HCBOE Board Meeting Minutes- August 11, 2020- Regular MeetingHARNETT COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS
REGULAR MEETING
AUGUST 11, 2020
4:00 P.M.
Present were; Board Chairman Tony Spears, Secretary Lin Coker, Members: Steve Blackburn,
Betsy McCormick and Jim Currin.
Also Present were; Director Claire Jones, and see sign in sheet attached hereto.
Mr. Spears called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Minutes:
The Board reviewed the minutes from July 21, 2020. Mr. Blackburn moved to approve the
minutes. Mr. Coker seconded. Approved without dissent.
Business:
Mrs. Jones introduced new employees, Chaya Clinton, Election Specialist and Blake Wilsey,
Election Technician, to the Board.
The Board addressed adding a public comment period to the regular meetings and applying a
time limit for each person to speak. After some discussion, Mr. Currin moved to add the public
comment section to the beginning of the agenda and to limit each person to 3 minutes. Mr.
Blackburn seconded. Approved without dissent.
Mrs. Jones submitted to the Board David Lewis' letter of withdraw from the election. Mrs. Jones
also submitted to the Board Howard Penny's letter of nomination to fill Mr. Lewis' place on the
ballot. Since ballots have not been proofed or printed, there will be time to change the names on
the ballot.
The Board discussed the need to move the Erwin Election Day precinct from Erwin Community
building to the Erwin parks and recreation gym. The community building is not large enough to
support the Election Day needs concerning COVID and social distancing. Mrs. McCormick
moved to approve the change. Mr. Currin seconded. Approved without dissent.
Mrs. Jones submitted a revised Ballot Duplication Plan, attached hereto. The change consists of
allowing the staff to take preparatory steps, per GS 163-234(2), to complete ballot duplication
prior to absentee meetings. The Board will continue to view and verify that each ballot is
correctly duplicated before approving.
Mrs. Jones updated the Board on several election related items:
• Election worker training will be September 16-22 at the Harnett County Commons Area.
Exact date/times have not been set yet.
o One worker per table
o Separate Judge and Assistant trainings
Voting and COVID planning/discussion
o Absentee by mail up to 2,000 requests
o Kay returning September 1 as temporary data entry support
0 260 Election workers needed, 313 currently in system
o State provided supplies
o County provided supplies
With no further business to discuss, Mr. Currin moved to adjourn. Mr. Blackburn seconded. The
meeting was adjourned at 5:34 pm.
The next meeting of the Board will be a regular meeting on September 1 at 4:00 pm at the
Harnett County Board of Elections office.
Approved by:
Tony p�ear�� /�, Chairman
Lin Coker, Secretary
Steve Blackburn, Member /
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Betsy McCormick, Member
i urrin, Member
BALLOT DUPLICATION POLICY
Purpose
To establish uniform standards for duplicating military and overseas ballots in preparation for
special Board of Elections meetings to review absentee -by -mail ballots in accordance with N.C.
Gen. Stat. 163-234(2).
Policy and Procedures
The Harnett County Board of Elections authorizes, under established standards and conditions,
staff to perform ballot duplication for military and overseas ballots, transmitted by fax or email, as
a preparatory step prior to absentee board meetings. The following standards and conditions must
be met:
1. Ballot duplication must be conducted by a team of Board of Elections employees under
the supervision of the Director of Elections.
2. The Director of Elections shall train all members of the duplication team prior to the
start of ballot duplication.
3. The Director of Elections must assign each member of the ballot duplication team with
one of the following responsibilities:
a. Ballot Duplicator — This person is responsible for replicating voter selections from
a machine -rejected ballot onto a blank machine-readable ballot of the same style as
instructed by the Ballot Caller.
b. Ballot Caller — This person is responsible for calling out voter selections listed on
the machine -rejected ballot to the Ballot Duplicator and Ballot Reviewer.
c. Ballot Review — This person is responsible for reviewing the Ballot Caller's
readings from the machine -rejected ballot and those recorded on the machine-
readable ballot by the Ballot Duplicator to ensure accuracy.
4. Prior to the start of ballot duplication, members of the duplication team shall complete
a participation log noting the date, time, their name, and party affiliation.
5. During the ballot duplication process, duplication teams are not permitted to exit each
other's immediate presence unless authorized by the Director of Elections until the
ballot duplication process has been completed.
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Ballot Duplication Policy
6. All duplicated ballots must contain the following in the blank box at the top of each
ballot:
a. The notation `Duplicate'.
b. Ballot number assigned to the voter.
c. Precinct of the voter.
7. Upon completion of ballot duplication, the duplication team must ensure that the
duplicated machine-readable ballots are attached to the corresponding machine -
rejected ballots for the Board to verify at its next scheduled meeting.
8. Members of the duplication team will be required to enter the time of completion and
their signatures to the ballot duplication log.
9. The following shall be bound together, by duplication team, and provided to the
Director of Elections or his/her designee:
a. The completed ballot duplication log.
b. The duplicated machine-readable ballots attached to the corresponding
machine -rejected ballots.
10. The Director of Elections shall place the content provided by the duplication team in
the secured ballot room, per established rules, until the next Board of Elections
meeting.
11. The Board shall review the duplicated ballots at its next scheduled Board meeting prior
to approval and authorization of optical scanning as a preparatory step.
12. After the duplicated ballots have been verified by the Board, the original ballots shall
be placed in an envelope labeled "Original Ballots Duplicated and Read into Tabulator
_MM_/_DD_/_YYYY�" and the envelope shall be sealed and signed by each member
of the Board The duplicate ballot envelope will be secured with other absentee ballot
materials and retained for the same period as other Election Day materials.
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Barnett County Board of Elections
SIGN -IN SHEET
Meeting Date: 08/11/2020
308 W. Duncan Street Lillington, NC 27546 1 Meeting Type: Regular
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