Electoral Board Meeting   9/8/2025

Can you hear us speaking, everybody?

Yes, thumbs up on the Zoom?

Good.

Thank you.

Okay.

The Albemarle County Electoral Board is now in session for the September the 8th meeting at 9 o'clock.

We have a quorum.

All the electoral board members are here, and I call the meeting to order.

Do you have a look at the statement the state wants us to sign and send back about the security of our collection systems?

The thing we keep putting off?

Let's put it on a regular agenda for Wednesday.

Yeah.

The statement that you have been working on and reviving and reviving, should that come under?

You're up.

All in favor, aye.

We're waiting for the most important part of our meeting to arrive.

And she's coming in.

Can we skip that, go to public comment?

Is that all right with everybody?

Public comment.

And I want to make a really pleasant announcement, I think.

There was a Virginia electoral board executive meeting this morning at eight o'clock and I was on it.

And if you go around the Commonwealth.

Good morning.

Good morning, you're about to be announced.

If you go around the Commonwealth, there are 133 electoral boards and probably that many ways of having meetings, right or wrong.

Everybody kind of does it their own way.

and I'm really proud of the way we do our meetings and I want everybody else to be because in many localities, they don't even, they have public comment but nobody ever gets a response or if the board chooses, they can then send a written response.

I mean, it's very locked in and tightly controlled

and in Albemarle, we've always been very open and transactional.

We have a time in the beginning of the meeting for questions and comments but we also invite the public whether they're on Zoom or whether they're in the room to raise their hands, be announced, be recognized and make comments and we have a conversation.

and other places they don't do that.

And so I'm saying thank you to the public.

Thank you to the board because we are transactional.

We are free speech people in Albemarle.

And I'd like to thank everybody, but can we go back to where we were before we were and hold public comment just for a few minutes because this board has

Best announcement ever.

We are extraordinarily fortunate.

And I mean that underlined bowl cap 90 point print above the masthead.

We needed somebody to come in and be our general registrar as an interim because we had no registrar.

We lost two other members of our staff to resignation.

And I am extraordinarily pleased to announce that we have secured the services of a wonderful woman, and in my opinion, and not just my opinion, but the opinion of others, one of, if not the best registrar ever in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Deborah Logan is someone who has been an officer.

Oh, I said Logan.

She used to be Logan and I knew her from Logan.

When she was Debbie Logan, she was, now she's Debbie Wilson.

She was an officer of election.

She was a member of the electoral board.

And then she was the registrar for 12 years in Harrisonburg.

Harrisonburg has many similarities to Albemarle County.

And then she retired because she said she'd had enough fun.

She married a wonderful man and said, I'm out of here and left.

But the registrar in Waynesboro, who is also one of the best registrars in Virginia said, I'm on down, we need your help.

And Ms. Wilson said, okay, but just part time.

And so she's been working in the registrar's office in Waynesboro.

And before we got her, I had sense enough to know that I better call the registrar in Waynesboro before I start talking to her best help.

And Lisa Jeffers,

in Waynesboro said, yep, she's great.

And after much cajoling and pleading, she said, your need is greater than mine.

And then we called Debbie and after much pleading, cajoling and begging, she said, okay.

And so with that, I would like to introduce our new registrar interim, Deborah Wilson.

And this is she, and we would love your comments.

Thank you.

Yes, you do, and more.

Thank you so much to the board for bringing me on board, and I'm really excited to see how Albemarle works.

And I have a staff member who has been wonderfully helpful since I got here.

Like I said, like she said, I've been retired since 2020, and I work part-time in Waynesboro that's little itty bitty with four precincts,

Everybody knows each other and it's nice but I've heard great things about Albemarle and I'm excited to work with everybody here because I think that this is a team effort and we work together, the board, staff, all our officers of election, everybody works together and we've got each other's back and we make sure that Albemarle has a great election and that we're proud of

and I'll help work towards the new administration that will come in.

I will be gone right after, or as soon as possible after the election.

I am retired, so I am already on Virginia retirement, so I'm not allowed to work too much longer, plus I have other plans.

So anyway, I'm very happy to be here and I want everyone to remember that we are open all the time,

We can have anybody please call us, please come by, please check on us, please support us.

And we'll be here and Albemarle's gonna have a great election.

So I'm happy to be here and thank you all for giving me a chance to be in a big locality with 31 precincts.

So this is fun.

Right, Alex?

So thank you.

Thank you.

It's fun.

The office is nice.

Everybody's been so welcome.

And I've always kind of looked at it over here as my doctors and my shopping.

But now I get to meet the people and be hard to be well to.

Thank you.

That introduction and welcome to open comments.

As we do at every meeting, we have asked that the people who speak raise their hand and be recognized, give us your name.

And if you represent a group or an organization or you have, I'm a chief officer of election, some identifying example, and now we're open for public comment.

So if we have public comment, please raise your hand.

We have one person with their hand up.

Yeah, this is Rick Garnett.

I'm the Election Integrity Committee Chairperson for the Republican Party.

and sorry my voice is bad, I'm just coming back from COVID.

But yeah, my wife Karen met you last Thursday at the testing and she's here.

Thank you, Rick.

Anyone else have a comment or a question?

And the minutes will reflect it.

Okay.

We have minutes from August 28th, September 2nd, and September 3rd.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

You have been extremely busy, and we appreciate it.

Old business.

We had previously scheduled or previously been scheduled the in-person absentee voting classes.

It is for the 9th, which is tomorrow.

And

We can either go forward with the schedule, it's already been announced, the officers who are registrars, deputies, and in-person, we can go ahead and do it tomorrow for their educational, or since this is mostly, this is the registrar's purview, would you like to change the date and time for that, or would you like to go ahead and do it?

I think go ahead and do it, you've announced it to them, and then they set aside that time, so.

Could someone, maybe Alex or someone, send out an email to all of those who are signed up and scheduled that we will have the two sessions of training, one at 10 o'clock and one at six, is that right?

Locations.

Room A?

Are we going to look at

So.

Additionally, you do not actually participate.

You've been there, okay.

Well, I think we can meet with the registrar today if that's okay with everybody.

and go over that.

Is someone's hand raised to speak or not?

Rick, your hand's up.

Are you in the queue to speak or is that leftover?

On the training for tomorrow, I don't think there was actually a sign up for that.

I think the email that went out said I don't think you had to sign up.

You might want to just confirm that so that you send out something maybe to everyone.

I don't think there was a sign up.

Or the letter said, I think it said you didn't have to sign up.

For the training session tomorrow.

And are we going to use room A?

and somebody now has the keys.

I'm a little confused because a fellow from facilities management said he was going to change the locks on September 15th but he's already changed the locks.

So we can get in there.

Well, we can impel well on training because this is this is done outside of a meeting.

It's sort of like training for regular Office of Election Scheduling.

We don't need to do that in a full meeting.

And our C on, where'd she go?

There she is.

Perfect.

I apologize.

I'm meeting on another building.

It's okay.

Andrew Ruge is our able representative from the county attorney's office who has been helping us through this transition period.

Ruby.

Is that what I said?

Yep.

Also under old business, we have previously announced the officer of election class schedule

which we see no reason to change unless anybody thinks otherwise.

We are having the remainder of the LNA testing is scheduled with a representative from ES&S for the 16th, suite 16.

Yes, of October.

So that's for all the machines that will go out to the polling places on election day.

We also have a meeting, we have to set schedules

for meetings with our whole pad provider.

Ma'am?

And I see you're okay with that.

I'm fine with that.

Okay.

That's September the 15th.

September the 15th.

And at that time,

We will arrange scheduling for hands-on for office selection, staff, et cetera, and any other questions.

And once again, I would like to thank our ABLE vice chair, Bucky and Alex for hours and hours and hours and technology expertise

in getting the iOS set for our poll pads and finding them and putting them all together.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Nope, nothing.

Okay, go ahead.

We do have a somewhat looming deadline in that

Wednesday the 10th is on deadlines for providing to print elect our whole file of absentee voters.

Just a process that's sort of no attitude, but not totally no attitude.

It's not a board function.

The registrar

has to provide the link for the people who are legally registered and should get balance, mailed out, who have applied, who are permanent absentee, and she is just beginning to get into that list.

Adam, register.

And I think when we do that attempt, we need to find out whether, since they're going to be doing the daily, whether we need to be doing a daily send to them up to the 19th.

After the 19th, we know we're going to be doing it.

Anything else we need to discuss on scheduling?

Okay.

Any other old business that anyone would like to bring up we haven't mentioned?

Okay, new business.

The office has been rearranged somewhat.

The general registrar now has a

I have actually moved up front where I can be a part of the party, where I can interact with the employees and be able to see what's going on in front of the office.

I'm very much a team player and I want to be up front and center for

good or bad, whatever it takes.

But I think that being a part of that is important to me.

So I have Alex work this weekend and set up my office and cleaned my windows.

And I'm thinking of taking him home with me.

But so I'm ready to go and I'm in there and I'd love to hear from anybody, but come in and see our office and see smiling faces.

Great, great, great appreciation to Alex.

He was in here all weekend.

A lot of the weekend.

Okay, go ahead.

I've got a couple more.

One is the hours of early in-person voting.

They have been.

Tuesdays we would start at 7 30 I think it was in the morning and Thursday we would stay until 7 pm at night.

I asked Gina if

There had been talk about what schedule we were going to do and she said yes and based on the statistics of what kind of business we get when we have that early one and when we have that late one.

We get very little until the last two weeks.

So the plan was to have those early and late ones on the last two weeks before the election.

Otherwise, just have it at the end of 35.

I don't know whether it's on the website now, anything about dollars?

Yeah, the times are on the website, yeah.

They can be changed.

Yeah, thank you.

I don't know.

I'm just, yeah.

They're on there because I looked at them just now.

And I think we probably should meet with the registrar.

I think those early hours and late hours in the early part of it are a total waste of time, almost a total waste of time.

The last two Saturdays are five minutes.

Says right on the website, as Lori said,

October 21st and the 28th at Tuesday, we start at seven and go to five.

Right, but that's exactly what Jim is suggesting.

Yeah, that's the thing.

What's on the website now.

I think that to me that looks good.

And the other thing I wanted to bring up

It dawned on me that there are a lot of things that are in our office but we don't know where they are.

Alex may know, but I may not know.

I wanted to propose, the three of us or the four of us,

One taking each office, i.e.

Warren's office, Gina's office, and Aaron's office and just go through and inventorying what's in there so that we know where things are.

I would argue what you have suggested is not an electoral board function.

It might be the registrar's function.

And if the registrar wanted to ask us for help, that's an entirely different thing.

It's the registrar's office.

She can ask for help.

We now are in the process, have been,

given authority, Adam Counselor, that we can clean out the personal effects in the registrar's office, box them up and return them to whomever they belong.

Yeah.

Okay, any other?

I'm going to take that up.

Is where I would go on that.

I would let the registrar make assignments or make requests.

Tell us what you need for us to do individually.

I can stuff all the loops.

And in many localities.

Actually, back when I started in registrar board work, those ballots were addressed to come back to me, not the director of elections.

So we did all the mailings and we did all that.

I'm going to have to get a bigger mailbox.

We're going to see balance back to my emails.

Return address!

I'll come into the office now, but it did, it did.

Along into it, the Secretary of the Board and City of Charlottesville signed off on it.

So we are here to help.

Anybody else have anything else before I go back to the rest of my list?

No.

Okay.

This office has, and the registrar, board named registrar, have a long history of security

for election day and for the 45 days.

So we have traditionally met with somebody from the police office, the chief or deputy chief or whoever's assigned, the sheriff's office, fire and rescue, commonwealth's attorney's office in a security meeting to find out where everybody's gonna be so we're all

securing the election.

I've spoken with the representative from the police force, and he graciously has agreed to find the schedules for all those people by contacting all of them and setting a time and a date where we can meet, which I thought was very nice of him to offer.

So I'll check back with him this week to find out a date for that.

And it has worked very well.

You've already mentioned that the rest of LNA testing is being scheduled.

And would you like to discuss that at that testing, we do, or before that testing actually, before that testing, we need to do LNA testing for the ballot on demand printers.

Explain it to, okay.

When we do the LNA testing, we test the balance, and they do a large test balance, and they're very, as Karen makes white.

As she observed, it's a long process.

They make sure all the machines check out with the zero tapes, everything is correct.

And that's been the way things are always done until print on demand came up.

And these are the ballots that are actually being done on election day where they're printed.

Those ballots start on a blank piece of paper.

So we need to do the LNA testing in the

in the absentee precinct that is in person here because that's what all the ballots are going to be there so we want to test those ballots on all on the machine that is used there and any spare machines that could be used there in case we needed them to make sure that that they work and sometimes when they first print the very first one the

There may be a blur on it.

So you don't want that very first ballot that you print to be something that someone comes in to vote absentee with.

So we're going to check those and make sure that the ballot on demand is clear with all our machines that could be used on and make sure that we read them correctly.

And we've been using that in Waynesboro for two elections.

And it's a wonderful system.

I'm very

I was thrilled to hear they had the same thing here because that's what I'm familiar with.

Because back when I worked in Harrisonburg, we didn't have print-on-demand.

So this is new.

But it's an excellent, excellent program.

And the good thing about it is when the voter comes in, their ballot is printed specifically for them, so we know

They're in the right precinct.

We know everything about it is right.

And then, but we have to make sure that that ballot is correctly counted in the machine.

And that's got a tight timeframe on that because we're not building the election until September 15th, right?

Right.

We're not going to be using it with the public until the 19th, so.

We have, and it's a smooth process.

I've watched it go through on board precincts.

So I'm sure, you know, again, I have, I trust that system completely and I like how it works.

I think it's a good system.

And it's incredibly important that this be done.

And I feel negligent that we have not done it in the past, because at least a third of all of our ballots are print on demand.

Hi, I'm Lori Jones.

I'm with the Democratic Party of Protection.

Well, what time is that on the ninth?

You said the 15th.

I wasn't testing for that.

The 15th is not LNA testing.

The 15th is building the election and configuring the equipment.

LNA testing can't happen until that is done.

We haven't scheduled it, but.

But for the 19th.

And the programmer was here.

that did the LNA testing and he is the one who will come back and he's well aware of the situation.

He's ready to come back.

And you as party chairman and the other party chairman will be notified.

Absolutely, because it's an LNA testing.

So now I'm a little confused.

So we're talking about LNA testing of print-on-demand.

Correct.

You have to build the whole election first.

and so in order to make sure that everything is done then I mean you could if you had a long period of time I don't know this I don't know his schedule on that but he has guaranteed us that you will come back to test the methods.

If you think about it, there are two steps we have to go through.

One, we've got to configure the poll paths that are gonna be used for early in-person voting, early in-person absentee voting.

And then we need to use that system to produce all of the ballots that we wanna test, our test deck.

Which is all the precincts.

We have five printers in there.

We print a ballot from each printer for each precinct, then it will print 150 ballots.

Once that's done, then sometime in the next several days, we've got four scanners we need to test that deck on.

Because you have to be able to show that

The ballots are being read for at least the two top candidates, because if you get those in line, you know that the rest of it, the dots are lined up.

It's just a matter of one or two ballots.

Yeah, they do.

You're saying that, let's print the ballot on demand, then we have to test them.

We can bubble them in.

Hours of entertainment.

Never use the word stuffed.

We don't use the word stuffed.

Okay, we're set on that.

Questions?

Questions?

Party chairs will be announced, will be noticed.

Any other information that we need from the registrar or ABLE assistant?

Anything from our counselor?

Schedule for the, we need to,

find ourselves that we are supposed to do the cyber security, which we keep putting off because other things have gotten in.

Thank you.

We're going to schedule our security meeting with law enforcement, fire, rescue, et cetera.

And gentlemen, we need to do the ADA, the disabilities inspections for all of our women, polling places, women, Jim, remembering that

Schools and other government bodies, buildings are already ADA approved.

So we don't need to go to all the schools.

We just need to get a statement from the schools or the school system that they are ADA compatible for the rooms that we're using.

They may give us the front door, but if we don't use the front door, we have to know what the side door is that we're using.

and we have to look at all the other polling places, all the churches, all the trying to think of other places we use.

I think in light of everything else that we had to do, that

That ADA plan should be moved to after the election.

I just don't see that we have time to do that kind of work because that checklist is long, long, long, long.

So I propose that we

I believe the state would understand.

I would, I'm sorry to say we didn't do it last year.

When we contracted with the localities that we have, we have pretty much done the ADA ourselves.

The only one, but the buildings change.

The only one that we really did last year was the new Harvest Church.

And we had somebody from the county, and I suggest we do that again.

We take the facilities managed person who is in charge of ADA compatibility, and we

We go to where we have to go.

Are we putting this on the agenda for the next meeting or are we addressing this at this meeting?

Are we putting it on the agenda for the next meeting or are we having the discussion now?

That's all I want to know.

Should I weigh in or just bide my time?

Weigh in.

If we have to wait for that person, we may or may not be able to get it done by November 4.

I'm not willing to stipulate that we have to have that.

I agree.

The checklist is ridiculously detailed.

Yes, it is.

But a decent eight or nine year old would follow the checklist with the proper equipment.

I don't have any convenient eight or nine year olds to put up for this, so it'll have to be us.

I'm not afraid.

And yes, it is a long checklist, Jim, but it's

It's a little bit redundant, and it's, I think, quick to go through.

It's pretty quick.

One of the bigger issues will be getting access to the facilities.

We can't go check out a church on Sunday, for example, and pick a different day of the week for that.

Or maybe Sunday will be the right day.

It depends.

You have to service it.

Who knows?

But they're doing that.

So there will be some work involved.

I mean, divided by three, that's four places each.

I don't think that's an undue burden.

Because if we don't, and a voter has a problem getting in, we don't want that.

If that very knowledgeable person is available, it's fantastic.

No, but they're very helpful.

And they were very quick to respond when we needed them last year.

But I agree with you.

So you're going to contact the school system and the

Yup, ADA, facilities management.

We do.

It was scheduled for Thursday.

Yes, it was scheduled for Thursday.

We were forced to move it because there's no meeting room available.

OK, any do we want to schedule?

Because the 15th, we have to be here for the No-Ink pole pads.

No, that's wrong.

No, that's right.

That's right.

If you need to have a meeting, that would be the time because you'd already be here.

You schedule it and you don't need the meeting.

You don't have to.

Except that we don't really know how long the knowing is going to take.

So we don't want to...

I know, but I don't think it's going to be quick because we got some bigger questions.

Okay.

Do we want something on the 12th or

And we're doing this.

You're looking for room space first.

And we'll be tied up until noon.

So the room across the hall is available.

Nope, nope, nope.

Police training.

There's really no place to have a meeting inside the registrar's office.

No, that's unfeasible.

The police training is something that's kind of the default for that room.

So we don't really know whether there's police training.

Can we book the room with a phone call to say, are you really gonna use it?

If not- I know how to do this, I know how to do that.

OLTQ2.

Whatever that is.

From 8.30 to 12.

Right.

And we have room A available.

We're repeating.

We have room A.

Yeah.

That's all right.

We can have a board meeting down there on the 12th.

There's enough space for all that.

Right.

Staff, registrar, sometimes.

Mr.

I guess you don't even need to sign up for that room since we've got it all the time.

Don't sign up for it on this system.

So we have a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 9 a.m. the 10th and a meeting scheduled Friday the 12th at 9 a.m.

and then we have our no ink meeting, which is not a board meeting.

It's just a work group.

It's a work session.

On the 15th.

Any comments, any questions?

Yes, ma'am.

I just have a question probably Ms. Wilson.

So in the executive session, I know you're going to be working on the

assignments, the chief and assistant chief assignments, and I know I've gotten drafts of both of those.

Who would I ask when it's final for that copy?

Alex?

Okay, thank you.

Alex will be taking over those duties.

Anyone else?

Then I would move it pursuant to section 2.2-3711 section A code.

We move it.

Did I understand it?

You used to have officially your meetings were the second Thursday starting at 9.30.

Rick, because of the upheaval that we have incurred and the multiple changes in our meeting schedule necessitated by reorganization of the registrar's office, et cetera, and the upcoming election, our regularly scheduled programming is gonna have to be changed.

So the reason that we went for 9.30 was because the previous staff

had requested that we not start until nine because they couldn't get into the office.

Rick has brought up a good question in my mind.

So is the regularly scheduled meeting still going to happen?

The regularly scheduled meeting for this month would have been on the 11th.

Right.

And we're not.

I just wanted to make sure that there is no meeting on the 11th.

We're not doing that this month because we have all these other meetings.

With the previous staff, we would receive emails whenever there was going to be a meeting.

And now you're posting it on the electoral board page, which I think is fantastic.

Yes, ma'am.

And you should still be getting an email.

Hang on.

Hang on.

I have sent out a request to everyone that I knew was on the list of people against about 23 folks.

with the meeting details for the last two meetings, this meeting and the next meeting, as well as telling them that the Zoom details will be on the web in the future.

And if you would still like to continue receiving these mails, because you'd like notice of the meetings being sent to you, to please let me know.

I've had a handful of replies already, but I'm sure I will receive more.

And if you at any time want to be notified of electoral board meetings,

For the time being, let me know and I'll put you on the list of people who are notified of meetings.

Because the meetings will be posted on the website and the updates will be on the website.

Thank you.

Any other questions before we go into executive session?

And we will take a five minute break so we will leave.

We're good and online.

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 the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

No opposed.

We are back in open meeting.

12-26.

12-26.

Perfect item is motion to accept

the 14 officer of election applications, including those that were left unaddressed since August of 2024.

I won't put that last part in my motion, but just- In my motion.

Aye.

You write the minutes, you get to choose.

That's the advantage of being the secretary.

Got lost.

I feel bad about that.

Glad they're still hanging in.

Move the approval of the personnel related announcement.

Oh yes, the report has drafted.

Yep.

of the personnel-related announcement that the electoral board has drafted and that they should be appended to these minutes.

It should be sent to active.

OK, I have that you move approval of the personnel related announcement that the electoral board has drafted and that this announcement should be appended to these minutes and should be sent to all active election officers.

Aye.

Thank you.