New Hanover County’s elections board is looking to improve how it trains precinct judges after investigating an incident in which a judge was seen assisting voters with their selections.
The board approved a statement, to be issued through the county’s communications office, regarding the findings of that investigation and the board’s intention to address the issue through improvements to training provided to officials.
The statement follows reports from some judges at the Williston Middle School polling location who said they witnessed a fellow judge suggest candidates to vote for while assisting some voters in November. While elections law allows voters to receive assistance at the polls, judges are not allowed to influence voters’ decisions.
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“Our investigation revealed that some election officials at the W29 Precinct (Williston Middle School) in the City of Wilmington failed on Election Day to properly discharge certain duties,” the statement reads.
“After investigation, the [board] concluded that certain officials failed to bring these voters requesting assistance to the attention of the precinct chief judge and the ballot assistance provided to these voters did not conform to applicable law.” The board, the statement adds, “believes such conduct by any election official in New Hanover County is unacceptable.”
The board approved the statement at a workshop Wednesday morning that elections director Marvin McFadyen described as a first step toward addressing the situation and improving training for all precinct workers.
McFadyen said a priority would be to reduce training sessions from larger, three-or-four-hour-long classes to smaller, more frequent one-hour classes offered throughout the year. Elections officials would be required to attend certain sessions depending on their roles.
Board members said the incident at Williston was indicative of a need to improve training procedures.
“We need to step it up,” member Marlene Mitchell said. “That’s just common sense: You know you can’t vote for another individual.
“Even though they had been working there 10 years,” she said, “they obviously were not running the precinct correctly.”
Chairman John Ferrante said the statement brings closure to the board’s investigation, which did not result in disciplinary action, though the statement noted the board’s authority to remove any judge for “satisfactory cause.” The statement said the board “reserves the right in any case to commence such removal process.”
“We have a reputation that we need to meet,” Ferrante said. “Our focus is to work on a fix rather than look for someone to blame.”
Of the statement, Ferrante added: “This brings closure to the events that were brought to our attention, and we can move on and address it.”
Jonathan Spiers is a reporter for Port City Daily. He can be reached at (910) 772-6313 or [email protected]. On Twitter: @jrspiers
