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MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE CADDO PARISH COMMISSION SELECTION OF THE REGISTRAR OF VOTERS HELD ON THE 21st DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 2019 The Caddo Parish Commission met in a Special Session, on the above date at 9:00 a.m., in the Government Chambers, with Mrs. Stormy Gage-Watts, President, presiding, and the following members in attendance, constituting a quorum: Commissioners Atkins, Cawthorne, Chavez, Dominick, Gage-Watts, Jackson, Louis Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson, Linn, Middleton, and Smith (11). ABSENT: Commissioner Bowman (1). Mrs. Gage-Watts gave the invocation, and Mr. Jackson led the Commission in the Pledge of Allegiance. NEW BUSINESS At this time, the Caddo Parish Commission conducted interviews for the Registrar of Voters. Mr. Charles W. Allum Allum: I just thank you for the opportunity to come before you. I ask that you all would receive me as I am. Gage-Watts: What do you understand the duties and responsibilities of the Registrar to be? Allum: Well, the duties of the Registrar are mostly ministerial. The Registrar is to guide the office; to conduct elections; and he is to be the custodian of all voting records of the Parish of Caddo. Gage-Watts: What aspects of the Registrar’s Office do you currently observe to be working well? Allum: As far as the elections are concerned and the way that we conduct our elections. The people that are working in there do a fantastic job. I think we have the best in the State getting people through in a timely manner during the elections. As you can see, in the last presidential election, we had over 8,000 people come through that small office that we have. Everyone got to vote within the time limit that was given. Gage-Watts: So the aspects that you think are working well are the time constraints? Allum: Yes. There are some other things that we probably need to tweak. The office has been running well. Mr. Ernie did a great job with that office. There are some things that we could do to make some things better. Gage-Watts: Would you like to elaborate what needs to be tweaked in the office? Allum: As far as getting information out to the voters of the Parish. I’ve gone around for about four months to meetings in the libraries—meetings in the public, and there are a lot of people who don’t have access to computers or technology. They don’t know what their rights are. They don’t know the things they should do as far as changing their addresses. They don’t know if they don’t change their address that they can’t go somewhere else and vote. We run into that during elections where they go to the wrong place, and they go at a late hour and they are not able to go to the polls where they should be in order to vote. Gage-Watts: Do you have a plan of action to address those needs? Allum: Educating the public. We have got to find another way to get the information out to them. I think it’s more about meeting with people out in the public and talking to them and educating them. Gage-Watts: What uniquely qualifies you to be the Registrar of Voters? Allum: What uniquely qualifies me? My experience there in the office. I know every facet of what goes on in the office. I have been there for 19 years. Since 1968, I’ve been to that office, and I have been there off and on for that period of time. I’ve worked in each aspect of that office. Jackson: Thank you for putting your name on the line to do this. The Secretary of State’s canvass. A lot of people, including myself, has been caught up in the canvass where a person doesn’t even have to come in, but if a mistake happens at the Secretary of State’s level or at the postal service, your Voters of Registration can be completely moved without the 253 Special Session Minutes—Registrar of Voters Interview September 21, 2019 person ever coming into the office to do it. What do you think the role of the Registrar of Voters is? How do you think in your capacity would you be able to address that? I don’t necessary know that it is fair that if I never come in to move my registration that a computer could just move it for me. If you could, explain the canvass process so folks would know what I am talking about. Allum: The canvass is not something that is initiated this office. The canvass process is initiated by the State. The State uses the National Postal Database in order to find addresses. What they do is, they send out what they call address verification to certain addresses. If those come back, when the canvass is done, they look at those that were returned. If it was returned to find out that the person did not live there, or if it came back because they didn’t fill it out—they don’t canvass everybody in the Parish. They only canvass those if they receive the information back that people don’t live at certain addresses. Sometimes it’s a large number; sometimes it’s a small number. The State then sends another address of verification to that address. If it is returned, they use the address that the post office provides them as your address. They automatically change it in the system. We don’t change it. I don’t know what we can do. We can talk with the Secretary of State’s office, but it would take all of the Registrars in the State to get together to go to them and try to get something changed for that concern. That’s the law, and that’s the way they do the canvass. Jackson: Do you have any thoughts on satellite locations? Allum: Satellite locations? We are one of the largest municipalities in the State—about the third largest. We don’t have the staff to do satellite locations. We should have 7 full-time classified employees; we have 4. We couldn’t do it. It would be almost impossible to go out and have a satellite location. We don’t have the staff for it. It has to be classified employees who would staff those areas. Jackson: As Registrar, would you look for ways to increase or try to increase your staffing? Allum: We don’t have control over that. The State won’t let—Ernie tried for 23 years. It is left up to the State. The State did not even give raises for the employees for over five years for the employees that were already working there. As far as trying to get some more employees, that’s been a hard fought battle that we have not won yet. Atkins: Forgive me for not knowing this, but you said there were 7 full-time employees? Allum: No. Four. Atkins: Four. Is that it? Or are there any additional full-time employees beyond those four? Allum: There are four classified employees. Right now, there is only one unclassified employee, and that’s the acting Registrar right now. Gage-Watts: What is the largest budget that you have managed? Allum: $2 million. Gage-Watts: What were the challenges in managing and budgeting? Allum: The challenges were to have departments that worked where I was to stay within their budget. Gage-Watts: What budget successes are you proud of? Allum: Well, I received an audit, back some years ago, that said I took a bad situation and turned it into a good one. Mr. Larry Tanner, who is a CPA here in the City, he was the one who was doing our audit. He said that I did a great job. I changed some of the systems that we were using in order to follow where the money was going. I stayed on top of the department heads to let them know when they were exceeding what they were doing in their budgets. Gage-Watts: How do you address your budget if you have an employee who has to be off for about 7 days? Allum: Excuse me? Gage-Watts: How would you address your budget according to an employee who would have to be off for about 7 days? Allum: In the Registrar’s office? You don’t. You don’t have control over that. 254 Special Session Minutes—Registrar of Voters Interview September 21, 2019 Louis Johnson: The $2M budget that you managed. Where was that? Allum: It was at the Bossier Community Action program. I was handling the Community Action Program and the ATW. Chavez: I did want to commend you on the 19 years for working there already. As I was doing my research, a lot of the sheriff’s deputies praised you on how—whenever somebody needed anything, you were very knowledgeable and were always that could help anybody with anything at the Registrar’s office. I think speaks volumes of the people that work, not in this specific office, but nearby enough to earshot that you are the one who helps everybody. Thank you for volunteering for this position. Thank you for your 19 years thus far. Allum: It is the people in that front office—the people that you meet that make the office what it is. They’re the ones who do the work…that do the hard work. Cawthorne: In the past 30 years, we’ve only had one Registrar, so we don’t have a varied leadership over the past 30 years.

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