 Good morning again, commissioners. At this time we can call the meeting of the municipal election commission to order. It is a 911 am I apologize for the delay and getting started. But it's good to hear and see each and every one of you this morning. At this moment, I'll call the roll. If Susan Quo. Helen Monerlin. I'm here. And Austin Nichols. Here. Good morning. Our first order of business is the administration of the oath to our newest member, which is Austin welcome Austin. Thank you. All right. And so we're going to read the oath. If you would just repeat after me. Yes, ma'am. All right. I do solemnly swear. I do solemnly swear that I am duly qualified. That I am duly qualified. According to the Constitution of this state. According to the Constitution of this state. To exercise the duties of the office. To exercise the duties of the office. To which I have been appointed. To which I have been appointed. And that I will. And that I will. To the best of my ability. To the best of my ability. Discharge the duties thereof. Discharge the duties thereof. And preserve. And preserve. Protect. Protect. And defend. And defend. The Constitution of this state. The Constitution of this state. And of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. All right. Welcome again. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. We're glad that so glad to have you. Thank you. You're welcome. And so at this time, I will hand over to the committee, the selection of the chair. There's three of you. As stated, I believe in 2019. Susan Quo was appointed as chair. And so now you all can decide who will serve as chair. For this upcoming election cycle. I'd like to nominate. Susan Quo for the chairmanship again. If she is agreeable. I would be happy to serve. I would be equally happy to. To pass the chair on to Helen. Helen where someone. Leaving Austin until he's had. Oh gosh. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. I'm not the type of person. Oh gosh. I'm not the determining factory. I don't know what to do. I don't know. All right. So the first motion was to let's deal with the first nomination that was on the floor. And this is going to be weird though, but dealing with the appointment of Susan Quo. As a chair. All in favor. You have to vote. Yeah. I accept. Yes. Congratulations on your appointment as chair again. Thank you for your service. Next I wanted to talk about some and I changed it from roles to your role and responsibilities of the municipal election commission and looking at the state code. that's required of the commission, but because the city of Columbia, we handle the filing period, and then the rest of the election is pretty much managed by Richland County. It's a little different, but I want to assure you that everything that's outlined in the code has occurred up until this point. Of course you know the election notices have been filed. We have appointed and trained, the county will be appointing and training poll managers. They're currently in the process of doing that. We've provided the information that the county needs in order to set up our election, in order for them to distribute ballots and things of that nature. And so the role of the MEC primarily, I would like to say is to conduct or to be visible on election day. So visit precincts to make sure that those individuals who have been hired by Richland County see that there is a municipal election commission there to support them if they need that support on election day. The most prominent role, of course, is to certify the candidates and the election results. And so we will get together on election day. I will send you a list of the polling precincts. It would hope that between the three of you, you could cover as many of those precincts as possible, just again, letting the poll managers know and the county know that we appreciate them conducting our election, but it is a municipal election and we do have a very alive and active municipal election commission. So the evening of the election, we typically meet over at Richland County election and voter registration located at 2020 Hampton Street. And there we kind of monitor the election activity as the results are coming in. You'll see people coming in and droves. The county has a solid process for the receipt of the materials back from election day, including their electronics. You know, I want to say like that there are tapes and everything, but we've changed a lot of the technology. So I don't want to go on technology, but they'll get the ballot boxes back and they'll begin the process of breaking everything down. And so that night, we will have unofficial election results that will be published. Two days after the election, the elections on Tuesday, on Thursday, the MEC will convene to review any provisional or failsafe ballots that were presented on election day and you'll decide whether or not to count those ballots. And then you'll move into reviewing the audit, or conducting an audit of the election results and also reviewing an audit because the State Election Commission in Richland County, they typically conduct an audit of the election results prior to the, to you all meeting on Thursday. And so all of that activity will take place in short order on Thursday morning, by and it will be conducted by the MEC with my assistance and of course, assistance from the Richland County elections and voter registration office. Susan and Helen, based on that brief summary, can I leave anything out as far as your Thursday activities, your Tuesday and Thursday activities? Not to my knowledge. Helen, you may have picked up on something. I did wanna know that I teach a double class on Thursday mornings, one at nine and one at 11.30. So for any way we could angle ourselves in between or before, it would be great. Okay, so I will get that time to you all because it was published, but I think we'll make due because the quorum of the MEC is two individuals. So if for some reason, Susan, we've published it and it conflicts with your schedule, we do see two election commissioners, but we will definitely verify that time and let you know. And I'll keep that in mind for the future. Oh, no, this was a, I took on an extra course shortly before the semester began because of a sudden need at the law school. So hence now two classes in the morning. I understand. She does it. The only thing that I'd like to add is a win, like for the last couple of elections, I think it's been real important for us to get out. And I know that I tried to make, I had, well, I had like a personal goal, you know, one of those A type. If you have it listed, you probably will do it. So I think I went to 12 different precincts. And that, that was good. I mean, I thought I did a good job. There are an awful lot more than 12 precincts in the city of Columbia. So I'd like to see if somehow we can look at the list, maybe before Erica and at least get an idea of which ones might be closer to you, Susan, or which ones might be closer to you, Austin, and that we have, I know that usually in my packet, when I'm to the clerk for my precinct, they give out a whole list of all the addresses and everything else. But I think that that would be very helpful to us if we got that soon so we could plot our day. I know that you gave us a little name badge and that that was always good. And then I went on my own and I, you know, got little cards and I wrote down the information and handed them out if they had any issue. But, you know, it didn't take more than about 10 or 15 minutes at each place to go and say hello, but it's the driving and it's just the plotting of the logistics really of making sure that you get to as many places as possible so that they can see that you're actually doing something. And I think that's real important. If you've ever been or run an election, you know that a lot of these people, they don't understand what your role is when you come in, the precinct managers and the clerks probably will, but other people, they don't have a clue. So we just need to kind of do a little bit of education for them and, you know, reacquaint them with, yeah, we got this process and we're here to help you and it's gonna be right. So anyway, if we could get the logistics down, I think that would be helpful to everybody. Okay, that's not a problem. I can send you all the resolution authorizing the election and it has a list of the precincts in it, so no problem at all. Thank you. Thank you, Helen. That's a great idea. Also, I was hoping and this would involve our public relations department, but I know several years ago, the MEC did a one or two promotional videos. So I'd like for you all to consider that we'd have to draft scripts and get your schedules where you could come up here to City Hall. And of course, I put in a request for our public relations team to work with us to do one as a group or each one of you could cover a different topic, but I think it's important for us to engage the voters, which this is a big election, you all. Been with the city for 20 years and this is the first time we've had like four positions up. So, you know, we're incumbents aren't returning then they're not running again or incumbents are seeking different seats. And so we're in a different arena, but I believe we can weather it, especially in that citizens can benefit from as much information as possible. And so I'll be sure to send you a list. You probably already know who the candidates are, but I'll make sure that when I send you this precinct list that I re-send the list of candidates to you as well. We have an election, we have an election web page underneath the city clerk's office. I believe it's columbiasc.gov slash elections. So it has a list of candidates with their contact information. It has a link to the League of Women Voters vote 411. Vote 411 is a powerful platform used in conjunction with scevotes.org. Folks are getting more information about candidates and elections than they have in the past. So I'm excited about that. But those are also tools that if you run into someone who has questions about candidates or where do I go vote, am I registered? Those are two resources that they could really use to their advantage. Or if you're with someone, just whip out your phone and pull it up form. We wanna do everything that we can to let folks know, hey, we want you out there voting. We pay a lot for these municipal elections. So we need people to really show up and get their bang for their buck, you know? And so I think the videos will be helpful in that. So I guess a few dates that may be good for you or I'll submit the request and follow up with each of you to see when you're available so that we can get that done. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So we kind of meshed the role and the roles and responsibilities in canvassing and certifying results altogether. Patrick, as the liaison, as from the city attorney's office, do you have anything regarding voting laws or anything new that you need to bring to our attention? Oh, nothing new. I just wanna remind everybody that as sworn members of the municipal elections commission, you cannot actively support any municipal candidate. So you can't donate to any campaign, can't go out there and campaign for any of the candidates as members of the municipal election commission. Thank you, Patrick. That's really good because in that sense state law, it says no member may contribute to a candidate or knowingly attend a fundraiser held for the candidate's benefit over whose election the member has jurisdiction. I know that came up with us recently and so we wanna make sure that you're adhered to that. It may be a little difficult. If you think you have a conflict and you're not even sure, just reach out to me because I'll reach out to Patrick or we'll reach out to the election commission or the ethics commission and we'll figure it out. But if you think there's a slight chance that there may be a conflict, then we don't mind helping you kind of waiver through that. So just let us know we're here to help. So I just really wanted to have this introductory meeting. We can get on another meeting in a week or two. We can email stream going, whatever works best for you all but I just wanted to engage you. It's been quite a busy year. I'm glad to be back in the office. Glad to be back at City Hall and just glad that we have this technology that allows us to remain engaged. Just know that as the liaison to the MEC, I'm always available. You can text me, call me, email me. I'm going to respond as soon as possible. I appreciate your service. Austin will get you a name badge. If either of you need a replacement, let me know while I'm ordering his. I can get you one too. And do you all have any questions or concerns for me? I know that was, you know... We can always use a name badge. I know, right? I'm glad she showed that. Now I know which one you have. So now I know to get a white one. Thank you. Is yours white too, Susan? It is. I swear, I think I had two different types. I think there was an earlier one and so... Yeah, because we had blue in the past. So I'm glad she showed me that because Austin would have had a blue one, but... All right. So I think that's pretty much all that I needed to cover this morning again. If you have any questions or concerns, we can, I can open the floor. I do have one request. I do have a request. When you send Austin the link for training, I'd like to go back through and just refresh and do the training again, even though I've already done it one time, but it's been a while, I just want to do it again. Okay. I second that. Yeah, I second that, that emotion, emotion. So I just think it's a good idea to do that. You can do it at your desk and in between things. And I really appreciate that. And because I'm also a clerk for the precinct, I also have that. And so I'll actually go back through the clerk's training as well, just because, you know, after a year or even six months, you forget a lot of things and you just need to say, oh yeah, oh, I remember that. And just get it right. So anyway, I would appreciate that if you would send that, Erica. I sure will. So let me get the information from the state election commission and I'll get it over to you as soon as I receive it. And welcome, Austin. Can't wait to have you around. It'll be fun. Thank you. I'm excited. I'm excited. And it's great to see everybody. So. Absolutely, absolutely. All right. So if there is no other business, I will hand it over to the chairwoman so she can close us out. I'd like to thank everyone for coming today. And if, as Erica says, if there is nothing else that needs to be done, I so calling in to our meeting of October the 4th on this very happy Monday. I'd like to make a motion to return. I second that motion. All right. All in favor? All in favor. Any opposed? And close your fingers. We are adjourned. Thank you all. Best meeting.