Norm Green

Chautauqua County is out its longtime Democratic election commissioner.

Norm Green, in a news release Thursday, announced he was resigning the position. He previously announced his intentions to retire during the fall, but eventually stayed on as a holdover after the county Democratic Committee’s choice to replace him, Luz Torres, was not taken up by the county Legislature.

With Green’s resignation effective the end of the day Thursday, Torres becomes the first Latina acting county department head in county history.

“I absolutely continue to support Luz to replace me,” Green said. “As a Democrat, I work for diversity at all levels. It is exciting to think about having the first ever Hispanic department head taking over from me. Luz has been training for this job for the last three years and the plan has been for her to take over from me. She is an experienced manager, has helped to administer budgets and is fully trained by the state to be an election commissioner.

“We’ve accomplished much at the Board of Elections over the past 22 years and the credit must be given to our full time staff of six and, numerous seasonal part timers and the nearly 600 poll workers who deliver democracy one or two days a year at our poll sites. While many, many election boards in the state and nation have admittedly failed, we have delivered world-class elections in our county and have done so with a twelve year near flat budget. Republican Election Commissioner Brian Abram has been the greatest partner in our joint bi-partisan efforts and we part as personal family friends.”