Columbus, Georgia

January 17, 2002







The Board of Elections and Registrations board meeting was held January 17,

2002 at 2:00 p.m.



Members present: Jan Dickens ? Chairperson

Margaret Jenkins

Eleanor White

Ken Barfield

Walter J. Wright, Jr.





The Chairperson, Jan Dickens called the meeting to order. A motion was made

and seconded to accept the minutes of the November board meeting. Vote was

unanimous.



COMMENTS:



The Board of Elections and Registration meeting is being held on January 17th

because of inclement weather that was experienced on the 3rd of January and the

Government Center was closed. The December board meeting was postponed due to

lack of a quorum due to members being absent because of the holidays.



Nancy told the board that the Human Resources Department will advertise the new

clerk's position for the election office next week. The new person will begin

as a Grade 3, with the responsibility of answering the telephone, data entry

and filing.



NEW BUSINESS:



REQUEST FROM SECRETARY OF STATE: The deputy director to the Secretary of State

telephoned and asked if the board would be willing to sign a consent order for

opening and unsealing the ballots for our N. Lumpkin precinct. Cathy Cox wants

to use these ballots, along with three other counties, as justification for her

new equipment. The reason for this is to show that everybody's vote does not

count.



After a discussion, Mr. Wright made a motion that Nancy call Linda Beazley and

tell her that the Secretary of State should put her request in writing and the

board will address it at that time. Motion was seconded by Eleanor White. No

action will be taken unless the request is received within 10 days. Nancy told

the board that she would like to go to Atlanta and address one of the

legislative committees as a representative for the board of Elections and

Registration.



POLL WORKER TRAINING: Poll worker training will not begin until after the

seminar that will be held in Augusta in March. Nancy suggested getting each

poll manager to set the date, time and place for each of their assistants and

clerks. Ken stated that the board had at one time discussed the precincts

being divided between the board members and that they would take the

responsibility for training the workers. Jan asked if it would be advisable to

let the managers determine what clerk would be responsible for what position

and have the people cross trained. It was suggested that the managers be

trained first. New name tags and a card will be given to each poll worker

during training. Their names will be submitted to the Secretary of State's

office. If any of the poll workers do not attend the training, they will not

be allowed to work during the election day. The Election Code mandates that

each person be required to attend training before being allowed to work. Ken

asked about a new video being made concerning training.



Nancy asked that the board members who wished to attend the Georgia Elections

Seminar to be held in Augusta on March 24-27 to let her know so that

reservations can be made.





REMOVAL OF DECEASED PERSONS: The Secretary of State's office will now remove

the deceased voters from the voter registration files from a list received from

the Vital Records of Deceased Persons. As matches are found based on criteria

offering the highest available degree of certainty.





SPECIAL ELECTION: A special election will be held in conjunction with the

General Primary to elect a council member for district 2.



The board was informed that maps were received from the reapportionment

office. Based on the proposed district lines, there will be split precincts.



Ken brought to the attention of the board a newspaper article that mentions

precincts being moved. He expressed a concern about the voters being confused

as to where they will be voting. He asked that a letter to the editor be

written to clarify that precincts are not being moved or closed.



OLD BUSINESS:



OFFICE SPACE: Ken Barfield expressed a serious concern about the space that was

given to the Finance department during negotiations to move and he felt that

the board was mislead. The director stated that in order for the move to take

place she felt it was within her scope of duties to make the transition work.

The chairperson recommended sending a strong letter to the city manager stating

the reasons why the move needs to be made by March 1st. The board members

concurred, with a copy of the letter forwarded to each of them.



Being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.









Diane Scrimpshire Jan Dickens

Recording Secretary Chairperson