Approval of 1/20/2026 Minutes: Yay 3, No 0

Old Business

• Motion that we dissolve voting precinct 024, Second Mount Moriah Baptist Church, change the boundaries of precincts 020 and 022 to accept those voters. Yay 3, No 0

• Motion that we accept the resolution to dissolve the voting precincts 100 & 108, Augusta Christian and ACS Fury’s Ferry Road, change the boundaries of precincts 107, 109, 110, 115 and 135 to accept those voters. Yay 3, No 0

  Director doesn’t like changing precincts but both facilities notified the Board of Elections that they did not want to host elections anymore. Since these are private facilities, they have to dissolve those precincts. They used GIS to rebalance the other districts. Dissolving these 2 locations had been discussed for the previous 3 months. They posted an interactive map online for public review and there were no public comments on the proposed changes.

New Business

• 062/Parkway Baptist Church - Temporarily move Precinct 062’s polling location to Parkway Elementary School for the May and June elections. Yay 3, No 0

  Parkway Baptist can’t host elections in June due to Vacation Bible School. This is the 2nd year in a row with this conflict. This is a temporary change for these 2 elections only.

  Schools discussion: Try not to have elections in schools because anything like a fire alarm could disrupt elections and it can get complicated during pickup/drop off. 1-2 parents complained during the presidential election. The district gave the option to keep kids home if parents were concerned. There is an issue in that area with a lack of community spaces to have elections.

• Advance Voting: (approved Yay 3, No 0)

  • 3 Locations:

    • Board of Elections Office (G3)

    • Columbia County Board of Education Support Complex

    • Euchee Creek

  • Maintain Standard Advanced voting hours:

    • Monday–Friday: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

    • Two Saturdays: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

  The director stressed consistency to avoid confusing voters. There was discussion about keeping all three sites open for both May and June to prevent mid-cycle changes. A mailer calendar is planned to go out (likely in water bills) to increase awareness.

• Proposed FY 26/27 Budget: Approve Yay 3, No 0

  • No new equipment, just supplies

  • If state legislature makes changes, then County will need to cover.

Next Meeting: 3/17/2026, Evans Main Office, 10:30AM

Roll Call: Nancy Gay, Larry Wiggins, Wanda Duffy, Ann Cushman

Approve Agenda: Yay 3, No 0

No Minutes and No Old Business

6/17/2025 Election

• 2 Provisional Ballots -out of precinct.

  • Motion to approve provisional ballots: Yay 3, No 0

• Absentee coming in late: 0

• Certification (Final numbers will be posted on website)

  • Vote to certify returns as presented: Yay 3, No 0

• Audit: 6/26-6/27 in Appling. 10am until complete

7/15 Runoff

• Advance Voting

  • 6/30 is the earliest to set-up. It takes 4 days to get set-up.

  • Motion to approve advanced voting at Building G3 7/7-7/11 8AM-5PM. Approve: Yay 3, No 0

• 7/15/2025 Election Day

  • Due to 21-2-270, since fewer than 1% of the county’s registered voters voted at the primary of the political party by which a candidate or candidates are to be nominated at the run-off primary, only one polling place shall be required to be open in the county at the run-off primary.

    • It costs the county approximately $100,500 to open all precincts all election day.

    • The precinct that is open has to be the same one as where the Courthouse is.

      • Kiokee will be the only polling location on election day.

    • People can submit for absentee ballots now.

    • Approve only to have 1 polling location open on election day per 21-2-270. Approve: Yay 3, No 0

Adjourn 5:49PM: Yay 3, No 0

Call to Order

Roll Call

Approval of Agenda & Minutes: Yay: 3, No:0

Old Business

• 11/5/2024 Preparation

  • Notice in paper - L&O start tomorrow

  • State coming by tomorrow to swap out UPS Batteries for machines. They are going to demonstrate how the batteries work because there are different levels of batteries for different thing: 80 batteries similar to what they already have, 156 other batteries, 300+ batteries with another purpose.

    • Larry Higgins & Ms. Gay expressed concerns about not mixing up which batteries go with which machines. They’ll need to make sure they are clearly marked with stickers and placards so there’s no confusion.

  • Ballots are. They are not on My Voter Page yet.

    • 865 Regular absentee ballots to be mailed on 10/7

    • 1387 Disability ballots

    • UCAVA Ballots (military): 53 by mail, 259 electronic, 4 cure pending

• SEB Proposed Rules 9/20/2024 Meeting

  • Clarification from last meeting: An affidavit is not needed if a ballot is dropped off at the front desk or already official sites. An affidavit is only needed if the county sets up a separate location, such as Grovetown City Hall. Not going to do that though, so don’t worry about that.

  • There are 11 proposed rules that are accessible on the website. Many of the proposed rules, we already do in Columbia County. According to Sec of State and county lawyers though, proposed rule changes are not in the same terminology as Georgia State Law, so it invalidates the rule changes.

• Ms. Gay proposed requesting police officers to attend poll worker training for the benefit of poll workers. Everyone agreed that was a good idea if it can be scheduled.

Community Question: How can we fix Parkway as a precinct? Community member is concerned with children’s safety as they attend school that day. Community member had concerns with communication from Parkway Elementary regarding election day and would like the calendar changed to give students the day off school.

• Board agreed that they do not like having a precinct in the school. The only other building that could be used is Redeemer Churcher and (for an unspecified reason in the meeting), Redeemer Church can’t be used.

• Houses keep popping up without infrastructure, and this is one of the results.

• Nightmare having a precinct in the schools because of traffic and other concerns.

• BoE will move the precinct after this election but it will have to much further away from this neighborhood and the State doesn’t *like* that.

• Community Member was advised to contact Judy Teasley regarding the school calendar.

Community Question about the rules:

• Most of the rules Columbia County already does

• The County will need to buy more memory cards in order to store data for a longer period.

Notice about bad mail: Different elections offices have received suspicious packages with white powder substances. Employees are instructed to use gloves when opening mail/packages.

Community Question & Discussion: Wondering if there is anything on the driver license that a poll worker can see if a person is a citizen or not. Another community member mentioned that the driver license will say “limited services.” Ms. Gay will see if she can find an example online. Community members have concerns that there are “more noncitizens in the US due to the policies of the current administration.” Ms. Gay asked for references and factual data for that statement and citizen didn’t respond. Ms. Gay stated that the State did an audit of the voter rolls and anyone that showed questionable citizenship status had to remedy their registration with documents. Another community member mentioned that some newly naturalized citizens haven’t updated their driver license yet but they are naturalized citizens and eligible to vote. Another community member asked if they are newly naturalized and have a non-citizen driver license if they are required to show documentation that they are naturalized. Ms. Gay and Larry Wiggins informed that the registration is through the Secretary of State, so if they are a registered voter, they only have to show a state-approved picture ID. The law would need to change in order for poll workers to require documentation of naturalization status if using a non-citizen ID.

Response to Community Question: Current batteries last for 2 hours. 

Community Question about qualified electors and a list: Ms. Gay informed that the Secretary of State generates the list and then it’s sent here. That list is used as a physical backup list.

*They continued the discussion after this but I had to leave.