Well, the Richland County legislative delegation finally met today, and chose a new election commission.
That is, an almost-new election commission.
The bad news is that longtime member Adell Adams got to stay on. She was one of two incumbents seeking reelection to the commission, and she got to stay. The good news is that Elaine DuBose, the other incumbent, did get replaced, by Pete Kennedy — described as “a watchdog of the board since 2012’s debacle.”
Actually, I suppose there’s more good news in that there are three other new members: Marjorie Johnson, Sylvia Holley & Jane Emerson.
I was unable to make it to the meeting, and the question I’m burning to have the answer to is this: WHO voted to keep Adell Adams on?
All I know so far is that Nathan Ballentine didn’t vote for her:
I did not vote for any incumbent for the new Richland Election Commission
— Nathan Ballentine (@NathanBallentin) September 5, 2014
And yesterday, Beth Bernstein told me that she did not intend to vote for any incumbents, either.
Beyond that, I don’t know.
Here’s the brief item on thestate.com, and here you can find Tweets from Dawn Hinshaw, who covered the meeting.
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Jane Emerson is a great choice, but I want to know why Professor Duncan Buell did not even make the first cut. There is simply no one in the state, if not beyond, more qualified.
Kathryn, without knowing him, I would still hazard the guess that you answered your own question.
The “delegation” just wanted a differently-headed board, not an independent, competent one.
Ding ding ding!
Excellent question Kathryn. Duncan is a nationally respected authority on electronic voting systems and a member of the very prestigious National Academy of Sciences. He wasn’t even short-listed.
One rather thinks that fair, well-run elections were not the goal….
Never have been.
There are agendas at work- and of course some want patsies that they control as necessary.
That was an easy prediction.
Tobias Fünke unavailable for comment…
I’ve put in a call to the delegation office, and I’m assured that the lawmakers’ votes are being put into a report that I’ll receive via email shortly.
I only expressed interest in one state — who voted for Adell Adams. But perhaps there will be other interesting things to note in the report…
By the way, some of you may be confused that I, who so value experience, would want an entirely new commission.
You shouldn’t be. This is such an extreme situation that all incumbents are too tainted to stay on.
The benefit of having incumbents stay on is that it’s good to have someone around who knows how to do the job. We’ve had ample proof that these incumbents were clueless on that score…
Well, Duncan HAS experience as well as expertise….