WV losing a good one.

Ireland leaves offices with all 1,887 of West Virginia's election precincts equipped with at least one machine that allows handicapped voters to cast their ballots on their own. All counties offer voting devices that leave paper trails to help ensure ballots are counted as they were cast.

She also rode herd over a 2008 election season that saw record-breaking registrations and early voting turnout, although Nov. 4's turnout numbers fell below that of 2004.

And amid a handful of complaints regarding touch-screen machines before the 2008 general election - from perhaps 15 out of 153,789 early voters - national groups touted Ireland's response.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University and Verified Voting jointly sent letters to Ireland's counterparts around the country holding up her office's advice -- that counties recalibrate their machines daily and offer pencils or styluses for touch screens -- as "best practices.''

"This was definitely the best election that my office has had in conjunction with the secretary of state,'' said Mason County Clerk Diana Cromley, a four-term Democrat and board member of the West Virginia Association of Counties. "As her term progressed, and her team got more experienced with elections, I thought that, overall, they did an excellent job.''

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Aaron wrote:It's a shame to see her go after only one term. source