Columbia County will have a third early voting site for the upcoming November election.
That announcement came during the Columbia County Board of Elections meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 20. Nancy Gay, elections supervisor for Columbia County, said the third early voting site at the Columbia County School District Support Complex on River Watch Parkway. The board voted last month to extend early voting hours during the second Saturday and last week of early voting.
Advanced in-person voting will take place Oct. 15-18 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Oct. 21-25 from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Oct. 28-Nov. 1 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Oct. 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Oct. 26 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
State Elections Board changes
Gay also provided an update on several of the recent rules passed by the State Elections Board (SEB). She said one of the biggest ones is when an absentee ballot is turned into the counter at the Board of Elections office, the person dropping it off will have to show ID and sign an affidavit.
“I’m not 100% clear on what that affidavit will look like because the state hasn’t given us anything,” Gay said.
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The next one involves video surveillance of the drop boxes at early voting locations. Gay said she spoke to the county attorney, along with another county attorney, and they both read it as since Columbia County’s drop box is locked, the county doesn’t need video surveillance of the drop box.
“The box is locked and the building is locked, so it’s not accessible,” said Board Member Larry Wiggins.
Another rule that was passed said the Board of Elections will have to meet at 3 p.m. the Friday following the election to review the results, Gay said. However, voters have until 5 p.m. the Friday after Election Day to remedy any absentee cured ballots and the elections office has to wait until 5 p.m. for any ballots to come in the mail.
“So ya’ll have to meet before the deadline even passes,” Gay said. “…but also what they did is they imposed a rule now where ya’ll have to take basically what I do, take all the recap sheets and compare all your numbers and you have to attest that you did that, but we do that anyway, so I don’t know if there’s any affect on ya’ll in that regard.”
Another new rule is there will have to be a sign posted that says U.S. citizens only, Gay said.
One that was tabled due to being amended involves hand counting the ballots on Election Night.
“It was (going to) require the poll manager and two officials to hand count the ballots that were cast in each tabulator at their precinct and verify that that vote total matches the vote total on the scanner, tabulator,” Gay said. But now what they’re amending is, they’re going to leave it up to the poll manager to decide if they want to do it that night or come back the next day.”
These are just some of the changes the State Board of Elections has made. The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials (GAVREO) has requested that the SEB halt the addition of any new rules so close to the November election.
“We are already in the midst of extensive training preparation for our poll workers and preparing for one of the biggest and most scrutinized elections in years,” said W. Travis Doss, Jr., president of GAVREO and executive director of the Augusta-Richmond County Board of Elections in a press release. “Any last-minute changes to the rules risk undermining the public’s trust in the electoral process and place undue pressure on the individuals responsible for managing the polls and administering the election. This could ultimately lead to errors or delays in voting, which is the last thing anyone wants.”
The next Columbia County Board of Elections meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 10:30 a.m. at the Board of Elections office.
