ELECTORAL BOARD

MONTGOMERY COUNTY
755 ROANOKE STREET, SUITE iF, CHRISTIANSBURG, VIRGINIA 24073-3175

January 19, 2011

Commonwealth of Virginia
State Board of Elections
Washington Building, First Floor
1100 Bank Street
Richmond, VA 23219

Attention: Ms. Nancy Rodrigues

Secretary, State Board of Elections

Dear Ms. Rod rigues:

Enclosed is the requested reply to the complaint of Ms. Terry Ellen Carter that was e-maied to the
Montgomery County Electoral Board and its Registrar on January 3, 2011.

A’so enclosed is your request for the voter rosters that were used on Election Day, November 2, 2010.

Sincerely,

(ythia S. Chappelka
Secretary, Electoral Board
Montgomery County

WWW.MONTVA.COM • 540-382-5741 • FAx 540-381-6811

 4 virginia
%ases 5/

Response to the State Board of Elections

Concerning an Undated Complaint from Ms. Terry Ellen Carter
Regarding the November 2, 2010 General and Special Election
Conducted in Montgomery County
Training of Officers of Election:

Training in the first use of electronic polibooks was conducted during thirteen sessions. The
Registrar, E. Randall Wertz, offered eight sessions during July and August 2010. Four sessions
were conducted between October 12 and October 21, 2010. The Officers of Election selected the
session to attend during the July-August period. The precinct teams were assigned dates for the
October training sessions. An additional training period was conducted on October 26, 2010 for
Chief Officers and Assistant Chiefs.

Training was detailed and consistent in logging-on and operating the electronic poilbooks
(EPBs). The Registrar used the same lecture notes and visual aids during each training session.
Members of the Electoral Board observed each training session.

The training consisted of a briefing and hands-on practice by teams of two or three people from
each precinct. Some chiefs and officers attended summer, precinct, and chiefs training sessions.
Emphasis was placed on a team effort by the officers who work at the check-in point in the
precinct on Election Day. During training, all precinct teams were able to log-on to the EPBs
successfully.

What varied in the training were the extent of experience with electronic equipment and the
extent of note taking by the individual officers. The team approach was intended to provide
support for the officers who were less familiar with electronic equipment.

Contingencies:

The precinct teams varied in their expressed and observed confidence levels. As a result, the
decision was made to provide paper poilbooks to eight precincts for back-up. Four of these
precincts used the paper polibooks for the full day. One precinct used the paper polibook until
9:00 AM, then the EPB. Three of these precincts used the EPBs all day.

Election Day Board Routine:

The Registrar’s Office opened at 4:30 AM with a staff of three people. Precinct teams arrived at
their respective precincts at 5:00 AM.

The Electoral Board agreed on Election Day assignments. The Secretary was stationed at the
Registrar’s Office. The Vice-Chairman would visit, and assist if necessary, the Christiansburg
area precincts. The Chairman would visit, and assist if necessary, the precincts in the Blacksburg
area.

The Use of Voter Lists:

The Registrar’s Office received calls from some precincts regarding their difficulty in logging-on
to their electronic pollbooks (EPBs) starting about 5:00 AM. The Secretary assisted in
answering the phone calls. The Vice-Chairman went to the precinct D-5 (Christiansburg
Library) to assist with their EPB log-on.
The Vice-Chairman called the Registrar’s Office and was connected to the Secretary. The Vice-
Chairman stated that she could not get the precinct’s EPB logged on. The Officers of Election
were concerned. The precinct was to open in five minutes and voters were in line. Using the
knowledge and information that the Vice-Chairman and the Secretary had at the time—it
appeared that very few and perhaps no precinct had operating EPBs—they agreed that names and
addresses would be taken. After presenting proper identification, the voters would be allowed to
vote on the voting machines.

Five precincts had not logged-on to their EPBs at 6:00 AM and used voter rosters until their
EPBs were activated. Activation of EPBs was accomplished by phone conversations with the
Registrar and through visits to precincts by the Chairman, the Vice Chairman, and an Officer of
Election assisting the Registrar’s office at that time.

The Secretary called the Chairman in Blacksburg at 7:15 AM, advised him of the morning’s
events and asked him to pick up a paper polibook at the Registrar’s Office and deliver it to
precinct B-3 (Belmont Christian Church). While at precinct B-3, the Chairman assisted in
getting the EPBs logged-on. The Vice-Chairman assisted precinct D-5 (Christiansburg Library)
and precinct E-1 (St. Michael’s Lutheran Church) in getting the EPBs logged-on. The Officer of
Election assisted precinct C-4 (Falling Branch Elementary School) and precinct F-2 (Blacksburg
High School) in getting their EPBs logged on.

By 9:00 AM eighteen precincts had functioning EPBs. Four precincts used the paper polibooks
all day. The five precincts that used voter rosters were instructed to enter the names of these
voters into the EPBs.

Some of the voter rosters were faxed to the Registrar’s Office while others were brought to the
office. All names on the voter ro’sters were checked in the Virginia Election and Registration
Information System (VERIS). All who voted in Montgomery County on November 2, 2010
were registered and eligible to vote.

The preparation and training for future elections will ensure these events will not be repeated. In
future elections, paper poilbooks will be included with each precinct’s election supplies.

While the events were out of the prescribed domain, the decisions were made with the
information that was available at the time. The outcome of the election was not affected. The
actions in this case would be described in legal parlance as “harmless errors.”