Martin's Additions election committee finalizes May 6 dropbox staffing and flags missing vendor tracking reports

The Martin's Additions Election Committee on Tuesday confirmed staffing, delivery and chain-of-custody procedures for the May 6 ballot dropbox and tasked staff with resolving a gap in ballot-tracking reports from the vendor.

The committee set a practical staffing requirement that at least two certified election officials must supervise the dropbox at all times; with four committee members available for the event, members agreed to rotate shifts so the box is never left unsupervised. "We really cannot leave that Dropbox unsupervised legally," the committee chair said, underscoring the legal requirement for continuous supervision.

Committee members reviewed three replacement-ballot requests reported via the elections inbox — two from the Bradley neighborhood and one from Melville — and confirmed the procedure: the contractor will send replacement ballots and voters told to discard any original ballot if the replacement arrives. The chair said the contractor mailed initial ballots on schedule and that three failed deliveries out of 622 mailed is a small percentage.

Members also flagged that the ballot-tracking system is placing barcode tracking on return envelopes but that the committee has not been receiving the automated item-level reports by email. Michael Silliman, identified in the meeting as the village manager and the person handling technical setup, said he would "log back into the system and make sure it's set up right" and determine where reports are being routed. The vendor was referred to in the transcript with several spellings; the committee asked Michael to confirm the vendor's delivery and pickup plan for the dropbox and to ensure the tracking emails are routed to the committee's inboxes.

At the end of voting the committee will open the dropbox as a group, count deposited envelopes twice, place ballots into sealed Manila envelopes, have present committee members sign the seals, and hand the sealed materials directly to vendor staff for transport to the vendor facility in New Jersey — a process the chair described as the required chain of custody.

The committee also reviewed event logistics for May 6, including vendor layouts, the presence of community partners (the historical society and Chevy Chase at Home), music and an Amana food drive, and arrangements for extension cords and seating. Members agreed the dropbox service is an important option for voters — the chair noted roughly one-third of village voters used the dropbox in the previous year.

The committee approved the meeting minutes at the start of the session and scheduled follow-ups to ensure the tracking reports are delivered to committee contacts before election day.