By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Faced with issues broached by a municipal-election candidate, Kellie Harris Hopkins hit upon a novel solution.
Hopkins, Beaufort County’s elections director, decided to teach candidates how to be candidates, leaving the partisan considerations to the parties and their office-seekers. Hopkins and her staff elected to hold a candidate orientation this year.
She said the orientation was inspired by the fact that the municipal-election candidate was unsure of some aspects of the election process, and the misunderstandings affected his campaign decisions.
“He misunderstood the process, which caused him to make decisions prior to Election Day that he might not have made if he had been provided more information,” Hopkins said.
The Beaufort County Board of Elections schools its poll workers as a matter of routine, Hopkins told around 23 candidates and party representatives at the inaugural orientation Tuesday.
“But we just let y’all sign a piece of paper, and we don’t tell y’all anything,” Hopkins said, holding the floor at the Board of Elections offices.
Hopkins had crafted an informational booklet for Tuesday’s session. Thumbing through the booklet, she talked over every item in turn — from filing for candidacy to campaign finance to what happens Election Day.
One of the finer points she covered was voter registration and the legal obligations of activists and candidates who conduct voter-registration drives.
“This affects candidates in many ways,” Hopkins pointed out.
At the end of the event, Hopkins was lauded by the assemblage as two members of her board — Chairman Tom Payne and Secretary Archie Harding — joined in the applause.
“This is the first time this has ever been done in the state,” Payne conjectured.
“I think the Board of Elections did a great thing here tonight,” said Alice Mills Sadler, chairwoman of the Beaufort County Democratic Party.
Attending Tuesday’s meeting was a wide array of candidates, including people seeking commissioner seats, school-board slots, a judicial job and a state House position.