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Rockingham County Board of Elections swears in new chairwoman, first African American woman to hold post

Wright joins the Board of Elections days after longtime board member, Royce Richardson, resigned.

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. — Rockingham County Board of Elections has a new chairwoman after the board’s previous chair resigned last week.

Ophelia Wright was sworn in Wednesday morning. She’s the first African American woman to hold the position.

Wright served on the County Board of Education after teaching in the district for decades.

She says she hopes to bring a fresh leadership style to the Board.

"It's just like it is with a football team - you have a quarterback and the quarterback calls the plays, but he needs the rest of the team in order to move forward and get the touchdown, so it is my hope that I will be able to bring them together," Wright said. 

Wright joins the Board of Elections days after longtime board member, Royce Richardson, resigned.

Richardson shared why he made the decision.

"I felt like we could not function as a board. I don't know if that was me, but it got to the point that we were not getting anything done that could be constructive, and I said, I need to get out of here and let somebody else do this job," Richardson said. 

The Board of Elections has seen many challenges in the last year. Multiple employees resigned before the 2020 election. At one point, just one person was working there.

The board fired interim deputy director Amy Simpson in September. She’s now suing the board.

Wright told WFMY News 2 she hopes to right the ship as the board’s new leader.

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