By Blake Proctor
Sailing into uncharted Covid19-era waters, the Bladen Board of Elections is counting down to the end of this year’s election cycle. The last few meetings have been concerned with crossing their T’s and dotting their I’s to ensure a fruitful yet safe voting experience for the County’s electorate. The August 11th meeting consisted basically of consolidating and ratifying their previous actions.
First on the agenda was a clarification that an earlier decision to provide poll workers a $2.50 per hour hazard pay was to include those “Roamers” who travelled between polling places; this was ratified on a unanimous vote.
On a motion by Board member Patsy Sheppard, with a second by Michael Aycock, the Board unanimously approved a resolution that moved the time to begin counting absentee ballots from the mandated 5pm to 2pm on election day only in order to provide adequate time to count what is anticipated to be an inordinate number of last minute absentee votes.
This year’s General Election will include at the same time, a Special Election to fill the term on the County Board of Commissioners of Russell Priest, who recently passed away. The Democrat candidate for this position is Matthew Dixon, while the GOP has tapped Cameron McGill. The Democrat Party has recommended that Robby Priest, son of Russell Priest, be appointed by County Commission Chairman Ray Britt to serve in that post until the November election.
It was agreed that the current Abbottsburg Precinct polling place in no way meets the minimum standards for Covid19 safety measures this election cycle. Executive Director Chris Williams is searching for an alternative location so that voters in that precinct are not forced to use another polling place.
It was noted that a facility at the intersection of NC211 and Twisted Hickory Road may be adequate; Mr. Williams will get in touch with property owner Charles Wiggins to determine if he would be amenable to allowing use of this building and will get back to the Board on this matter.
Total personnel at the precincts will number between three – the NC Board of Elections minimum staffing requirement – and seven poll workers, depending on prior polling activity at each precinct. The Board has 36 poll workers to staff the six precincts for one-stop voting, as well as a number of “standby” workers.
All one-stop poll workers will undergo training at the Board offices between 10am and 2pm on Saturday August 29th, with a second round of training in September; the public is invited to attend and observe. Mr. Williams informed the Board that they are somewhat shorthanded for the General Election, although he has a list of individuals who are interested in serving.
He said that the County will provide personnel, equipment, and materials to clean all the precinct facilities before and after both early voting activities and the general election. This will mean a substantial cost-savings to the Board of Elections while ensuring the facilities are free from potential contaminants.
Mr. Williams informed the Board that he has received permission from the State Board to purchase three additional DS200 voting tabulators to ensure an adequate number of working voting machines in case of machine malfunctions.
The Board is requesting that the two political parties limit their poll observers this election cycle to one from each party rather than the two allowed by State law; this is to ensure that the electorate has sufficient social distancing within each facility and that they don’t feel pressured. As an aside, it was requested that the Chairmen of the two parties ensure that their poll observers do not wear inappropriate clothing of a political nature while serving in their capacity as observers.
Having covered all agenda items to their satisfaction, the meeting adjourned at 5:47.
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