Unofficial minutes of Oconee County Democratic Party meeting March 2014

Democratic Party of Oconee County, Georgia

Minutes of the Meeting on 20 March 2014

1.  Call to order

Carolyn Crawford, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.  Present were Diana Jeffreys, Wendy Wade, Ann Stoneburner, Priscilla Sumner, Margaret Holt, Robert Wyatt, Sarajane Love, and Pat Adams.  Nancy DeRemo, who had asked for five minutes to speak was absent.  Denise Freeman, candidate for state superintendent of schools was late arriving, so the meeting moved on to other business.

2.  Minutes of the meeting on 16 January 2014

Holt moved and Stoneburner seconded acceptance of the minutes, and the motion passed unanimously.

3.  Discussion of issues related to SPLOST 2015

Ann Stoneburner noted that the referendum on SPLOST 2015 has been set back from the primaries to the general election.  Given the fact that no Democrats are running in any Oconee County races and state and federal offices seem to have prohibitive favorites, she suggested that many Democrats are likely to request a Republican ballot in order to have a say in county politics.  In particular, she recommended voting for two Republican challengers to incumbents:  Maria Caudill for Margaret Hale’s post and John Larkin for John Daniell’s post.

4.  Elections in 2014

Wyatt reported on two recent meetings of the Board of Elections and Registration.  The 3 February 2014 meeting focused on election dates, with 20 May being confirmed for the primaries, with a likely runoff on 22 July.  The general election is set for 4 November.  The 3 March 2014 meeting focused on upcoming budget hearings with the Board of Commissioners.  The budget for FY2015 is $203,830, an increase of $41,935 over the FY2014 budget of $161,895.  The large increase is due to the fact that no elections were held in 2013, whereas at least four are anticipated in 2014.

5.  Appearance by Denise Freeman, Democratic candidate for state school superintendent

Ms. Freeman is a native of Franklin County, who now lives in Lincoln County.  She has 27 years of experience in education and believes strongly in public schools, rather than private or charter schools.  She is excited about Jason Carter’s ideas for statewide education reform and hopes to work closely with him when he is elected governor.  She believes that there must be more transparency in Georgia schools, criticizing the state website as not user-friendly.  She promises to be a strong advocate for public schools, making the case to the governor and to state legislators.

6.  Announcement of upcoming events

Crawford reported that there will be a gathering of candidates, including Jason Carter, Connie Stokes, Ken Dious, and others in Augusta at 6:30 p.m. on 3 May 2014.  It is sponsored by the Columbia County Democrats and the dinner/reception costs $40.  Crawford also mentioned a meeting in Morgan County with Mary Harris, who is Director of Outreach and County Affairs for the Georgia Democratic Party (see Carolyn for more details).

7.  Questions about voter registration

Several issues were raised regarding registration of young voters and length of time before one needs to re-register.  Wyatt noted that Georgia high schools are required each April to set aside time for seniors to register to vote.  The process is nonpartisan, but Democrats can volunteer to help. 

A case was cited in which two Clarke County residents, who regularly spend part of the winter in Florida and temporarily have their mail forwarded, received a letter from Secretary of State Brain Kemp saying that their eligibility to vote in Georgia was in jeopardy.  This led to a question about how many elections one can fail to vote in before one’s name is deleted from the voter list and must re-register.  Wyatt agreed to look into the answers to these questions.

8.  Recruitment of more Democrats to fill seats on the Committee

Holt and Wade agreed at the last meeting to work on increasing awareness of the Democratic Party in Oconee County and to seek candidates to fill open seats on the Oconee County Democratic Committee.  Their first effort in that direction is to develop a survey instrument that might lead to a better understanding of the past, present, and future of the Democratic Party in Oconee County.

9.  Next meeting

The next meeting of the Committee will be on Thursday, 15 May 2014.

10.  Adjournment

Wade moved and Holt seconded a motion to adjourn.  The meeting was adjourned at 8:36 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Wyatt

Secretary