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By: Erin Smith
The Bladen County Board of Elections met on Tuesday morning and got a look at the new voting precinct map for the redrawn Congressional districts that take effect with June 7 primary election.
The June 7 primary will feature the Congressional races and a nonpartisan judges race.
Board of Elections Director Cynthia Shaw said the Board of Elections staff worked with Bladen County GIS, the State Board of Elections and the State Board of Elections IT department to align the voting precincts with the proper Congressional districts following the redistricting that was ordered by a federal judge.
“We worked for several days,” said Shaw.
Bladen County is now divided between the 7th and 9th Congressional Districts and Shaw said that three precincts were split by the newly drawn district lines. She said Brown Marsh is now split between the 7th and 9th Congressional Districts and the Elizabethtown No. 1 precinct which votes at the King Street Gym is in the 9th congressional District while Elizabethtown No. 2 which votes at the Powell-Melvin Agricultural Center is in the 7th Congressional District.
She also said that there will be two ballots for the primary — a republican ballot and a nonpartisan ballot. Those that are registered Democrat will vote using the nonpartisan ballot those that are unaffiliated voters will have a choice to vote the Republican ballot or the nonpartisan ballot. Those voters that are registered Republican will cast the Republican ballot.
In other business, Shaw updated the board on an incident involving Ruby Melvin that ocurred during the March primary in Tar Heel.
“I was aware of this situation when it happened on Election Day in Tar Heel. That morning Ruby Melvin was helping a candidate which was Wayne Edge,” said Shaw.
She said that Melvin was getting a chair from inside the precinct to take outside when she fell.
“I got a call from the chief judge and I had Melvin do an incident report,” said Shaw.
She said Melvin was transported to Bladen County Hospital where she was treated for an injury to her shoulder. Shaw also told the board that Melvin has had to return to the hospital on three separate occasions to have her shoulder put back into place. Shaw also said that Melvin had to undergo shoulder replacement surgery for the injury in Fayetteville.
Shaw said she had been contacted by Melvin asking who was going to pay the medical expenses she has incurred. Shaw said she spoke with Bladen County Manager Greg Martin who in turn contacted the county’s insurance provider. Shaw said that it was determined that it was the responsibility of the property owner to pay the medical expenses which in this case would be the town of Tar Heel.
Shaw said she had contacted Tar Heel Mayor Roy Dew and she had shared the incident report with Dew and Martin.
“So, it is between her and the town of Tar Heel,” said Shaw.
Shaw also briefly discussed the proposed precinct mergers of Bladenboro 1 and 2 and Elizabethtown 1 and 2. She said she had received correspondence from Neil Baddour of the State Board of Elections which said that the issue would be taken up following the June 14 vote canvass.
“The State will take a look at it after June to see if they are going to approve it or not,” said Shaw.
She added there are other counties who have submitted requests. Shaw said the State Board of Elections will address all of them once the primaries are over.
Shaw said that her staff have sent out 802 absentee ballots for the June primary. Shaw said that the State Board fo Elections issued an order in March saying that all absentee ballot requests from the March primary will be carried over to the June primary.
Shaw said that she had to send to the voters a letter of explanation, a notice to absentee voters, and absentee ballot request form.
Of those absentee ballots sent out, 724 have not been returned. Shaw said that 23 of those absentee ballots were re-issued due to a change in voter registration.
“If they get a ballot and change their mind and they can request another ballot,” said Shaw.
She added ballots that 55 ballots have been returned thus far that are “okay.”
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