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CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) Karen Christenson, a former employee with the Barnes County Auditor’s office asked the county to conduct an investigation as to how votes from VCSU students living in dorm rooms were recorded in the November 2014 general election.
Christenson said two weeks ago that she didn’t believe that they were properly recorded. She was fired from her position on January 12 for insubordination as she was trying to have this incident investigated.
North Dakota Association of Counties Voting Facilitator John Arnold said he didn’t feel county auditor Beth Didier or the county did anything wrong or illegal in completing the task of posting voting credit for those students. Here’s Barnes County Auditor Beth Didier followed by comments from Bob Drake and Barnes County Commission president Cindy Schwehr.
But Valley City resident Bob Drake questioned voting results in Valley City’s Precinct 3. He says it could put the Wellness Center Advisory vote results into serious question following its slim victory at the polls last November.
Drake also found it interesting that the county contacted the Secretary of State’s office to clarify this issue only after Christenson brought the matter to the public’s attention some two weeks ago.
Barnes County Commission president Cindy Schwehr says due to confidentiality, the firing of Karen Christenson cannot be discussed at this time.
The Barnes County Commission will discuss the firing of Christenson only in an executive session which is closed to the public under state law.
According to a statement issued by the Secretary of State’s office, Barnes County Auditor Beth Didier received election training approved by the SOS office during a Statewide Election Conference in Bismarck and during a regional training session held in 2014 prior to the June and November North Dakota elections according to Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum.
Silrum says Voting Facilitator John Arnold is an employee of the North Dakota Association of Counties and is working under a contract approved by the Secretary of State’s office for the last 5 years.
Another question asked were Barnes County poll books by the SOS office and were names and addresses, including campus addresses updated according to the SOS guidelines?
Silrum says the Barnes County poll books were not reviewed by the SOS office or by John Arnold. This is not unusual since we do not do this for any county unless specifically requested. The software that contains the Central Voter File generates poll books according to the same standards for each county with the only difference being whether the poll books contain both active an inactive voters of the polling place or only active voters.
Silrum concluded that the updating of the Central Voter File was completed by Barnes County per SOS guidelines on Saturday, January 17th, one day prior to the statutory deadline.