Goodbye job

The Electoral Board of the City of Falls Church fired me (or, actually, forced me into early retirement) immediately after I’d successfully managed the largest and most complicated election in the City’s history. I had served the City as General Registrar for 24 years during which I conducted 54 successful elections. I never experienced any allegations of electoral misconduct, and, despite 2 recounts, have never had a vote total change. Throughout my years of service, the City led the state in voter turnout, which means, not only that the citizens turned out in force, but also that the voter registration books were uncommonly clean and free of dead wood. After all, if lots of the registered voters on the books don’t live in Falls Church anymore or are dead, then they don’t show up to vote, and the turnout % goes down. Clean registration books don’t create a high turnout, but having the highest turnout in the state on a consistent basis certainly does prove clean registration books.

Throughout my years of service, I’ve consistently done a wonderful job. Among the laundry list of reasons the Electoral Board gave for retiring me, the main reason given was that they didn’t like my wheelchair. I have that reason in writing with all three signatures on it. ADA has been law for years now, so I guess this incident proves that appointment is a private rather than an employment issue and that, when making appointments, one doesn’t have to obey laws targeted at ending discrimination. I just expected better from than discrimination on the basis of disability from the City of Falls Church, but I guess I was wrong.