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Madison County Board of Elections director Jacob Ray charged with DWI, gambling

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Madison County Board of Elections director Jacob Ray charged with DWI, gambling

MARSHALL – Madison County Board of Elections Director Jacob Ray was arrested and charged this month with driving while impaired and gambling, according to Madison County Board of Commissioners Chair Matt Wechtel.

Ray, 30, was charged with driving while impaired and misdemeanor gambling. He is due in court in Madison County on Aug. 27. Ray is due in court for the gambling charge in Buncombe County on Oct. 7.

Wechtel made a statement to The News-Record & Sentinel and other media on behalf of the county commissioners July 18.

“First, I must state for the record that we must be mindful of the fact that Jake has been charged with these misdemeanors and has not yet had his day in court and he is to be considered innocent until he is proven guilty,” Wechtel said. “Before these charges came to light, Jake had met our expectations as a Board of Elections Director, and the elections that he has overseen in Madison County to date have gone smoothly and have been non-controversial. It is also important to note that Jake serves at the pleasure of the County Board of Elections.”

Each of North Carolina’s 100 counties has a county board of elections with five members who are registered voters in that county. The state Board of Elections appoints four members – two Democrats and two Republicans – to each county board of elections.

The Madison County Board of Elections is comprised of Chair Jerry Wallin, Secretary Dyatt Smathers and board members Brian Ball, Debbie Ponder and Ray Lewis.

Phone calls and emails to Ray, as well as Wallin and Smathers at the Madison County Board of Elections, went unreturned by press time.

Wechtel said he first heard about the DWI arrest on July 14.

“At first, I was hopeful that it was some type of a joke or fake A.I. manufactured item. I immediately reached out to one of the Board of Elections members. At that time, he too was unaware of the situation as well,” Wechtel said. “After some additional investigation we were able to confirm that the information I was presented with was unfortunately true. My Vice-Chairman and I then found about the gambling charge simultaneously on Tuesday morning through an outside source and we again notified a Board of Elections member and immediately began the confirmation process at that time.”

Wechtel expressed his disappointment about finding out about the arrest through outside sources rather than internally from the Board of Elections.

“To find out about both of these situations from outside sources and not directly from Jake or the County Board of Elections Chairman was troubling and extremely disappointing. In addition, the Board of Commissioners is extremely disappointed in Jake for these alleged indiscretions as well as the communication breakdown by the Board of Elections leadership. As soon as the Board of Commissioners was able to confirm the accuracy of the charges, we strongly urged the Board of Elections to take swift and stringent disciplinary actions to ensure the credibility of the Madison County electoral process going forward.

“It is critical for everyone to understand that the Madison County Board of Elections is a State sanctioned Governing Board,” Wechtel said in the statement. “As such, the exclusive responsibility lies fully with them to make recommendations to hire, fire, and as they see fit, discipline the County Board of Elections Director and as such, make the appropriate recommendations to the State Board of Elections Executive Director.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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