Norm Green
MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County’s Democratic Election Commissioner Norm Green announced his resignation from that position.
In a media release sent out late Thursday afternoon, Green announced he was resigning and that Deputy Democratic Election Commissioner Luz Torres will serve as acting commissioner until a replacement is formally instated.
Green planned to retire at the end of 2020, and Torres was nominated by the County Democratic Committee to replace Green last October, but that nomination was never acted on by the Chautauqua County Legislature.
Instead, the legislature’s Democratic caucus nominated its own commissioner, Loren Kent, in March and it was a was approved by the full legislature by a vote of 16 to 3.
But both Torres and Green have filed a lawsuit against that nomination, calling it a violation of state law. As a result, the vote for Kent can not be certified by the legislature clerk until after the lawsuit is settled in State Supreme Court.
“I absolutely continue to support Luz to replace me,” said Green. “As a Democrat, I work for diversity at all levels. It is exciting to think about having the first ever Hispanic department head taking over from me. Luz has been training for this job for the last three years and the plan has been for her to take over from me. She is an experienced manager, has helped to administer budgets and is fully trained by the state to be an election commissioner.”
As for his time at the Board of elections, Green said a lot has been accomplished during the time he’s worked at the Board of Elections.
“We’ve accomplished much at the Board of Elections over the past 22 years and the credit must be given to our full time staff of six and, numerous seasonal part timers and the nearly 600 poll workers who deliver democracy one or two days a year at our poll sites. While many, many election boards in the state and nation have admittedly failed, we have delivered world-class elections in our county and have done so with a twelve year near flat budget. Republican Election Commissioner Brian Abram has been the greatest partner in our joint bi-partisan efforts and we part as personal family friends,” Green said.
Leave a Reply