VALDOSTA – Additional drop boxes for the November presidential election are unlikely in Lowndes County.

Lowndes County Board of Elections held its monthly meeting via conference call last week. Originally scheduled Tuesday, Aug. 11, the meeting was postponed to Friday, Aug. 14, due to a board member’s absence.

During the citizens to heard portion, Dennis Marks, Lowndes County Democratic Party vice chair of elections, suggested the board utilize additional drop boxes for the upcoming November election considering the jump in voting for a presidential election and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The board operates one drop box at its 2808 N. Oak St. location where voters can drop off ballots.

While the board had discussed it in the past, Cox said adding drop-boxes presents several hurdles for her office: proper staffing, secure camera footage of each dropbox retained up to 30 days after election certification and must be emptied once a day but likely twice a day with the expected November vote surge.

“So that could be very, very expensive,” she said. “We have discussed. We’re reluctant to commit two full-time staff people to do nothing but travel to those all day long.”

The shortage of poll workers for elections has been a national concern for months, and it affected the local June 9 election with a few polling location closures due to short staff. In the run up to that June election, Cox was vocal about a desperate need for poll workers, repeatedly asking for more people to join the ranks.

Her tune changed Friday morning as she said poll worker recruitment for November is “going well” so far.

Marks asked if someone who received an absentee ballot, filled it out but brought the ballot in-person on Election Day would the ballot count. Cox said in that scenario, the polling place can and will accept and count the ballot because Lowndes County poll managers are elections officials and have that power.

Finally, Marks brought up a desire for the board to mandate mask wearing for election monitors from each political party. While poll workers and behind the counter staff will be required to wear masks, Marks said he would like to see party monitors need masks and asked Cox to reconsider the proposition.

“She has made it quite clear she’s uncomfortable invoking that authority,” he said.

Cox told The Valdosta Daily Times the matter is a political concern between the two parties that they can decide without her.

“Take me out of the middle of it. I’m following the guidelines of my director, the governor and secretary of state,” she said. “What you all work out between you is OK. My staff’s masked.” 

This story was updated at 9:31 a.m. Aug. 18 to reflect that there is one drop box at the Lowndes County Board of Election where voters can drop off ballots.