations processed. She has backup staff for ballot processing. 

Swift wondered if there were a plan to mitigate long lines, but the conversation shifted and that was not responded to. 

B. COMMISSIONER’S COMMENTS 

Mereda Davis Johnson said she was glad to hear the director’s report and commended the office on Early Vote scheduling, getting dropboxes, and recruiting poll workers.  

5. ITEMS FOR DECISION 

Regarding the November meeting – due to Monday being Veteran’s Day, they will meet 1 pm on  Tuesday Nov 15 to allow time to turn in certification by 5 pm. The BOCC recently recommended  DeKalb County meetings should return to in-person. The BRE hopes to continue live-stream broadcasts, but public comments will now need to be presented in person, or else the public can send written comments to be read into the record. 

7. BOARD COMMENTS 

Board members thanked the Elections staff, the Board of Elections, the Board of  Commissioners, county attorneys, and others. 

8. ADJOURNMENT 5:23