Cherokee County elections office to offer 90-minute voter-education sessions with guided tours

Cherokee County Elections staff announced a new series of voter-education sessions during the county board meeting, saying each session will run about 90 minutes, include questions and answers and conclude with a guided tour of the elections facility.

Elections staff told the Cherokee County Board of Elections the sessions are designed to share “the landscape and the foundation of elections and voter registration” and to introduce residents and newly appointed local clerks to how the office operates. Staff said one of the early sessions will include a representative from the State Election Board and that the county will invite legislators and municipal officials.

The program is open to residents, new city clerks and officials from other counties, staff said. Officials also said they are receiving requests to present the material outside the elections office (without the facility tour) and that the sessions may be expanded in future to cover specific topics such as how to complete an absentee ballot application or a voter oath envelope.

Board members thanked staff for the outreach and said voter education is important because the county continues to receive new residents who may have voted under different procedures. One board member noted mandatory risk-limiting audits (RLAs) and the county’s pre-certification audits are intended to confirm that machine counts match paper ballots.

No formal action was taken on the education program during the meeting; staff said they will schedule multiple dates and times to accommodate public demand.