[0:00] there it goes there it is okay watch behind you all right you're

[0:08] on okay it's 3:15 we're going to call the 3:00 meeting of the war County

[0:13] election board to order uh first let's do the roll

[0:21] call py here Nancy here I'm here as well all three of us are here

[0:31] um next thing on the agenda is the approval of minutes of September 17 2024

[0:37] I'm going to ask that we uh postpone on that so table that to the next meeting

[0:42] just because of the fact that we just got them today had two meetings so close

[0:46] together we had a chance to read the minutes just to confirm it rather do

[0:50] that than through it that's my motion is that we table it do we have a second all

[0:55] right uh all in favor say I I

[1:00] I so three nothing okay um election day number of

[1:08] machines workers at vat centers

[1:12] so we've done some work on that subject over the past uh week or

[1:19] so and only PR a couple of them it's okay people can just

[1:24] talk this is shorthand for what's going to be changed

[1:30] in um the idea was originally so at last week's board minut meeting we started

[1:37] off with the uh suggestion of 93 machines I think we' have now decided

[1:43] that 93 machines even at the by the end of the meeting we had already gone up to

[1:48] 118 and now looking at things and having received more input from the people here

[1:54] at the meeting and uh microtee uh and further conversation

[2:00] uh the uh suggestion is now or my suggestion is that we have 147 machines

[2:09] now there are a few things I want to just chat through on that I have the

[2:12] list out there so everyone can see it um one one question that I have so one of

[2:19] the ideas was is that we want to sort of almost have too many machines or over

[2:23] have machines in a couple locations right so we want to make sure that we

[2:26] have more machines than we need um in some of our busiest areas right so

[2:33] what are our busiest areas are the town of Newberg and the town or the city of

[2:38] Boonville and so the idea was that we would have uh 20 machines which is

[2:45] basically double the original suggestion in three different locations those

[2:51] locations are the trustees office and the Living Word Church and at the

[2:57] Boonville Library so one research topic that we had coming into today and I

[3:03] think that both Nancy and Patty were going to look into this was would the

[3:08] Boonville Library be able to hold 20 machines I was there today and I'm happy

[3:15] to say that yes they will and they have a lot of outlets as well perfect so I

[3:19] think that was a concern that a couple people have said maybe we won't have

[3:22] enough room so it's good to hear that we have in the room um and we're we were

[3:26] already pretty confident on the other two I believe word church and the

[3:31] trustees office right and I do have a phone call in to Mr Kaufman but he

[3:35] hasn't called me back yet I've spoke with him personally this morning okay

[3:39] and he said absolutely no problem great excellent and the idea being that if a

[3:47] smaller location gets overwhelmed they can at least suggest to

[3:51] people that you have another location just a few minutes away that you can go

[3:55] to um hopefully we won't need that we are investing in having more Ma

[4:00] prepared uh so that no location will um be um

[4:08] overwhelmed and if you'll note so the the primary go is at 288,000 so that's

[4:16] uh um that's a high estimate we haven't had more than 23,000 in election War

[4:23] county is growing but 23,000 I should say in person on Election Day

[4:30] um and so but work count is growing so we wanted to overestimate rather than

[4:40] underestimate additionally on that note one of the things that I think the board

[4:45] has talked about is making sure that people know about early voting where the

[4:50] early voting is we have uh flyers on both tables and we have more here that

[4:58] people can take scan them in on social media post them at a grocery store

[5:05] message boards but I'm hoping that people that are invested in the election

[5:09] which be the people in this room are sending out that message I plan on

[5:13] having that uh uh putting that on social media tonight myself just

[5:19] personally and if I can add Paul we will start putting out

[5:25] banners uh the Friday prior to when early voting

[5:32] starts so at the judicial Center it'll be the Friday

[5:37] prior they are large banners Kim me 6x4 I believe three three there 6 by3

[5:46] banners and each location will have a banner and we kind of do the overkill

[5:53] with the small signs as well V signs vote here we have those two there so the

[5:59] three voting places the J Center the Township community center and the limo

[6:03] Community Center will have a b yes sir

[6:09] perfect um so I sent this out earlier to you guys have you two had a chance to

[6:17] look at the proposal as far as the V for

[6:22] panel I did yes just one

[6:27] recommendation we need to make sure sure that everyone knows that there has to be

[6:33] at least one vote on every single machine so I talked to Steve about that

[6:40] and he said we they all machines have to be accounted for but we don't actually

[6:43] have to have a vote at them anymore is what he told me today because I actually

[6:48] asked that question and we can talk about that online we can talk about that

[6:51] offline with but uh I remember what I was talking about last week and ask he's

[6:57] like well so it was in his suggestion was to have three machines back here uh

[7:04] that we could send out on Election Day if it if a place was overwhelmed but

[7:10] then he also told me that um there would be some challenges with doing that

[7:15] because we'd have to take that Boat Center down for a little while to get

[7:19] that boat in uh integrated into the with the

[7:25] rest of them and so it might cause more confusion than it solves a

[7:30] while so I was actually thinking maybe we don't do that but um do you remember

[7:38] if we did that before they've always required one there had to be one vote on

[7:44] one machine I don't know if there I don't know if something aware of

[7:49] something changing that there has to be a vote on every machine so I actually

[7:53] had Steve on uh I'll

[7:57] just do put on speaker

[8:03] phone this is our vendor Steve shamoo at

[8:10] micro hi Steve this is Paul Rudolph in the war County election board can you

[8:14] hear me okay hey how you guys doing good good good good so um we're just sort of

[8:21] working through the process I sort of have my gen my my uh Excel spreadsheet

[8:27] that we had talked about previously and one thing that Patty and I wanted to

[8:32] make sure you two were saying the same thing maybe it's just my

[8:36] misunderstanding Patty was saying that all panels have to have at least one

[8:40] vote recorded on them which I thought was slightly different than what you

[8:44] said so I wanted to that that has changed um sincey became clerk that is

[8:50] um you can um you can tally a machine out with no votes on it um and get a

[8:59] that is readable we try to get them to put at least one v on it in the we tell

[9:05] them in the poker classes they set it up to atast it so we

[9:11] know certain that that machine wasi out and we receive the card back meally

[9:21] cani perfect um is that good Patty yes all right thank you Steve so just to

[9:29] confirm so you were suggesting that in addition

[9:32] to the 147 panels that we've talked about having like three in reserve that

[9:36] could be uh brought out if necessary is that correct yeah yeah okay so that make

[9:43] us a nice even 150 I see 148 did I get the wrong that was the old one I did a

[9:50] new one um so after I changed the mat a little bit after talking to Steve um

[9:57] thought I have one more steal this one

[10:02] back but yes that one and that's what everyone else has you had a higher

[10:07] version I basically only CH changed the Elberfeld colish station because it had

[10:12] like 150 BS per person per

[10:20] pan so 147 panels and three in

[10:27] reserve uh so are we good on that I don't I'm sorry I don't

[10:35] understand the Elberfeld firey station you took it back down to four to five to

[10:41] five to five oh I could read that sorry yeah that that my printer not the best

[10:49] get yeah I had it at six and then but it was only like 150 votes per panel while

[10:54] the other ones were higher than that uh and for Steve just be clear takes about

[10:59] 3 minutes at a machine to vote so 3 minutes and that's with transfering in

[11:04] transfering out so give or take you can do up to 20 an hour um for machine and

[11:10] polls are open for 12 hours correct so you do more if you try really

[11:18] hard but so

[11:23] 147 plus three can office how does that seem to you guys

[11:29] N I like that number pretty much okay Pat what do you think as

[11:37] well Steve we've always had even numbers at the polling location that got so that

[11:45] doesn't matter no no doesn't matter at all and as far

[11:51] as the pole pads and the number of um

[11:58] got you'll I think when you get up to where you have those machines that the

[12:03] where you have the locations that have 20

[12:10] and 2020 and 15 yep you you want to get a you have plent

[12:23] ofs so I I did not put P pads on sorry so we

[12:29] so I'll just circle them so just to be clear we're saying Boonville Library

[12:34] Living Word Church Ohio Township trustees office and Newberg American

[12:39] Legion would Al all receive a third

[12:49] pack and lville library and Newberg American

[12:55] Legion would also receive two more workers to what we already talk for go

[13:00] to 9

[13:08] seven because at that point there's more machine volume available capacity than

[13:15] there is people so we have to add people to make the machines or

[13:21] voters sounds weird

[13:29] how many how many early maches you guys was it

[13:36] 20 sounds right 66 and four 66 and four I think was more

[13:44] that

[13:56] six no we changed it to 68 and two six where six at the judicial office

[14:04] eight in Newberg two in

[14:14] Lyon those on Monday

[14:18] awesome um okay

[14:23] so talked about panels talked about uh pull pass

[14:29] talk about workers are we good to accept this as

[14:36] it okay I'll entertain I will second it I'll make the motion then sorry a

[14:44] second so motion made by Paul and seconded by

[14:50] Nancy to adjust and I should probably mention well I'll mention after the

[14:57] meeting um or not after the after the vote to adjust to the spreadsheet as

[15:05] modified all D say I I motion carries three to nothing um I did want to also

[15:12] mention that I took the initiative to talk to Brad Overton president of the

[15:16] war County Council know that this would have follow some increased expense um

[15:23] and um there was not um that was understood so obviously you

[15:30] can't talk for the council but having a better plan

[15:37] to um so that's the only item on the agenda um we do have one item of

[15:44] additional business um and I'll share that so

[15:50] um early voting bouts have been released uh they've been received um and we have

[15:57] already identified an issue there's a small issue in Chandler where uh

[16:03] Chandler changed from being um Precinct where you only vote for your Precinct to

[16:09] at large rote for the entire uh town of Chandler uh for their Town Council and U

[16:17] that changed in 2022 and our updated ballots did not

[16:22] reflect that so we are there should be no issue for the either the early voting

[16:27] and it'll be um resolve well before the early voting and before the day in

[16:32] voting however we will need to reprint 30 or less ballots um and send

[16:38] those out to people uh we expect to resolve this within the next week um and

[16:44] make sure that everyone is either notified or has a new ballot in their

[16:47] hand at that point in time so today so that's 9:30 is the public test we expect

[16:56] everyone to be aware of it by that or at least to attempt to communicate with

[17:01] them can't promise that they'll receive it in the public test is that is at

[17:07] 11:00 a.m. a week from today um one other piece of new business

[17:14] is so um as I think most people know um what I've have been to previous meetings

[17:19] such as the work on Council uh when the public introduces himself or as some

[17:24] public comment uh they typically identify themselves gives their name

[17:29] whether they live in Boonville Newberg hler Etc um and so probably be a good

[17:33] idea for us to do the same here we did not do that last week uh but I would

[17:39] request uh that public comment is provided that they share their

[17:50] name is there any other additional business can I can I add something on

[17:56] those those ballots that have already been sent out Chandler yep so you guys

[18:01] are your plan is to submit are you ISS new BS to everyone across theard I think

[18:07] we were only going to uh correct the the so just to be clear uh Steve and

[18:13] everyone this only became identified early this afternoon uh so you're

[18:18] getting new information that we at least my original thought was we

[18:23] would only identify the incorrect ballots and adjust those if there's that

[18:29] says we need to do otherwise uh obviously we would entertain that but

[18:34] what do you mean by adjust them meaning sending them new ones okay I think

[18:39] there's a I would double check with Brad King on that

[18:44] process there's usually a a letter that goes out that let them know there was a

[18:49] ballot error and then they um request another

[18:54] ballot um if they want to if not that other ballot goes in complication is is

[19:00] we we have to utilize two separate databases to accommodate those ones that

[19:05] went out and they chose not to correct them um but I think if you're following

[19:12] the letter of law I would definitely confer with Brad

[19:16] king or Angie n Meer for that process I'm just to make certain we're within

[19:21] the Lanes on that there has been a conversation with Angie already um but

[19:26] yes more conversation again this is sort of late breaking news so we don't

[19:30] necessarily even have um I'm wondering do we need to vote I think we probably

[19:35] need to vote based upon the statute uh that we're going to correct it I think

[19:39] that would make sense um so 31162 section

[19:50] A if they return the first bot and they don't return the second one that we're

[19:56] into a slightly different SC was

[20:06] 2 you have the right

[20:13] number so if an election board determines that a ballot printed under

[20:16] the authority of election board does not comply with the requirement imposed by

[20:19] this title or contains any other error mission that might result in confusion

[20:22] or mistakes by voters the board shall reprint or collect the correct the

[20:26] ballot is number one um or conduct a public hearing

[20:32] so I think

[20:36] the correct so I think we need to have a motion to correct the

[20:43] ballot I will second that motion that

[20:50] correct so Nancy's motion to correct the ballot all is

[20:56] seconded all in favor say i i i motion carries three to

[21:10] nothing correct what happens is is that uh in the past chander voted in

[21:15] districts right so district one voted for district one representative district

[21:19] two voted for District 2's representative etc etc uh now they're

[21:23] going to at large voting where if if you're in Chandler you vote for all the

[21:29] representatives not just the one for your district

[21:35] do I believe the answer is

[21:43] yes the all in one office um I have a copy of the ordinance in front of me um

[21:51] and I believe the answer is yes to that but let me confirm and we'll give you a

[21:57] copy of that ordinance um it's enough pages I don't want to try

[22:02] to analyze it on the telephone with you but I think the answer is

[22:14] yes from this point forward and it was LGE out of orever it was

[22:23] um that um they do they have do these have straight party AFF

[22:29] also yes okay so that disconnected from the straight party

[22:39] voting the B 68 and then so

[22:51] current right and now it's going to have all three districts on it correct I

[22:56] think there are two Chandler C up for election I think this

[23:02] election paron correctly I think there's two in the

[23:06] presidential two in the off

[23:11] presidential

[23:18] okay

[23:21] um any other additional

[23:26] business Okay so we're going to keep you on the phone for a minute and open this

[23:31] up to public

[23:34] comment does anyone have a comment or

[23:43] question great Ohio Township um terms of pole

[23:48] pads if you've got 20 voting machines over there that means you've got a PR

[23:52] substantial line of Voters you know you can have three four maybe even five P

[23:57] pads right um let's see the largest the largest

[24:01] group we're going to have is going to have nine workers which means they'll

[24:07] have in theory four qus M so we have lots of as as

[24:18] know on October 21st myor saying is there's no expense I was just concerned

[24:24] about having people to man multiple p ps and just having that

[24:29] that in the judicial what's the

[24:35] point to fil through the people through the I think we're putting a lot of

[24:39] machines out there that's great but now I think we may have moved the point to

[24:45] the you and so three or four pull pads would be

[24:50] great so certainly any of the ones that we've already got to three the ones with

[24:55] 15 or 20 you know the places that have four they going to be fine that but the

[25:00] places that have 10 and 11 and

[25:06] 15 that's let let's feed those machines what's your suggestion Greg um did you

[25:14] say the lar on the

[25:19] lares so four for the with 20 again you know the inspector runs

[25:25] their runsun um at locations I've worked at runs I'm

[25:31] sorry I couldn't hear you sorry the inspector runs their location I'm not

[25:35] going to try to tell an inspector how to do their job but the locations I've

[25:39] worked at you know we shift people around you know if we've got lots of

[25:43] people stacking up and and we need to get them onto the machines then we we'll

[25:47] take people and start all you're now a judge we'll put people on machines um

[25:51] you know if we got a bunch of people in line and machines are sitting empty sit

[25:55] people down and you're a clerk sign people in you know we we try to be as

[26:00] flexible as possible to get as many voters through the process as Qui we

[26:05] can so you would suggest four at the ones with 20 and then three for the ones

[26:10] with 15 11 and 10 not I mean does that complicate things P like

[26:19] does anyone feel like that's causes any challenges logistical having more p ps

[26:25] or is it just not an issue I the only thing I would worry about is and I did

[26:31] hear this that they were checking people in giving them their slip of

[26:39] paper and then allowed them to sit down or step back and what happens in that

[26:46] case is it causes the pole pads numbers to be off from the machine numbers

[26:54] that's the only thing I ever say Kimmy what do you say what are

[26:59] you so that our checkins are the same as what's on the machine I just don't want

[27:09] confusion in the Boat

[27:16] Center can only Che so many at a time how many can we well if you if you

[27:24] had the three you can check in three people obviously and send them that you

[27:28] know that get into that process to the

[27:34] machine the judge

[27:41] actually and so having three or four might be doable but

[27:47] no more than that

[27:58] that's when starts that's what I was talking

[28:03] yeah the primary at Living Word it's a very large room there lots of chairs in

[28:09] that room we had a table we would check people in take their s on the table at

[28:15] times we had on that table those were people who were been checked in were

[28:19] sing the chairs waiting to vote and I really don't think that's I'm sorry

[28:24] that's sometimes how receipts get lost why they stay right there on the table

[28:29] don't give it we don't give it to to the person those receipts can blow off and

[28:35] that my concern is they could get lost and I think that I remember going into

[28:40] to Living Word to deliver the two extra machines I'm sorry we had two extra

[28:46] machines deliver during the day I yeah I didn't bring those though I brought I

[28:51] brought something else I think it was paper but anyway it the system looked

[28:57] good I thought but you have to worry about losing those slips of paper and I

[29:04] mean that's just I'm just telling you my

[29:10] feelings I'm

[29:14] sorry of receips that to that receipt because bring the

[29:21] Mach multiple encoding cards watch right

[29:34] Associated it was a great card for us with that on the table and they

[29:40] ranged in order so that we knew next machine's available Jo stand front of

[29:45] that group of people and Jo would stand up and take

[29:49] over did you ever have anybody get out of line

[29:55] and Jane blow up and the other I'm just asking out of curiosity um I think at

[30:02] one point we had two voters with the same name you're welcome

[30:05] bye and we uh we identified the confusion right

[30:10] away when we pulled up we took one voter over the machine pull up their ballot

[30:14] and it wasn't the right ballot for them and so

[30:21] that's if you were to put it in a second time it will not bring up a ballot corre

[30:27] so it would have for that to happen cards

[30:31] would have

[30:34] had I don't recall if we had to manually bring up the ballot for the voter or not

[30:40] using the MasterCard um I think we were able to do it we were able to handle it

[30:44] without doing that we just went out and found the second Fred snarf had brought

[30:49] him up and had him vote on the machine that had his ballot and then the next

[30:54] machine which that other voter that was the correct Steve uh it's Kim Kelly I

[31:00] vaguely remember in class that throughout the years that you

[31:04] recommended not really checking in over like seven for that reason I mean is

[31:09] that reasonable the concern has always been

[31:13] that you know if you enter aing site and you scan your driver's license and Che

[31:20] you can leave that s in return but once you check in if you decide to leave

[31:26] between the che and

[31:31] Ma you're

[31:34] not why I always try to keep an of like people or so Che so I don't have you

[31:42] know

[31:46] subus the usually rests will be on the of that line so if I had 20 people

[31:54] waiting after check somebody goes to the restroom techically shouldn't be allowed

[31:59] back to the other side of the table you know believe

[32:05] name you know get how you control the room in the flow of the room and at

[32:10] Living Word we definitely had the benefit of having all those chairs

[32:13] available and and that that space available um at first Christian

[32:18] previously um you know we would basically we would have I think four or

[32:24] five people and then we'd tell the clerks to stop checking people in

[32:28] until we until we cleared those people and got them onto a machine and then we

[32:31] say okay start start up again um again it's just a matter of managing your your

[32:36] your pulling place and that's that's really expec yeah so let me uh try to

[32:41] move this into a uh quantify this so how did you go with four at the on with 20

[32:49] based on that or do you want to keep it at

[32:53] three I I we could do four can you be at each Bo Center

[33:00] FR you need to keep some a whole bunch of really pissed

[33:07] off just the ones with 20 panels Legion the the trustees office and the

[33:12] Boonville and then I think that maybe we bump the ones with uh like the ones that

[33:19] have 15 11 and 10 panels to three that would be Abundant

[33:26] Life uh uh the American Legion and the J Community

[33:34] Center so that's a total how

[33:38] many election day you have

[33:47] begin correct yep and then we've added one to

[33:54] three other ones that'll be 43 okay and then

[33:58] you have a total of 47 in the county some of those will be used for

[34:03] early voting but that is not an issue you cannot use early voting voting

[34:10] machines again on Election Day because of the vote type

[34:14] separ for you can Rec those from early voting for election day but we want to

[34:22] make certain we take the proper steps to make certain that all the early voting

[34:27] um checkins are secure within the central

[34:31] software before we reassign it to a location but that's it's a very simple

[34:36] process and it's very easy to verify so and that could be done with our person

[34:41] on staff on

[34:45] Monday elction

[34:51] perfect I think on the panels the total is not right it's been brought

[34:57] to my attention by

[35:04] two12 42 it's possible

[35:10] 46475 y I got 151 151 plus the three I'm guessing

[35:15] there was a form ER I don't take credit for that we take con

[35:23] and still three in reserve call

[35:29] yeah so all

[35:33] right is there additional public

[35:37] comment

[35:44] julan the the question I'm having is having more in leg and we had 20 30

[35:53] minute late to hold in the primary okay and your your correction here from the

[36:01] last meeting adding the polling machines or the panels is is is is spot on

[36:10] except we all know we all know that this is a general election and we all know

[36:17] we're going to V more people here this says in the

[36:20] 2020 we voted 71% okay

[36:25] and we still have 9,000 people in W town to and and I'm using round numb

[36:34] the and I know the uh I don't want to see any kind of U voter suppression by

[36:42] pulling up and you got a line from here to the other block waiting to to vote I

[36:48] know the blueville library had in the primary had an hour and a half weight

[36:52] sometimes is what I was told and they I don't have the figures here for the uh

[36:59] machines but I respected the committee's choice on adding machines but I still

[37:07] feel as a concerned citizen as a concerned citizen that we're still short

[37:13] machines at some of these locations that's going to vote these large numbers

[37:17] and they're going to be sticking out the door because we voted 193 machines

[37:22] according to this according to this in the uh in the 2020 General and they was

[37:29] still our weights then you know and and I'm just W to when

[37:35] we send this out to the public and this election board said hey

[37:40] we voted an hour and a half you guys are the ones that are voting or are moving

[37:47] to cut 50 uh sorry 40

[37:53] 47 47 machines off from what we voted in the other General M okay so we're we're

[38:00] voting right now 37 machine short and I don't think that's appropriate I think

[38:05] in the primary you can look at I know you mentioned that it takes three

[38:09] minutes to vote I'm I'm going to bag to differ with you respectfully cuz I was

[38:15] there and there some people stood there for 10 minutes and didn't know who they

[38:18] would V for that was a really big battle Yeah and and you're you're absolutely

[38:24] right but I don't want to take that away from from walking up say I'm sorry your

[38:29] 3 minutes are up you need to no I don't either but respectfully I love the way

[38:34] you added but I think there's still a

[38:39] problem that when we go to these board to this election there's going to be and

[38:44] I understand people's got to wait what's the again but by cutting this election

[38:50] short we all know how important it is this is a huge we're going to vote more

[38:55] people than 71 this H fin so uh so in my opinion I think we're still short on our

[39:04] machines and I know there's room uh thank you for the time on this

[39:12] ly explanation I know there's a problem with sitting this room as size that room

[39:17] as size but I think also the people that are

[39:23] voting deserves the respect and the privilege that just because it's it's

[39:29] cost $115 or $100 or whatever they deserve that right to vote in a

[39:35] reasonable time and I understand it's be all right we'll get those in two of them

[39:41] we're also people short from the 2020 election and people were standing

[39:49] in 70 are you meaning

[39:53] workers you're welcome that's a good thing right that's because we got rid of

[39:57] some smaller locations and we're moving to the boat location so I think that

[40:01] we're going to have a a staff that's busier rather than having 40 polling

[40:05] places we're going to have 17 we have 24 poing 24 uh but still we're having less

[40:12] is as I but you're still going to have the well on that note right so one of

[40:17] the things I said earlier is we really need to push people into early voting we

[40:22] really need to push in more early voting there's no reason why we should have 80%

[40:29] of the County voting on Election Day um which is probably going to be what

[40:33] happens anyway but the the the point of the matter we have also have space so we

[40:38] obviously have space constraints Financial constraints people

[40:43] constraints there's a lot of moving Parts we're not even sure that some of

[40:48] these poll locations will be I me we had to verify in the ones we already

[40:51] increased that they were going to be able to fit machines and so there's a

[40:55] little bit of a balancing act of all these different things and I'm a

[41:01] little concerned about the idea of trying to just pack panels and then they

[41:07] don't work or they don't fit or it's all jumbled um so I do hear uh the concern

[41:14] and clear I I trust me I consider my time valuable

[41:19] too and I hate waiting in line for an hour um have a hard time doing that more

[41:24] people and less panels because there's no point 20 panels there if you don't

[41:29] have the staff to get people through the well I worked with Steve on the Staffing

[41:34] right and how many panels you need for the staff so Steve's obviously the

[41:38] expert on that so um we did increase you know per Steve I think his answer was 12

[41:46] uh after 12 panels you need more staff and that's what we've done uh to the

[41:50] point we've actually added you know almost doubled the staff at the larger

[41:54] location such as the boot of the library uh the Living Word and trustees office I

[42:01] do have a question for Steve um on the election summary report there's a

[42:05] there's a a a statistic uh number of equipment programmed and number of

[42:10] equipment reported does that mean that we had that

[42:14] many panels out in polling places in vot centers or is that just the total number

[42:22] that were programmed and and and not necessarily all of were

[42:27] actually out in use I have

[42:31] many number number ma are the way the system works we don't

[42:38] preassign a number of maches to the software so when we a machine thatal

[42:44] number gets check into thew and then at the end

[42:47] of when we the it automatically goes in and puts a check next to that serial

[42:54] number so it's checked back in if you have a discrep at the end let's

[43:00] say you and it

[43:06] says

[43:14] of

[43:18] we

[43:21] allance for the sake of rep we cank ased

[43:37] inated on it and did not get returned so if there's a report out

[43:44] there there's an imbalance between those two I

[43:49] guarantee

[43:54] numers as report okay it's it's not that there was an between the two but there

[44:00] was just a report that I saw for an earlier election said there was 193 and

[44:04] that that felt like a really large number for the 2020 was the 2020

[44:09] election in 2020 we had 178 machines and 172 people what year was that

[44:17] 2020 Steve that was uh the number of machines program plus early voting we

[44:25] called uh to verify that we talked to and a couple days ago that was 178 for

[44:30] 2020 early voting plus plus that was on

[44:36] elal but that total that 193 is what I'm refering

[44:41] to

[44:50] that's advance

[44:57] so Steve one of the things that you and I talked about tell me if I'm repeating

[45:02] our conversation incorrectly is that generally you can expect to give or take

[45:06] about 200 votes per machine on Election Day

[45:11] yes what I consider to be that you know what I would deem a

[45:16] disenfranchise moment would be um if you were if you were

[45:22] expecting to get more votes on the machine than that that's not giv the

[45:27] people their legal three minutes behind the machine in a 12 hour day um but that

[45:33] does not take into account the volume of people that vote for early voting and

[45:38] that's our that's our wild card in this is that um with a stronger promotion of

[45:43] early voting we've seen counties nearly 10% for early voting in every given

[45:49] election so yeah the 240 is really high on machine

[45:58] on an election like this but you may have a particular R in a particular

[46:03] corner of the

[46:10] county and just to make and I believe the statistic we had is that uh in the

[46:16] 2016 and 2020 we had give or take 22,000 to 23,000 votes on Election Day

[46:25] corre 20 you had

[46:29] 18823 and of course the Count's grown that in of 12 on Election Day you had

[46:38] 22,999 and then in the general of 16 you had

[46:44] 22575 so there you can see the impact of your early voting walk early voting I

[46:51] believe your county started doing that for the first time

[46:55] in 201 it was

[46:59] leg

[47:08] and11 12

[47:16] ands because of the yeah and so just to be clear that

[47:22] expected votes primary that 28,000 that would be assuming that we grew over 20%

[47:28] between 2020 and 2024 which we did not goow over

[47:33] 20% so so that these numbers are't play in a sort of a worst case scenario just

[47:39] to make sure everyone's aware also to that as your early voting

[47:44] starts you know we start voting on October

[47:47] 8 and if we see let's say you go to the 8th to the 15th and then you get to the

[47:54] 22nd and you had two weeks of

[48:08] am

[48:12] many so we would be able to examine weeks after early voting and see if this

[48:18] spreadsheet still feels comfortable after two weeks and then and then go

[48:23] from there but I think I'm comfortable with the spre right now but if for some

[48:28] reason we see a very low turnout in a particular area then we may look at

[48:32] those election dayment a little bit different great thank you

[48:38] Steve um should I'll go ahead and move that we

[48:43] add the six pull pads that we discussed I think that that was a good direction

[48:49] by BR and it will help some of the volume concerns and C that would be um

[48:55] we going to add one more at

[48:58] Boonville one more at Liv word one more at Ohio Township one more at Newber uher

[49:06] Legion one more Abundant Life Church and then one more at the Chandler Community

[49:12] Center so that would get us up to the 43 we discussed

[49:17] previously Library Health Care Living work

[49:24] Legion Abundant Life

[49:35] so do you think you'll need

[49:39] to we've already got two more people at so of those six locations that's a good

[49:47] question so uh boonville's already at 9 so I think they're

[49:51] good Chandler is at seven so I think they're okay

[49:58] living words at 9 Ohio townships at 9 Legions now at

[50:05] 7 and a bu of life so they already have you've already added to their

[50:10] workers um so I guess probably already set it up for a

[50:22] while so I need a second yes I'll second

[50:27] okay motion by Paul and seconded by Nancy to add six pull pads as

[50:37] discussed all in favor say I I passes three

[50:46] nothing um didn't want to sort of put that on hold and then went to another

[50:51] one uh wanted to address that additional public conversation

[50:57] we go through the PO PS can you introduce yourself I know just for

[51:04] the before we leave we go through thead and make sure everybody the right

[51:09] number

[51:18] yep my question is Steve had said that they can't use the same voting machines

[51:25] on Election Day as they do on early voting correct

[51:30] so I'm assuming they use like all these early voting dates they use the same

[51:34] machines right yep so are they under camera surveillance

[51:41] the entire time and when are they to these are my questions they're sealed

[51:47] every day they're sealed sealed every at the end of the day we seal everyone

[51:53] everyone Mach report the seal and room and then the next morning we unlock the

[51:59] room we take the machines out we report the seal numbers and that's done by at

[52:03] least two workers one and one R and that's recorded on a piece of paper that

[52:07] we' enter into the office at early the machines are initialized on the very

[52:13] first day and then they are not tallied until the Monday before the actual

[52:19] election day they are not tallied at the location they're brought here to to

[52:23] bville and they are Ted here so they stay at that and locked room in the cage

[52:28] there's

[52:33] room they're T that night by our by Steve

[52:39] I but what night election well actually they're they're

[52:45] talled throughout the day they they can do the early voting machines earlier or

[52:50] the um absentee ballots when those are canvas and stuff they can go ahead and

[52:56] running on Election Day on Election

[53:00] Day okay thank

[53:04] you additional public comment my name is mar boom Township 7 I think it was U and

[53:12] basically it's a suggestion I mean I was a

[53:15] coworker you need better training um and better instructions uh where we

[53:23] were at we had four machines and the inspector went through and started we

[53:27] had them set up early we were RAR to go but she followed the instructions and it

[53:34] wouldn't start up we were like 20 minutes late we had to call the office

[53:40] and get further instructions and they were not what said on paper cuz I helped

[53:48] them uh so I would you know suggest that I hope you know those instructions are

[53:54] up to date and ready to go uh and I went to the pole worker training it's it's

[54:00] all pretty vague I mean um the people with working on the

[54:06] iPads uh if you don't check people in perfectly the card that comes out it's

[54:14] bad when you plug it into a machine it locks that machine up and then

[54:20] unfortunately some of the workers said I'll do the next machine I'll go the

[54:24] next machine I'll do the next machine we had machines locked up for 20 30 minutes

[54:29] before we get them unlocked and that created a

[54:33] backup and I I got to watching what was going

[54:38] on and I had to correct some people um when they check them in you

[54:44] got to go through every part of that or next bad car uh and then the lady that

[54:50] kept plug or the person that kept plugging it in whoa no once you lock one

[54:54] up let's let's don't lock them all but I have to it's my

[55:00] job anyway I think the training needs to be a little bit better so people can

[55:06] understand a little better I know everybody's got a phone but the iPads

[55:10] are intimidating and just getting hooked up to the Wi-Fi and stuff people

[55:16] were they lose it and they unplugged iPad to charge their phone no no no no

[55:23] you can't do that anyway you know a little little better and I

[55:29] have one question and I'm probably ignorant in this fact I know Indiana

[55:34] changed absentee valid the way you apply for them am I correct you have to apply

[55:41] now every voting cycle orever voting we're used to always had to you

[55:49] always had to yeah okay so that didn't change okay okay Steve can you address

[55:55] his issue on the the

[56:04] training probably from the encoder card I would

[56:08] say the green yeah they get those cards the master ones they get those mixed up

[56:14] sometimes it happens on every location no this wasn't it

[56:26] on that Monday I think so that's next Monday

[56:32] yeah yes they are see okay I would say more than

[56:37] anything the we're going to send an extra person down there for the training

[56:44] classik very famili with County also I would

[56:50] say concerned at that moment after class down and phally go

[56:57] steps with it after the CL or if you get early

[57:01] grab and then there and then after you still have concerns

[57:06] after Circle back and then we also a Refresh on that

[57:12] Monday afternoon before the actual election day

[57:16] itself we'll have we'll have staff down there that day it is is unfortunately

[57:23] have got much more complicated the you know the last 20 years than they were

[57:28] before with the introduction of more more

[57:31] equipment one I would suggest that if you do have I heard it mentioned

[57:38] earlier rotated a littleit in that

[57:49] one the pad and simply just not keeping up with the pace of everything it might

[57:55] be to rotate that person out but you know that's the job of the inspector get

[58:01] right I've seen many times where they've been afraid to move a person out of that

[58:05] chair it's affected the whole day and the income or the output of the

[58:13] election is that how if training will training is

[58:20] important we need to have good training train process I mean and I I know last

[58:24] election was your first time working right Mark yes so what I would suggest

[58:28] come when we start early voting and we we did this because we had some people

[58:32] that weren't aable to attend the two classes come and come and watch uh our

[58:36] team and you you're have you're can stay and watch the process I would advise

[58:41] that right I would do it if I were working at first time it is

[58:46] complicated my problem was I I kind of figured out where our problems were like

[58:52] I said they they check people in take the card out

[58:56] coded that you put into the voting machine that says this is uh John Doe

[59:01] John Smith this who's voting this how he V and it would lock a machine

[59:07] up and they it they did it numerous times and I got to watching how they

[59:13] weren't checking the people in right yeah there's there's certain places in

[59:16] the process where you need to take a breath and let the machine catch up to

[59:20] you right and and then take your card out or then move on to the next step

[59:26] what you're saying yes you that's something you teach the

[59:29] clerk it was mess up in it was a mess up in doing it was a process issue the

[59:36] process and I had to go whoa we can't do this and then actually then the judge

[59:42] kept locking machine I bet we did that I bet we locked up 40 machines that

[59:47] day 40 Mach maches and we did it all morning

[59:54] until I got to watching the process and said whoa no no no no you can't do this

[59:59] and then she start well this one's locked up so I go no no let's lock this

[1:00:04] one up Let the inspector unlock it you got to bring up the separate ballot for

[1:00:08] that voter and away we went no no but it was

[1:00:14] a repetitive

[1:00:17] mistake again I mean I'm sorry where were you at sir what location Pon B

[1:00:25] sorry oh no and that's that's fine and like I

[1:00:29] said it was just it just made it bad because then people had to wait that's

[1:00:34] when we start to kind of get backed up because the inspector was having to

[1:00:38] unlock these machines all four of them every

[1:00:42] time anyway everybody's new at this didn't expect everybody to be perfect

[1:00:48] I'm new and I was it was a learning and great experience for

[1:00:53] me I said the training when i w out of the training I was a little like what

[1:00:59] just happened no and I get it it's hard to

[1:01:04] train people like I said the instructions I went through with the

[1:01:09] inspector line by line with those instructions of how to start that

[1:01:12] machine up we all four of them we were late cuz we couldn't get him to start we

[1:01:18] had to call the office I don't know who she talk to up there but they find there

[1:01:22] was some steps that were left out of the instructions that came with

[1:01:26] machine anyway that's all I have that was your first time working yes it was

[1:01:32] thank you obviously you took control of it I

[1:01:36] appreciate

[1:01:41] that is it legal for somebody to be in the polling place that's not a voter or

[1:01:47] not a worker they have

[1:01:50] credentials Watchers do they have credentials have credentials

[1:01:56] go in and hang around and observe no no okay I thought that's what you were

[1:02:00] indicating he should do early no uh he can come in here and watch the early

[1:02:05] voting process and that's the same it's the same process as um he would do on

[1:02:12] Election Day oh so it's so it's legal for him to come in and watch during

[1:02:15] early voting here right okay would be legal for him to come to like Ohio

[1:02:20] Township or lville no we prer them to come here we we like for them to come

[1:02:25] here because we start early so they can see I mean if he wants to go to the

[1:02:29] other one and watch as well but we would give him a credential for that but they

[1:02:33] have to and they have to sign paperwork to get paid I'm sorry Greg they have to

[1:02:39] sign paperwork to get paid too it's a observation the ones we had last year

[1:02:46] was the people that or in the spring people that were unable to attend class

[1:02:51] but you can come and watch the process I'm not saying walk up behind the voter

[1:02:54] I'm saying watch out our team does it and then ask them questions when they've

[1:02:59] got the voter finished so that that would be a learning for

[1:03:03] you but there would be illegal for him to do that on

[1:03:07] elction nobody is all he doesn't have credentials nobody's allowed in the Bing

[1:03:11] place except the pole workers who are credential right members of the election

[1:03:14] board who are credential pole Watchers who are credential and of course the

[1:03:18] voters while they're voting what' you say

[1:03:21] Steve most the problems I he describ the voting proc

[1:03:34] they the of

[1:03:39] away were

[1:03:49] P say lock up what the machine will do is it will not bring up a random

[1:03:55] for to use the master to go in so I think that would be something to in the

[1:04:00] training also just make follow the instruction on the

[1:04:04] screen device thanks got thumbs up over

[1:04:11] here additional public comment just want to finish up on my question earlier yep

[1:04:16] so and and like I said the 50 panels you added is is a positive start but just

[1:04:25] understand on my side you're still 46 less than what you had in the 2020

[1:04:30] election is that correct no that's way I'm I'm figured we had 193

[1:04:36] so and in light of that and you say well we I think that was early voting and

[1:04:41] regular voting 193 was

[1:04:51] yes he said 20203

[1:05:04] 2020 2020 not many

[1:05:21] in20 don't

[1:05:27] I so that number that's 193 I believe that's both that's both early and so

[1:05:36] we're going to have 154 for just election day plus we're

[1:05:40] going to have another 16 which get you to 170 which gets us to 170 so we're 20

[1:05:46] less with having seven less Lo you're 20 less not 46 or 47

[1:05:54] correct should say there were 178 right 178 okay and we're 154 so

[1:06:01] we're 24 less the 178 is right the 154 is the new number to compare to and and

[1:06:07] you got and and you are you you feel secure or you feel that that number is

[1:06:13] going to handle the The public's uh uh privilege and their their time spent

[1:06:20] voting so as Steve mentioned we'll know better

[1:06:26] on week one or week two of this I did hear him say that that was positive so

[1:06:30] but my suggestion is I'd love to see everyone early voting it would be no

[1:06:34] lines on Tuesday we'll be done at 6:02 right

[1:06:40] Patty you know you know follow to follow that up telling me to vote early you

[1:06:46] know what I'm going to say it's your right not to thank you right I'm not

[1:06:51] going to say what I say but I am I do vote early but you you understand I know

[1:06:56] pushing it but there's people got families and they can't make these stuff

[1:07:01] so which is why to me it's much easier to vote on early voting right I'm

[1:07:04] actually thinking of them because I'm thinking it'll take them less time and

[1:07:08] it can do it on a Tuesday or Thursday or Saturday anyway that's my I guess common

[1:07:13] sense is you can you can hope they do but you've got a plan that they don't

[1:07:20] okay if they if they do this end is great if you plan it that way and they

[1:07:26] don't this end is a total chaos mess for us pole workers okay but you guys do a

[1:07:33] great job I'm just saying adding 50 was a positive cuz I was looking these

[1:07:37] numbers for a week now and I'm going 25 was they not even halfway there we

[1:07:42] actually added 60 we were at 93 I believe was our original proposal so we

[1:07:45] actually added 61 thank you for considering it and making those

[1:07:49] changes do you have what would you what what number would you be satisfied

[1:07:55] I don't I think any number less any number less than what we had in the

[1:08:01] 2020 that was a and and I'll just say that was a trump Biden this is going to

[1:08:07] be the same election and I think this number of 71% that's on this paper this

[1:08:14] is going to go 80 there's no doubt between the the Trump Harris now this

[1:08:20] number is going to go up there's no doubt about it they're projecting it

[1:08:24] across the United States it's going to be the largest turnout ever which is

[1:08:29] wonderful I love it vote vote vote well one time

[1:08:36] but hey but Paul anything less than what we had in

[1:08:41] 2020 I think is doing the war County residents a disj Justice that even

[1:08:47] though we cut it from 24 and I say we you cut it from 24 to 18 to 17 just just

[1:08:55] because they don't have a place to vote and they can't get them in for

[1:08:58] electricity that's not their problem our problem is to make sure that they vote

[1:09:03] at if you need two in Tennison put two in tennon you need two in lynville put

[1:09:08] two in lynville places to vote but make that available so anything less than

[1:09:13] 2020 to me is a dis trust and disj ustice to The Ward County

[1:09:19] residents my personal opinion this is public thank you for what you guys do

[1:09:25] and that's my final opinion

[1:09:33] there Mist they voted 8,000 people in four

[1:09:38] weeks

[1:09:42] ofp now it was

[1:09:47] time I think I think people go home

[1:09:55] I don't think they will Connie I know several people there and

[1:10:01] they waited in line and they didn't leave and they did not wait for long

[1:10:05] periods of

[1:10:11] time so and let me just summarize they were wrapped around the

[1:10:17] building at first

[1:10:22] Christian Daniel are

[1:10:26] um why does it change like do we not buy the machines every time or we just rent

[1:10:31] them or what is going on oh no we own the

[1:10:34] machines we have to program them and we have to account for them right so cost

[1:10:40] to program each machine correct there's there's a charge for the programming of

[1:10:46] the ballot on every Mach that is why I'm that uh pamphlet or the piece TR I

[1:10:52] document an increase in expense right so this point we're going to have to we

[1:10:56] have a budget that we're trying to live within as well um and and you know I'll

[1:11:01] just sort of summarize that we're figuring things out here there's a lot

[1:11:06] of moving Parts between vote centers to precincts the 2020 Co election the

[1:11:11] growth of the County locations right so I think that if I we had things that we

[1:11:17] already realized there were things we would do differently if we did them

[1:11:19] today we only have one chance to get T understood uh is why we're trying to

[1:11:26] balance all the factors to have this do and we'll learn from this and have a

[1:11:31] different allocation in 26 but you can't expect someone to have it perfect the

[1:11:36] first time 20 let's make it civil can we not be professional you're

[1:11:41] not looking at the 2020 and how big it was and if the actually we are looking

[1:11:48] at that so let's stop right there I would disagree with that we are we're

[1:11:52] accounting for 15% more volume than we had in 2020 in a county has not grown

[1:11:57] 15% in 4 years so we took the 2020 and we increased it that's what this that's

[1:12:04] this schedule

[1:12:07] does

[1:12:12] it's we have different polling places today we don't have some of the smaller

[1:12:17] ones we are able to be more efficient that's one of the reasons we went to

[1:12:21] this it was originally built and I remember being on the County Council

[1:12:24] when it was suggested to the County Council that doing this would save the

[1:12:27] county money there are budgetary parameters that were put in place well

[1:12:32] before this

[1:12:35] year so this is what we're told should work is it $15 to one is that

[1:12:49] 5555 and again you have to have if you have more people you have to have more

[1:12:52] pull pads you have more and we're trying to make sure that all the

[1:12:56] um what's the word shrink points choke points choke points thank you are being

[1:13:03] addressed Cindy did you have a comment I'd love to make a comment about

[1:13:06] training Cindy Warren and I get the Democratic co-workers training is

[1:13:11] critical very critical we have one day two two different times on one day only

[1:13:18] and so many people will they're going to be on vacation that day they can't do

[1:13:22] there for training the election office and the election people have been

[1:13:27] gracious enough when that happens sometimes they will allow like has been

[1:13:31] said earlier to have these people come in and get trained by watching the early

[1:13:37] voting co-workers and that was a tremendous

[1:13:41] asset as far as training goes to actually physically see how it's done

[1:13:47] rather than sitting in a class and listening to the instructions but the

[1:13:52] manual is very important and I would suest somebody going through the manual

[1:13:58] every election and making sure that it hasn't changed any at all but the

[1:14:02] training being on one day I know budgetary allowances and all that but

[1:14:08] training is critical that's

[1:14:15] all please introduce yourself name and where

[1:14:20] from you you said that you're working under the budget you got from the coun

[1:14:25] right did you guys ask an increase in budget from last year because of the

[1:14:31] possibility of an increase yes if the budget was increased

[1:14:35] from 2022 yes sir we inre we asked for it did they increase it no we did ask I

[1:14:42] asked trust me I asked for I'm sorry I don't hear it well yeah I yes we always

[1:14:48] ask for it to be increased or at least to match it and it was not matched and

[1:14:53] we actually have bud so did you actually save the money

[1:14:59] by La by your last election that you went no if you don't spend the money it

[1:15:04] goes back into General general fund yes well did you overspend from your budget

[1:15:09] last year no no we didn't have that it was M there's a lot of factors

[1:15:16] too uh just to be clear there's like how many days you're open right there's uh

[1:15:22] so there's not just the election day but there's also the early election and

[1:15:27] having those you know allowing people to vote early takes labor and all that

[1:15:32] stuff too so even though we're able to use less machines now on Election Day um

[1:15:36] there are some other expenses that are eating some of that up as well have you

[1:15:41] been able to compare since you started using Mach process actually is bringing

[1:15:45] the cost down any I mean thinking way you know the

[1:15:49] factors out in there that you're going to have less people and less places and

[1:15:54] uh

[1:15:57] I can tell you that going to both centers has drastically brought our

[1:16:03] numbers down which is consistent to the research I did when we were K Democrats

[1:16:09] were discussing the conversion from precincts to voting

[1:16:15] centers it's it's almost Statewide and everybody but three counties in the

[1:16:19] state of Indiana use uh voting centers all sa that was the

[1:16:28] final P you said numbers I'm assuming you meant our expenses or our cost of

[1:16:33] running I don't want to think D down our number

[1:16:36] ofs I think we have reached the point where we can adjourn I'll if anyone

[1:16:43] wants to have one last comment I'll throw one last comment and if there

[1:16:46] someone wants to do it otherwise I will entertain a motion to adjourn I have one

[1:16:49] more question sorry um if we how early voting

[1:16:56] early voting is is happening you know we have Boards of people coming can we add

[1:17:02] machines Steve said we could okay Steve said we could for some reason early

[1:17:08] voting is not coming along that that a question

[1:17:15] I looking for a

[1:17:21] motion I'll second motion to adjourn has been made and

[1:17:26] seconded all in favor say I I I we

20240922 Election Board Meeting

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