NOTE: The following story was written based on an electoral board agenda provided to Cardinal News by electoral board chair David Levy on Aug. 4.
A different agenda, created on Aug. 6 according to the document’s metadata, was later posted to the city’s website and used to run the Aug. 7 meeting. The updated agenda did not include a discussion of election officer term length and incorporated a discussion of the registrar’s budget with the electoral board’s budget. This story was published before the updated agenda was posted and thus does not reflect those changes or the discussions held at the Aug. 7 meeting.
According to Virginia code, agendas for public meetings “shall be made available for public inspection at the same time such documents are furnished to the members of the public body.”
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Lynchburg’s electoral board has a busy agenda Thursday night as it takes stock between two calendar milestones: the passage of the city budget on June 30 and the start of early voting on Sept. 19.
The electoral board, which is responsible for overseeing general and primary elections and confirming the results of elections, is working with about $10,000 less this fiscal year than last year, according to Lynchburg’s adopted budget.
In past years, that money was allocated to hire temporary staff to help prepare for local elections, said David Levy, the board’s chair. Preparations range from moving voting equipment to filing paperwork to getting informational mailings to residents’ homes, he said.
“We have a job of getting an election done, and if we don’t have the staff, it’s going to be a problem,” Levy said.
The board will provide a budget report Thursday to show how the 2026 budget has been allocated so far since the fiscal year started on July 1. Levy said the board is still unsure of how it will make ends meet or if it will ask for additional funds.
Other city programs saw cuts to staff or services when Lynchburg City Council adopted its budget for the 2026 fiscal year. Most cuts were made to offset increases made elsewhere within a given program, leaving programs with an overall budget increase from the last fiscal year to this one. For example, the City Assessor’s Office lost funding for a full-time administrative services position but gained funding to increase salaries and benefits for remaining employees, resulting in an overall budget increase of about 20%, according to the adopted budget.
The electoral board did not receive funding increases elsewhere in its budget, seeing its total budget reduced from $145,774 in the 2025 fiscal year to $135,850 this year, according to the adopted city budget.
Also on Thursday’s agenda is a discussion of a new policy for election officers’ appointment terms.
Lynchburg has between 120 and 150 election officers who work the polls every year, Levy said. Currently, the length of each officer’s term is up to the board’s discretion, he said, which leads to inconsistent qualifications for one-, two-, and three-year terms.
The proposed term policy, first introduced at the board’s April 3 meeting, sets term length based on standardized criteria such as years of experience and level of performance as a poll worker. For example, three-year appointments would be reserved for election officers who have served at a “satisfactory or higher level of performance” for a minimum of three years, according to the proposed policy.
Election officers can reapply after their term expires, Levy said.
Other Thursday agenda items will help the board prepare for the general election, Levy said, and will include a review of the Voting Systems Security Program and a check-in to ensure that all polling places are ADA compliant. After the discussions, the meeting will open for public comment.
The public meeting will be held in the upstairs conference room of 800 Kemper St. at 4 p.m. Thursday. Residents can also join the meeting via Zoom.
