This generally would not be an issue since poll workers are prohibited from encouraging voters how to vote, but Arthur Resa, chairman of the Democratic Party in Bell County, is making it one.
Resa insists that equal party representation at each precinct has been a county tradition. That will not happen this year and officials at the Bell County Clerk’s office say Resa is partly to blame.
On Oct. 10, the last day to submit names for potential clerks to presiding election judges, Resa showed up at the County Clerk’s Office and tried to submit a hand-written list, County Clerk Shelley Coston said.
Ms. Coston said Resa was told by County Elections Coordinator Jana Henderson that the names needed to be postmarked and that he was delivering them to the wrong place. He should have delivered it to Bell County Republican Party Chairwoman Nancy Boston, who would then distribute the names to the election judges at each precinct.
Mrs. Boston said that she had not heard from Resa and that election judges work with the alternate judges to hire clerks. She noted that the Republicans submitted names.
Resa said in past presidential elections the names had been submitted through the county clerk. He said he was just following county protocol.
Ms. Coston, overseeing her first presidential election in the county, said, “we don’t make the rules. We are enforcing them. It’s an issue out of my control.”
Part of the difficulties the Democratic Party is having may be due to the void left by the health issues of former County Clerk Vada Sutton, the last elected Democratic official in the county.
“Those health issues may have prevented Vada from being able to provide political guidance to the Democrats,” County Judge Jon Burrows said. “The current Democratic leadership does not have the election experience that Vada had, and, as a result, appears to be struggling on internal party administrative issues that are not the responsibilities of the county clerk’s office.
“After getting this election under their belts, by the next election they should have fewer problems. Nancy Boston, Chairman of the Bell County Republican Party, does have long-time election experience, so the Republicans seem to have fewer problems in preparing for the current election responsibilities and duties.”
Mrs. Boston said that the election judges and clerks have all been undergoing training to comply with election law, as the party has done.
Ms. Coston said talk that her office is responsible for a discrepancy in election clerks is misplaced.
“It’s irrelevant,” she said. “The election judge is in charge of running their precinct.”
Election judges for each precinct were chosen based on the voter turnout at each precinct from the previous gubernatorial election. Based on that data there will be 42 Republican judges and seven Democratic judges.
Each precinct has an alternate judge assigned from the opposing political party.
During training for election judges on Oct. 11, Ms. Henderson, in an attempt to appease upset Democrats, notified the officials that if any of them needed clerks she had names available.
“Not one person came forward,” Ms. Coston said.
