Chair Marty Langland: committee approves 2026 voter roll after verification trims list to 641

Chair Marty Langland opened the meeting and led the election committee through administrative items before turning to the verified voter roll and operational preparations for the upcoming forum and election.

The most consequential action was formal approval of the 2026 voter roll after a verification project that reduced the master list from roughly 839 entries to 641 eligible voters. Verification contractor Logan Rayburn told the committee: "When we started, we had, I believe, 839 voters. And to finish, we have, 641 after the whole verification process." The committee voted to send the approved roll to the vendor for mailing and test mailings.

Why it matters: Martin's Additions is a very small electorate and even a handful of misassigned or duplicate entries can affect results. Chair Marty Langland emphasized the stakes: "We only have 640 voters, and a lot of our elections are decided by 2 or 3 votes," underscoring the need for accurate lists and the committee's recent cleanup.

What the verification found: Logan reported 61 new voters (43 new residents and 14 people newly eligible by age), and said the verification removed numerous duplicates and bad entries. He described categories of removals (moved-away residents, duplicate names, deceased voters, and data-entry errors) and said he will provide two documents to the committee: an annotated spreadsheet linking office-list names to directory/name variants and a portfolio of verification evidence.

Committee decisions and next steps: The committee unanimously approved sending the verified 2026 roll to the vendor for the test mailing; it then voted to remove 59 entries from the roll (four entries were intra-village address changes and therefore not removals). Chair Langland asked Logan to prepare an editable list marking which removed entries require the legally mandated postcard notice so the committee can finalize who receives the postcard; Logan agreed to circulate that list the next day.

Operational matters discussed: The committee reviewed the vendor's postal-tracking (letter-track) process, which sends multiple emails for each envelope as it moves through postal readers. Chair Langland explained the committee uses the final "delivered to Electech's New Jersey PO box" notice as confirmation of arrival and asked for two volunteers to monitor the separate tracking inbox so the regular public elections email is not overwhelmed. The group also reviewed ballot-packet corrections received from the vendor and scheduled an administrative sign-off by email the following morning if members approve the corrected packet.

Forum and election logistics: The committee reviewed forum rules drawn from appendix B of the election regulations, agreed on a randomized candidate order and timing (two-minute openings; one-minute resident question; two-minute responses), and named co-moderators. An administrative meeting to consolidate forum questions was set for April 21 at 2:00 PM. For election day, members were asked to be available May 5 from 5:00–8:00 PM (with presence around 4:40–8:15 PM) to supervise the drop box and sign sealed envelopes before vendor pickup.

Votes at a glance: the committee approved two sets of March minutes by voice vote earlier in the meeting; later it unanimously approved the 2026 voter roll to forward to the vendor; and it voted to remove 59 entries from the roll pending Logan's guidance on postcard notifications.

The committee adjourned at 8:54 PM. Logan will circulate the annotated voter-roll spreadsheet and the postcard recommendation list the next day, and the committee will complete ballot-packet sign-off by administrative email.