Board of Elections Supervisors

Board of Election Supervisors Virtual Meeting June 10, 2021 7:00pm Final Minutes Member District Present Absent 1. Lisa Williams 1 X 2. Yousf Jaleel 4 X 3. John Payne 3 X 4. Lynea Cooper Mayoral X Appointment 5. Cameron Thurston 2 X Also present: Janeen S. Miller, City Clerk; Joi Woods, Contract Secretary. 1) Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Chief John Payne at 7:02 p.m. 2) Approval of the agenda for June 10, 2021 Chief Payne suggested adding the following items to the agenda: Timing of Official Canvas B. Timing of Absentee Ballot Application C. Status of BOES’ Assignments. Yousuf Jaleel made a motion to approve as amended. Lisa Williams seconded the motion. The motion passed. 3) Approval of May 13, 2021 Meetings Minutes Lynea Cooper made a motion to approve the meeting minutes as amended. Lisa Williams seconded the motion. The motion passed. 4) Review of recent vendor demos: Quote from ElecTec The BOES reviewed and discussed an updated quote from ElecTec  Compared historical cost trends and forecasted costs of ballots  Associated costs for mailing at approximately $43,000-$45,000  USPS -Qualified Business Reply and other costs will be covered by the city  Reconsideration of Ballot on Demand Hardware o Eliminating the use of Ballot on Demand due to limited capabilities and a decrease in in the total costs  Ordering additional ballots to ensure that ample ballots are available for absentee voters Janeen S. Miller is scheduled to meet with a Representative from Fort Orange Press to obtain an additional quote. BOES members were invited to attend the meeting or share potential questions to be discussed during the meeting. 5) Election Mailing Timeline The BOES discussed adjusting the mailing timeline to begin on 9/30/21 and include a list of candidates. The original timeline included ballots being mailed without the names of candidates.  The adjustment allows less time for voters to return requests for absentee ballots from 6 weeks to 4 weeks  An increase mailing in costs  Consideration of USPS mail delays  Encouraging use of drop boxes to mitigate possible mail delays 6) 2021 Election Planning The BOES discussed Internal process to validate voter applications 7) Review of Candidate Book The BOES reviewed and discussed the Candidate Book  Daily processes during throughout the election  Clarifying language  Emphasis on processes to verify voter registration  BOES contact information  Releasing the Candidate Book  Coordinating a meeting with the Ethics Board for training City Election Candidates 8) Preprocessing absentee ballots, Canvas Date, & Processes The BOES discussed Pre-processing ballots, noted points included:  Steps, methods, and considerations to before the identified canvas date o Absentee ballots Pre-processing is scheduled for Monday November 8, 2021 o The Election Canvas date is scheduled for Wednesday, November 10, 2021  A final decision to televise a the processing of ballots  Developing standards and procedures to count and process ballots  Considerations to maintain integrity and transparency  Processing Provisional Ballots o Results are reported by the BOES to Mayor and Council 8 days after the official canvas date, Tuesday, November 16, 2021 Lisa Williams and Lynea Cooper will begin drafting and methods and procedures. 9) Future Agenda Items  Election Mailing Timeline 10) Next Meeting The Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 8, 2021 - 7pm 11) Adjournment Lisa Williams made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Lynea Cooper seconded the motion. All were in favor. None opposed. The motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.