Electoral Board Meeting   10/9/2025

We're gonna mute everybody.

Good job, Bucky.

Sorry, I had to go get a calendar.

I apologize for everybody.

The October the 9th regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Albemarle County Electoral Board is now in session.

We have a quorum.

All three members are here.

I've got that on my schedule.

That's fine.

So you want to take the minutes?

So your suggestion is on the agenda to remove the amount, the number of minutes allocated to any one question.

I thought we were talking about the October.

And the motion is to table the October minutes until later.

Aye.

OK. What were you saying, Bill?

The other minutes?

Yeah, he wants to take that column.

OK. Do you want to take that column out?

Okay.

Chairman has an announcement from the registrar.

I'd like to remind everybody that the registrar and the elections manager both

and the chief deputy registrar are up to their eyeballs working hard and they asked your forbearance if they could stay and work in the office and not come and be at the minute.

They are meeting today and I think we all agree that they need to get their work done so people can vote, get their absentee ballots, be ready to go.

The registrar did tell me this morning that as of closing yesterday afternoon, which would have been the 8th of October, at that time, 5,733 people have voted in-person absentee on the machine.

She has 2,048 returned in the mail absentee ballots and out of the drop box, which is out here in front of the building,

496 returned, mailed out absentee ballots.

She and the rest of the staff are

working diligently to make sure all the returned absentee ballots are categorized, logged into VERA so people are getting credit for having returned their ballots.

She has a box where she's putting the ballots that are mailed back, the envelopes that are mailed back to be cured so the voters can be notified in writing that they can come in or they can electronically amend, correct their ballots.

information that's not right or missing on their absentee ballots, the cap through the registrar, and I know the parties need to know this, and Bucky is going to get it onto the website.

Code requires that all meetings of the

Elections, whether it's voting or counting ballots, be posted on the website and notified.

They can always be amended or removed.

The CAP group has determined that they will meet every Tuesday and Thursday beginning at one o'clock through the last week before elections, and if they need to meet on

Wednesday and Friday of that last week, they will also meet that day if they need to.

Pre-processing.

And they are so excited, so grateful, so happy.

to use a very old term, completely over the moon at the way the registrar's office has organized the returned, bailed out absentee ballots.

I mean, it is finely tuned.

So the pre-processing group of officers election will meet in the cordoned off behind the screens so they're separated from the in-person absentee, same location.

They're gonna have a team.

They've organized their teams to work those Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We are grateful for having the guidance and the presence of the former chief and former deputy chief.

Remind me what the,

No.

Well, no, you have to have, it's a polling place, effectively, it's a precinct.

So all the observers, any party, either of the two parties, and any independent candidate is entitled to have one.

party or candidate representative in the pre-processing, whenever the pre-processing is taking place.

The code specifically says that there must be at least two offices of election, one from each party present when ballots are opened or counted.

So that's why we have offices of election running our pre-processing or what used to be called early cap.

They've set their schedule

and they're ready to start next Tuesday.

Well, today's Thursday.

We had a meeting and so we told, they told, the CAP people told Alex when it would be.

Well, this is to the point I had it as new business.

As you said, I have a request to put this on our website, but this meeting is not open to the public.

Because it's part of the voting process the same as, because technically,

under the law.

It's part of the central absentee precinct, although the central absentee precinct does not technically begin until election day.

But the processing of the ballots

is part of the precinct.

And so an authorized party representative with a signed letter from their, is there.

The same- 207040 is very explicit about this.

I understand.

And you have to notify the public of when the times for the in-person absentee, wait, let me finish.

The in-person absentee voting takes place, so the registrar's office must have on the registrar's website when that takes place.

not for pre-processing cap.

It says they can do that for cap on election day.

It's silent on that.

It doesn't say they can't, Bucky, but the inference may be there.

And so if a voter thought they could come in to vote in cap, they might think they could come in and vote.

If they want to return their ballot or they want to come in and vote,

Then I object to posting this for two reasons.

One or three reasons.

One, we're not required to do that under the code.

Two, I don't want to encourage members of the public to show up just to watch because they are not encouraged to do that.

And three, in that theoretical, it's not actually required case you mentioned.

And you can make the exact same argument that on election day, when cap is open,

You've got open public precincts.

You've got the drop boxes at the polling places and at the registrar's office.

Is the code explicit about on election day what is to occur?

It's not a secret.

It's OK.

Don't think announcing it or posting it is encouraging no more than the hours of the registrar's office being open.

I mean, you're saying it's available, it's there, it's taking place.

You're not saying y'all come to the registrar's office just because it's open.

I'm not sure I see any value.

If people want to know what's happening,

They can look it up and read it in code.

Or they could call the registrar's office and say, what is this?

And you're told this is where your mailed out absentee ballots are being counted.

I don't see why you would want the public to know if this is taking place.

We mail out our absentee ballots, what happens to them?

I tend to agree with Bucky that maybe a compromise would be a statement that pre-processing of the absentee ballots will be taking place.

And those meetings are open only to authorized representatives.

I'm fine with that.

Of course, the time.

Sure.

No.

I'm more than happy to put up a case.

You will be on the record as saying I want it to be a secret meeting.

I don't want it to be a secret meeting.

I want people to know what's happening with their absentee ballots because we get the registrar's office gets calls

I reject your characterization.

I know, I'm being, I was, I understand.

The public cannot attend.

I'm good with, yes, ma'am.

Now that I've heard Diane McNeil, now that I've heard this discussion, it feels like it does, from a non-detailed, understand what's happening kind of person, it feels like something's going on that the public doesn't know about.

And that's the reason

that this registrar thinks it should be posted.

Because in 2020, just some historical information, in 2020 when the law was changed and we had 45 days in-person absentee voting, and the code says that all the absentee ballots, and we did absentee ballots, because remember COVID was in people, COVID times, and a lot of localities

got way behind in counting their mailed out absentee ballots because they had a flood of absentee ballots.

And we want to assure the people of Albemarle that one, we didn't get that behind in 2020, but we're certainly not gonna get that behind now because we are addressing and counting your ballots and processing your ballots and putting them in the machine so we don't get behind the curve.

Pre-processing, and I've got these out.

We conduct it on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

These pre-processing sessions are only open to authorized representative of each party.

Well, we do.

We've got school board.

Oh, that's right.

And supervisors.

That's right.

OK, any other announcements from the board?

The registrar would also tell you that she's got some new staff members that are working diligently.

They are all helping seem to be organized and working smoothly in there.

Public comments, we invite the public as we always do to make comments at the beginning of the meeting.

Please introduce yourself and tell us if you represent an organization or a party and try to keep your comments to three minutes.

Yeah, this is Rick Garnett, Chairman of the Republican Party Election Integrity Committee.

I just had one question I couldn't hear earlier, but it sounds like the notice of the testing, equipment testing is gonna go out.

It will be all day.

We can't.

We're not sure how long it will last.

And he is referencing.

We're having the same problem that we've had from every meeting.

We're getting your voices like this.

We're hearing every other word or it's

Fuzzy, so let me, if you will, let me repeat your question.

You're asking for the start time for the logic and accuracy testing for all the machines that will be used in the polling places on election day.

And yes, that is the 16th beginning in what we affectionately call the warehouse, which is entered from the back of the building.

And again, the party

Chairman have been noticed of that event and the same the same is true you must have either the party either the party chairmans or an independent candidate there in person or a representative with a lot a letter authorizing them to represent their party or independent candidate and it's limited to one observer per party right yes sir one time yes sir okay thanks

Thank you.

Do we have any other comments or questions from the public?

Okay.

Old business ADA inspections and certificates of polling.

The county and the schools are going to give me their availability.

And I would like the board to look at their calendars.

And obviously, we can't be in two places.

So if we are already having meetings on day, we can't go out and do ADA inspections.

So you can either write them on a piece of paper and give them to me after the meeting or I know, Jim, you're looking at your calendar also.

And each of us will have 10, remembering that we voted to say that we will accept the school if they can tell us that the space in the school meets the ADA requirements.

specifically the entrances and getting from the parking lot.

That's where you were going to talk about the cabinet.

Can we fix the minutes?

Yes, I can fix the agenda.

OK.

I don't have the number of minutes on there anymore.

Got it.

I agree with you.

We all agreed to that.

Did you have any other questions?

No.

Any other items from the public?

Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, and you can take this up later, because we do need to do some more work on our training program.

As of yesterday, zero people have signed up for newbie training.

Really?

There is a problem.

That's what Alex tells me.

There is a problem with the poor.

Yes.

He thinks maybe a couple people would come.

Alex, would you like to comment?

Speak slowly because you're coming in sort of staccato-like.

So speak slowly.

So as of this morning, I think we have six people come on.

The portal's just acting very wonky.

I was going to suggest based on saying before the receiver that if we have like three people or less,

I just don't do it because those people are supposed to come to training next week and they get the stations at the cross and all that anyway and it just is kind of a waste of time to do a two-hour training for two people.

Because hearing this stuff twice, if it's all new to you, it's a big help.

Bucky may not agree, but if we're going to present it, we never know, other people may show up.

No, I just

We get here tonight and there's no one here, we all go home.

Yeah.

We don't teach to an empty room.

And I do want to, after we've gone through executive session, go back into training mode to talk about the mock election.

Okay.

Monet Jones Democratic Party.

In the past, the registrar had been requested to put together a sheet

It has not been requested because as you stated, a lot of the filing system was Popsie-turvy.

and I can't validate or verify.

Which she can tell us who is registered.

She can tell you how many.

In the last month.

And I just have not asked for that.

Should I ask for that or is that something that's gonna be- You can, I mean, we're gonna ask for it for our next meeting.

Okay.

Hopefully she'll be able to get it by then.

Okay.

A lot of the records were

But she'll know September.

She's been- She'll, right.

That's what I'm saying.

Like, you know, selection.

Exactly.

What it looks like, what the numbers look like.

Exactly.

And I'm happy to ask her individually, but if she's producing it, I don't want to bother her.

She will be producing it.

Thank you.

So has she seen the chart that Lauren put out?

Because I think that probably takes about 10 minutes to put that together, I'm guessing.

Most of it is just for various reports.

Right.

Varis is only as good as the information you put in it.

So yes, Lori.

You'll be ready for the next meeting.

Our next speaking of next meeting.

Yes.

And

We have, of course, our regular November series of Canvas meetings.

Well, the second Thursday.

And I understand, and I can't remember who from, that the flicking of the switch

that matches up all the same-day registrations and determines if anybody same-day registered in two different places, which normally happens Saturday evening in Richmond and therefore allows registrars and electoral boards to determine if there are any duplicates.

That, once again, Richmond is going to wait until Monday to switch.

What Jim is saying by flip the switch, the registrars are required to submit by five o'clock, usually on Friday, unless Friday is a federal holiday, which it is not this year after the election, the Friday after the election.

The registrars must submit

All of their data from people who have voted, new registrations, same day registrations, provisional ballots, so that the Verus computer system will have overnight, everybody's, all 133 registrars are submitting all of their data by five o'clock Friday evening.

and the only way for all the registrars to know who voted where and who registered where is to go through the various system and then it comes out and the final adjudication of provisional ballots cannot be done until after that summation of all the information which means the board could not do the provisional ballots anywhere until Monday because they don't know which ones should be

considered which ones should not.

I believe I heard that from the Orange County secretary of the election.

I haven't seen it on guidance.

I saw something about that.

And last fall, they waited until

at noon on Monday because I remember we came in Monday morning and had nothing to do, but plenty to do once it was done.

We had plenty to do, it just wasn't bad.

I think we can stick with that.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

OK. And do we want to schedule additional meetings between now and election?

to make sure that we, if we've got one, we use it.

If we don't have it, we don't need it, we can cancel it, which has been our policy.

Loading cages.

Okay.

Well, the day before, all day long, we're going to be doing LNA.

We're going to wait till 9 o'clock?

9 o'clock.

Bucky, are you OK with that?

Sure, absolutely.

OK.

So we have a meeting scheduled for nine o'clock on Monday the 13th.

We have a meeting scheduled for nine o'clock on Friday the 17th.

And then our regularly scheduled monthly meeting will be at nine o'clock on November the 13th.

9.30.

9.30, okay.

We can change it, but that's what's on the website.

9.30, right, 9.30.

See, Jim, you lost time in October.

You're getting it back in October.

We will have daylight savings time.

The night after.

Nice for driving home.

Exactly.

November 5th.

Okay, do we have any other business comments?

I'm kind of loosey goosey this morning, ladies and gentlemen, before we go into executive session.

Alex, your hand's up.

Oh no, is that Alex?

Yeah, I'm fine with that on the 17th.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jim just did a cartwheel.

You couldn't see him.

Okay, thank you for that update.

Any other comments?

Then we're gonna go into executive session per code section.

2.2-3700 section A.

The only people who will be in the meeting will be three board members, and we will take up personnel matters and review of registrar applications.

Yes, ma'am.

I- Yes, ma'am.

Oh, oh, oh.

Andrea Ruege, I forgot.

I'm sorry.

That's all right.

Okay, so our count, our attorney will be Angela Ruege and she will be with us at the beginning of the meeting.

Thank you, I am so sorry.

Beginning of what meeting?

Because when you're on Zoom, like when I'm on Zoom, I can hear everybody fine.

I can hear you guys fine.

I can hear the speakers fine.

Yes, we think.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

You're not coming in with an announcement, is that right?

Sure.

There you go.

You only get the last word.

OK.

The electoral board comes out of executive session at 1035.

The board certifies that only the members who were invited to be there, the three board members and our attorney for a brief period of time, we only discussed personnel matters and those things which we said we were going to discuss before we went in.

and now we are back in regular session and we have no business to discuss.

No business, business.

No business.

Do you want to just have an election materials session after this meeting?

Yeah, that's what we're doing.

OK, then we should close the meeting.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah.

Aye.