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North Dakota’s Secretary of State won’t rush the process of hiring a new state election director after the incumbent, John Arnold, was appointed Tuesday to another state office. KFYR-TV has more:

Secretary of State Al Jaeger says his office hopes to post the job for State Election Director by the end of this week, but they’re not in a rush to hire a person by a set date.

The previous director, John Arnold, was announced as the Deputy Insurance Commissioner on Tuesday. Jaeger says other people, including Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum, will take up some of the duties until they hire a new director.

“We want to make sure we get the right person. We don’t want to rush this. This is a very important position in this office and for the people of the state of North Dakota, so we’re going to work and make sure we get the right person in the position,” said Jaeger.

Jaeger thanked Arnold for his time and said he was an “essential part of the operations of the office.”

The state is in the process of training county auditors on new election equipment, meant to speed up processing ballots. Jaeger says aside from training, the next steps in implementing the new systems are awarding the contract for the electronic polling books, which record who voted in the state and holding a mock election. He thinks they’ll award a contract for the E-poll books in the next few days.

Congratulations to John Arnold on his new state appointment … it’s never easy to replace a state election director – especially on the eve of a presidential election year – but North Dakota does have an experienced deputy in Jim Silrum and should be in good hands while the search for a new state director proceeds. Until then, elections life marches on in the Peace Garden State as 2020 approaches. Stay tuned!

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