HCBOE Board Meeting Minutes - March 6, 2012 - Regular MeetingHARNETT COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS
.—� MEETING MINUTES
March 6, 2012
3:00 p.m.
Present were Chairman Walter Massey, Secretary James Currin and Member Louise Taylor.
Also present were Ted Halstead, Elections Director and Claire Jones, Senior Admin. Support
Specialist.
Chairman Massey called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
Minutes:
The Board reviewed the minutes from 2/01/2012 and 02/21/2012. Mrs. Taylor moved to approve
the minutes. Mr. Currin seconded. Approved without dissent.
Business:
Mr. Halstead began the meeting by talking about a few items he wanted to look into. First was
that he wanted to check into pricing and ordering 25 additional laptops to use as electronic poll
books. He talked with Paula Stewart, IT Director. The board felt that it was worth looking into
especially if we could get the money. Secondly, Mr. Halstead talked about extending the one- .
stop hours for the general election. That would also require we ask for more money in next
year's budget, although the only added cost would be the staff pay since it would push them into
overtime hours.
Mr. Halstead addressed the concern of a lack of space in the office. He proposed to the board that
we could start cleaning out old election surplus items at the warehouse. Once we scan all old
voter cards we can place them in locked storage at the warehouse and eliminate the two card
machines, thus saving $1,690 annually on their maintenance contracts. Mr. Halstead also
suggested looking into whether the Dept. of Social Services could potentially send us voter
registration data electronically in the same way the DMV does already. The Board agreed that
this issue would be worth rising with the State Board of Elections.
Mr. Halstead asked The Board for their views on touch screen voting machines. He wished to
look into the options that were available, but wanted to make sure that was a direction that the
board favored. Mr. Massey felt that the technology is coming and eventually we may have to go
that way. Mr. Currin and Mrs. Taylor like the current system and like having the paper back up
in the event of a recount. After some discussion The Board agreed that Mr. Halstead could
research this issue.
As a follow up to the last meeting Mrs. Jones informed The Board that after talking to Paula
Stewart, we are able to create a Facebook page. We would use the site to inform voters of
Election information. We will disable the use of comments but would make sure all contact
information was available so the public could call, e-mail or fax the Elections Office. Mrs.
Taylor moved to allow the office to create a Facebook page. Mr. Currin seconded. Approved
without dissent.
The Board then discussed a few items concerning poll worker training. The Board liked the use
of small groups to provide a better training experience and wanted, budget allowing, to have
food provided.
Mrs. Taylor made a motion to go into closed session. Mr. Currin seconded. Approved without
dissent.
Mr. Massey, Mr. Currin, Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Halstead went into closed session at 4:15 p.m.
until 4:35 p.m.
Mr. Currin moved to exit the closed session. Mars Taylor seconded. Approved without dissent.
The next meetingof the Board will be a meetin Aril 3 2012 at 11:30 a.m.
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Mr. Currin moved to adjourn. Mrs. Taylor seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m.
Approved by:
Walter Massey, Chairman
James Currin, Secretary
Louise Taylor, Member