Caroline County Board of Elections hires new staff member, hears election preparation update

The Caroline County Board of Elections approved its previous meeting minutes, welcomed a new staff member and heard an election preparation update at a brief meeting that also set the next meeting for Oct. 10.

Election Director Julie (name on file with the board) opened the administrative report by introducing new staff member Larry Thomas and outlining preparations for upcoming elections, including updates to the judges manual, forms and live-streaming procedures. “We do still need Republican election judges,” Julie said, and asked the board and central committee for help recruiting more judges.

Julie reported that 90 individuals had expressed interest in serving as election judges and that 78 had been assigned so far. She said the office needs a minimum of 103 judges to be fully staffed on Election Day, including on-call judges, and described the usual practice of assigning early-voting shifts to judges who will also work on Election Day. Candidate filing totals were reported as 10 local candidates filed as of Sept. 4; Julie said statewide candidate lists are available on the State Board of Elections website, elections.maryland.gov. She said letters to polling places have been sent and that a polling-place plan will be presented at the next board meeting, because polling-place assignments could not be discussed at this session.

Board members also discussed internal administration and technology updates. Margaret Thompson, a long-serving board member who said she replaced her father on the board, introduced herself during roll call. Several board members greeted the new staff member and discussed continuity with neighboring jurisdictions; Julie noted Thomas previously worked in the Talbot County Board of Elections office and said that experience is helpful.

Procedural actions taken during the meeting included approval of the Aug. 8 minutes and adjournment. A motion to approve the minutes with the noted correction (changing “was” to “were” under requested changes to the agenda) was made by Marguerite and seconded by Suzanne Campos; the board approved the motion by voice vote. The board scheduled its next meeting for Oct. 10 at 9:30 a.m. and later moved to adjourn; the adjournment motion was made by Suzanne and seconded by Margaret (Thompson) and approved by voice vote.

Julie said she will finalize and distribute a 2026 election schedule and present the polling-place plan and related materials at the next meeting. She also noted that voter-registration total reports for August and September were provided to board members for review. No statutes or ordinances were cited during the discussion. The meeting concluded after brief administrative items and the closed-session scheduling note: the board plans a closed session and conference with the district administrator at the next meeting.