Ad hoc committee proposes throughput fixes and a pilot 'resolution' poll book for early voting centers

An ad hoc early‑voting team presented a detailed throughput analysis of Beaufort County's early voting centers and proposed operational changes to reduce lines and processing delays. The team compared poll‑book, ballot‑marking device (BMD) and scanner capacity across Bluffton, Beaufort headquarters, St. Helena and Hilton Head and modeled how variations in average processing times affect daily throughput.

Mike, speaking for the ad hoc group, said their modeling showed small changes in assumed times propagate across the schedule and change capacity estimates: 'At the top page of the poll book, we put that the average time a person spends getting a ballot is about 1.5 minutes.' The presentation included site‑level numbers (for example, Hilton Head recorded 16,547 voters in the last measured early‑voting period) and compared those counts to equipment allocations. The team noted scanner and BMD capacity generally exceeded needs if set up as modeled, but poll‑book and resolution handling created bottlenecks that produced observed waiting times of 30–40 minutes at peak periods.

The ad hoc group recommended piloting a dedicated resolution poll book station at headquarters to handle identification and other problem tickets and suggested reallocating experienced poll‑book operators to those stations to reduce backups into lobbies. The team also proposed targeted voter education (including a short BMD instructional video), additional signage to manage parking and entry flow, and a follow‑up meeting to finalize equipment and staffing recommendations. The board asked staff to reconvene the ad hoc team to refine cost and staffing tradeoffs before a final recommendation.