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Election Commissioners to explain sign-in procedures |
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Friday, 23 October 2009 |
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 By Davida Hill-Beckum
Daily Times Leader
Clay County Election Commissioners have been summoned to meet with the board of supervisors to discuss sign-in procedures this morning.
During the Oct. 8 meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Jessie J. Ivy, husband of District 5 Election Commissioner Jessie M. Ivy, presented the supervisors with a request to have the commissioners sign-in when reporting to work.
According to Jessie J. Ivy, a former commissioner who resigned citing health problems, the commissioners have agreed to sign-in, as verification of hours worked, but one commissioner refuses to comply. Jessie J. Ivy referred to the sign-in sheet as a process of “checks and balances.”
However, District 4 Commissioner Wendy Fuller says she refuses to sign-in and says she will continue to do so.
According to Fuller, who served eight years as chairman of the commission, there is no law requiring commissioners to sign-in and. Additionally, nor has the Election Commission voted to do so. Fuller stated the Board of Supervisors does not have the authority to require the commissioners to sign-in. .
“We are required to certify the time we spend at work,” Fuller said. That is done by an affidavit, which we file under oath each month. That is what we are required to do per John Helmert, who serves as senior attorney for the election division.”
As far the decision being made to sign in and out, Fuller says not only did she not vote on the sign-in procedure, she was never aware a vote took place.
During the Board meeting, Shelton Deanes, president, pointed out the commissioners are elected officials. Deanes asked the board why should the commissioners have to sign-in if the supervisors do not. Instead of voting on the sign-in sheet the supervisors elected to have the election commissioners attend the next meeting to discuss their time reporting procedure. No other elected official use a sign-in sheet.
“We are expecting the commissioners to attend,” Deanes said.
In December 2007, supervisors discussed the sign-in procedures of the election commissioners. The discussion was tabled and never resurfaced until earlier this month.
“We are not governed by the laws of supervisors,” Fuller said. “We are governed by the secretary of state and the code section that follows our position.”
All commissioners say they will be in attendance once they are officially notified, with the exception of Election Commissioner District 2, Tommy Bryan, Bryan said he will be gone for four days on a missions trip to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
At the scheduled Monday meeting of the Election Commissioner, spent the majority of their time performing necessary maintenance duties.
“There were no major elections held this year,” said Bryan. “So we spend most of our hours working to purge the voter rolls.”
“Purging the voter rolls” is the process of cleaning all in active voters from the registration rolls.
“We go thru and check voter status,” said Linda Ivy chairman of the election commissioners. “If they are active, we want them active. If they have moved we need to know that. We try to keep the rolls clean.”
The commissioners are assisted in the cleansing process by the Statewide Electronic Management System. By registering Clay County on the SEMS website, anytime a voter previously registered in Clay County registers in another county, they are automatically removed from Clay County's voter registration.
“It is important to remember SEMS is a state-wide system,” Ivy said. “If someone moves to another state, they should notify us. SEMS does not work nationwide.”
The election commissioners meet once a week, on Mondays at 9 a,m,. The only time the commissioners do not meet is if court is in session or if they do not have anything to discuss.
“We don't meet unless we need to,” said Bryan. “We try to save Clay County as much money as possible.”
According to the commissioners, they meet more often during an election year.
“Presidential elections are by far the most popular,” said Bryan, “followed by county and then city elections.”
The commissioners have more to do when there is an approaching election.
“Any registered voter wishing to run for an office, must sign up by a certain date,” said Wendy Fuller, District 4 commissioner. “Some candidates are required to pay a fee, depending on which position they wish to be considered for. All candidates must turn in a petition to the city clerk, who will verify the signatures before passing the information to us to place the candidates on the ballot.”
There are 21 disenfranchising crimes, or crimes that will prevent a potential candidate from running for office. These crimes include rape, robbery, arson, felony embezzlement and perjury. Offenders of these crimes may not become registered voters either. Currently their currently 49 disenfranchised voters on record in Clay County. There are 200 residents in Clay County who have been disenfranchised, but were never registered voters on file.
The other Clay County commissioner is Glenda Nadeau, District 3.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 October 2009 )
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