ROCKINGHAM — Nearly two weeks after the members of the Richmond County Board of Elections were appointed, a chairman has finally been announced.
Carlton Hawkins was named Wednesday by Gov. Roy Cooper to serve as the head of the county board, according to Elections Director Connie Kelly.
Hawkins, a Democrat who has been a member of the county board since 2008, said that he has yet to receive the official notification letter from the governor.
“I feel confident, feel comfortable going into this,” he said, having served as chairman in the past. “We have a good, sound board that we are putting together.”
The N.C. State Board of Elections on Feb. 7 appointed Republicans A.B Brown and Ernie Walters and Democrats Hazel Robinson and Hilda Pemberton to the county board.
Republicans had also submitted Patrick Montgomery’s name to be considered for the five-member board.
Prior to Robinson’s appointment last April, Hawkins was the lone Democrat on the board, alongside Brown and Walters.
Brown was first appointed in 2012 and Walters in 2014. Pemberton, of Norman, previously served on the board from 2005-2013 until state board changes by then-Gov. Pat McCrory.
Brown and Pemberton have also both served as board chair in previous years.
Once Hawkins receives his letter, he said he will meet with Kelly to schedule a time and date for the board’s first meeting when all the members will be sworn in and elect a vice chair and a
secretary.
According to state law, only members of the two political parties with the highest number of registered voters are eligible to be appointed to county elections boards.
Critics of the law have said it is unfair to third parties and the 2 million unaffiliated voters in the state. Unaffiliated voters outnumber Republicans by more than 100,000.
