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Elections office reports 54,041 registered voters; flags precinct-card printing issue and plans for voter-audit and website
Summary
Elections supervisor Kim Slaughter reported 54,041 registered voters, noted an upcoming voter-registration audit beginning Jan. 22, and described steps to stop unnecessary precinct cards generated by contractor No Ink. The board also reviewed budget figures and a proposed website plan.
Elections supervisor Kim Slaughter told the board on Jan. 14 that Spalding County had 54,041 registered voters as of the report date and summarized registration activity since the November cycle.
"As of date of yesterday's date, we had 54,041 registered voters in Spalding County," Slaughter said. She gave a breakdown of registration transactions: 781 transfers into Spalding County; 518 within-county address updates; 563 new (first-time) voters; 143 name changes; and 1,968 "no changes" transactions. Slaughter said the total number of registration transactions reflected post-election work after an October deadline and a December runoff.
Slaughter said the office will begin a physical audit of voter-registration cards starting Jan. 22 and estimated the process could take about two months. The audit will compare each paper card to the election management system and will include scanning walk-in or paper-only records to create digital images.
On printing and mailings, Slaughter said that, prior to August 2024, the secretary of state printed and mailed precinct cards, but the state contracted No Ink to provide printing and postage. She told the board that approximately 60% of the office's workload consists of files that generate "no change" precinct cards and that No Ink's current process appears to generate precinct cards for those files unnecessarily. Slaughter said she and No Ink found a solution to reduce unnecessary printing and that she has suggested a software-side fix to the state elections division that adds a "generate precinct card" option when processing records.
The financial report in the packet showed the elections office budgeted $678,182 for the fiscal year and a reported remaining balance of $174,502.47. Slaughter noted the office went over budget on overtime and that legal-fee expenses were not previously budgeted as a separate line but will be included in future departmental budgets.
Other administrative items: the board reviewed the 2025 election calendar (Kim confirmed a June 17 special election for a soil and water conservation seat and a Nov. 4 municipal election for the City of Griffin), considered a proposed new website design by Hammond Marketing (estimated cost about $15,500 to be included in the 2026 budget), and heard that ballot-image files (TIF) for 2020 could affect the county website due to file size; staff plan to create a linked folder instead.
Slaughter also reported the office held a poll-worker appreciation event attended by about 60 poll workers and noted ongoing renovation updates for advanced voting space; she expected further updates from Dr. Ledbetter in a few weeks.
The board had no additional questions on the report and moved on to other agenda items.
