Geauga County Board of Elections (BOE) - 04/20/2023
Meeting Info: Special Meeting on April 20, 2023 called to order at 9:00 AM in BOE Conference Room at 470 Center St, Bldg 6A, Chardon, OH, 44024. In-person and virtual, via Microsoft Teams. An agenda and listings of campaign finance reports and bills were provided in advance.
Public Comment Policy: no written policy and not listed on agenda. In practice, the Board accepts public comment and addresses questions throughout the meeting.
Board Attendance: Present were Dennis Pavella (Chair), Nancy McArthur, and Joan Windnagel. Janet Carson was absent.
Staff Attendance: Director Michelle Lane, Deputy Director Nora McGinnis, and at times Office Administrator Scott Daisher. Ohio Secretary of State Liaison ShoMore DeNiro attended virtually.
County Representatives: Charles E. Walder, Auditor and Chief Administrator of ADP.
Public Attendance: Five members of the public attended in person and one attended virtually. This Observer attended in person.
Minutes - APPROVED March 30, 2023 minutes without corrections or discussion.
Campaign Finance Reports - APPROVED audited campaign finance reports, after Scott Daisher answered a question about the Geauga County Conservative Club’s amended report.
Bills - APPROVED bills totaling $5,869.19. That amount includes $2,254.50 to Youngstown Letter Shop for May 2 election day ballots, $1,000 for a poll pad training video, $983.00 for accessible ballot conversion, $660.00 for conference courses and routine office expenses.
Agenda - APPROVED moving up the ADP briefing.
ADP Briefing - Mr. Walder provided an update about the recent cyber attack on an email server that was maintained by the Department of Water Resources at the 470 Center Street complex in close proximity to the Board of Elections. At the time of the attack, BOE and Water Resources shared an internet switch. For detailed discussions of the ADP Board, see Observer Reports for the April 13, 2023 Emergency Meeting and April 17, 2023 Emergency Meeting.
Mr. Walder assured board members that the breach had been contained to Water Resources, an outcome he attributed to ADP’s cyber security protocols. To address additional vulnerabilities discovered at Water Resources, ADP installed a new firewall, updated the Water Resources servers, upgraded passwords and implemented multi-factor authentication. None of these actions impacted operations at the county water treatment plants. Mr. Walder reported that email service to Water Resources employees has been restored. He declared, “Water Resources is now under the authority of ADP.”
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Mrs. McArthur asked for more information about why Water Resources had not previously been under ADP authority and later inquired about the cost to address the issue.
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Mr. Walder replied that Water Resources and the Geauga County Commissioners have resisted compliance for many years and at significant cost to taxpayers. He explained that following this most recent issue, ADP had 12-14 employees working long hours for eight days straight (including weekends) and said the cost will be borne by Water Resources. Additionally, due to the acrimonious relationship between ADP and Water Resources, the ADP Board elected to use outside vendor Expert IT to migrate Water Resources’s email service to a cloud based system. This cost will exceed $20,000 and will also be borne by Water Resources. Mr. Walder stated, “I am not going backwards.”
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Mrs. Windnagel inquired about the origins of the attack and Mr. Walder said they were able to use a reverse ping process to determine that the IP address originated somewhere in Russia.
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Both Mrs. McArthur and Mrs. Windnagel sought assurances that ADP would continue to support the Board of Elections whether they remain in their current location, move into the basement of the Geauga County Office Building, or move into another location. Mr. Walder assured the Board that ADP will support them no matter where they are.
Lastly, Mr. Walder commented that the subpoena hearing for Monday had been continued. In response to an inquiry from this Observer, he explained that he has been subpoenaed by BOE Counsel to testify in the ongoing legal dispute between the Board of Elections and the Board of County Commissioners. Observer Comment: The two parties have been engaged in a dispute over alleged insufficient storage space for voting equipment and BOCC failure to meet Secretary of State security mandates. This April 20, 2023 court filing for Case 22M000299 continues the April 24 hearing and schedules a second mediation meeting on May 8, 2023 at 10 am.
The Board took action on the following items:
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APPROVED equipment allocations for polling locations that are active for the May 2, 2023 Special Election..
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APPROVED a software management policy required by the Secretary of State related to a $10,000 security grant.
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APPROVED an agreement (no amount specified) with Fink Consulting for chargeback services relating to 2023 elections. Observer Comment: Fink calculates the prorated election expenses that political subdivisions are required to reimburse BOE for under ORC 3501.17. Political subdivisions are taxing authorities and may include county commissioners, boards of township trustees, municipal councils, boards of education and special districts.
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DISCUSSED the June 27-28 Secretary of State Summer Conference. Courses and accommodations are booked.
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DISCUSSED July 14 Northeast Regional Conference. Little information available now so will discuss further at the next meeting.
Executive Session - entered into executive session under 121.22(G)(6) to receive a security briefing from Detective Seamon of the Sheriff’s Office. The Board invited Mrs. Lane, Mrs. McGinnis and Mr. Daisher to participate.
When the Board re-entered regular session at 10:19 am, the in-person guests and Ms. DeNiro had departed.
Director’s Report: Mrs. Lane reported:
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Early voting has been light. They continue to prepare for election day voting on May 2. Poll Worker Training is complete and Marshall Training has been scheduled.
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They are preparing the 2024 budget using the 2020 budget as a guide. Presidential elections are more costly to administer.
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Staff attended ADP Cybersecurity Training.
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She, Mrs. McGinnis and Mr. Daisher attended the ADP Emergency Meetings.
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It is her opinion that an August special election would be challenging due to staff vacations, unavailable polling locations, and difficulty recruiting poll workers.
Observer Comment: Republican Ohio General Assembly leaders are considering action to change their December, 2022 lame duck legislation that severely restricted use of August special elections. At that time, they cited unnecessary expense and historical low voter turnout as reasons to eliminate August special elections.
Deputy Director’s Report - Mrs. McGinnis reported:
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The Secretary of State assigned a new cyber security liaison. Meetings are scheduled for every other Wednesday afternoon.
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A meeting to review camera setup for monitoring the voter ballot box at the Geauga County Office Building was rescheduled by the vendor.
Mrs. Lane commented that they are unable to address all of the camera questions as there are many outstanding issues at the Geauga County Office Building that must be resolved first.
Executive Session - at 10:31 am the Board entered into executive session under 121.22(G)(3) to conference with their legal counsel, Corey Colombo, concerning pending litigation. Mrs. Lane, Mrs. McGinnis and Mr. Daischer were invited to participate. Mr. Pavella said all items on the agenda had been covered and stated there would be no action taken after resuming regular session.
At that point, the two guests, including this Observer, left the meeting.
Next Meeting - May 2, 2023 Special Meeting at 6:30 am.
Approved Minutes: Temporarily unavailable online while the website is updated.
See BOE Facebook page for meeting notices and agendas.
Observer: Shelly Lewis
Editor: Anne Ondrey
Reviewer: Gail Roussey
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