Greene County elections board members abruptly resign
WAYNESBURG – The three members of Greene County’s Board of Elections abruptly resigned Friday afternoon during a private meeting in the county courthouse, raising questions about who will serve on the board with just seven weeks to go before Election Day.
Greene County President Judge Farley Toothman, Lawrence Stratton and Michael Dulaney signed the single-page resignation letter announcing all three were leaving their positions as of 1 p.m. Friday. The letter gave no explanation for the decision, though it appears to have stemmed from a vote taken Thursday by the county commissioners to request outside technical support with voting machines.
“Because of a lack of clarity for the role of the election board this year, I thought it was best to no longer be a part of it,” Stratton said.
According to the meeting minutes, Toothman requested the “executive session” Friday morning. The minutes stated the trio met to discuss “contractual, legal and ethical implications of the Board of Commissioners action” Thursday in which they voted for the technical support. The members claimed the one-hour meeting in Toothman’s chambers was permitted under the “legal action” exemption of the state’s Sunshine Law, according to the minutes sent to the Observer-Reporter Friday afternoon.
“Discussion resulted in all members of the Election Board voluntarily submitting their resignation,” the minutes stated.
The resignations come just days before the next election board meeting at noon Tuesday, leaving anyone to guess what will happen with no members present.
“If there’s no board, then no action can be taken,” Greene County Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall said.
The three members were serving on the elections board this year because the three county commissioners were running for re-election. Toothman now must appoint three new members, and whoever takes those seats will vacate them at the end of the year.
Greene County Elections Director Tina Kiger said she was “shocked” by the news and unsure what led to the exodus.
“Nothing seemed out of the ordinary,” Kiger said.
The announcement was made a day after the county commissioners voted unanimously to spend $12,000 to have Election Systems & Software, which sold voting machines to the county 12 years ago, to help calibrate and test the machines next month and provide technical support during Election Day. That decision without official consultation with the election board appears to have angered the members and prompted the resignations.
However, Kiger sent an email Sept. 8 to Toothman and Stratton informing them she was planning to request funding from the county commissioners to have technical support from ES&S. Neither man responded to her email, she said. Earlier this year, Toothman made his own attempts to solicit quotes from ES&S for similar professional services, Kiger said.
Kiger said the biggest issue from Friday afternoon’s development was whether military ballots scheduled to go out that day would be valid. She contacted the state Department of State and was assured they could still be mailed, though they had the three signatures of the now former board members. She was unsure what would happen to other documents that must be signed before the upcoming election.
“Hopefully, (Toothman) gets a new board appointed so we can get their signatures on the ballot,” Kiger said. “It’s regrettable they resigned, but we’ll move forward with what we have to do.”
She said additional meetings must now be held after new members are appointed to reorganize the board. The final meeting before the Nov. 3 election will take place in October.
The elections board has been in turmoil this month. Greene County Sheriff Brian Tennant resigned from his seat Sept. 8, prompting Toothman to appoint Dulaney, who is a member of his court staff, to the open seat. Tennant said Friday he left to focus all of his attention on running the sheriff’s office.
“I have a lot of stuff going on with work in terms of the sheriff’s office,” Tennant said. “I’ve been really busy with that and I didn’t think I was able to dedicate the amount of time that the elections board deserves.”
Toothman was on the bench for the remainder of Friday afternoon hearing a family court case, so neither he nor Dulaney were available for comment.
The resignations also are raising questions about why the public was excluded from the meeting between the three men and whether agency business was discussed, which would violate the state’s Sunshine Law. The law requires any meeting in which there is a quorum – a majority of board members attending – to be properly advertised for the public to attend, and the reason for an executive session must be explained at a public meeting.
Melissa Melewsky, a lawyer with the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association in Harrisburg, said the Sunshine Law likely applies to this situation and the former board members should explain to the public what was discussed at the meeting.
“We don’t know anything now because it doesn’t sound like these officials complied with the spirit of the Sunshine Act,” Melewsky said. “The agency bears the responsibility to explain to the public why they were excluded.”