THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120402
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: AHOSKIE LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Today is the deadline for Edna Hines, chairwoman of the Hertford County Board of Elections, to resign voluntarily after being convicted last week of threatening a fellow board member.
``Neither our office nor I have received any phone call or fax or letter concerning a resignation from her,'' Gary Bartlett, executive secretary of the North Carolina Board of Elections, said Wednesday.
``From what I understand, Ms. Hines had not made up her mind yet,'' he said.
Bartlett's office asked for Hines' resignation after she was convicted last Friday of the felony of intimidating and attempting to intimidate an elections official in the performance of his duties.
Hines, 61, is believed to be the first elections official to be convicted under that North Carolina law.
State elections officials asked Hines to resign when she became a convicted felon and lost her civil right to vote. If unable to vote legally, an elections official must be removed from office, Bartlett said.
Hines will retain her voting rights until all appeals have been exhausted, but her conduct still may warrant dismissal by the state elections board, he added.
The state board will meet at 3:30 p.m. today in Raleigh to discuss the case and will schedule a hearing in Winton if Hines' resignation has not been tendered by then.
``We must give her every opportunity to defend herself, and we will do that,'' Bartlett said. ``We will follow due process of the law.''
In addition to the felony conviction, a Hertford County Superior Court jury found Hines guilty of communicating a threat, a misdemeanor, during election night in November 1993.
Judge Russell Duke Jr. issued Hines a 30-day suspended sentence and imposed a $200 or $250 fine for threatening Douglas Askew, 31, while she was counting absentee ballots. Lawyers and court officials contacted were unsure of the exact amount of the fine.
Witnesses said Askew, a Republican, followed Hines, a Democrat, into a room to witness a ballot recount.
Several people, including Hertford County Sheriff Winfred Hardy, testified that they saw Hines threaten to kill Askew, who was required by law to watch Hines tabulate the ballots.
``She said, `I'll kill you. You don't know who you're messing with. I'll choke the s--- out of you,' '' District Attorney David Beard said Wednesday.
Hines could not be reached for comment, but her attorney, Sen. Frank Ballance of Warrenton, said Tuesday afternoon that the case was on appeal.
Ballance also said he believed the charges against Hines, who returned to her native Ahoskie after retiring as a New York counselor a few years ago, were politically motivated.
``The reason she was charged with the felony was to get her off the board,'' he said.
Hines was a plaintiff in a lawsuit that established a ward voting system in Hertford County and enhanced minority candidates' chances of election to public office.
She also helped successfully block an annexation attempt in Ahoskie that would have diluted black voters' strength, Ballance said.
Beard denied that politics played a role in his prosecution.
``It's sad and embarrassing that we had to try this case to begin with,'' he said. ``If she had apologized, we would have not proceeded with the case.
``That type of attitude is what presents the Democratic Party - our party - in an unfavorable light.'' by CNB