Thread by @socialistdogmom

i’m very tired but i’m a sucker for a new kind of meeting

there is absolutely no signal inside this building for some reason so here’s hoping the city wifi holds up 🙏

no takers for public comment (there’s one other member of the public here besides me - the board is very friendly & solicitous and it seems like they don’t typically have a lot of visitors to their meetings)

“we do have a very busy 16 months ahead of us,” says chair anne hemenway. someone asks, tongue in cheek, “what’s coming up?” and everyone laughs.

she says their goals for the upcoming elections are to have secure, safe, organized elections so people can feel confident about their vote, which will require the recruitment of more election officials

charlottesville residents who are registered voters can apply to become election officials here:

charlottesville.org/departments-an…

the second goal is “more outreach, outreach to various areas in the city, including UVA.” hemenway says she will reach out to pat lampkin, VP of student affairs at UVA, about how they can better reach students with voter registration efforts.

today is new city general registrar melissa morton’s second day on the job.
nbc29.com/story/40722937…

“unfortunately we had to fine a couple of candidates,” melissa says, “bellamy brown got fined $100 for a late statement of organization form.” another board member summarizes all the fines as “just new candidate mistakes” & the board agrees candidates need help learning the rules

a board member says one thing many candidates don’t realize is that even before you qualify for the ballot, once you’ve filed some specific form whose name i missed, you’re bound by campaign finance law.

she says you want to do everything you can to help candidates, but ultimately “it’s their responsibility to understand it” and they don’t want to do more for some candidates than others & don’t have time to hold their hands.

fines paid by candidates for infractions go into the registrar’s office budget, which one board member reflects is maybe a little odd - it could create the appearance of lining the office’s pockets with the fines it levies

he says another body he worked with put money paid from fines into a literary fund, eliminating any possible appearance of impropriety & putting fine money to a good use. another board member emphasizes “we take no pleasure on fining people.”

melissa says the city increased the wage of city employees to $15/hr, so they might consider increasing the pay of their employees to bring them in line, but more research needs to be done on the budget.

i have no idea how elections work... sometimes there’s a primary sometimes there’s a caucus sometimes there’s a convention and none of it makes sense to me!

the electoral board is speculating about which elections will have primaries and they aren’t certain either, which is both comforting and unsettling.

they’ve got seven applications for new election officials & melissa morton recommends the board approve them all “we’re gonna need them!”

melissa will contact superintendent rosa atkins about the upcoming year’s school calendar. schools are closed on the november election day and not in session for the june primary, but they’re concerned about the march primary.

lots of strong feelings at the table about the state department of elections campaign finance compliance training specialist 😳

very involved discussion about the difference between a spoiled ballot and a void ballot. learning a lot at this new kind of meeting!

melissa says charlottesville is known as an outspoken locality, willing to question things that need questioning. fascinating that this is true even in this strange small realm!
“i’m gonna do what i need to do to make sure this locality is run correctly,” she says.

board members are interested in getting official city email addresses, which would make it easier to be responsive to FOIA requests. melissa says that is possible and will look into it for them.

what an extremely boring meeting, exactly as government should be.

wow we have a lot more elections than i would’ve guessed