By: L. Cramer
Just sitting down at the Cobb County Board of Elections meeting, it was evident to me that most of the 20 plus people in attendance were there due to grievances or concerns over the county’s election process. Many held signs with different statements, such as “We don’t trust you” and “Creating Chaos. Coincidence?”.
The majority of attendees were seasoned individuals, with a small smattering of Millennials – but honestly what working adult with a family could afford to be at a 3pm meeting at the Cobb Commissioner’s building to discuss the county’s election process? Even if someone wanted to get involved, how could they with a Monday afternoon start time like that?
As everyone stood for the pledge of allegiance, one sole dissenter refused to participate to the irritation of many people in attendance – Vice Chair Jennifer Mosbacher. When addressed during public comment, Vice Chair Mosbacher did not lift her eyes from her notes to acknowledge anyone in the room who wasn’t sitting at the table with her.
At the onset of the meeting, Chairwoman Tori Silas addressed the group by stating that “outbursts will not be tolerated” from the crowd and insisted on decorum. She also informed the attendees that the board reserves the right to change the length of public comment from five minutes to three minutes to the groans of the crowd. Chairwoman Silas insisted the reason for changing the time was due to nine individuals signing up for public comment and a lengthy agenda for the meeting. It behooves this reporter to note that the public portion of the meeting ended at 4:25pm with the Board of Elections calling for executive session.
During public comment, the topics centered around transparency in the Board’s budget with the most often mentioned issue of the Cobb County voter roll clean up. This issue has been a focal point for local Board of Elections Offices across the country since the 2020 election. Eugene Williams, a local Cobb County resident, was the first at bat for public comment.
In April 2024, Williams presented the Cobb County Board of Elections with 2,472 names on the voter rolls that needed closer inspection, however the board did not respond favorably and ultimately told Williams to submit a formal challenge.
Williams lamented after the meeting that it’s left to the Board of Elections to “maintain the Cobb County voter rolls; that’s their ongoing job”. In their last meeting, the Board of Elections kicked around the idea of changing policy in order to charge anyone who submits challenges to voter rolls to pay the county for its effort to clean the rolls. For Eugene Williams it would be a whopping $1,600 which he equates to a poll tax – a Jim Crow era law that essentially forced voters to pay to vote and if you couldn’t pay then you didn’t vote.
Eugene Williams wasn’t the only person during public comment who had something to say about voter roll clean up. Board of Commissioner District 2 candidate Pamela Reardon has been seeing this since she brought voter roll challenges in December 2020 with True the Vote, “probably 40% of those people actually did vote and they weren’t supposed to vote. They got taken off [the voter rolls] by February 5th in 2021.”
Reardon was harassed by the left because of her involvement in helping to secure the elections which included people showing up at her house and others claiming voter suppression but Reardon said “we didn’t look to see at all what color they were or what party they were with, it was that you filled in a national change of address form that you were permanently moving to another state or another jurisdiction.”
District 2 Cobb Commissioner candidate Pamela Reardon addresses the Cobb Board of Elections on Monday
Despite the majority of attendees being frustrated at what they perceive as a lack of accountability or regard for American elections, there was still a small contingent who stepped in to defend the Cobb County Board of Elections with two advocates signing up for public comment. What this reporter witnessed as the only time Tori Silas showed any kindness was to a man who essentially yelled at any dissenters and made derogatory comments about the presidential race to the crowd. Silas politely interrupted him to say his time was up and apologized for it – a consideration not given to others whom she had to abruptly stop due to going over their time.
This meeting doesn’t quell any of the overall conservative fears about the integrity of American elections; in fact it actually exacerbates them. What happened to the days when elected and appointed officials cared about the people they were supposed to serve? It seems we see stories in the news every day where public officials get caught over serving themselves instead.
Perhaps we will find common ground again, or maybe we will continue to be divided until it utterly destroys us – but I sure hope not.
