Gov. Mark Gordon has recommended not to remove Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock. Back in December, nine qualified electors of the county submitted a verified complaint to the governor seeking Hadlock’s removal for misconduct and/or malfeasance in the office.
There were four specific actions of Hadlock’s outlined in the complaint:
- Mishandling election ballots by ordering and using multiple ballot versions in the general election.
- Improperly testing voting machines during the primary and general elections
- Using incorrect ballots in the general election, which necessitated hand-recounts.
- Causing an undercount of 1,289 votes.
None of these were denied by Hadlock, according to Gordon.
In his letter describing his final decision, Gordon said Hadlock made “serious mistakes,” but through interviews with Hadlock and others, he doesn’t believe they were made with malicious intent.
He writes, the removal of an elected official would only be justified if the misconduct and/or malfeasance occurred with “some form of intent or willful act by Clerk Hadlock that goes beyond incompetence or a failure to attend to the business of her office aptly. Moreover, motive is a key determiner when assessing intent or ‘will.’ Motive is distinguished from impulse or inattentiveness because it implies a reason for doing something or desire to bring about a result.”
He added that the county clerk is an elected position, so it’s not his right to remove someone who was elected by their constituents.
“The people of Weston County elected Clerk Hadlock with an understanding of the problems she encountered in her prior term,” Gordon finished. “The sanctity of our elections is of utmost importance and the decisions of voters should not be casually cast aside in favor of a process in which only a few participate in putting forth the nomination to replace a removed officer without overwhelming and compelling evidence of misconduct or malfeasance.”
In response to Gordon’s decision, Secretary of State Chuck Gray said Gordon is ignoring his office’s finding that Hadlock submitted a false post-election audit report.
“I am particularly troubled by the Governor's lies by omission in completely ignoring our finding that Clerk Hadlock submitted a false post-election audit report with our office, which we discussed multiple times as the most serious finding in our investigation released in March,” wrote Gray. “The Weston County Clerk’s submittal of a false post-election audit report on November 6, 2024 does appear to be a willful violation of the code, as revealed by the Weston County Canvassing Board meeting on November 8, 2024, as well as the subsequent, properly-performed audit, which confirmed that there were 21 of 75 ballots with a discrepancy, in direct contravention to the initial post-election audit results submitted to our office.”
Gordon said Hadlock is up for reelection in just over a year and it will be up to the people in Weston County to vote someone else in.
