The Picken’s County Board of Elections met by a virtual online meeting on July 29, 2021 at 6:30 PM.  The meeting was to discuss the new and old business on the agenda . Present at the meeting was Chairperson Joshua Tippens and four other Board members, Ellen Harrison, Barbara Balducci, Mike Carver and Rebecca Cantrel.   Also present was Ms. Stacey Godfrey who was recently elected as the new Superintendent of Elections and Voter Registration. There were several other participants to the virtual meeting as well.  The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance and the approval of the minutes. First on the agenda was the adoption of the new by-laws which were voted in unanimously by all board members.

The Board then voted on the appointment of a new Vice-Chairperson and Joshua Tippens recommended Board member Mike Carver and also recommended was Rebecca Cantrel.   Board voted three in favor for Mr. Carver and one for Rebecca Cantrel. Next the panel discussed the new permanent location that would become Picken’s County new Voter location at the Municipal Courthouse in the back of the police station located at 55 Dixie Street, Jasper.   The board voted unanimously for the change in location. Next Mr. Tippens discussed the technical upgrades that would be required in the near future but would be unable to happen until early December. In the meantime they would look to outsource the equipment at other locations. The board approved the upgrading of the technical equipment up to $5,000 for staff workstations. Also on the table for upgrades was the phone system upgrade currently held with ETC and this was also approved at a four to zero vote.

Picken’s County Board members at a recent meeting

The board also voted on a new ‘all-in-one’ copy machine which they had received quotes on and decided to a 48 month lease. This was also unanimously approved and along with a network switch required for the new system to be installed through Eclipse Networks at a fee of around $1800. New employee Kay Hughes was also voted in as a new part time administrative assistant and would work no more than 29 hours per week.  There were no staff comments, no public comments but several of the board members did comment of what a terrific job Ms. Godfrey was doing in her new position. In her short tenure as Superintendent of Elections she had accomplished many new tasks and achieved a number of requirements including organizing all past meeting minutes, CES training as well as Cyber Security Training, working out problems with the software, updating registration records, updating addresses, working closely with the State of Georgia and taking all required training classes and more.

The meeting concluded at 6:55 pm.

Newly elected Superintendent Stacey Godfrey is pictured here (left)