MINUTES

                        City of Charlottesville Electoral Board
                                Meeting of May 26, 2021

The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 6:09 p.m. on Wednesday, May 26 in the
office of the Charlottesville General Registrar. Those present were Electoral Board
members Jon Bright (Chair) and Jim Nix (Secretary) and Acting Director of Elections
and General Registrar Taylor Yowell.

On a motion by the Secretary, seconded by the Chair, the agenda was unanimously
approved without change.

Review of the minutes of the April 26 meeting was deferred to the next meeting.

The Chair noted that the Vice Chair is out of town.

Public Comment

Ms. Bekah Saxon, Co-chair of the Charlottesville Democratic Committee was present
but did not make any comment.

Registrar’s Report

Ms. Yowell reported that the request for reimbursement for General Registrar and
Electoral Board salaries has been submitted to the Department of Elections and that the
report of the completion of logic and accuracy (L&A) testing would be submitted
following the completion of L&A on May 27.

CARES Act funding is available for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2021 and Ms.
Yowell sought Board advice on the need for funds to cover added expenses due to
COVID. The Board members present agreed with the Registrar’s assessment that
personnel costs are likely to be higher than normal for early voting due to continuing
COVID concerns, at least for the November 2021 general election. Based on that
assessment the Board recommended that CARES Act funds be requested to cover the
cost of election officials to assist with early voting and other personnel costs driven by
continuing COVID concerns.

Two security issues requiring Board approval were raised by the Registrar. A change in
the scope of work for Assistant Registrar, Laurel Isatchenko requires that she now have
access to the computers running software for the Hart voting system. On a motion by
the Chair, seconded by the Secretary, the Board voted to add Ms. Isatchenko to the list
of Hart authorized users. The second issue was an update to the list of those

Minutes May 26, 2021                                                              Page |1
authorized access to the warehouse. The changes requested were primarily
clarifications regarding the definition of access and, on a motion by the Secretary,
seconded by the Chair, the changes requested by the Registrar were approved.

Preparation for the June 8 Primary

In an update on election preparation Ms. Yowell informed the Board that all election
materials have been prepared and are ready for distribution to the Chief election
officials at their training session on Tuesday, June 1. In addition to the Chiefs that
training will involve Assistant Chiefs, Closers and Research Officers and Ms. Yowell
reviewed the format and sequence for elements of the training.

The canvass of the election on Wednesday, June 9, will take place in the office of the
General Registrar, possibly moving to the lobby of the building if additional space is
required.

Closed Session

On a motion by the Secretary, seconded by the Chair and passed unanimously (the
Vice Chair was not present), the Board agreed to meet in closed session in order to
discuss a personnel matter.

Following the closed session, on a motion by the Secretary, seconded by the Chair and
passed unanimously, the Board certified that only public business matters lawfully
exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information
Act were heard, discussed or considered in the closed session.

Budget Discussion

In response to a question from the Chair on the status of the current year budget, Ms.
Yowell reported that, due to the impact of the pandemic, we are over budget on
expenditures for election official salaries, however, these overages were more than
compensated for by reductions elsewhere in the budget. This led to an extended
informal discussion on the budget process and the timing of decisions on the budget to
be submitted for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2022. The Chair expressed the need for
a meeting between the Registrar and the Board on the budget early enough in the
process for the Board to have a meaningful role.

The next meeting will be held in the office of the Charlottesville General Registrar
starting at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday June 8. That meeting will continue, with suspensions,
until completion of the primary election with the signing of the abstracts on Friday
evening June 11.


Minutes May 26, 2021                                                              Page |2
The meeting was adjourned at 8:58 p.m.

Respectfully submitted:



James Nix, Secretary                     Jon Bright, Chair




Minutes May 26, 2021                                         Page |3