Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Commissioner Jeff Eggleston outlines the procedures put in place for the counting of ballots in next week’s elections during a Board of Elections meeting held on Wednesday night at the Warren County Courthouse.

Turnout will be high.

The county will process more mail-in and absentee votes than ever before.

A total of 33 precincts will be open.

Ballots can be accepted up through Friday if postmarked by Nov. 3.

There will be a lot of moving parts for county officials as they conduct the upcoming General Election.

The Warren County Board of Elections formally adopted a procedure document that lays out specifically how all fo the ballots cast throughout the county will be counted.

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said the document is “probably the most important procedure” in “limiting liability to the county.”

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston, who worked on the document with Elections Director Lisa Rivett, said the goal was to produce “something comprehensive” while acknowledging that it could still change as the law changes in the runup to Election Day.

Mail-in and absentee ballots received prior to election day, he said, have been kept in a secure location.

He explained that those ballots can be processed starting at 7 a.m. on Election Day. Three teams of two people each will prepare the ballots for scanning, which will be conducted by county elections staff.

Mail-in and absentee ballots received on election day won’t be processed until the day after the election, he added. Further, he said the Department of State has directed counties not to count ballots received between Wednesday and Friday – but postmarked by election day – until directed to do so.

“The goal is to keep them separated so they can be individually adjudicated,” Eggleston said, noting that if there’s a a court challenge on the extension then those specific ballots “can be focused on” and will be “separated from the rest of the ballots.” He said the state is also directing counties to keep a lot of all ballots received after election day.

There’s still some ambiguity regarding poll watchers and who can witness the precanvassing and canvassing at the courthouse.

Rivett said she’s issue just one poll watcher certificate – for Nina Ahmad running for auditor general in Bear Lake. Kafferlin said there may be a few more forthcoming.

The instructions were approved with the latitude for Solicitor Nathaniel Schmidt to make changes as needed in light of election law changes and guidance from the Department of State.

CARES Act

During the commissioners meeting that followed the election board session, the commissioners approved a series of CARES Act requests for local fire departments, municipal governments and several county needs.

The requests covered a wide variety of resources from AEDs to software and remote access capabilities so specific emergency responds needs for the Department of Public Safety.

A request from the elections office that was approved would replace the poll books at each polling place – that all voters have contact with to sign – with touchscreen devices that can be cleaned between use by each voter.