[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:09] Good afternoon and welcome to today's Board of Registration and Election Special called meeting. Can I get the roll call, please?
[0:17] Good afternoon, Board members. When I call your name, please signify by saying here.
[0:22] Fossil up a ramen here, Travis Balden, Gail Lee here, Delay Loman here,
[0:30] Cardi Swift here. Madam chair, you have a corner. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the
[0:36] agenda? Some of second, all in favor. All right. All right. Great. Okay. Now, we are going to have
[0:44] public comment.
[0:52] Public comment may be made in person are submitted by sending an email of no
[0:56] A one printed page or less at a minimum of 12 point font to elections public comment at
[1:03] decavcountie.gov, which must be received between 35 and 5 minutes before the schedule
[1:09] started in the meeting.
[1:10] The body of your email must include your first and last name by submitting an email for
[1:15] public comment you agree to have your name and email broadcast on the U-Stream and enter
[1:20] into the official record in minutes.
[1:22] The Decab Board of Registration and Elections Reserves the Right.
[1:28] At the Decab County Board of Registration and Elections,
[1:30] so a discretion to one at your email to the record without reading any of it into the broadcast,
[1:37] or we all are a portion of your email into the record in minutes.
[1:42] All public comments will be limited to two minutes, abusive, profane,
[1:46] derogatory language, holding up signs, clapping, yelling, standing,
[1:50] our line in the L's to show support for our opposition to a speaker will not be permitted.
[1:57] But a show of hands are quietly standing in place will be permitted to show support for
[2:03] our opposition to a speaker's actions.
[2:07] We have two public comments for it.
[2:12] Okay. Thank you. And one, Eli Tronett. Yes. All right. So, Ms. Vigalsky, if you want to come up first,
[2:19] will have Dr. Harris come back and read the public, the e-comment and in-leash troop.
[2:31] Good afternoon, my name is Dr. Kendra Begalski. I'm a Decab County resident
[2:35] and chair of the Decab County Republican Party. I'm disappointed to learn that this board
[2:41] did not approve a motion for saying the pledge of allegiance before meetings.
[2:46] Reciting the pledge is a brief unifying civic practice used by school boards, city councils,
[2:51] County commissions and the Congress of the United States, making that simple act, a point
[2:58] of division is unnecessary politicization, which is especially unplattering for a board that
[3:04] governs elections of representatives to our county state and country. The words of the
[3:09] pledge manner, we pledge allegiance to the Republic for which it stands. We do not pledge allegiance
[3:16] to a democracy.
[3:19] That distinction is not a talking point.
[3:21] It is the form of government established by our constitution.
[3:26] When a public body charged with administering elections mitts this reminder,
[3:32] it contributes to a widespread civic error.
[3:35] The belief that America is a simple majority rule democracy
[3:40] rather than a republic.
[3:42] election officials should model the constitutional language they are sworn to uphold.
[3:49] I respectfully ask this board to reconsider, reciting the pledge of allegiance,
[3:54] as a regular opening of its public meetings.
[3:57] It takes very little time and reminds us that we are Americans living
[4:01] in a constitutional republic and as such, part of something larger and greater
[4:06] than our respected political affiliations.
[4:09] Thank you.
[4:12] What have the email comment?
[4:19] One email comment submitted on Monday, August 31st at 11.48am.
[4:26] My name is Nancy Arnold and I am a Decap County resident.
[4:30] I'm a Paul Tolerant that the board did not approve it motion
[4:33] of forcing the pledge of allegiance before meetings.
[4:37] What on earth could be the reason for rejecting it?
[4:40] deciding the pledge is a unifying civic practice used by school boards, city councils, county
[4:46] commissions, and the Congress of the United States. Making that simple act, a point of division
[4:53] is baffling and is especially unflattering for a board that governs elections of representatives
[4:58] for our country and state.
[5:01] I actually time myself turning to the flag and reciting the pledge. It took me less than 20 seconds. So obviously time is not the issue. What exactly is the issue? The words of the pledge matter, we pledge allegiance to the Republic for which it stands, we do not pledge allegiance to a democracy. The form of government established by our constitution is a constitutional republic, which represents government, a numeracy.
[5:29] with powers and the rule of law. When a public body charged with administering elections,
[5:35] omits this reminder, it contributes to a widespread civic era. The belief that America is a simple
[5:42] majority rule democracy rather than a republic, election officials of all people should model
[5:48] the constitutional language. They are sworn to uphold. I respectfully ask this for to reconsider,
[5:54] reciting the pledge of allegiance as a regular opening of its public meetings.
[5:59] It takes 20 seconds and yet reminds us that we are all Americans and as such, part of
[6:07] something larger and greater than our respective political affiliations.
[6:12] Thank you, Nancy Arnaut, DeCab County resident.
[6:18] Please, troop.
[6:25] Okay, thanks for letting me speak.
[6:30] Voting rights groups are expressing concern
[6:33] about what ID might be required
[6:35] at the polls in the November election.
[6:39] This has been especially worrisome
[6:41] for people whose names on their ID
[6:42] doesn't match the name on their birth certificates.
[6:46] And it disproportionately affects women
[6:48] who change their names when they married.
[6:51] These people would need to act now to have documentation in November.
[6:58] Georgia already has strong voter ID laws and our driver's license IDs are real ID compliant.
[7:05] According to the Secretary of State, our unique driver's license numbers have already been verified
[7:11] against the federal systematic alien verification for entitlement database.
[7:16] I think that means that only newly registered voters recently naturalized citizens and some people with expired or out-of-state licenses would need extra documentation.
[7:30] Can to tab elections with legal guidance give clear specific information to voters about what will be required at the polls, whether or not the same act passes before the election?
[7:42] Could you also ask the Secretary of State's office to address this issue for voters say why?
[7:49] Thank you.
[7:53] Thank you.
[7:54] Thank you for all the comments.
[7:55] That ends public comment.
[7:56] Now we will move into today's item for decision, which is the certification of the August 25th.
[8:03] 2026 Congressional District 13 special election runoff.
[8:07] I am going to as the Director Smith to provide a report.
[8:12] Thank you.
[8:13] I'm good afternoon for your consideration and certification.
[8:20] You will find in your packets the election summer report for the general election of the or the special election runoff for congressional district 13 and before your vote on certification.
[8:40] I will just go through the post election report for this election, you will see that the turnout numbers are reflected on the slide that is displayed and I think it's the third in your packet.
[9:06] The total number of active voters in this catchment area was 14,595, 623 ballots were cast,
[9:18] which yields a turnout percentage of 4.27. On election day, there were 274 voters
[9:27] and during early voting 349.
[9:37] Early voting took place at the county line Ellen Wood Library
[9:43] and of as normal and as we usually see
[9:47] the highest turnout days were the last two days,
[9:52] Thursday and Friday there.
[10:00] There were no absentee ballots requested. I'm sorry. There were three absentee ballots requested, but none were returned by the deadline for this runoff.
[10:13] And the next slide shows the election day.
[10:18] There were four precincts and four polling locations.
[10:22] They were staffed with 17 poll workers,
[10:27] and the equipment tested and deployed total eight poll pads,
[10:33] 20 touch screens and eight scanners.
[10:38] There were no provisionals on election day or doing early voting,
[10:44] so no in-person provisional ballots were cast during this run-off and that I believe concludes
[10:51] their post-election report. As always, we thank our partners, our board, our county departments,
[11:00] of course our poll workers, poll watches, and my staff who work diligently to facilitate another
[11:07] successful election. And with that, I will turn it over to you. Thank you. Okay, are there any questions?
[11:15] Miss Lee? No questions. Okay, slow no questions.
[11:22] I had one question. Just three absentee ballots requested. None were returned by the deadline.
[11:29] I'll just preface it with a comment. I'm just unsurprised whenever absentee ballots have trouble
[11:36] getting back for this truly idiotic four-week runoff cycle that we've bought into in Georgia
[11:43] since SB 202, shorten this from nine weeks to three weeks.
[11:50] I am curious when those ballots were
[11:54] mailed to the voters and if we have any information about where those voters were located.
[12:13] I believe one of the three applications was a U.S. application from a voter who just happened
[12:20] to send an FBCA in that short window, and not to attempt to psychoanalyze him, but he may
[12:25] have primarily been interested in voting in November, in any case we didn't receive his
[12:28] ballot back. The other two, we roached out to some of the voters to remind them that they
[12:34] need to reapply because there's no rollover lists and I think they did those two eventually
[12:41] applied but they did it on the last day and then we mailed it out on the last day which would
[12:46] have been 11 days before the election. Thank you.
[12:53] Okay thank you for those questions and I also want
[12:56] to just thank the Department for the hard work that they've done. This is like the 50-11th election
[13:02] We've had this year, literally every month.
[13:07] There's been an election, which is wild and a lot of work.
[13:12] And they're gearing up now for Super Bowl in November.
[13:17] So, yeah, thank you for all your hard work.
[13:20] I don't have any other questions.
[13:22] I don't have any additional questions.
[13:23] So with that, I am going to ask for a motion to certify.
[13:32] So moved.
[13:34] Second.
[13:36] Okay, I'll leave a favor.
[13:37] Hi. Okay, so I think we actually can, we don't need to adjourn, we can sign after the meeting.
[13:45] Just for the public, normally we would adjourn the meeting and sign, but because of the short nature of today's meeting,
[13:53] we don't need to do that. So legal team, do we have any executive session today?
[13:59] No need for executive session. Okay, great. Thank you. All right, so we're going to go into Board comments.
[14:06] Lastly, I'll start with you and we'll just work our way around.
[14:09] All right.
[14:11] I would like to thank the people who brought up the issue of the pledge of allegiance.
[14:16] And also the issue of proof of citizenship.
[14:26] The, I, as you know, I support saying the pledge of allegiance.
[14:32] and it puts our minds on the our duties here in advance of having our meetings. And also,
[14:46] I think it would be great if we could reconsider that motion. And so I support that.
[14:56] But
[14:58] It would be really good.
[15:00] Good, assure the public that their driver's license that's done the real ID is sufficient. So they don't have to worry about getting all their papers back together because they most likely already done all that with the Department of Driver Services. So if we could just find out for sure, it would be great and we could let the public know.
[15:28] All right, thank you.
[15:33] This moment. Thank you for the staff and
[15:39] poll workers for another successful election. In response to the requests,
[15:49] I am regarding the pledge of allegiance.
[15:55] It's astounding to me that we are in an environment where
[16:03] Our rights are being taken away every day, civil liberties are being threatened, children are
[16:10] dying of measles because we have a head of the HHS who endorses quackery. People can
[16:18] increasingly not afford to pay for their lives, their lives, every time we step out of
[16:25] house it costs money, just breathe. So when we have multiple people making complaints about
[16:35] reciting the pledge of allegiance, it feels like we have lost the plot.
[16:43] Regarding the claim
[16:44] that this is somehow unifying, I just want to remind you that our legislature convened in a
[16:51] special session this summer to take voting representation away from black people.
[17:00] reciting the pledge of allegiance is not unifying and requesting it is offensive.
[17:07] I will not support it and I hope that it does not get brought up again until we can be assured that this country has pledged allegiance to all of its citizens and
[17:16] and treats all of us as Americans, which it does not
[17:19] never has.
[17:22] That's it.
[17:25] Mr. Ramad.
[17:26] I wanted to thank you to everybody who's been working so hard on this so many
[17:32] elections that we've had to run into Cap County this year.
[17:36] And then I also wanted to echo my colleagues remarks just now.
[17:44] I concur.
[17:45] I
[17:51] don't know, thank everyone, thank the office, our legal team, DCTV, and everyone who joined us today.
[18:00] I think this, this meeting is short and so we're going to end it with that.
[18:05] I concur with everything that has been said regarding the pledge of allegiance.
[18:09] I think that at this point of all the things we need to be concerned about, it certainly shouldn't be about something that you can say.
[18:19] at your, at your leisure. I think if anything, maybe we need to remind the public who
[18:27] won the 2020 election. And move on from there with respect to ID's Georgia ID is a real
[18:38] ID, which is the federally required secure ID. It requires a certain level of documentation to
[18:45] receive it. There is no issue that I'm aware of with that ID not providing with valid
[18:55] improper citizenship or proof of citizenship and there's we should not there is no need
[19:00] to have any additional requirements to vote. However, we look forward to continuing these discussions
[19:07] to ensure that we effectively operate and administer the elections going forward. We look forward to
[19:16] seeing you guys next month for our regular release scheduled meeting on September 10th.
[19:23] We'll be continuing to do the work of this department and overseeing the work going forward
[19:31] towards the general election in November of this year.
[19:37] So thank you again, and I'm going to ask the board once we're adjourned to stay so that we can sign the certification documents.
[19:45] And look forward to seeing you guys next month.
[19:46] Thank you.
[19:47] With that, can I get a motion to adjourn?
[19:49] That's how I moved.
[19:50] Second.
[19:51] All in favor.
[19:52] Bye.