Complying with state law would waste taxpayer money, elections officials say - Brunswick News
Georgia’s legislature may have put the Glynn County Board of Elections in a bind — comply with state law or waste taxpayer money.
Georgia’s elections law overhaul of 2021 required local governments to keep on hand 250 voting machines per voter. The law made sense in major metro counties, especially in the wake of the 2020 election. In several, voters waited hours in line to cast a ballot in the presidential election.
An analysis conducted in 2020 by Georgia Public Broadcasting and Pro Publica found that nine counties — Fulton, Gwinnett, Forsyth, DeKalb, Cobb, Hall, Cherokee, Henry and Clayton — were home to nearly half of the state’s active voters but only 38% of the polling places.
In what local elections officials think is a kneejerk reaction, the General Assembly passed a raft of voting regulations, including the 250-to-1 voting machine ratio. That might work for larger counties, but for Glynn, that figure is well above what turnout calls for. In fact, some polling places may not even be able to accommodate the number of machines required, county Elections and Registration Director Chris Channell told the board of elections at a Tuesday meeting.
Purchasing enough machines to meet the state requirement would cost just shy of $200,000, Channel told The News following the meeting. That’s well outside the elections board’s contingency fund and would require the Glynn County Commission to approve additional funding in its 2022-2023 fiscal year budget. The request would come right on the heels of the commission’s approval of a $1.7 million overhaul of the old CVS on Gloucester Street to serve as the board’s new office.
The maintenance and warranties on the new machines alone would cost another $23,000 a year, Channell said.
This wouldn’t be necessary if the state legislature had passed a revision to state law requested by many of the 159 Georgia counties that did not have waiting times like those in the major metro counties, said Channell. It would have simply required a nine-word addition to the current law allowing counties to subtract the number of voters who cast a ballot during early voting or by mail when calculating how many machines would be needed at the polls on Election Day.
In Glynn, it would completely change the calculation, Channell explained. Few had to wait in lines longer than 15 to 20 minutes at most in Glynn County during the 2020 presidential election, likely due to early voting turnout. A total of 24,797 voters cast ballots early or by mail compared to just 7,046 who turned out to the polls on Election Day.
Outgoing Sen. Sheila McNeill, R-Brunswick, pushed for the law revision on behalf of Glynn County, but she announced this year that she will not seek reelection. Channell said he hopes to work with other members of the county’s delegation to the General Assembly to get the measure passed in 2023.
“Meanwhile, we’re supposed to buy all these machines?” board member Sandy Dean asked.
Some board members broached the idea of simply ignoring the requirement and accept what would assuredly be a much smaller fine for failing to comply with state law.
Channell told the board that Glynn County is in good standing with state election authorities and would likely avoid legal trouble.
Until the board can explore all its options, board Chair Patricia Featherstone suggested they hold off on making a formal decision.
She did draw one conclusion, however, observing that Dominion Voting, which manufactures the state’s voting machines, is making a lot of money off taxpayers either way.
In other business, the board discussed the upcoming primary election.
District lines on nearly all levels have changed to some degree. For example, Jekyll Island residents are now represented by District 1 Glynn County Commissioner Sammy Tostensen rather than District 2 Commissioner Cap Fendig. State House lines have changed as well, with House District 180 Rep. Steven Sainz representing part of southern Glynn County.
Some polling places have changed as well. Since 2020, two have moved. The polling location in Burroughs-Molette Elementary School is now in Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church and the location in Oglethorpe Point Elementary School has been split between St. William Catholic Church and Golden Isles Presbyterian Church.
The deadline to register is April 25 and early voting starts May 2. Primary Election Day is May 24.
To find your polling place and see which races you will vote in, visit www.mvp.sos.ga.gov or glynncounty.org/elections.
source: https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/complying-with-state-law-would-waste-taxpayer-money-elections-officials-say/article_54bbf02f-9f63-5dbe-bd67-2e10a123c03f.html
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.