State elections official steps down

Amy Tuck, the head of the state Division of Elections under Secretary of State Kurt Browning, is quitting her job as of Nov. 16.

Dawn Roberts, chief of staff for Browning, informed election supervisors in an e-mail that "I regret to inform you that Amy Tuck has tendered her resignation effective November 16, 2007.  In the interim, Secretary Browning has asked Sarah Jane Bradshaw to serve as Interim Director for the Division
of Elections until a new Director is appointed.  I know you will join us in wishing Amy all the best."

Tuck ran into some controversy earlier this year after signing off on a legal opinion in August that said that political committees could not spend money on issue-oriented polls. That opinion, which came under fire from business groups, was rescinded a month later by a different opinion from the Division of Elections that concluded that political committees could spend money on issue-oriented polls.

Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for Browning, said that Tuck had resigned to "pursue other interests in the private sector" but said he did not know what she planned to do. Bradshaw is a long-time elections veteran who prior to working for the Division of Elections was the staff director of the Senate Ethics and Elections committee.