Port Royal’s newest Elections Commission member is a teacher. Students inspired her
As a middle school teacher, Jacqueline Lawton says she tries to set an example for her students about the importance of being “civically involved.”
That’s one reason she said she applied for a position on the Port Royal Municipal Elections Commission.
The three-member commission, working with Beaufort County, plays a critical role in administering local elections.
Members appoint and train poll managers, distribute ballots, oversee ballot tabulation, certify candidates and election results and hear protests.
As Lawton puts it, the commission “makes sure elections are fair.”
Members of the Town Council unanimously appointed Lawton, a 6th-grade teacher at Robert Smalls Middle School in Beaufort, to a six-year term on the Elections Commission.
Growing up, Lawton remembers going to the polls with her parents in Beaufort, where her family first moved in 1980.
Now she’ll be helping to run local elections in Port Royal, and she’s ready to contribute.
“Living in this community and helping to build the community is my passion,” she said, “my heart.”
Her first Municipal Election Commission meeting with fellow members Anthony Cuevas and Kathy Brown is Monday.
The commission has a lot of work to do. It is planning for a Nov. 2 general Election in which voters will fill two Town Council seats held by Darryl Owens and Mary Beth Heyward. Four candidates have filed to run: Owens, Heyward, John Hazel and Edwin Gugino.
Election results have come under increasing scrutiny in the wake of the 2020 Biden-Trump presidential election.
In Beaufort, Helen Spalding, a member of the nonpartisan Beaufort Elections Commission, sparked concerns about a conflict of interest when she organized a political rally in Beaufort last week that sought to “#FightBack” and audit the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Spalding was appointed by the Beaufort City Council. Some members said they plan to discuss that issue further next week.
Lawton said distrust of the election results, still being expressed almost a year after the election, “makes her uneasy.”
“Much of it comes down to us not trusting one another,” she said.
Elections, Lawton said, are won and lost at the local level, and she wants to assist in making sure they are run right.
“If you’re involved yourself, you can have an impact,” she said.
Lawton has a doctoral degree in education administration and supervision from the University of Southern Mississippi.
