Cass County Board: Election officials clarify procedures for absentee voters

WALKER — Cass County elections officials are clarifying procedures for absentee voters for the upcoming general election.

Cass County Board members heard an update regarding direct balloting procedures from Pam Smith, county elections administrator, during the board’s Tuesday, Oct. 4, meeting.

Smith said direct balloting is for absentee voters who would like to personally deposit their ballot into a DS200 ballot tabulator rather than use the envelope process. In the past, absentee voters were allowed to utilize the DS200 ballot tabulator seven days prior to and on Election Day. However, it was discovered that use of the DS200 tabulator is not allowed on Election Day. Instead, on Election Day Nov. 8 absentee voters will place their ballots in a ballot box where election judges will collect them and place them into the larger ballot tabulator.

Chief Financial Officer Sandra Norikane said the 2021 audited financial statements and the management and compliance report were posted to the county’s website and will be published in the newspaper shortly. There were no changes to fund financial information since the information was presented to the board previously, however there were two changes made to the overall financial presentation. The first change was how the reporting of the opioid settlement is accounted for and the second is on how to report amounts that are ultimately settled to local units of governments from tax-forfeit settlement. Norikane also said once again there were no written findings for the year for $2.1 million received and distributed by the county in state and federal COVID-19 grants.

In other business, the county board:

Approved the 2023 cafeteria plan costs and plan contributions as recommended by the Insurance Committee.

Approved the expense of $1,200 to Martin Mechanical to complete a site visit and prepare a heating system evaluation report on the utility rooms at Deep Portage Learning Center.

Approved an easement and waived the easement fee of $500 for Crow Wing Power and TDS to run new underground wiring to Deep Portage buildings. The old lines have reached their maximum service life and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources would not issue a permit to replace them in their current location. Therefore, a new location was selected.

Awarded final payment in the amount of $311,609.50 to Gladen Construction for the bridge replacement over Bungo Creek on County Highway 25 and Mosquito Creek on County Road 103.

The next meetings are as follows: Commissioner’s board meeting 9 a.m. Oct. 18 at the Land Department Meeting Room in Backus; Association of Minnesota Counties District 2 fall meeting 8 a.m. Oct. 19 at the Beltrami County Administration Building, 701 Minnesota Ave. NW, Bemidji; and commissioner’s board meeting 9 a.m. Nov. 1 at the boardroom in the courthouse annex in Walker.