The Anson County Board of Elections held its regular monthly meeting Sept. 11 with about 10 townspeople in attendance. The first 25 minutes of the meeting were largely composed of Secretary Helen Lail reading past meeting minutes. The minutes from the emergency Aug. 29 meeting will be read at the next meeting; because the minutes were turned in to the State Board of Elections, they were recorded nearly verbatim and come to 17 pages in length.

Interim elections director Steve Adams gave the early voting hours to board members and updated them on voting security concerns, including locking up sensitive material such as ballots. A room has been designated for the materials with the only keys given to board members.

Chairman James Paxton made a motion to approve a list of poll workers Adams had been given; the motion was approved by Lail. Adams then went over voting rules and regulations he compiled into a packet, which the board decided will be posted on its website for public availability.

The board also confirmed that One-Stop training will take place Oct. 4 at 6 p.m., with a make-up session Oct. 8 at 10 a.m.

Adams apprised the board of the progress of clearing deceased voters from the rolls, saying that he was prepared to mail 17 letters on Wednesday to the last address of the deceased, asking family members living at the address to fill out a form confirming the death and send it back to the board. Adams cited the Voter Integrity Project, which turned in a list of 28,178 names of voters believed to be deceased to the state on Aug. 31. The state board cross-checked the information and concluded that around 20,000 names had already been removed, leaving about 8,178 in the state that needed to be purged from the voter rolls, 57 of which were in Anson County, according to Adams. Forty were removed, leaving the 17 that Adams is currently in the process of removing.

There have been 15 party changes in the county, 11 processed requests for absentee ballots, and 67 voter cards have been processed and sent out, according to Adams. Sample ballots are also available on the website. “We’re a little bit ahead of schedule than most counties, from what I’m hearing, on ballots and stuff like that,” Adams said. “That’s always a good thing.”

The Board of Elections will post up-to-date information for voters on its Facebook page, according to Adams. “About 50 people have liked our Facebook page so far,” Adams said. “It’s going to be a good resource for us, especially with the election coming on: dates, precinct locations, where to register to vote. You can go on our Facebook page and click the State Board site and it will take you to a registration form.”

The next Board of Elections meeting is scheduled for Oct. 2 at 5 p.m.