Beaufort County elections board forms ad hoc committee to study adding an early voting center or increasing throughput

The Beaufort County Board of Voter Registration and Elections on Feb. 26 established an ad hoc committee to evaluate whether to add a fifth early voting center (EVC) or increase throughput capacity at the county's four existing centers.

Chair (Mister Sweeney) said the committee will work in two phases: phase one will analyze November 2024 throughput at the four EVCs, enumerating equipment, staffing and expense requirements and producing a recommendation to the board; phase two, if approved, will identify specific facilities and implementation details. The committee will be four members: one representative each from the budget & finance, facilities and redistricting committees plus the chair.

The director and chair emphasized resource constraints. Miss Smalls said the county has approximately 11 staff and requires two staff members per early voting center, warning that "[f]ive early voting centers would use up virtually all of our existing staff" and so the committee must document staffing and cost implications before recommending expansion.

The chair named tentative members as Mister Bakker (budget & finance), Mister Ford (facilities, who may designate Mister Sawicki), and Miss Doerr (redistricting); the chair will serve as the fourth member. The committee will work with staff to recommend an appropriate throughput target (for example, whether to plan for a 20% or 25% increase) and to present a documented recommendation to the board.

What happens next: the ad hoc committee will meet with staff and return to the board with a recommendation for board approval. If the board approves adding an EVC, the committee will advance to phase two to identify sites and implementation details.