LISBON — The Columbiana County Board of Elections named longtime clerk Niki Wilkinson to the newly created nonpartisan position of office administrator Friday, eliminating the deputy director position.

“We are confident that the decision we made today was the right decision,” Board of Elections Chairman David Johnson said.

The final decision to hire Wilkinson came on the heels of several moves board members had to make in order to be able to hire the person that Johnson said was head and shoulders above the rest, especially in the area of election experience.

He cited Wilkinson’s 27 years experience in the election field in Columbiana County and her hands-on knowledge of everything dealing with the elections as the reason they wanted to hire her over the other six applicants. Uppermost in the minds of Johnson and fellow Republican board member Victor Maroscher was hiring someone with proven experience, with Johnson saying it was paramount to have someone with experience in Columbiana County, especially in a presidential election year.

Maroscher commented that she presented herself very well in the interview and both said she was very professional.

“I’m nervous, I’m excited, all of it,” Wilkinson said.

She thanked both Johnson and Maroscher for all they did to make this possible and thanked the two Democratic board members, Patty Colian and Larry Bowersock, for agreeing with everything.

This all began with the resignation of former Deputy Director Bryce Miner, a Republican, who left for a position as deputy city manager/housing inspector in the city of Columbiana. Since he was a Republican and the office operated with party parity, meaning an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on both the board and staff, the person to be hired was supposed to be Republican, with the Republican board members conducting the interviews. Out of seven applicants, there were two in-house applicants from the Board of Elections, Wilkinson, who was a registered Democrat, and Mark Guy, who was a registered Republican. Both Wilkinson and Guy were interviewed, along with a third applicant, with Wilkinson having the most experience and being the only applicant to meet the minimum qualifications for the deputy director position.

An opinion was sought from the county prosecutor’s office and it was determined that the board could declare the position of deputy director as unnecessary, adopt a written policy to permit near-parity of clerical staff so that the new position could be nonpartisan, create the new office administrator position and the employee in question, in this case Wilkinson, could disaffiliate from the Democrat Party. Her intention is to become a Republican during the next available primary, which won’t be for two years for Madison Township where she resides.

The board approved resolutions determining the position of deputy director was no longer necessary and adopting a policy to maintain near-parity with respect to the political affiliation of the board’s clerical employees. The four clerk positions will maintain political parity. Wilkinson also signed an affidavit disaffiliating herself from the Democrat Party, noting she’ll be taking a Republican ballot in 2026.

Then the board voted to hire her for the new position with a salary of $69,000 annually. Even though she has 27 years with the board as a clerk, there will be a probationary period and she’ll answer to the director, the board and the Secretary of State.

The day the staff was told that Wilkinson was the choice, Guy suddenly resigned, so now the board also has two vacancies for clerks, one Democrat and one Republican. Johnson and Maroscher were doing interviews for a Republican-affiliated clerk and Colian and Bowersock were interviewing candidates for a Democrat-affiliated clerk. Both sides already have candidates in mind, but if anyone is interested, letters of interest and resumes can still be submitted to the board.

Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco, who’s a Democrat, congratulated Wilkinson on the new position and said “sometimes when you don’t have qualified, experienced candidates, you’ve got to use common sense. I’ve worked with Niki 16 years and I have no doubt she can be nonpartisan. I think she’s a great fit.”

“We work very well together. We always have,” Wilkinson said.

She and her husband, George, reside in Madison Township with their three dogs and have two adult children, a son and a daughter. A graduate of East Liverpool High School, Wilkinson earned an associate degree in business management from Kent State University.

Her father is Kent Bell, a Democrat and former longtime Columbiana County auditor, and her grandfather was Kenneth Bell, another former longtime Columbiana County auditor and Democrat.

In other business, the board heard the results of the voter changes, learning that the overwhelming number of voters who changed affiliations were nonpartisans who switched to either the Democrat or Republican parties, 1,244 becoming Democrats and 5,312 becoming Republicans. A told of 194 Democrats switched to Republican and 143 Republicans switched to Democrat.

The next meeting of the board is set for 1:30 p.m. April 17.

mgreier@mojonews.com