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OANC urges Board of Elections to run ANC special elections; BOE cites staffing and funding limits
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Summary
The Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions told the council the Board of Elections should conduct special elections to fill ANC vacancies; BOE officials said taking on all ANC special elections would require dedicated staff, equipment and funding.
The District’s Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions urged the Committee on Executive Administration and Labor on May 13 to have the DC Board of Elections conduct all special elections to fill Advisory Neighborhood Commission vacancies, saying the current volunteer‑run approach leaves gaps in voter access and administration.
"It is time for the board to once again fulfill their legal mandate and conduct all local elections," Kent Base, executive director of OANC, told the committee. Base said ANCs increasingly run elections that look and function like contests and that ANC special‑election voters currently lack the same options — same‑day registration, vote‑by‑mail and early voting — available in other elections.
Base described a pattern in which the board declines to investigate potential residency violations or certify vacancies unless an ANC first schedules and votes at a special meeting — a procedure he called "insulting and abusive" to unpaid commissioners. He asked the council to clarify enforcement responsibilities and said OANC had, on several occasions, supplied court records that he said merited board action.
The board acknowledged the concerns but said expanding its responsibilities is not merely procedural. "To have us in election mode at all times does not give us an opportunity to reset," Monica Evans said. She described a long list of pre‑election work — equipment procurement, programming poll pads, logic and accuracy testing and staff training — and told the committee that a reliable change would require a separate unit, equipment and dedicated funding.
BOE said it currently has roughly 65 full‑time staff and that while it conducts elections, it also runs year‑round maintenance, outreach and planning work for citywide races. The board also noted that ANC elections sometimes require scheduling special meetings on weekends or holidays because of statutory quorum and minimum‑hours rules.
Why it matters: ANCs are the official neighborhood advisory bodies to the Council, and how vacancies are filled affects local representation. OANC framed the shift as an efficiency and equity issue; BOE framed it as a resource, calendar and statutory issue that would need a funded programmatic change.
Committee next steps: Councilmembers said they will follow up with both OANC and BOE to determine what legal or appropriations changes would be required to shift responsibility for ANC special elections.
