LAURINBURG — The governing board of the Scotland County elections office returned to work Monday with an extra member.
All 100 elections boards in North Carolina went from three board members to four after Republican lawmakers reconfigured county boards and the state board itself following the election of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in 2016. Boards are now evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Cooper has challenged the changes in court, leading to delays in filling the SBE and county offices.
The Scotland board now consists of Republicans Hal Culberson and Diana Johnston and Democrats William Bullard and William Purcell, the new addition.
Purcell has served on the North Carolina Senate and as mayor of Laurinburg.
“I hope that my experience serving in many committees on the Senate will help me do this important work,” Purcell said. “What I envision my election board responsibility is trying to make elections run smoothly and make sure they are fair and equal and that all qualified voters have an opportunity to vote and to make voting easy.”
Bullard is in his 11 years on the board, Culberson is on his 10 years, and Johnston is in her second year.
“I’d like to make sure that the board runs as smoothly as it has in the past, no deviations from that,” said Bullard, in his 11th year on the BOE. “The lines are already drawn all we have to do is walk the line. Our job does not get harder it gets better. As we follow our director our job will be better, she makes it easier for us.”
The members of the board are chosen through a process that starts with the local political parties and goes up to the state.
“Both local political parties make nominations to their state political party,” said Dell Parker, director of the board of elections. “Then the state political part makes recommendations to the State Board of Elections and then the State Board of Elections actually names the board members.”
Recently the board did a logic and accuracy testing on the machines that count the ballots. The board goes in and fills out test ballots which are then put through the machines to make sure they are being read correctly.
Election officials will hold a mock election Thursday with the state to make sure that the ballots can be read correctly ahead of the May 8 primary.
