Electoral Board Meeting   9/2/2025

Thank you, everybody.

This is a much delayed.

We apologize for the 15-minute delay, but we're having electronic problems.

We have gotten them resolved, we think, we hope.

Thanks to our fine IT personnel and to our illustrious vice chair who is also IT.

We are opening the September the 2nd Albemarle County scheduled electoral board meeting.

and we do have a calling meeting to order and we have a quorum.

Yeah, go ahead.

You wanna add something?

Absolutely.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

We can add that.

And that will be under new business.

Sure.

Okay.

I would like to make a statement that we have worked on, the same statement that we've made at every other electoral board meeting since the 11th of August in various forms.

Most of the statements that we have are at the direction of our ABLE council, who is with us today, and the Albemarle County Police Department.

There are certain things that we can say.

There are certain things we are prohibited from saying.

And as much as we would like to give you lots of information, we are restricted in what we can say.

The former registrar, Lauren Eddy, was put on administrative leave by the county on the 8th of August.

On the 12th of August, she resigned.

Two days later, the chief deputy registrar told us that she was going to resign.

And approximately a week later, the elections manager told us she was going to resign and sent a letter to HR, which is where the electoral board does not hire the staff in the registrar's office.

The registrar hires

staff in the registrar's office.

So since there was no registrar, these two ladies submitted their letters of resignation to HR.

We have been in constant communication with general counsel from the Albemarle County Attorney's Office and from the Albemarle County Police Department.

We are trying very hard to keep the office running.

And I would like to say at this time,

A special thank you to the staff who have been diligent in helping.

They come to work when they're supposed to work, they do their job, and we appreciate that.

And with every confidence, we will all get our elections run as they have always been in Albemarle.

Free, fair, safe, and legal.

The Albemarle County Electoral Board, with the help of HR,

has sent out ads and postings on the website so that people who wish to apply these jobs, general registrar is a permanent replacement, the term of which will end in the summer of 2027, as well as an interim.

We've established that that's the term that's probably best suited.

Thank you, Secretary Heilman.

We are gonna call this person the interim who will serve

the people of Albemarle and get in the job as soon as possible and serve through the duration of this election.

We don't know when exactly our permanent replacement registrar will be able to start work, but we have had multiple meetings, closed session to review the applications and to invite people for interviews.

We have four jobs open.

They are posted on the Albemarle County website, that being the interim general registrar, the permanent replacement to fill the unexpired term of the registrar who has resigned.

And then when a registrar is here, the registrar will hire a chief deputy registrar and an election manager because those two people are part of the registrar staff.

If the registrar, the interim registrar hires these people, their terms will end when that registrar's term ends and they can be either rehired or the permanent registrar can hire somebody else.

Again, let me repeat, the people who work in the office work for the general registrar.

They do not work for the board with the exception of the general registrar.

The board sets the number of people who work, not the individuals themselves.

I'd like to just come back up.

I'm Jim Heilman, Secretary of the Electrical Board.

I'd just like to come back up with a fair example that we are working very hard.

They are working real hard to get things done that need to get done.

and to get us to where we need to be and start voting on September 19th.

And I'd also say we are trying to be as transparent as possible in the endeavor in a difficult time for us.

Some places can be very transparent, some places does just not allow.

Trying to do the best on that.

Any, it's a little bit over, but do we have any questions from anyone who's on the remote feed or who is in the room?

Yes, I'm Tom Schlesinger.

My wife and I live in Howardsville, and we've been voting at Coors Precinct for a couple of decades.

Okay, well, maybe you'll be able to answer these in full or in part or not at all,

I would like to know why these individuals resigned from the office.

Second, what portion of the total workforce in the registrar's office are accounted for by these four individuals?

Third, only three people have resigned.

We mentioned four and I got a little mixed up.

Why did Ms. Davis and Ms. Pace reside when they did?

Did the board play any role in initiating Ms. Eddy's resignation?

And then finally, I saw in the daily progress that Dr. Wheeler had

stated her confidence that we'll have free, fair, et cetera of students in Albemarle as per usual.

And I'll say that walking into quarters every election day and doing the drill is a pleasure.

Our elections work really well in the county in our experience.

But I wanted to ask Bucky and Jim if they agree with your assessment

Yes, I agree with that assessment.

I think we've lined up all the things that need to happen to know what the timetables are.

Some of them are actually a little bit ahead of where they would normally be in the schedule because of where we are from a personnel standpoint, trying to get things done before people leave.

So I have no doubt exactly the same kind of election you had in June or this November, back and back and back.

We're all very confident about it.

Got you.

The board does not know why the chief deputy registrar resigned when she did.

The percentage of the people, there are five full-time, three have resigned.

on a regular basis.

There's basically between several people who work part time on a regular basis.

There's one more full time equivalent who works in the registrar's office.

We can tell you when the registrar resigned.

And that's all we can say.

I realize that makes it difficult for you, but we can't say anything other than that.

Yeah, it makes things seem more ominous to me.

Indeed.

But we can tell you that we are working along with the current staff

Something Dr. Wheeler mentioned that I would like to draw a clear but bright line under because I'm not sure people who are observing what's going on kind of connect all the dots here, particularly if you're looking for some agency about what has happened.

Dr. Wheeler said that the electoral board can only hire the registrar.

Well, conversely, the electoral board can only fire the registrar.

That's the only person in that office that we have any sort of personnel control over.

Everyone else comes and goes at the pleasure of the registrar.

And for those who think we took a hand in other personnel actions,

There's no legal connection for us to have that kind of hand.

So under the law, those folks don't work for us.

They work for the registrar.

I'm trying to paint a more clear picture.

And it has been noted

Well, first, let me say, why did Miss Pace and Miss Davis resign?

If they would like to say why they resigned, that's up to them.

It has been noted that they are not under investigation.

So I think that's

I'm sorry, Lori.

I can't see you.

I just want to let you know, I think we lost your video.

We can't hear you either.

Hold on one second.

Lori, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're working on the electronics.

Is that all you wanted to tell us?

Just that one thing?

Yeah, we are painfully aware that there is no video.

We can't see you and you can't see us.

It was working fine for a while and we may have some help here.

Okay, if anybody

in the Zoom has a comment.

We are now in the comment period.

So if anyone there, we can't see your hand if you've raised it.

If you need to ask a question, please just identify yourself and any organization you may represent and ask your question or make your comment.

And then we'll get back to the real agenda.

I hear no comments.

Okay, are there any comments from the folks that are in the room?

Okay.

Old Business, we have been asked about the schedule or sign up for the in-person absentee voting.

The portal's been opened.

The board does not have access to that right now.

We are working on making sure that all the slots are furnished.

Alex has given us a list of the people who have signed up and have been assigned for the first day.

But hopefully by tomorrow or the next day, we will have that list clarified.

You're reading my mind.

That was the next.

The training, the class date was set up for next week.

Hopefully we will be able to keep that same date, but there will be a letter sent out, an email sent out, hopefully by the end of this week, maybe sooner, to make sure that it's the same time, the same date, the same location.

the we don't have access to some of that information.

I'm sorry.

It's supposed to be a week from today.

That's correct.

But if not, we still have quite a few days before

Any other old business?

New business, the electoral board will review the cybersecurity plan at either our next meeting or the next next meeting.

We just couldn't get to it for this meeting.

Any gentlemen?

Nope.

Okay.

The electoral board is reviewing the applications for the position of interim registrar, as well as full-time registrar, and we are compiling the list and the applications from HR, as we have tried to explain, so that when we actually have a registrar in place, that registrar will have applications ready

to review to hire a chief deputy registrar and an election manager.

And we will continue to discuss these applications and do interviews as needed in closed session.

And I took that checklist and added a couple of things to it that we use and turned it into a, matter of fact, if you want to hold it, can you get the shape of what you found?

Turn that into a per-machine checklist.

The checklist that the vendor offered did not include a couple of things on it.

It didn't include checking the ballot bins before and after to make sure you didn't leave any ballots behind.

and it didn't include recording the serial number for the seal that we'll put on the DS300.

Also, I would like to have a checklist on each machine and hence this but otherwise this is all the things that the vendor had on there and it's a really good checklist.

I got the impression that it was a spreadsheet that all Yeah, you'd have one spreadsheet and there'd be 20-some-odd machines could be on the same page, which even when we're doing the ones for election day, I don't think that's how we're going to want to do it.

I would like to check it off each one.

So I propose this as what we should use.

I would be more than happy to second that motion.

Do we have any comments?

Great.

I'll make sure we have sufficient copies on LNA Day.

Ah, Alex.

LNA is logic and accuracy testing that we will be doing on Thursday for the machines that we will be using early in-person voting and mail ballot voting and post-election voting.

And as you may or may not know, the Code of Virginia provides that in LNA testing, the two chairmen of the two major political parties are noted to get emails and they're invited to participate.

If either one of those cannot participate, you mean observe.

Yes, observe.

If they cannot observe themselves, they can send a proxy.

The proxy needs to have a letter of authorization, much the same as a poll watcher would have to have when they go into a polling place.

Again, they are there to observe.

Questions are welcome.

We have a next meeting.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow at nine.

That's correct.

And then we have LNA testing the following day starting at nine.

And then we have a regularly scheduled meeting on September the 11th.

So I think we may, but

but it may need, we need to go ahead and schedule an additional meeting as our ABLE council has advised us, it's always easier to cancel a meeting than it is to schedule one.

So I would suggest that we look at our calendars for September and pick an additional date

Fourth is LNA testing.

We have a meeting tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, regularly scheduled, previously regularly scheduled at nine o'clock.

Thank you.

Monday works.

Monday is good.

Then let's schedule one for Monday.

Can we do nine o'clock?

Correct?

And we will need to have these after that, but we've got plenty of time to schedule this.

Okay, are there any other comments, questions?

Do we need to call in and get away

I just don't know the answer.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Hopefully we have gotten our internet situation straightened out.

Okay, anybody have anything else before we go into?

Yes, ma'am.

Well, we have to open the meeting

Yes ma'am.

Thank you.

We can't do that tomorrow.

Any other questions?

We do not have a termination date, no.

We hope.

Any other questions?

Again, we apologize for our internet Zoom problems, but we don't all have all the passwords that we need, and we're working on it.

Would you like to thank the IT?

I'm sorry.

Yes, sir.

They've been working on it.

We're doing the very best we can with our IT support system.

Yes, question.

I move that the Albemarle County Electoral Board convene a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2-3711 parentheses A of the Code of Virginia under subsection one to discuss and consider applications for prospective candidates for employment for the position of acting general registrar and or to discuss and consider applications of prospective candidates for employment for the position of permanent general registrar and to discuss personnel matters to include assignments of

register our employees and other personnel matters that we need to discuss.

Do I hear a second?

All in favor, aye.

We're in closed session.

Thank you.

Just for future reference, the electoral board meetings are in the Fifth Street

County Office Building, always.

So you'll know from now on.

We fluctuate from this room to that room.

That's always in this room.

I was like, this is the right building for today, right?

Because I saw us at Fifth Street.

And I was like, I don't remember the Albemarle County Office Building being on Fifth Street.

And she's like, yeah, this is it.

I walked inside.

They're like, no.

Yeah, thank you guys.

Thank you guys.

Okay, certification and closing the meeting.

I move that the electoral board certified by a recorded vote that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act

and identified in the motion authorizing closed meeting were heard, discussed or considered in closed meeting.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

All aye.

But before we do that, one thing I wanted to say is with Alex's able help, we have 111 pull pads updated, two more on the machine, and there are two more sort of to be found.

Well, we may need to look in Lauren's office again to make sure we got them all.

Can we get into Lauren's office?

I know a lady with a key.

You have a key.

Do you know how we're getting the mail?

C is going, and by the kindness of the woman at Mailbox Express, she is giving it to him, because we don't have the key, do we?

Gina doesn't have a key.

I thought she did.

My understanding from Steve is... Obviously, Gina's not bringing the mail today and didn't bring it on Friday, but I thought Gina had a key.

We need to get... Yeah, that's true.

But maybe just give us a different...

I don't know.

Thank you, sir.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

So moved.