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Person

Tim Tsujii

Nationality:

American
Organization:

Forsyth, North Carolina County Board of Elections

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Tim Tsujii is the director of elections for the Forsyth County Board of Elections in North Carolina, and sits on the advisory committee of the Center for Tech and Civic Life. 1

After the 2016 election, Tsujii was accused by the left-of-center advocacy group Democracy North Carolina of overseeing errors in election management that led to the improper invalidation of over 100 votes.

Career

Tim Tsujii graduated from George Washington University with a degree in political science, and from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Master of Public Affairs. From 2005-2016, Tsujii worked as early voting director and later deputy director of elections at the Guilford County Board of Elections. In 2014, Tsujii was certified as a professional election officer by the Election Center and Auburn University Certified Elections and Registration Administrator program. 2 3

In 2016, Tsujii became director of elections for the Forsyth County Board of Elections. That year, he led the implementation of a “polling place wait time tracking application” in Forsyth County that allows voters to see wait times at different polling locations. 4

Tsujii also helped launch an “augmented reality-based poll worker training” program. 5

2016 Election

Ballot Signature Problems

According to the left-of-center Democracy North Carolina, during the 2016 election, errors made by the Forsyth County Board of Elections under Tsujii led to the improper invalidation of 130 ballots. Ballots in Forsyth County require a signature, but the ballots used by the county lacked a designated space for a signature, and many poll workers failed to inform voters that they needed a signature. “Despite this combination of technical and poll worker error,” the Forsyth County Board of Elections threw out 130 provisional ballots. 6

Democracy North Carolina executive director Bob Hall criticized Tsujii and his staff: “Forsyth County has serious problems with insufficient and poorly trained poll workers, inadequate equipment, and poor planning that reflects a lack of respect for voters.” 7

JoAnne Allen Candidacy

In 2016, JoAnne Allen attempted to run for mayor of Winston-Salem as an unaffiliated candidate. Allen was required to hand in 6,037 petition signatures to qualify as an unaffiliated candidate, each of which would be checked by Tsujii and the Forsyth County Board of Elections against voter rolls to verify the signatories lived in the relevant district. 8

However, Allen withdrew her candidacy after Tsujii and the Board rejected almost one-third of the signatures. After a reevaluation from the Board, only 160 rejected signatures were approved. 9

Allen withdrew her candidacy and ran as a write-in candidate. In her withdrawal statement, Allen blamed the County Board and Tsujii for the mistakes, accusing them of giving her “misinformation” and of “negligent handling” of the petitions. In a later interview, she claimed the mistakes were intentional and the result of bias against her. Tsujii denied all allegations of wrongdoing. 10

2020 Election

In the 2020 election, Tim Tsujii and the Forsyth County Board of Elections received a $50,000 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to hire additional poll workers and buy equipment to secure polling stations against the COVID-19 pandemic. 11 The Forsyth County Board of Elections also received almost $600,000 from the federal CARES Act for the same purposes. 12

2022 Election

Prior to the 2022 election, Tim Tsujii expressed concerns about disinformation and misinformation regarding voting, which had supposedly become “more prevalent” since the 2020 election. 13

References

  1. “CTCL’s Advisory Committee is made up of some of the most experienced, thoughtful election professionals in the United States.” Center for Tech and Civil Life. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://www.techandciviclife.org/advisory-committee/.
  2. CTCL’s Advisory Committee is made up of some of the most experienced, thoughtful election professionals in the United States.” Center for Tech and Civil Life. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://www.techandciviclife.org/advisory-committee/.
  3. “Tim Tsujii, Elections Director.” Forsyth County. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://www.forsyth.cc/Elections/bio.aspx.
  4. “Tim Tsujii, Elections Director.” Forsyth County. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://www.forsyth.cc/Elections/bio.aspx.
  5.  Tran, Dari Sylvester. “Unrigging American Elections: Reform Past and Prologue.” Palgrave Macmillan. 2019. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://books.google.rs/books?id=gcl-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=Tim+Tsujii&source=bl&ots=jAqDmOI74V&sig=ACfU3U14Aw05iZWJ58wrX_fBxT931zs_MA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjdju-6nsT4AhXHGewKHSiTAEIQ6AF6BAgeEAM#v=onepage&q=Tim%20Tsujii&f=false
  6. “Forsyth County Failures Disenfranchise Voters.” Democracy North Carolina. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://democracync.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForsythCoPRProvisionSignature.pdf.
  7. “Forsyth County Failures Disenfranchise Voters.” Democracy North Carolina. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://democracync.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForsythCoPRProvisionSignature.pdf.
  8. Luck, Todd. “Joanne Allen switches to write-in candidacy.” The Chronicle. August 11, 2016. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://wschronicle.com/joanne-allen-switches-write-candidacy/
  9. [1] Luck, Todd. “Joanne Allen switches to write-in candidacy.” The Chronicle. August 11, 2016. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://wschronicle.com/joanne-allen-switches-write-candidacy/.
  10. Luck, Todd. “Joanne Allen switches to write-in candidacy.” The Chronicle. August 11, 2016. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://wschronicle.com/joanne-allen-switches-write-candidacy/.
  11. “ZSR Awards $50,000 Grant to Forsyth County Board of Elections to Support Fair and Safe Election.” Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. October 8, 2020. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://www.zsr.org/articles/zsr-awards-50000-grant-forsyth-county-board-elections-support-fair-and-safe-elections.
  12. Brown, Keri. “NC Early Voting Begins: What You Can Expect at the Polls.” WFDD. October 15, 2020. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://www.wfdd.org/story/nc-early-voting-begins-what-you-can-expect-polls.
  13. Hyland, Michael. “NC election combat misinformation ahead of early voting.” CBS 17. April 25, 2022. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://www.cbs17.com/news/nc-election-officials-combat-misinformation-ahead-of-early-voting/
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