Board works in spite of turmoil
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 15, 2017 5:50 AM
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Beavers
The Wayne County Board of Elections will meet as usual next week despite a state system in turmoil.
The state board that it once reported to has been erased from existence by a Republican General Assembly and replaced with a bipartisan State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement.
The local board is still able to conduct business even though the new state board has no members since the law is being challenged in court by Gov. Roy Cooper.
The law does not provide for an interim state board that will oversee elections and government ethics.
In the past the State Board of Elections was controlled by the governor's party. Cooper is a Democrat.
The new eight-member board will be equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. The governor will make the appointments from a list compiled by the two parties.
Local boards of elections are appointed by the state.
In prior years the governor's party provided three names for a local elections board for the state to pick two members from. The other party provided two names for the state board to make one appointment.
Under the new law, each party will provide three names and the state board will select two from each to appoint to the local elections board.
Cooper contends the law violates the constitutional separation of powers.
Politics on the state level are having negative impact on elections directors who hopefully will soon have some guidance from the state, Wayne County Elections Dane Beavers said.
There was no updated information at last week's State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement conference in Charlotte. The state board had no updated information, Beavers said.
"All that we know for sure at the moment there is no state board (of elections) at all," he said. "All state board members have been released. So they are waiting on the governor to appoint a new board at the state level.
"In order for us to move forward with our normal board appointments in the counties, we must first have a state board. We don't have that right now. As far as I know, there is a court case coming up on the 28th of August. They are going to hear the appeal from the governor regarding the ethics board and state board combined."
The state has told the county that it can to operate as before, as long as election board members are willing to remain.
The law has affected the board in one way.
In the past, at least two board members were required in order to have a quorum. Under the new law it will be a four-member board of two Democrats and two Republicans. That will require three members to be present for a quorum.
"We are very lucky because all three of our board members volunteered to stay until we get some better direction from the state," Beavers said. "I do have three board members. It takes all three of them to constitute a quorum. Without at least three board members, any county is not able to do any type of administrative business that requires a quorum. So in Wayne County we are lucky to have all three of our board members on board.
"Basically the state has told us just go into a holding pattern and don't do anything more than you have to. We are really hoping we will get some better guidance following this 28th hearing one way or another."
Otherwise the board would not be able to meet next week to appoint precinct officers for the upcoming municipal and sanitary district elections.
"We are able to move forward because I have three board members," he said. "Now once they do seat a new state board, then we are expected to go to four board members, two from each party."
The current members are Doug Wiggins, chairman, and Jimmy Hull, secretary, both Republicans and Bridget Cowan, a Democrat.
There are at least 10 counties in the state where the board members did not stay on, and those counties cannot perform any administrative duties and are at a standstill.
"We are going to move forward with our precinct official appointment next week and we are working on this municipal and sanitary district elections that come up this fall. We are moving forward as much as we possibly can.
Candidate filing is complete and the information is available on the website, www.waynevotes.com.