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Forsyth elections chairman removed by state board
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Published: August 5, 2009
The State Board of Elections has taken the unusual step of removing Eric Elliott from the Forsyth County Board of Elections despite the endorsement of Elliott by the local and state Democratic executive committees.
Elliott, who was chairman of the three-member local elections board, said yesterday he believes that he roused the ire of state elections officials last fall when he opposed two state directives that he believed would change the election rules in the middle of an election.
"They said I was insubordinate for following state law," Elliott said yesterday, referring to state election officials that he did not specifically name. "I followed the law. Last fall I followed the advice of county attorneys on two matters. The county attorneys said we would be breaking the law if we did what the state board wanted us to do."
The controversies that Elliott referred to arose last fall during the unprecedented heavy turnout here and across the state of people wanting to cast ballots under an early voting procedure.
About midway through the early voting period, state elections officials directed all counties to distribute a handout informing voters that a straight-ticket vote did not count in the presidential election. On a 2-1 vote the local elections board decided not to change procedures, with Elliott joining Republican Jerry Jordan for a majority.
Then, just days before early voting was to close, state elections officials directed boards of election to immediately hold meetings to discuss extending early voting hours on Nov. 1, the Saturday before the general election. The county elections board initially scheduled a meeting for that Saturday at noon but held it a day earlier when state elections officials threatened suspension or removal of the board's members.
County attorneys said at the time that the meeting could not take place as quickly as the state officials demanded because of a 48-hour notice required for all but emergency meetings. County attorneys told the local board that the state directive didn't say what constituted the emergency requiring a meeting.
Voting hours were extended on Nov. 1, thanks to a 2-1 vote by the local board, with Jordan this time siding with Linda Sutton, the board's second Democrat.
The state elections board voted on members for all 100 North Carolina counties last month. Each local board has two Democrats and one Republican, because of a law that gives the party holding the governor's office the majority. Democrats nominate three people for each local board and Republicans nominate two.
Forsyth County was the only county in which the state board chose the second- and third-choice nominees from the Democrats instead of the top two. That would have put Sutton -- the incumbent -- and fellow Democrat Patricia Sisson on the board, but for the fact that Sisson last week declined to serve.
Yesterday, the county elections board met without Elliott and approved the ballot for the Sept. 15 primary in the Winston-Salem municipal election. But the ballot can't be completed without the signature of the board chairman, and yesterday the two remaining members of the elections board declined to pick a chairman.
Local Democrats are trying to get the state to reconsider Elliott's appointment. If that doesn't work, the party will nominate Frank Dickerson and one other Democrat for the post, said Fleming El-Amin, the chairman of the local Democratic Party.
El-Amin said that although Democrats had different opinions about early voting procedures last fall, party leaders had later agreed to renominate Elliott in a show of party unity.
"He was our first choice," El-Amin said.
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
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