Democrats succeed at recent Board of Elections meeting
- BrunswickDems
- Aug 24
- 2 min read
Kudos to Brunswick County Democrats for showing up at the Board of Elections (BOE) meeting last Tuesday, August 19th. No one could miss all the BCDP T-shirts in the packed room!
Background: Every two years, the Board of Elections (BOE) appoints precinct judges (three per site) to oversee the operation of the polls in each precinct. The BOE staff, along with the county chairs of the two political parties, recommend persons to fill these critical roles.
This year: Before official precinct judge appointments were made by the BOE, the BOE Deputy Director (Melissa Chambers) met separately with each county party’s chair to go over the staff’s recommendations. Their list included: 13 Democratic chief judges and nine precincts with two Democratic judges.
In addition to concurring with the staff’s list, BCDP's chair submitted the names of all the Democrats recommended by the staff (along with a few of the Unaffiliateds on the staff's list). She also noted that IF any Democratic Chief Judge was not approved, they should be appointed to one of the other two judge spots in that precinct. These extra, precautionary steps were taken due to the MAGA-majority North Carolina General Assembly's unscrupulous takeover of our Boards of Elections. The law they passed gave the state and all county boards a 3-2 Republican voting majority. That takeover is, no doubt, intended to encourage Republicans on county boards -- and Republican Party county chairs -- to use their newfound majorities in similar service to GOP efforts to suppress free and fair elections.
So, what happened at the BOE meeting?
1) During public comments, before the judge appointments were made, BCDP's chair made the following statement:
2) During the board's review of recommended judges, we learned that the new BC Republican Party chair revealed a willingness to put partisanship over election integrity. He submitted over a dozen names/judge positions that differed from the BOE staff’s recommendations. Examples: three attempts to replace a Democratic Chief Judge, and five attempts to replace one of the Democrats in precincts where two were recommended. In several of these cases, the suggested Republicans were out-of-precinct (which automatically disqualified them when an in-precinct judge had been nominated by the BOE staff/BCDP). In a few instances, the GOP nominees were people with NO prior experience serving as a judge, or even working the polls. If any of the Republican-majority BOE members had felt inclined to vote for their party chair’s less-qualified selections, it would have been extremely difficult to justify — especially in front of a sea of attentive onlookers!
What was the outcome? Every single Democrat recommended by the BOE staff/BCDP was approved! The entire board deserves credit for prioritizing its staff’s recommendations.
Bottom line: Your presence mattered. We sent a clear message that we are watching and taking action to safeguard fair elections at the local level. To paraphrase a famous saying, attempts to chip away at our Democracy will not take place in darkness on our watch! Well done, team.
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