Interim registrar will handle primary voting in Richmond as the electoral board wraps up its search for a replacement
With early voting for June’s primary elections just 9 days away, the Richmond Electoral Board has a plan in place for conducting voting, even as it works to select a new registrar.
Tina Crump, the office’s elections supervisor, has been serving as interim registrar following the departure of Keith Balmer in December. She’s been at the office since 2015, and will oversee the early voting coming up in May as well as the primaries in June.
“She’s very knowledgeable about a lot of laws and all the procedures that have to be done getting ready for an election,” board chair Starlet Stevens said.
Despite the praise Stevens gave to Crump, she could not apply for the permanent position, because the law requires the Registrar to live within the city. Crump lives in Chesterfield.
The board is also in the final stages of selecting a new registrar.
Stevens said that the board’s three members have narrowed the applicants down from 39 to two candidates, and were scheduled to conduct the final interview on Wednesday during a closed session after a regularly scheduled board meeting.
“And hopefully by the end of the week … we will make our decision,” she said in an interview with The Richmonder.
This all comes after Balmer resigned following an internal investigation into the office showing misconduct of top officials including excessive spending, alcohol consumption during work hours, poor handling of office problems and more.
The office currently has 28 full time employees with three open vacancies, including the general registrar. Once the registrar is hired, they will be in charge of hiring the deputy registrar.
Stevens said that the workload has not increased since Balmer’s departure, but emphasized that as board chair, she has become more actively involved by being in contact with Crump on a regular basis.
“Everything we need to do as far as this upcoming primary is on schedule,” she said.
Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org
