Uncertainty at the Board of Elections

Virginia Martin was been the Democratic Commissioner at the Columbia County Board of Elections for at least a decade. In that time, she has distinguished herself as a champion of election integrity and transparency in elections. In 2010, she was named "Election Integrity Hero" by the Election Transparency Coalition for orchestrating the hand count of ballots in that year's election. This past October, she was a presenter at the National Voting Rights Task Force convention in Berkeley, California. The picture below shows Martin (far right) with other presenters at the convention demonstrating their opposition to ballot marking devices that generate bar codes and their support of ballots that are marked by humans and can be read by humans.

Every two years, Martin has been reappointed to her position as commissioner without much attention being paid to it. This year, however, is an exception. On November 11, the Columbia County Democratic Committee sent out a request for applications for the position: 

The Columbia County Democratic Committee seeks applications from interested persons for the position of Democratic Election Commissioner for a two year term starting January 2, 2020.

The Columbia County Board of Elections is responsible for all aspects of elections in the towns and city of Columbia County, and also assists some villages and school districts with their elections. There are two Election Commissioners, one Democrat and one Republican. Three full-time staff report to each of the Commissioners. The position is part time.

Tonight, the Columbia County Democratic Committee is expected to decide whom they will recommend to the Board of Supervisors for the position. Sam Pratt, who has been following the developments up to this point, reports about it today on his blog: "Rare competition tonight for Dem Election Commissioner's job."
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