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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNHC Board of Elections Minutes 12.14.2021 Board Minutes – 12/14/2021 REGULAR MEETING New Hanover County Board of Elections December 14, 2021 5:15 P.M. ATTENDANCE Members: Oliver Carter III, Chairman Derrick R. Miller, Secretary Russ C. Bryan, Member Lyana G. Hunter, Member Bruce Kemp, Member Staff: Rae Hunter-Havens, Executive Director Chris Tisbert, Elections Systems Specialist Joan Geiszler-Ludlum, Administrative Elections Technician Visitors: Sheryl Kelly, Assistant County Manager Public Attendees: Matthew Emborsky, NHC GOP; Mike Torbit; S. Torbit; Bob Gatewood; Jill Hopman, NHCDP. Virtual Attendees: Loraine Buker, LWV-CFA; Jenna Dahlgren, staff; Chris Tisbert, staff. OPENING Chair Carter called the meeting to order at 5:15 p.m. The New Hanover County Board of Elections meeting was held in the Board of Elections office, Long Leaf Room, 1241A Military Cutoff Road, Wilmington, NC. Chair Carter, Secretary Miller and Member Kemp were present, constituting a quorum; Members Hunter and Bryan arrived at 5:23 p.m. Chair Carter said that, while the Board members are wearing masks, masks are now optional while attending the meetings. He asked attendees to take a moment to silence their cell phones during the meeting. AGENDA Member Kemp moved that the agenda be approved as submitted, second by Secretary Miller. Motion carried unanimously. Board Minutes – 12/14/2021 MINUTES Chair Carter said the draft Minutes of 9/14/2021, 10/05/2021, 10/12/2021, and 10/19/2021 were sent to the Board with the agenda packet and are lengthy, but were not posted with the public agenda. He moved to postpone approval of the Minutes to the January 12, 2022 regular meeting, to allow more time to read them, second by Secretary Miller. Motion carried unanimously. PUBLIC COMMENT a. Draft Parameters for Public Comment Period Chair Carter reviewed proposed procedures to give more structure and set parameters for the Public Comment period. He cited as general authority that the Board may adopt procedural guidelines to facilitate the effective management of board meetings. He developed the draft based on input from the Board members and Director Hunter-Havens. He noted that the most effective way for members of the public to comment is by sending their comments by email to the Board members and Director Hunter-Havens. When received before the meeting, the public comments may be read into the record, will be acknowledged as received, and discussed or take further action as appropriate. The Public Comment period will last twenty minutes, with each speaker limited to two minutes. On concluding the public comment period, the Board will not accept further public comment, subject to certain exceptions. The exception is the situation where the Board takes up an item of new business that did not appear on the original agenda, the Board will hear from an officer of each political party to make one minute of comment per item of new business. Chair Carter said that another feature of the proposal addresses special meetings, such as the scheduled statutory absentee meetings, where public comment will be limited to the specific purpose of the meeting. When a special meeting coincides with a regular meeting date, the proposal is to hold the regular meeting for the purpose of open, broader public comment session to hear comment on any election issue. When the Board calls a special meeting, public comments will be limited to the stated purpose of the called meeting. After reviewing the draft procedures, Chair Carter moved their adoption, second by Member Hunter. Discussion of specific items followed. Section 3.c., clarifying that when a special meeting, such as a special absentee meeting, coincides with a regular meeting day, the Board will conduct a regular meeting following the usual agenda separately from the special meeting agenda. The Board amended the proposed language to read, as moved by Member Hunter, second by Secretary Miller: If a special meeting falls on the same day as a regular meeting, both meetings shall be held, and the board may transact any business before it during the regular meeting. Board Minutes – 12/14/2021 Member Bryan requested amending section 2.a. to read: “the public comment period will last no longer than 20 minutes,”. Board members expressed concerns about section 2.d.: “party officer” is more restrictive than a “party representative”; duration of comment by the party officer, one minute v. brief v. short v. discretion of the chair. There was further discussion whether these are guideline as opposed to hard and fast rules. Chair Carter said this would all be subject to vote by the Board present to allow additional public comment, such as a situation where the Board wanted to hear from the public, but their position was not being advocated by one or both of the parties, then the Board could make an exception. Member Bryan asked if this policy is binding on future Boards. Chair Carter said he does not expect it would as he has not seen what previous Boards have done and does not consider it binding on him. Prior practice may be a good suggestion but is not binding. He does not intend it to be binding on future Boards. Member Bryan said the Chair should have some discretion in managing comment time limits and not cut a speaker off mid-sentence. Member Hunter suggested saying “a short response” without quantifying a time limit. In response to a question from Member Kemp, Chair Carter said that additional agenda items from Board members under section 2.e. should be added to the agenda instead of raised during the General Discussion, but does not preclude addressing later-arising items. Member Bryan said the Board should be more intentional about informing the public of the agenda. Director Hunter-Havens said agenda items submitted following section 2.e. would be added as new business but may require response or review by the State Board. The Board always has the option to discuss or postpone consideration. Secretary Miller said General Discussion is generally not the place for motions to be considered. Director Hunter-Havens said that public feedback regarding agenda items that have produced intense discussion is that it is difficult to follow the discussion and easy to lose track. Sometimes these items need time and opportunity to flesh out ahead of time. County boards have limited authority and need State Board guidance before acting. Member Hunter said listing something as “New Business” implies action will be taken, where General Discussion means what the name says. The public should have advance notice of items on which the Board intends to act. After discussion, Chair Carter moved to postpone consideration to the January 11, 2022 regular meeting, second by Member Hunter. Motion carried unanimously. b. Public Comments Chair Carter called upon the public in-person and virtual attendees for their comments or questions, limited to two minutes each. Matt Emborsky, NHC GOP, asked for an update on the public records requests that Julius Rothlein has made. Director Hunter-Havens said she has responded to all the records requests made by Republican party leaders, but one requires extensive staff support for which there is a fee. That information has been emailed to the party leaders and will fill that request once the fee is paid. She forwarded one request to the State Board for guidance, but has fulfilled all other requests. Board Minutes – 12/14/2021 Chair Carter said the Board members and the Director received an After-Action Report and the Morris PowerPoint from Julius Rothlein on behalf of the Republican party about a week ago. Director Hunter-Havens read an email public comment from Janet M. Hyde asking questions about list maintenance, signature verification on mail-in ballots, and counting of only absentee ballots for which there is a request from the voter. The Director will respond to the questions with additional information as able and clarification as needed. In response to a question, she said that third parties are allowed to send blank absentee ballot request forms to voters, but not forms which have been partially filled in. Seeing and hearing no further comments from attendees, Chair Carter closed the Public Comment period. DIRECTOR’S REPORT Chair Carter called on Director Hunter-Havens for her report. a. Financial Update Director Hunter-Havens reported that the overall budget is a little below expected expenditure year to date, even though several items are encumbered, fully expended or exceeded. She noted that contracted services stands at 100.3% expenditure due to cost to rent laptops and printers for two additional One Stop sites. M&R Equipment is 100% expended. This line item funds maintenance and repair work by the contractor for voting equipment, PrintElect, providing routine maintenance on various machines used in elections at a set charge. Insurance and Bonds stands at 160.3% spent, which she is looking into for more information to explain what is paid from this line item and why it is so much higher than budgeted and in previous years. Risk Management manages this line item and charges back to the departments. b. List Maintenance Update Director Hunter-Havens summarized the list maintenance activities from September through November 2021: • Removed 1,642 voters from the voter registration rolls consistent with NCGS §163-82.14. • Processed 3,779 new registrations, 1,819 duplicate registrations, and 2,827 registration update forms. Most of the activity comes through DMV. List maintenance activity is less than usual because no new voter registration activity occurs once the voter registration deadline for the municipal election is reached. Member Hunter asked about the duplicate registrations. The Director said that voter registration forms are received from DMV transactions and voter registration drives that do not make any actual changes to the voter’s previous registration. These are treated as voter registration updates for processing to ensure catching updates such as party affiliation Board Minutes – 12/14/2021 changes and address updates, and generate a new voter registration card that meets the contact requirements. The category arises from the provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). List maintenance data is a snapshot of activity at a particular point in time, not an audited report. Monthly removals from the rolls continue after the voter registration deadline, generated from death records and new out of county registrations. Voter updates are processed continuously, but once the voter registration deadline is reached, no new voter registrations are processed until after the election. The Director noted she has updated the visualizations reporting period from December 2018 to January 2020 for less crowded visuals. Postponement of the March primary by court order will allow NCOA (National Change of Address) to proceed in the first quarter. Changes cannot occur within three months of a federal election and would have postponed NCOA until after the March primary. c. Candidate Filing and Redistricting Update Director Hunter-Havens said that the dates for candidate filing for the May primary remain on hold, awaiting direction from the courts, and will be announced as soon as the dates are set. Dates for One Stop early voting and submission of observer lists are set as these track back from the date of the primary. She has notified all polling place facilities and precinct officials of the changes in the primary schedule. Member Kemp asked about postcards sent to some voters seeking applications for precinct officials. Director Hunter-Havens said this is a targeted mailing to 37 of the 43 precincts to voters aged 65 to 70, approximately 14,000 voters, in the age range of the largest cohort of precinct officials, which has generated about 100 new applications so far which are in various stages of the on-boarding process. The pool of precinct officials has been notified of the primary election schedule changes for their planning and will be surveyed in February for their availability to work during the May primary. NEW BUSINESS a. Adoption of Regular Meeting Schedule Chair Carter called for any discussion or questions about the proposed Board meeting schedule for 2022. Member Kemp moved approval of the schedule as submitted, second by Member Hunter. Secretary Miller noted there are three dates when the regular meeting date coincides with a special absentee meeting date which the calendar lists as Special meetings. He asked whether additional public notice is required when there are dual meetings as to timing. The time of the Special Absentee meeting is set by statute to start at 5:00 p.m. Past practice has been to consolidate all agenda items into one agenda for the combined regular and special business. After discussion, the language of the schedule and of the notice published on the NHC BOE website are adequate. Motion carried unanimously. b. Polling Place Change for Precinct W28 Board Minutes – 12/14/2021 Chair Carter called on Director Hunter-Havens for her report. The Director reported that Precinct W28 was moved out of precinct for the 2021 municipal election when no public or private facility could be found within the precinct. After the election, Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church agreed to allow use of their Activity Center which meets all requirements for access and parking, and is within the precinct boundaries. The facility contract will not allow any electioneering on the premises, which private properties have the option to require. Director Hunter-Havens said the facility contract covers the 2022 elections. All polling place agreements will renew in 2023. Chair Carter moved approval of the Resolution to Adopt Polling Place Change in New Hanover County, second by Member Bryan. Motion carried unanimously. GENERAL DISCUSSION Member Kemp said it would be helpful to get the draft Minutes as soon as the draft is completed and not wait for the agenda packet. Chair Carter asked that the draft Minutes of the December 14 meeting be expedited ahead of the prior incomplete Minutes and be sent upon completion to the Board to review. ADJOURNMENT Member Hunter moved that the meeting be adjourned at 6:32 p.m., second by Secretary Miller. Motion passed unanimously. The next Board meeting is scheduled to be held on January 11, 2022, at 5:15 p.m., at the Board of Elections office, Long Leaf Room, 1241A Military Cutoff Road, Wilmington, NC. APPROVED BY: RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: _______________________________ _____________________________ DERRICK R. MILLER RAE HUNTER-HAVENS SECRETARY ELECTIONS DIRECTOR