By Jason Evans

Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

PICKENS — The work of several Pickens County Library System employees has been instrumental in getting the county’s registrations and elections office back on track, following the resignations earlier this year of the county election director and the members of the board of voter registrations and elections.

County administrator Ken Roper praised those employees, as well as a public servant who has since passed away, during the July 13 county council meeting.

“I want to tell you a story, ladies and gentlemen,” Roper said during his report to council. “I want to tell you a story that goes back to late February, early March of this year.”

Around that time, elections director Rodney Allen indicated he was planning to resign, Roper said.

“You’ll recall that we’ve had some tumultuous times with our board of voter registrations and elections and we’ve had some elections that’s had some problems in the last few years,” he said.

Roper and county human resources staff met with Allen’s two assistants, who were offered jobs either remaining in that office or elsewhere within county government.

“I thought they were probably not involved in the day-to-day politics of that position,” he said. “We wanted to keep them.”

Those employees declined, indicating they wanted to leave on March 31, Roper said.

“We were a little disturbed when on March 31, we also received a letter from the remaining members of the elections commission saying they were resigning, effective March 31,” he said.

With the June 9 primary a little more than two months away, “obviously we were very disturbed by this,” Roper said.

As the elections office does not report to him, Roper said he could have washed his hands of the issue.

“But I thought about that, and I knew that June 9 was approaching and we had many important things that needed to be determined by the voters, and I took that seriously,” he said. “So I called our library director, Stephanie Howard.”

With library branches closed due to the pandemic, Roper asked Howard if she could send him a couple of employees to staff the elections office.

“She said sure, and she sent me some of her employees,” he said.

When they came in, Margaret Holder and Amy Hallenbeck found a mess, Roper said.

Elections commission member Herb Thompson still held his commission seat through the end of the month, Roper said.

Thompson agreed to come in and swear in Holder and Hallenbeck “so they could do the work they needed to do the next day to make sure the election happened on June 9,” Roper said.

“A longtime servant of Pickens County, to the very last minute of his service,” he said, of Thompson. “He was willing to do whatever it took to make that election happen.”

Thompson, who served in a number of positions in the area, including 18 years as Central’s town administrator, died on June 24.

Holder and Hallenbeck went to work in the elections office “with no experience and no board,” Roper said.

“They would ask me questions, and I would tell them, ‘I don’t know,’” he said. “But they figured it out. They worked diligently.”

The Pickens County Legislative Delegation stepped up “and expedited a board appointment process through the governor’s office,” Roper said.

“We don’t, you don’t, they don’t appoint the elections board,” he told council. “The governor appoints. We needed it done yesterday, but they went to work and they got us a board appointed.”

The new board members, appointed April 24, are chairman Jim Middle, vice chairman Charles Titus, secretary Lillian Boatwright, Amanda Bauknight, Richard Reece and Robert Rauton.

“They got appointed and they took charge,” Roper said. The board also hired the county’s new director of registrations and elections, Travis Alexander.

“Travis Alexander was brought on board with basically 30 days to organize an election,” he said.

Roper said he watched Alexander “coach this office and these volunteers.”

“He came up with a whole new system — brand new on the job — for routing in the machines and the counters,” he said. “It was organized. Mr. Alexander, his staff and his volunteers had results reported to the state by 10 o’clock that night.”

The new board has been helping clean and organize the elections office. County finance director Ralph Guarino and the IT department have also assisted in the organization.

“This is public servants doing what we want them to do,” Roper said. “This is the kind of people I want to work with.

“I just want to say, in front of you gentlemen, to these people that were involved in this story, thank you,” he continued. “Pickens County owes you a great debt of gratitude, and I appreciate everything all of you did.”

Hallenbeck “found her calling,” Roper said. She remains with the elections office as an elections analyst.

Councilman Carl Hudson said a lot of the problems with past elections occurred in his district. Detailing those issues would take him “probably 30 minutes,” he said.

“I just want them to know, the director and all the workers, that I got great reports from my areas,” Hudson said. “Everything went smooth. You guys did a great job, and whether you know or it not, you kept me from getting a lot of phone calls — so thank you.”

Councilman Ensley Feemster said he’s worked elections off and on for more than 20 years.

“This is one of the smoothest ones I’ve seen,” he said.