Harrisonburg electoral board approves 12 election officers for upcoming election

Harrisonburg City Electoral Board meeting — The board voted Oct. 6 to approve a slate of 12 election officers for the upcoming election after the office followed its new notification procedure for party chairs.

Director of Elections Mark Vink said the office sent the officer list to the Republican and Democratic party chairs the previous Monday and that the Republican chair "said that they didn't have any problem with the 1 officer" who wanted to represent the party; the Democratic chair did not reply by the noon Friday deadline. Vink said under the office's new standard, a nonresponse is treated as no objection and the board could proceed to vote.

The board heard the motion to approve the slate, called the vote and members responded "Aye." After the roll call, Vink announced, "No no opposed. 12 officers that we just approved." The board did not go into closed session and no individual names of voters on the ballot were contested at the Oct. 6 meeting.

Vink described the approval as preliminary and said the office had lost a chief at JMU and was still finalizing some assignments. He said staff will send an updated list by email as further changes occur.