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Fulton County poll worker urges board to take poll-worker training, outlines absentee-ballot surrender process
Summary
A longtime Fulton County poll worker urged the Board of Registration and Elections to require new board members to attend poll-worker training and described the county’s process for handling absentee ballots surrendered at polling places.
Ralph O'Connor, a Fulton County voter and election day poll clerk, urged the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections on May 8 to have new board members participate in the same poll-worker training given to precinct staff.
"My recommendation is the board consider having new members participate new board members participate in the poll worker training so they can see the steps Fulton County takes to ensure secure and fair elections," O'Connor said during the meeting's public-comment period.
O'Connor, who said he has been a poll clerk for more than three years, described the training poll workers receive, including a four-hour hands-on course with poll pads and voting machine hardware and a 69-page manual with a multiple-choice test. He also described procedures used at polling places when a voter requests to redo their ballot: canceling check-in, spoiling a paper ballot if one has already been printed, and having a manager enter a code in the poll pad to regenerate a voting card so the voter can cast a replacement ballot.
O'Connor also recommended a voter-notification practice related to absentee ballots. "If they have an absentee ballot that they have not mailed back and they decide to vote in person, please bring that to your polling place. You cannot cast the ballot, but they can surrender it, and it gets voided," he said, describing the manager's role in voiding a surrendered absentee ballot.
The board did not take formal action on O'Connor's recommendation during the meeting. The comment came during the communications and public comments portion of the agenda before the board moved into its operations and challenge-hearing items.
The remarks were part of routine public comment; no staff presentation or policy change was proposed during the meeting.
A follow-up request for training for board members or written guidance on absentee-ballot surrender procedures was not recorded as an item on the meeting agenda.
