Proposed Rule- 08 NCAC 20 .0102 (Appeal of Removal of an Observer from a Voting Site)
*The removal of an appointed poll observer is a serious step that potentially leaves a party or candidate blind to the activities inside a voting enclosure.
*This rule should prescribe an escalation process that serves due process and maintains election integrity.
*The rule should first establish a process for an informal hearing by all three judges present to prevent partisan influence on the decision to expel an observer, short of law enforcement action (which is always an option at the discretion of the Chief Judge).
*The appointing authority should be noticed the poll observer has allegedly violated statutory guidelines and will be subject to an immediate informal hearing in or near the voting enclosure, away from the voting process.
* If all three judges at a precinct or early voting site concur that removal is the appropriate recourse, then the local appointing authority should be afforded the ability to replace the observer.
*If a ruling is not unanimous to remove an observer during the informal hearing, the observer should be allowed to remain on-site, subject to close observation by the judges.
* If a poll observer is removed during the hearing, a written record of the removal should be documented, signed off by all judges at the voting site, with a copy provided to the appointing authority.
* Appeals of a poll observer’s removal past beyond the informal hearing are fruitless in that the removal has already occurred and cannot be timely reversed.
*At early voting sites located within the local Election Office, where there are no judges present, the challenge of a poll observer should come from the Site Administrator, member of the Elections Office, or a member of the Board of Elections.
*In poll observer challenges at BOE Early Voting sites, the informal hearing should be adjudicated by the Site Administrator, a senior member of the Elections Office, and one member of the local Board of Elections, available on-call for such purposes.
*Nowhere in the statute is there discussion of the possibility for permanent or indefinite removal of a poll observer; nor are there any criteria in thye statute for preventing a removed poll observer from returning for poll observer duties on a subsequent day or at an alternative site during the same election cycle.
*The proposed rule should prescribe any criteria that would prevent a removed poll observer from being rescheduled for subsequent duties. (There is little doubt that candidates or political parties will seek to reinstate any removed poll observers as soon as possible. Volunteers are difficult to fund and recruit.)
*NCSBE should consider setting a threshold of “law enforcement action taken” or “conviction of election violation” as being standards for indefinite or permanent removal of a poll observer.
*Just because a person was challenged for removal on one occasion is not justified grounds for his removal for the duration of an election cycle. What if a person was removed because of the party's failure to be properly appoint him to serve the first time. Or what if a person is removed because of a disruptive hacking cough one day, but is healthy for his next scheduled duty?
