Under Virginia’s system of elections, a three-person board with a Republican majority will decide the fate of Richmond’s top election official after two city investigations found his office was failing to comply with basic workplace rules.

Richmond Electoral Board meetings often don’t attract much attention, but that could be different when the board meets on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. in the seventh-floor conference room at City Hall.

Last week, Inspector General James Osuna released a long-awaited report on how Registrar Keith Balmer and a deputy are running the city’s election office. Osuna’s investigation found numerous violations of city policy and wasteful uses of public dollars, substantiating 25 of 26 allegations examined as part of the probe into Balmer’s office. 

That report faulted the election office for improper uses of city-issued purchasing cards, overspending on decor for the election office, inappropriately buying a handgun so a temporary worker could act as an armed security guard and spending public money on alcohol. 

“‘I had the equivalent of a teenager with a credit card,” Electoral Board Chair Starlet Stevens said in an interview with The Richmonder last week after the inspector general’s report came out.

Balmer has not yet responded to the report’s findings in detail, but today’s meeting could give him an opportunity to push back or address the media.

In a social media post published on X last week from the election office account, Balmer indicated he had “a lot to say” about the report. He hasn’t elaborated further.

An earlier investigation by city human resources officials found nepotism violations after relatives of Balmer and Deputy Registrar Jerry Richardson were either hired to full-time jobs or paid for election-related work.

The only major item on the agenda for today’s meeting is a closed session for a “personnel discussion,” which is often an indicator that a public body will privately discuss an employee’s performance and whether they should keep their job.

How the Electoral Board works

The issues in Richmond’s election office have highlighted the at-times confusing way Virginia law handles election administration. Though Balmer is considered a city employee subject to city policies and given a city purchasing card, his work is overseen by an unelected board whose members are appointed by local judges.

Because state law gives local political parties the power to nominate potential board members, it’s often partisan activists picked to oversee the ostensibly nonpartisan work of running fair and free elections. By law, two of the three seats on local electoral boards go to whichever party won the most recent gubernatorial election. Because Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin won in 2021, the electoral board in overwhelmingly Democratic Richmond is effectively controlled by its two Republican members.

Stevens, the chair, is a Republican. So is new board member Kate Maxwell, a lawyer who was recently appointed to fill in for former GOP member John Ambrose, who temporarily stepped down for health reasons.

The board’s Democratic member is Joyce Smith.

Stevens has said she’s convinced Balmer has to go, but it’s unclear where her two colleagues stand.

Local electoral boards are mostly tasked with carrying out election laws and policies set at the state level and ensuring that the voting process goes as smoothly as possible, but they have some authority to decide when and where voting occurs in their jurisdiction. 

For example, the Richmond board’s GOP majority made headlines last year when it decided not to open two satellite locations for early voting. After a backlash, the board reversed that decision.

Local registrars and electoral boards also oversee the counting of votes and the process of certifying that election results are accurate.

Balmer took over Richmond’s election office after former registrar Kirk Showalter, who had served in the office for more than two decades, was forced out in 2021 after clashing with Democratic officials. 

Stevens, the only Republican on the board at the time, voted against Showalter’s removal. She was overruled by Smith and former Democratic board member Jim Nachman, who removed Showalter in a 2-1 vote.