Elections Office Under Fire For Delayed Results
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
Above picture: Houston County Elections Administrator Cynthia Lum defends her actions during the last election at a Houston County Elections Board meeting Tuesday, Mar. 12.
HOUSTON COUNTY – The Houston County Election Board met for a special meeting Tuesday, Mar. 12 with one item on the agenda – to discuss and consider taking any action necessary to resolve the personnel issue – namely, Elections Administrator Cynthia Lum.
Lum had come under fire after the recent elections as results were slow in coming, when after early votes were released and two hundred election day votes were counted, the public reporting stopped, until three or so hours later.
The board is made up of Houston County Judge Jim Lovell, Houston County Clerk Terri Meadows, Tax Assessor/Collector Laronica Smith, Republican Party Chair Joni Clonts and Democratic Party Chair Tami Barugh.
After the group met in executive session, Lovell welcomed the public back with a simple explanation of the task at hand, saying, “This commission has one job and that’s to hire and fire the Elections Administrator.”
Given time for public comments, several of the election poll workers spoke up in favor of Lum, telling the board the new technology has its kinks and they have spoken about ways to improve reporting to the county.
Lovell countered, asking one person who was counting votes on election night if it would have been possible to report election results as they came in.
“I was told it was possible, but no one asked him to do that,” Lovell recounted.
Precinct Three Commissioner Gene Stokes insisted the county should do better.
“This is not about the election administration. This is not a Republican or Democrat election – this is the people’s election. They need to know who won,” Stokes said. “We need to know who voted, the candidates who won and who our representatives are going to be. We want voting to be the easiest thing we do. It should be effortless.”
Crockett City Administrator John Angerstein told the board he had no opinion on what they should decide, but did recognize Lum had put in extra hours to get the city’s precincts to match the school’s precincts. He noted early May will see a joint election for Crockett city council and school board and wondered aloud if there would be time to find a competent replacement.
Lum herself spoke up, saying no matter which way the vote went, she had already put plans in place to improve election reporting, but recognized there had been a breakdown in the process on election night.
“I have been trying to get the updates you are requesting,” Lum explained. “I print the tabulation, run the report and send it. We did not send out an update until 10:04 p.m. That falls on me, for not asking for the report to be scanned, as we were sorting through ballots. We think we’ve come up with a solution but we have to enact it and see if it can be done in the midst of everything else going on.”
Lovell himself made the motion to dismiss Lum.
“I have asked and asked to get election results out – if not complete, at least give us something,” Lovell said. “People were sitting here at the county offices or at the party headquarters and there were no results. It was embarrassing. I was embarrassed.”
Lovell, Meadows and Clonts voted for Lum’s removal, with Barugh and Smith voting against. The judge announced Lum would stay. When asked for clarification, Lovell explained that by statute, the board must have a 4/5 majority in order to make such a decision.
The next elections will be for various city councils, school boards and the hospital board Saturday, May 4.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
