Elections chair unsure of fate of ballot drop boxes following elections bill
In 2020, the Floyd County Board of Elections had five ballot drop boxes installed around the county to make it easier for people to submit their absentee ballot.
Now only one of those boxes will be in use for future elections.
Under the new 95-page elections bill that was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp Thursday, new regulations prevent a county from having more than one absentee ballot drop box. On top of that, that drop box must be inside a polling location.
“For our purpose, this makes them a lot less useful,” Board Chair Melanie Conrad said. “We consciously put the three new ones out farther so that people in more rural areas had access to them, and now we can’t do that.”
The new bill actually suppresses the vote for people in the more rural areas of Floyd County, Conrad said.
Right now, she is not entirely sure what they’ll do with the extra absentee boxes, and
suggested donating them to local libraries for book returns.
As for where the one drop box will go, Conrad thinks it’ll probably be placed in the elections office since a majority of their other polling locations are owned by other organizations, like churches.
She still needs to discuss these matters with the rest of the board before making final decisions.
“I feel like this whole bill is a solution in search of a problem, it’s not solving any of the problems we had with the last election,” she said. “It’s just making it harder for people to vote.”
In addition to the new
voting bill, the job posting for the chief elections clerk was published on the Floyd County website this week after county commissioners approved the salary change at their Tuesday meeting.
“We’re trying to get the word out to people who might know people that can help us out there,” Conrad said.
Once they have an elections clerk in place, they’ll move forward in their search for a new elections office, which they hope will also serve as a polling location as well.
Their next regularly scheduled meeting will take place on April 13 at noon at the Floyd County Administration Building.