Report: Fulton County Board of Elections moves to ‘restore public faith’
By MICHAEL ANICH, The Leader-Herald
POSTED: March 23, 2008
JOHNSTOWN — The Fulton County Board of Elections is looking to restore public faith in the election process, as reforms loom down the line, according to the board’s 2007 annual report recently issued to the Board of Supervisors.
The Board of Elections is charged with various duties, including overseeing the printing of ballots and administering all federal, state, county, town and village elections.
In the 2007 annual report, election commissioners wrote: “As commissioners, we continue to develop new approaches to elections administration, as we look to fully implementing the federal Help America Vote Act law. These massive new mandates have caused us to begin to restructure our organization and functions to continue to deliver quality elections administration for Fulton County.”
“As we move forward with election reform, we must find an adequate balance to keep all interested parties informed and up to date,” the report said.
“We believe the Fulton County Board of Elections commissioners, staff and our colleagues across the country are working hard to restore public faith in a fractionalized enterprise that has been debated nationwide, and we are hopeful that someday more citizens will take their constitutional right to vote as seriously as other privileges we enjoy in our democracy,” commissioners wrote.
Activities at the Fulton County Board of Elections in 2007 ranged from the agency’s reorganizational meeting in January to the retirement of longtime Democratic Commissioner Marilyn J. Cornell at the end of December. She was replaced by Linda Coons.
In February, the board sent letters with an application to voters older than age 90 offering them ballots mailed to their home due to their age.
In March, absentee voter and Republican and Democrat inspector lists were requested from the school districts for their elections. A complete voters regitration file was requested from each of the districts to create an accurate voter eligibilty list, the report said.
Board staff in April spent a week reviewing addresss changes and updating records. The staff mailed confirmation notices — 141 out of county and 93 out of state. There were 41 cases of no forwarding addresses and after “exhausting all avenues” for a correct address, staff moved them into an inactive file, the report said.
Designating petition packets for potential candidates were available in May.
“The packets have the all-necessary information, if followed, for a candidate to submit a valid petition,” the report said. “We have created a receipt check off list that the candidate signs and the [elections] staff initials after they receive their packet. The original is given to the candidate and our office retains a copy. It ensures that every candidate is given the same information.”
During the second half of 2007, the Board of Elections also started budget preparations for 2008, scheduled five inspector classes and reviewed the curriculum for training and testing inspectors.
There were 27,262 mail check cards mailed to all eligible voters in Fulton County in July.
“After the administration of the Primary Election, we proceeded with post-election recanvassing and certification of the election,” the report said. “While attempting to finalize our recanvass for the primary, we had to simultaneously prepare for the General Election and submit our final ballot and election supply order to the printer.”
The report said the day after the November General Election was “just as busy” as the election day. Commissioners said the candidates, media and public all want immediate results.
“They don’t realize what it takes to close out an election,” the report said.
Michael Anich covers Fulton County and Johnstown. He can be reached at johnstown@leaderherald.com.
