COBB COUNTY, Ga. — At the most recent Cobb County Board of Commissioners meeting, Cobb Elections Board Vice Chair Stacy Efrat asked Cobb County Commission to reconsider its cancellation of virtual comments for election board meetings.
The vice chair said full-time workers, parents with young kids and the disabled who can’t make it to in-person meetings were being excluded from access to the elections board.
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To remedy that lapse, Efrat requested the commission to allow virtual access to be reinstated, on behalf of the board.
“There are so many reasons why someone may not be able to attend a meeting in person, such as their job schedule, caring for young children or having physical disabilities. Just as we offer absentee voting for those who can’t vote in person, we have offered virtual comments for those who have something to say but can’t attend in person,” Efrat said.
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Efrat also said that elections officials had only “learned a couple weeks ago that the county leadership will no longer provide support for virtual public comments at our Board of Elections meetings.”
She came before the Board of Commissioners on Wednesday to ask that they reconsider that decision so that all of Cobb County’s residents would be able to participate in elections discussions and have easy access to the Board of Elections."
Efrat said she had a second request as well, that the county expand accessibility via different meeting time opportunities and scheduling.
She said the elections board had recently taken in “extensive feedback” from constituents, who asked about having different meeting times to provide more opportunities for engagement.
Efrat said that the elections board had already asked to move their meetings later in the day to accommodate the needs of residents with different schedules.
Currently, meetings for the elections board are held on Mondays at 3 p.m., making it difficult for people in the who work full-time, care for young children or have physical disabilities categories to make it to meetings to voice their concerns, speak with staff or otherwise engage with the Board of Elections.
“Our board has asked county leadership to allow us to meet in the evenings so that more members from our community can attend. We can continue to meet in this room,” Efrat said in the county commission chamber.
Efrat said at the meeting that the elections board was willing to find an alternate location that had the right technology and security to meet their needs, but “up until now, county leadership has not been willing to support this change.”
Responding to a Channel 2 Action News request on this topic, a Cobb County spokesman said it was a matter of budget and resources, not unwillingness.
“The Board of Elections and Registration is an independent board with full autonomy over when, where, and how it holds its meetings,” a spokesman said. “They have requested to use the Board of Commissioners’ facilities and staff to conduct their meetings in the evening. However, those requests would require county resources that are not currently allocated in the budget.”
County officials said the commission’s meeting room is in a secure facility and as a result, using it would “incur additional costs for security staffing and overtime for county personnel. Managing a virtual component also requires extra staff support.”
All other non-Board of Commissioners meetings have already been moved out of the building for after hours gatherings, according to the county.
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