Electoral Board Meeting   9/14/2026

All right.

We're in business.

Hopefully everyone on the call can hear us.

I'm gonna call to order the Albemarle County Electoral Board meeting on September 14th, 2026.

All the electoral board members are present.

I'm calling this meeting to order.

First.

Second item of business is to approve the final agenda.

Everyone has a copy of the agenda in front of them.

Yeah, I will note just the record when I'm doing kind of old business and new business, often all mixed up, so some things that are under new business, really kind of old business, vice versa.

So for the record, what I heard the secretary say was that he has his own inimitable style that he uses for reporting the minutes.

No.

Just one.

Well, no, I'll wait and do it under the update.

I have an announcement.

We have present in the room and some of the folks online members of Dr. Carol Whaley's 2026 election class attending this electoral board meeting.

And we welcome them.

The University of Virginia.

We want to be helpful.

as helpful as you can.

So they're working all about how elections work.

So with that said, let's go on to public comment.

Does anyone either online or in the room want to raise their hand?

Our question is, is the superstar scheduled to present for your report

on ranked-choice voting to the Board of Supervisors on 18 November.

Is the Board of Elections also going to attend that meeting on 18 November?

Well, under the statute, we're to be consulted, but we haven't been informed.

Perhaps somebody who works in that building with those other folks could pass that along and see what they have in mind there.

You ready for me?

This is probably a question that the answer will need some research, but I thought it was easier to say in this meeting in the email.

I'm concerned slash curious about how many ballots, mail-in ballots, were uncured.

How many did not get, were not able to be cured in time for their voting?

Yeah, I don't know what that number is, and so I'd like to know what that number is, and I'd also like to know how that compares to previous elections.

You know, is it statistically basically the same percentage?

Is it more?

Is it less?

I didn't bring it.

I have them.

Yeah, I can't tell you it's considerably less, simply because of the size of the algorithm.

That's what I'm curious about is how many it was and how it compares to the previous smaller.

You may as well just go back chronologically because the rules change a little bit from election to election.

So it's

And we've changed our process a little bit.

Even though we're not required at this point to call an email, we do.

Anybody else?

Anybody online?

One of the issues that came up during early voting last time from people who came here was with the construction outside, there was like no signage pointing that there's a, that this is for the county office building.

And I'm wondering if there's something we can do for this time

will allow for us to have arrows or something that says voting here.

And then we have a voting here sign that puts us up, but it's not up there now.

And is there something we can do about that?

Because a number of people said they drove around to the ground, or they didn't know where to come.

That's two points.

Right.

And I apologize for that.

Oh, facilities.

Our facilities.

Fez is not a guy.

I'm sorry.

All right, one more acronym.

Okay, so the latest they told me right after the last election was that the sign that we normally put up, you can put it up, but it will have to be in the middle of the lawns.

So if you're coming from this direction, you'll pass the- Coming from down the street.

Yes, coming from this direction, it's going to be on the other side of the road.

So it really doesn't work.

So I had a conversation with the

I'm not sure he's the head of the building services.

And he suggested, which I thought was a good suggestion, he might be able to get one of the electronic signs from us.

So if you're coming off of the highway, you'll see it.

And so we will accomplish two things with that.

Number one, we'll point people in the right direction, but we'll also hope to keep people from turning down Stagecoach Road, which is where their guidance and navigators lead them to.

So I was surprised when I spoke to Fire Rescue, they said that it never stops back there.

They're constantly getting people looking for voting and voting registration, but especially

when early voting is happening now.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

We also did at this conference.

I know, but they go there because that's where it's leading them.

The GPS is leading them here.

So to address that, we have two things.

We're going to put signage back there ourselves in case somebody still goes back there and say, hey, you're in the wrong place.

We can do that.

But also we asked our GIS group

if it's possible for, you know, how does this work?

How can the GPS be changed?

And they said it absolutely can be changed, and we can request that, but it's up to Google to decide when they do it.

So that's where we are.

So the electronic sign, hoping that happens.

Our facilities, we're getting that back on next week, so until when it begins, Friday.

And they're very responsive.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jonell.

No problem.

Now, on that same note, this is part of the question's comment.

A safety note.

This morning, coming in, there was a big cat backhoe parked in the entrance corridor.

And it happened that when you came

You turned left.

I went ahead and just pitted.

Well, I don't think you do a lot of damage to the cat.

But I really, I don't know if the registrar could speak to VDOG or Citi, whoever's doing the construction, whoever the person in charge.

Don't park your equipment in that

In that lane, I mean, somebody's going to get her.

Oh, yeah.

As you come in, there are two lanes in, just after you turn off.

He was just parked in the inbound lane, so you had to go down there.

It was a big piece of yellow equipment, so you can't see it.

Did you hit him?

It was the angle of the sun.

There's a lot of space out there where they could park equipment.

And have.

We have spoken to the companies doing that.

Ask them not to go to the road, park the equipment on the road.

And they've been very, very cooperative about it.

Good.

I think it doesn't matter.

They should not have that structure.

Call them to say, hey, please don't do this.

That'll be more important when we have loaders trying to navigate that same stretch.

But you know, perhaps when you come to the facilities folks, you can probably mention that to them too and see if that can all just be done.

It was in the park.

But lights would be helpful because when I came in, it was in the shaded area.

So not something we want to have happening on

So where did we land with that?

Yeah, because coming this way from 64, we can't put anything on that side of the road.

I can ask to see if we can put some in the media.

I don't know if we can.

I hear what you're saying.

I completely hear that.

So, but I think the median might be a great option.

And where exactly was the electronic sign going to be placed?

Yeah, when you turn off the interstate and put it in a large

Okay.

I think that's, I think that sounds terrific.

Speaking of cost, Jim may remember this.

The electoral board has used the flashing electronic signs provided by VDOT both at Broadus Church, because you come around that corner when you were first moving to Broadus, and also Baker-Butler.

for free, for free.

No cost to them.

The free part is a very good price.

Free.

Those taxpayers paid for it.

That's right.

It's all good.

It's true.

Yes.

I have a question.

I'm sorry.

I looked at the agenda.

The registrar in the past has been giving out the updates on registered voters, new registrants, people who've been removed, people who died, people who did it.

People are active, inactive.

Well, I'm sorry.

I didn't break.

No, it's not overly busy.

That's part of it.

I just didn't do it this time.

Sorry.

I did it last.

OK. And perhaps when we get the information, we could post the one for this time in our minutes for this meeting.

Yes.

All right.

Moving on.

Stop!

I'm begging the question here, which meetings were approved in place.

Sometimes we've changed it to which ones we have and which ones we don't.

The one that was only to close the meeting.

Any changes, additions, or corrections to the minutes?

No.

None from me either.

They look fine.

All those in favor of approving, you say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Minutes are approved.

Yeah, the minutes from the previous meeting.

We need to begin at 9.30.

It ended 11.18.

We got a motion to go out and a motion to come back in.

Nothing else to vote on.

But we will bring this up at the next.

Thank you.

All right, moving on.

Whole business.

You know, it's not changed.

We didn't spend anything in the last month?

Well, it's not recorded.

I wouldn't say that.

you will have this as the normal electronic version that acts up to you and is sent to you each time, because I can't, I can't access it.

I can't, yes, I don't do it.

I can't do it yet.

I have to go through budgeting to get the report, and it's only electronic.

I will say yes.

When we get down to project wayfinding, which is the new signage, the phone cases, that will give you a big expense.

Absolutely.

Comments from others as well on our signage at the polling places.

Jim, how's the review and disposition of all four materials?

There are four boxes.

We got through one box.

A lot of stuff.

Filing to the U.S. Department of Justice from 1987 to 1999, when every time development outside the registration site, we had to get pre-clearance from the Justice Department.

My name's the buddy right there.

I have over 50 pre-clearance pre-clearance.

Those are on the retention schedule.

Oh, I will hope to maybe get to the third option or two or something.

Can you speak up?

Yes, please.

All right.

So I'll hope to get to more of the important material.

And then we'll just cross it off the list when you're done.

Officer election and early voting pay.

We've had some discussion about this previously.

We've looked at some numbers.

Where are we?

What do we want to do?

Well, I think

HR, Wynn, they said that the current pay, which is two, four elections, let's talk about election day pay, it's 225 for chiefs, 194 assistant chiefs, 165 for all other CEOs, $10 per training session,

and then if you're working early voting, it's $15 now.

That's a flat rate for everyone.

So they said that that has been in place for about four years.

So, and I mentioned to them- So now it's tradition.

I mentioned to them just briefly a little bit that, you know, we'd like to see a pay raise there.

So I've requested something I believe about at River Teen to say what it is yet.

I'd like to see if it can be approved.

with Election Day Pay.

It has to go to the comp team.

I agree wholeheartedly.

We could say, hey, we'd like to see a pay raise for these folks.

But I don't think we have to authorize one.

I don't think all we can do is say we'd like to see a raise.

We can suggest what it's going to be.

No, I'm talking about the election.

Moving, pumping all those up, $20 for each one of those events, not for the per training issue.

If you'd like to make that as a motion.

Absolutely don't.

I move that the

Would you accept the amendment to make that, that we direct the registrar to seek such an increase?

Yes.

I don't think that much.

All those papers say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

No.

Very good.

So you'll bring that up each time.

So what I have in the agenda is polling place sign inventory progress and enhancing the 40 foot line.

So for those who are not aware, what we're doing is we are taking a look at the signage at all of the precincts.

We call it a sign edit, and we gave a certain name.

And Ryan is going out and talking with all of the chiefs and just

walking through the different properties.

So we've done the same thing with early voting.

And so we, this came about, Bucky had brought this up and I think it's going to be on your mind for a while.

And so we said, okay, let's do this.

So when I went out to my precinct to vote for the first time last time, I had trouble getting there because the signs were the same color.

who are not different at all from all of the campaigning sessions.

The big sandwich.

So some of that it depends on what goes on there.

But we want the signs to stand out as clearly and we're going to pick one color but we're not sure which one is going to work best on the material.

We're working with Bailey

printing.

We've been working with them since the beginning of this year.

They've done a lot for us and so they're also going to do these signs.

So in early voting what you will see is will be your first look at at some ideas that we have and the colors.

So we're looking at again specific colors.

The signs will have a background color.

That's one thing that will stand that will make it stand out.

to yellow, and that's the color the sample ballots are printed on.

Correct.

That's what we picked, what candidates are not using, that we believe they're not using.

So in early voting, we wanted to test all these.

So you're going to see signage in different colors.

at Early Voting, and then we're gonna choose one color for all of the rest of the precincts.

Well, it's going great, actually.

I think it's been a really fun project so far.

So I've visited eight precincts so far.

I've had to reschedule a couple, but it's really just been a very positive experience, and it's good to see some familiar faces in here.

I've met with a few of you.

And we've also been asking people for schematics of the inside of their precincts as well, which is going to be very helpful as well.

And so we're assessing mainly the outside signage, but if there are problems with the interior signage, I mean, we're assessing that as well.

On average, the precincts need one or two new signs, but with a couple of precincts so far needing more than that.

But yeah, it's just been great to get to know.

I love this, love it so much.

One of the inputs that we've gotten from voters on election day when we're sitting there is that it's confusing to know how to access the drive-up voting options, right?

The numbers sometimes are wrong.

We talked about that a little bit in my report.

They don't even really know where to go sometimes.

So just if you could pay particular attention to, and every precinct is different.

You know, sometimes you park down here and you have to go upstairs, but then you can drive up over there.

So some of the precincts I feel are undersigned for that, that they, you know, people need a little bit more direction of where to go.

So yeah, just while you're doing that, if you would give particular attention to the drive up, because we get a lot of voters, and I know you see this on early voting too, coming in that should not have had to walk in, but they didn't know where to drive.

No, thank you.

I mean, one to one.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Completely agree with that.

And this is part of what I was saying about the other, more than one sign.

I'm pretty sure we can put signs along where the parties put signs.

You do a great job at early voting for the drive-out.

There's lots of signage.

It's very clear.

Stop here.

All that is great.

The election day is really what I've noticed.

I will mention that.

No, I know this is sort of off the wall, but on election day, after really voting, there's been signs off the floor that it's not a wall to vote, you're voting a precinct.

but I came by here that day and no less than five different people had come up to vote here and they said, no, this is my precinct.

I mean, I'm not sure that's gonna work because I had people knocking on the sign.

Yes, exactly.

I was here like five minutes and in that five minutes, five people had parked and walked up to the door

I said, this is not where you vote.

And they looked at me like, they said, no, no, but this is my precinct.

People have become accustomed to early voting.

And so I don't know if at least they can think about that.

in some way, maybe list the precincts.

I mean, I don't know.

We have a sign on the door.

Don't read them.

I'm trying to make them a little obnoxious so that they can't be ignored.

I'm going to see it.

It seemed like that was on the hours sign, you know, early voting.

Anyway, I had the same conversation on election day when I was here visiting the sample absentee precinct.

People coming and banging on the door.

And exactly the same thing.

This is where I vote.

Well, this is not your precinct.

No, it is.

I have asked in previous years to have somebody from the Registrar's staff

do that because my observers have often, my cap observers are the ones going out and helping these voters instead of observing cap, they're out there trying to help voters.

I'm talking to the Democratic Party about maybe having a volunteer, not attend, but you know, so volunteer to help people understand QR code and where to find your precinct.

And you know, if we can have somebody from the registrar's office do that, that would be even better.

But it is, there is a constant stream.

Because I mean, honestly, and they could even do some things inside room A.

I wouldn't have them go back and forth.

That's constant, right.

It's not constant.

I think that's actually a great idea.

A lot of people will not use a QR code.

Yeah, that would be great.

Yes, Dr. Wheeler.

While you're on signage, there are some polling places where signs blow over.

The ones that are out on the road.

Bunch 4-3, Redhill.

Redhill is constantly on the ground.

And you know what they are because you can talk to the chiefs.

I have suggested this, I believe, at the last meeting that we get

You guys are already on this, though.

You're looking at these signs that can be stuck into the ground.

Yes.

Also, on the election day, I'm just going to put it off to the next day.

That's the curbside voting signs.

Two Mile An Hour Breeze knocks those over because they're just, they're messing the vault in there.

Some places have availability of rocks to the vault.

For the signs that we're looking at, are you talking about the folding signs?

Well, if you're staking it to the ground, and those of us who have put up campaign signs, if it's hard, it's hard to get something in the ground, and sheets are not going to be thrown out there, which is why I can't balance.

Sandbags.

work better than lots of bricks because they drape.

And the county will have sandbags for other use.

I happen to be walking by when Jonell and Ryan were testing out, you know, here's the old flimsy one and here's the new sturdy one.

That's terrific.

There are people here at the table talking.

I'm wondering, Jen gave me the idea, because we have a cone brought up, I'm wondering if some of them, we can use a cone for some of them because you've got the hole on top of the cone and there's a way, and if the cones don't flow away, and if there's a way that we can have a sign, which I believe we can,

That's another way to hold them down.

But I do understand the sidewalk problem.

Sometimes you can get it between the cracks in the sidewalk if they're there, otherwise you just have to have something weighted.

The ones that we even use that are out here that blow over, it's because the little wheels, they're meant to have sand in them.

And there's never sand in them.

um it's just what device we use whether it's so we'll take this as part of this project you're considering that and looking at it absolutely and the last i'd like to get more and some of the schools silence easily blow over what we in some of the cheats i've done in the past is bringing bricks from home and it goes stick making all the bricks

Well, if you get bricks or sandbags, rather than automatically putting them in a cage, I think that's the chief when they come.

Do you need a brick?

The assessment of each individual site, you'll look at this one.

Absolutely.

We're not going to solve that at this meeting.

All right, I have the shifts for later.

So there have been complaints that our ways of marking the 40 foot line are not always extremely visible and that campaign workers tend to cross them or chiefs know to go outside and tell the campaign workers you do not cross this line.

Every precinct has a different issue.

How much grass is worth 40 feet?

How much pavement is worth 40 feet?

We have the chalk.

The chalk washes away if it's raining.

The spray chalk evidently is much better, and you can use the spray chalk on grass too.

But still, I have had complaints about the 40 foot line.

So having discussed it with a chief or two,

My idea is that every precinct have one or more than one, unless they say, no, no, no, we don't need it.

And it was something you were just talking about.

The small ones, we have a bunch of them in the back.

I'm not sure how many.

Get a laminated eight and a half by 11 sign.

All it says is 40 foot line.

Staple it to a three-foot stake, stick the stake in there, and put it out at your 40-foot line.

We had a problem with that, Ed, because we did have a small sign, a small plastic sign that sounded this big,

and I thought that's what y'all gonna do.

That's the only sign I asked for.

And I think you're looking at trying to get them.

But again, before we go into the details, we'll just take this as a suggestion.

And this getting a sandwich board for everybody that's in 40 foot lines, another cost.

Yes.

Nothing.

Nothing at this time.

The law is that they can't carry weapons inside the 100-foot line, but we do not have the wherewithal to be dealing with that.

I don't believe it does.

But if it says we're supposed to market, I'd be interested in knowing.

Right, I'll look it up.

Okay, anything else on Wayfinder?

Or where do you put them?

So, do you move on?

Half-day shifts or something at each table next year?

The November general election, which has this little mail-in,

Executive order, yes.

There's something in the news about that.

Yes.

Occasional court issue or so.

So regarding the executive order, not last Friday, but the Friday before,

The judge that had the preliminary injunction placed extended it, so that is still in place.

What the Department of Elections has said to us is that they are working in conjunction with the AG's office, Attorney General's office,

to see what's going to happen.

But we are proceeding as if everything is what it is as it normally is.

We're going to be making ballots this week.

Yes, we have gone far in our ballots.

We will not get the brochures until after the ballot deadline.

So we're not going to get the ballot deadline until after Friday?

Correct.

Well, we can't wait until Friday.

So, but it'll be after, yeah, well, I'm sorry.

Yes, that answers your question.

after the ballot deadline on a planet.

That's the latest I got is what we're getting them.

Well, I think it would be.

Way it doesn't add any postage because I did put another sheet that only thing is you still need a link because we can't.

And that's what we would do.

Always make a QR code.

but then they won't use it.

But you can do both.

You can have the QR code and the link on the paper that goes in there and say you can find information about the proposed general, you know.

That's better than doing nothing either.

Our job is not to completely educate voters but

Yes, the brochures.

No, the brochures aren't up yet.

The state has already published their standard information.

They published it in July.

So, and we get that out of the window.

We have that information available out the window.

If somebody asks about it, we just hand them the information with very little to say about it.

And then we hand them that.

So, so yes, it would, it would, the link would be to those, it'll be a link to a, to a page that has the three amendments listed.

And then you have to click on the one that you want to talk to, to look at.

So, and then there's a little explanation put into it.

It even shows you the law and also the way the law changes, but it is not the succinct thing that they're looking for from the board.

It's actually, I'm sorry, from the Department of Elections.

It is probably more information than they want, but that's what the list goes to.

And obviously, when the brochures come out, I'm thinking there's a link to them.

You know, when we get them, we can actually tell people.

OK, so we are packing ballots.

We have packed half the bar.

We have just under 6,800 to send.

And we're halfway there.

Today, we will get much further.

But by tomorrow, the goal is to finish by tomorrow.

Get on, of course, because the issue of mail-in ballots.

But I propose that for Friday, which I think we will have a big crowd coming, things will have line, that we have printed sheets of the explanations of the constitutional amendment.

and we have someone and it could be us board members taking shifts because I plan to be here most of the day and do nothing but walk the line and hand out information to people, ask them if they would please return it to us so that we can hand it out to more voters.

The state has a PDF for each one of these and two of them will print on

One page, front and back, and one of them is one page and another page.

Like I said, we could have condensed this, made it a little smaller and fit it all in a brochure if we had to.

And even the sign, the big sign that we have planned for the door, it says, you know, you know, there's a lot of bunch of things on the ballot, you know, please ask for sample to review.

Just for the record, the state website is www.elections.virginia.gov, slash, election, pay for the law, slash, referenda, slash.

Well, if you make that type, particularly small people won't be able to read it.

the reader, why isn't it sending us all?

Speaking of 500, several years ago, there was a

statewide Brooklyn, and the board registered then printed for election day only 20,000.

And this was for one, it was a fold over, threefold.

So it was the front of one, the back one, colored, you know, blah, blah, blah, fold over.

and the greeter, this was before there was a greeter, the greeter's job additional, was to hand over, do you need an explanation?

You need 20,000 for election day.

For election day it's a different thing.

Yeah.

That's a lot.

I would expect so.

No, I'll go down to the paper.

Going through the fourth calendar, please.

OK.

So first, I want to talk about notifying the precincts.

Well, yeah.

I was able to notify all the precincts.

So all the precincts have been contacted already.

There's only a few that I need to follow up with at the secondary contacts that everybody has been contacted.

Do you have in your contact a slaughter rec center?

Do you remember?

So just a bit about the early building schedule.

It's complete.

People have it.

We get it in two parts.

So what we're doing now is we're just adjusting as people tell us, well, sorry, I can't work that day, but I can't stay.

So the schedule is together.

We have 12 people on every day.

So there may be a couple of days where there's a wedding we're still working for as well.

Is that 12 people, six in one shift, six in the second shift?

No.

12 per shift.

Twice.

And then on some days, many days and so it could be added a second assistant shift.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Some days yes, some days no.

We'll get the best we could.

We'll get the best we could.

So on that schedule, a word about CAP.

The status of the teams is good.

I appreciate people who responded and sent names to us.

Yes.

And we have, I'm looking for a second assistant.

As far as parity there, we're pretty close.

I'm working with schedule and I'll have a better idea of my room stand this week.

Right now it looks like we have 18.

So that is coming together just fine.

As we're going along, we're finding things that were, that were problem-solving that were like to me, that could be a sign that we're doing as a way of solving problems, but we're also proving some things.

And one of the big ones that we're very happy about is, I've been hearing since I've been here, not quite a year, that the problems with the wifi, and I was very concerned about how the wifi would drop

and one of the printers would go offline just because.

And so I asked IT if they could take a look at it.

Not only in room A, but also in the warehouse.

He's actually a super, he's a really lovely man.

and he took time out of his day, we were down there for I think about an hour and he assessed the internet connections in the warehouse and everything and he actually, we ended up deciding, I didn't realize this but we, so our internet was actually, our bandwidth was capped, I think like 8 megabytes per second or something like that.

And I was like, yes, do it with Wi-Fi.

Right.

Well, and that's you said that's like everything that comes into the building.

And I was like, yeah, let's do it.

and so he immediately did that and then he also said that what would help and what we're thinking of doing is adding another internet access point to actually closer to the pads and then we'll actually move the access point currently where it is so that it's a little closer to them as well and so that should actually mitigate the problem so you know remember last time when we were down there we were trying to update all the pads at the same time and

Some would fail, some would, you know, we'd have to hard reset them.

That shouldn't be a problem.

We should actually, we would probably be able to do them all at the same time.

And everything should be, I mean, it should just make the process a lot smoother, I think.

And he will be putting a new Ethernet cable as well, too, for the new access point.

A thought just occurred to me in the kitchen of room A there's a microwave

So microwaves radiate in the same spectrum, the 2.4 gigahertz spectrum that the pole pads would use.

And there's some distance there.

So you probably have some insulation, but it might, when he's testing that, put a cup of water in the microwave and turn that on too, and just make sure that we don't have this broadcaster in the room that's dampening out the signal.

I never would have thought of that.

And we'll get a report once he finishes the overview for overall, you know, what they found and then what their plans were.

And when do we anticipate getting a report?

may the technologically challenged secretary ask for the minutes i have written wi-fi issues brian discussed issues with wi-fi problems in room a is that what and the warehouse and the warehouse

Can we just add one more sentence there?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay, one other thing.

Okay, so another thing that we realized is passwords, even though last week we already made an adjustment, we're gonna make another one, because we're finding that the categorization of the passwords and knowing, there's overlapping.

So it's not where we can say, okay, this line is all you need over here, and this line is the stuff behind who is under the hood.

It's not like this, we wish it was.

So we're going to one password for everybody

will have its own password.

I do.

We'll just have to ask people, remind people not to troubleshoot

Yes, instead of having a cheese password and an admin password it'll just be the cheese password.

And it should be the chief's.

We need to clearly communicate that.

All right, let's go to the calendar, please.

Oh, I'm sorry, one more thing I was wishing about Pat.

I was very concerned about the new process for hand counts.

And so I did find out that the State Board of Elections tomorrow on their agenda is the new process for hand counts.

So I took this out of their agenda.

This is just a portion of the much larger document.

What I printed for you are the most relevant portions.

And when you look on the third page here, recommended ballot duplication steps,

That's very interesting.

So because the CAC meets this process and the valid duplication, what that is, is that we know more hand counts.

Well, the hand counts.

Very limited circumstances.

Exactly, very limited circumstances.

And so there's only three basic areas.

Yes, that would be the only difference.

You'd spoil it and give them another pallet.

If you had a pallet that needed to be hand touted, you'd do it in the transcription process.

If you had a whole bunch of pallets and we couldn't get you another

It's the end of the day.

Your scanner dies.

Oh, I see.

And you've got to scan them all again.

I see.

And we can't get you a replacement scanner.

OK. OK.

Very unlikely.

Still could happen.

Yes.

And this explains that and explains it pretty well.

So I read through this and even the part about putting a, you know, somehow marking the ballots so that you know this one was hand counted.

All of that is included in here.

It's very clear.

And so I'm going to recast this.

and our new FOP format, which Bucky is going to talk about later, and it's now four-path.

So that process will be, hopefully that process will have in hand, but that process is.

But it is on the agenda for us to eat tomorrow.

Yes.

Now, are you looking to train everyone?

Because we have a training session set up for CAP already.

We have two.

I would think this CAP.

We've trained the board members so they know how to do it.

Okay.

But we ought to have the same training.

So we're all doing it the same way.

Okay.

Calendar.

We had a few labs planned.

Yes, exactly.

Among from Crenshaw Library.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Okay, so we have the poll pack training tomorrow and Wednesday.

So for folks who obviously can't see the calendar, I have a one-sheeter for all of that.

It's specific for early voting.

And Liz, we're going to use the training.

There was a glitch here.

We were actually originally scheduled to have this week reserved in room A and got bumped a little bit.

I did not realize that.

I'm going to have to figure out for this 10 o'clock session tomorrow where we're going to be.

I've asked HR if we could use their

I'm back with them, I'm back with Smorton, and then I'll go to Abstent, we'll get new social services.

I'm wondering if you could just use the lobby building up here for labs.

I'm concerned about that.

We have equipment there.

Is room B tied up at that time?

It is, because we were counting on room A.

Good.

So yeah, so both of these rooms are tied up.

If they don't show up, we'll soon on in there.

But right now, there's some things scheduled for this.

for both of these rooms tomorrow.

And then 6 p.m. is fine.

You're on Wednesday?

Yes, on Wednesday.

I'm sorry.

Yes, we can go in there after hours.

Yes, it is.

So then you can see we'll do our setup on Thursday.

We've saved all of these supplies for early voting in the office.

So we have everything set aside and ready to go into the office.

Let me see, early voting on the 18th.

The following

Some of the things we'll move around because we're not sure we can get to the cage checks on the 21st and 22nd.

Those might move to later.

Yeah, that's exactly.

And we're ahead of schedule.

We've been doing work for the precincts,

every single week.

So we're in good shape.

Let me go back to this Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

Are you expecting the electoral board to be the slippers of the ballots to the bulk mail at the post office?

Or not?

The ballot file might live, yes.

Yeah, it's not something that has been in our list of duties when we've been helping out, but I don't like the idea of seeing it as an unexpected thing.

Oh, sorry, I was, sorry.

If it's not possible to make another arrangement, then we'll do it.

Normally, it should be another arrangement.

On Friday.

It will happen.

So I'll let you know at the end of both of these.

Okay, so on the week of the 21st,

I'd like to bring up the two LNA testing sessions.

You have the one for the loaners, the DS-300s.

And I went back and I checked that that other loaner, the one that we thought was for the placement of that power board, it's not Stone-Robinson machine.

It was the one that

went down in Stonewall.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so those phone numbers and sequences.

So we took that out.

We're in October.

No?

September 23rd and 24th.

On the 23rd is LNA testing for, we have six loaner machines plus one other machine.

So we will be testing seven machines that day.

Yes, they're all DS3 machines.

and then on the 24th, we're testing all of the express votes for election day.

And that was something that was moved from another day to that day.

I've decided not to travel on these days, so I'm gonna stay at 10 this time.

Oh, it's fell off the print.

Yes, and I'm sorry, we'll put it up as well.

Okay, so this, you know, the testing obviously is expansive with this election.

It takes a while even just to run the test, right?

Oh, that's right.

And so we will have election officials.

I have mentioned to Mariah that since we, someone, unfortunately, in fact,

the fifth test deck which we wanted to save for regular testing because we had each precinct there all together.

I told Ryan at some point somebody's going to have to go through one of the test decks, sort it out.

Right.

Okay.

Thank you.

So on to October.

So, one of the things I want to mention is the, on the 30th, September 30th, but also is the training session.

And then the first pre-processing session will be on- Hang on, what time is the training session for now?

We've gone, I need to settle it with everybody.

We originally said it was going to be 8.30, but it seems like most everybody's looking more at nine or 10.

Yeah, that's 10 and 6.

That's right, we have two of them.

So again, the first pre-processing session for CAP is scheduled for October 2nd, that's a Friday.

The CAP sessions are Wednesdays and Fridays now.

No, no, no, no.

They'll gauge the number of teams.

The chief and the assistant chief will gauge the number of teams that they need.

But no, it's not all of them.

But we had, I think we had just one fewer than three full sessions.

I believe you said earlier,

Is that right?

We've had a number of those.

That's good.

That's good.

Kudos to the polling places for working that out with people who return their absentee ballot uncast and

I don't want to get these anymore.

So on the week of the, so we have the board meeting on Thursday on the 8th.

And then that's also the date for the chief and assistant chief's training.

Good.

at 8 o'clock at 6 p.m. at Lane.

So as I was scheduling these, there's a lot of competition for these rooms.

I was really shocked.

So I got a couple of messages this morning.

I haven't had a chance to look at them just to see, to say, hey, you got this and you got this and you got this.

So I might need to adjust a little bit.

No, it's at 6 p.m.

I know.

Yes.

So the week after that, we dive into training, more training.

So we have same day registration at the original meeting.

That's the first one.

We have two of those scheduled.

This is the first of two and it's at 6 p.m. in room B on the 13th, Tuesday, October 13th.

and then on Thursday, October 15th is the second provisional training session and that's at 10 a.m.

So what I tried to do is to have the training on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then cap on Wednesdays and Fridays.

So, and then have training.

One of them will be 6 p.m. and another one is 10 a.m.

So people have a chance to, you know, give people a better chance to make one of the sessions.

So that's the, those are the highlights on the week of the, the week of Monday the 12th.

So after that, this is where we enter a, I think it's like 19 day or 18 day structure of voting.

So it's a lot of days.

So on Sunday, the 18th of October is the first early living session on the weekend.

And those sessions are 11 to four.

And then on that Tuesday, the 20th, we have the early opening at 7 a.m.

This is the last mail to everybody.

We have a new sign that includes, this is what we're, I'll talk about this in a moment.

We have sort of a publicizing campaign for early voting, and we added the extended hours.

I would ask that you make the effort you can take simple statistics on how many people turn up for the early health so we can measure their utility.

It doesn't need, you know, plus or minus one or two.

You know, we don't have to stop voting and get the count and start voting again.

And so still on October 20th, that night, we have the first of two election official trainings divided up per person.

And so we won't publicize that.

So maybe it's in my latest messages this morning.

So, and then the second election official training is on the 22nd, that Thursday, same time, 6 p.m., lame.

And then the precinct has a late-close cycle, that's the 7 p.m. place.

And then we're voting on Saturday, regular hours.

on Saturday the 24th, and we're voting on Sunday the 25th.

And then we'll repeat those early and close, the early, open, and the late close.

So on Tuesday the 27th, it's another early open session at 7 a.m.

I'm sorry, at 7 a.m. And then that evening is the Nubu training in Willoughby.

at 6 p.m., the 27th, 22nd, I'm sorry, 27th.

and then on the 31st, that Saturday is the final day of COVID-19.

That is also the day that there's a special training in the lobby right over here outside the voter registration office, the registrar's office.

And it's also the makeup training for the chiefs and assistant chiefs, 10 a.m. and then B.

So the only thing I'll mention regarding this in November is I was looking at the 19th or the 20th for the hot wash.

Wow, thanks.

We know we won't have both.

Good point.

That worked for you, Joe.

December.

Exactly as said.

Exactly.

I want to mention two things.

then I would very quickly look at the libraries.

Do they really in the library?

I asked them if I could get them for one of the options.

I can work on that.

The other thing I wanted to mention in the training for early in-person voting,

I think it would be a good idea to put a little bit of extra emphasis on people coming in with their absentee ballots in hand or maybe without their absentee ballots because the feeling out there in the public or at least a large part of the public we don't want to trust the U.S. mail particularly with this executive order so

Those people are going to be, I think, a lot more people that will get their ballot at home but they're afraid to put it back in the mail and they're just going to bring it in or they're just going to come in to fund.

And a second assistant chief would certainly help with processing that.

Well the screening dates, when is that going to go out to?

Then he goes and cheats and stuff.

That's the two part out.

We'd be wanting to finalize when they're actually going to be, which means we need to get the room.

Speaking of finalizing, I know this is a different election in the staff than the registrar's offices.

We need to know

where we're going to be serving, when we're going to be serving, these meetings are happening fast.

So who's going to be here?

And I think their last election, right up to election day, there were questions about EOs, choose, where will you be?

Yes.

well um yeah um one other thing i'd like to two other things i'd like to mention so we do we did set up a campaign

and it's, hey, Albemarle County, you ready to vote?

So this is gonna be our basic sign.

The idea came from some folks in the office and we were just talking about, okay, how can we get the word out?

And so they wanted to put things in libraries, put things in places where there are bulletin boards, photos.

Yes, post offices, photos, wherever we can get them.

and we're just gonna advertise early voting.

This is strictly about early voting because in these places you only have so much space so you can't talk about the precinct in election day.

That's a different sign but we really wanna promote early voting and so we're gonna use some more avenues to do that.

Lewis had mentioned to me also, going back to what Lori said about curbside, he said he's been talking to a lot of seniors and some of them have no idea that curbside is even available.

So we're going to do a separate sign for curbside voting.

And then he said he can help us distribute those.

Yes, absolutely.

So we'll do that as well.

And a couple of other things.

We are going to, oh, I'm going to start a newsletter just for the registrar's office to communicate to alleged officials and to the board, which sounds like a small league occasion on it.

That's literal.

And so...

More than likely, we're going to put what we think is pertinent there and people to know.

So, and that will just, the first one will come up at some point this week, and then it'll just be as means it's necessary.

On the central question, there was an issue about changing moving companies for getting the cages out and also the question was

Was there a possibility or a desirability to have any of the pages delivered on Friday versus on the Monday?

Yes.

Well, we're going to stick with the same moving company.

We did have estimates from three of them.

They went through number one.

They were just the best one.

They weren't the lowest price, but they were the best one as far as what they can get to us.

you know, being able to have the equipment, enough equipment available to get it to life.

And they were the most successful.

So that's American Electric General.

So that's what we're using.

And then as far as having them on Fridays, I mean, that would, I mean, they could do that.

We don't advise that.

We would rather have everything stick with Monday and Wednesday with all the deliveries on Mondays and then the pickups on Wednesday.

if we weren't Friday.

But we'd have to make sure if it's a non-school that they can take that because they have them.

I think it was school, I think, that got them on Friday.

That's right.

I need to get out there and set up in my cages.

Well, the question arises, do we want things?

Well, it's technically legal.

We're certainly setting up in terms of moving tables and chairs.

That's just fine.

And now we have a set of signs.

Well, people have taken the signs.

And you're not taking out any of the other electronic equipment.

Even setting up marking booths, you've got that same risk of, you know, do they get manhandled while you're not present to observe them?

So I've thought on this some because I hear the concern about people wanting pay.

When are folks coming out?

I don't know when my stuff's getting delivered, so I can't sign up my team to come help us set things up.

But as I think about it, I'm thinking that you generally don't want them taking things out of the cage.

So you can go do setup anytime you want.

And one of the points, I'll just mention one thing about that.

We have spoken with some chiefs and we did, besides selection, have the pages for the ones that came to us and said, hey, can I be here about this time?

If they come by and pick one up, they could.

Right, it usually gets handed out on Saturday, but if there was a reason why it had to be done, you'd always get your key to the cage.

Question about the cages.

Recently there was some confusion about who is responsible for the coordination of the cages.

Someone is going to be there to receive the cage when they arrive.

Is that the registrar's office or is it the chicken?

Because my assumption has always been it was the registrar's office.

We had some discussions.

I don't know if the cubes are responsible for that.

The registrar's office should be taking that responsibility.

However, there are some places where someone needs to be there with a key to open the door to let the movers in.

And the registrar's office should coordinate that with the chief, or an ego, or somebody there who's doing that.

That's only a few of the places.

But in general, making sure it's something that's for the profit of the schools, that's just not your job.

James is the point of contact for your case.

Yes.

But notice the distinction.

We make sure, working with the mover, of the timing for it to be there.

But the registrar's office is not there physically to deceive the cages.

That's the chief.

No.

It's not the chief.

Well, it's the chief if the chief wants to be there.

Because there are some cases where the chief wants to be there.

That's like leaving your kindergartener on, or the head of the driveway and your parent there to pick them up.

Make sure it's clear that the registrar's office is responsible for ensuring someone is there, and that's not the chief's responsibility.

Correct, that's what I'm saying.

If the chief wants to do that, that's for the chief.

Yeah, but we make sure the page is received.

I'm sorry, one, two last things.

There is a tabletop exercise on Thursday, October 8th, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Yes, it's also during, the Department of Elections is running that.

and then letting you know and I'll send you all the information after follow-up email for you if you would like to attend that but we're sticking it to the folks in the office and the first responders October 8 October 8 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

And then the other thing is the Board of Supervisors at their meeting on Wednesday of this week, they feature a department and how the department works each

from the elections office.

This is at the board of supervisors meeting on Wednesday.

No, no, no, we're not going.

They just asked for information from us.

I'm just saying, if you want to watch the board meeting, they're going to be talking about the voter registration part if you want to watch it.

I have something.

Friday, this Friday, in the middle of Friday, work out all the kinks on the first day of early voting.

We may or may not have Senator Mark Warner and candidate Tom Perriello here for a rally.

Yesterday was in the course of a half an hour.

I was told yes, we were having it.

I was told no, they had decided to do their thing at the city.

I said, okay.

And then I was told by a totally impeccable source that it had not been totally decided yet.

But if that's going to happen, and of course, being a deaf crowd on the floor,

I'd like to welcome my Senator and candidate, but I don't like to welcome on the first day of early voting.

But we, if it's decided it's going to happen here, we've got to coordinate with the police.

Last time we had one of these rallies, it was John McGuire.

and the rally site, the police made the rally site be that parking lot when you come in that's on the right to social services.

We must have got the stink eye from social services for that.

So I don't, I haven't heard really about rally or just get people to come, but also if that happens,

Are we going to block off voter parking or have facilities blocked off voter parking?

I think we should.

Is there a way that we can get this campaign contact for the Warner campaign?

I have it for the Perriello campaign.

I'll get somebody for the Warner campaign.

I don't have any issues outside.

That's some of these.

I think you were going to have signs for all three parties.

I'll ask.

Where are the parties going to put their signs?

The yard is not safe.

It is.

That was the early word.

They usually send you a schematic.

And there's a porta potty side that has a bunch of weeds.

Is that what you're talking about?

Yeah, it's when you're driving it, it's the right-hand side.

Oh, when you're driving it, it's the right-hand side.

And they changed it to the man within.

So I will get the latest information.

Because in the past, it's been closer to the main road, Fifth Street.

There's a chance we will have a risk limiting audit.

We've reserved room A for the relevant stays if it happens.

We won't know until after the election if we're being chosen for something of it.

Is there anything else we need to say?

Okay, there we go.

I do, on the room 29.

to request a batch comparison as opposed to the...

It is a batch comparison.

They have already announced it.

I am happy.

Happiness is...

I will say the decision will be made on Monday, November 16th.

Oh, if you can put the 17th and the 18th on your calendar, that would be handy.

This is of November.

So, all right, moving on.

Standard operating procedure.

We're talking, okay.

We had talked about having checklists for things to take some of the considering officer of election manuals

Getting that down to a checklist of someone who's been trained knows here are the steps and can go through it quickly.

And I finished going through the Election Assistance Commission's training program.

And one of the courses they had was setting up SOPs in a former life when I worked elsewhere.

Let's go with elsewhere.

A lot of my career was in overseeing that process.

And so I took their template, banged out a little SOP template, took some of the checklists that I created for just looking at checklists and put them into an SOP format, circulated those around, I sent them to Jonell.

It all looks really useful and handy and simple.

And this was just to get it on the books that were

Right.

So whoever that is.

There's one of them, for example, that applies to electoral board members when we're starting up the DS-300 for the provisional machine.

but that's if there's anything else on that.

So introducing the idea.

I just want to bring up one for that.

So the group that was working on the Early Building Manual is completed planning.

I want to congratulate them for doing that.

And so there's a couple more things that needs to do just for school grants.

But the manual is largely complete.

And most of the school grants then

That's great.

It depends on what I get.

Can we email it out to you?

But I have it to look at before that.

Before the, for right on the gills of where we are, we can email it out.

And I want to post it.

My appreciation to Kent and others who, I know there were many others, but I'm not sure who you all, who worked on this.

Right.

That was a lot of work for them.

Any other items?

No, it's not.

Our next meeting is scheduled for October the 8th, 9 a.m. in this room.

And with that, I would give a five-minute break while we let everyone who's on the call drop off the call.