Lunenburg County Electoral Board orders ballots, finalizes training schedule and holds closed session for registrar evaluation

Chairman Donna Dagner called the Lunenburg County Electoral Board to order at 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 1. The board discussed absentee envelope replacement, voting equipment and training ahead of the Nov. 7 general election, and convened a closed session to complete the General Registrar's annual performance evaluation.

The General Registrar reported the office cannot correct the old absentee envelopes that use stickers and will need to order new absentee envelopes. The Registrar also said there will be 12 ballot styles for the November general election and the board decided to order ballots sufficient to cover roughly 60 percent of registered voters.

Secretary Oliver Wright reported he obtained a replacement quote for a DS200 voting machine that was damaged in a flood to support an insurance claim. Wright said he will provide the quote to the County Office and that the board determined the machine does not need immediate replacement; the funds could be returned to the budget.

The board discussed items flagged in a training webinar, including a new Americans with Disabilities Act certification requirement for polling places that will need to be addressed before the election season. The minutes record a recommendation that Electoral Board members maintain a separate Gmail account for Electoral Board business to reduce the risk that personal email accounts be exposed in FOIA requests.

The board set an election training schedule to prepare staff and volunteers for early voting and Election Day. Early voting is scheduled to begin Sept. 22. Training dates include Oct. 7 (three sessions for workers with less than four elections of experience: 9:30-11:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m., and 2:00-3:30 p.m.), Oct. 17 and Oct. 19 (Electronic Poll Book refresher, 4:30-6:00 p.m.), Oct. 25 (chiefs and assistant chiefs, two sessions at 4:00-6:00 p.m. and 6:30-8:30 p.m.), and Oct. 30 (final all-hands training, 6:00-8:00 p.m., including dinner). The minutes note that the CAP named in the record must be trained before early voting and will staff early voting.

Chairman Dagner also summarized the latest Virginia Electoral Board Association (VEBA) leadership meeting and said the 2024 VEBA annual meeting is scheduled for March 16-18 at the Homestead; the district training meeting is set for 11:00 a.m. on Sept. 2 at La Victoria restaurant.

Secretary Oliver Wright moved that the board convene in closed session to finalize the General Registrar's annual performance evaluation under the personnel exemption at section 2.2-3711(A)(1) of the Code of Virginia. The motion was seconded by Vice Chairman David Dalton and approved. After the closed session, Wright moved to return to public session; Dalton seconded and the motion passed. The board certified that the only business conducted in the closed session was the Registrar's annual performance evaluation. The meeting adjourned at 12:30 p.m.