Chautauqua County has a new face as its Republican election commissioner – though she’s no stranger to the county’s elections.

Nacole Ellis, a Chautauqua County Board of Elections employee, has been appointed by Republicans on the Chautauqua County Legislature to replace the retiring Brian Abrams. Ellis has also served as the chairwoman of the Chautauqua County Republican Party.

The practice isn’t breaking any laws. It’s not even that uncommon. Chautauqua County’s last Democratic Party election commission served as chair of the Chautauqua County Democratic Party before running for county executive. Green, by all accounts, did a good job as election commissioner, helping lead the county into the electronic age of voting when the state mandated new voting machines and providing an invaluable resource regarding the state’s often arcane election laws.

There is a caveat, though, that we hope state lawmakers who have been tweaking election laws in the name of fairness consider. The heads of political parties have to make decisions after hours that can conflict with their day job as administrators of the state’s complex election laws. In a perfect world election commissioners wouldn’t also be the chairpeople of their county’s political party. They are worlds we would prefer are kept separate, even if solely for appearance’s sake. In politics perception is often just as important as reality. Both houses of the state Legislature approved legislation (S.612/A.1244) earlier this year that prohibits any board of elections employee from engaging or participating in any trade or business that creates or tends to create an actual or potential conflict of interest. The bill prohibits a board of elections employee from maintaining any direct or indirect financial interest in a company that provides services to a candidate who has an election overseen by that employee’s office. The bill also prohibits a board of elections employee from maintaining any direct or indirect financial interest in a company that sells voting machines, electronic poll books or other electronic equipment to the board.

Those bills do not, however, consider it a conflict of interest to be a Board of Elections employee – or elections commissioner – who is a member of the county committee, a district leader, a member of the state committee, or a delegate to a national party convention to endorse candidates for a party or public office as part of their duties in their party position.

It’s a shortcoming in the law, in our opinion. Splitting the post-work position of political party chairperson and the county-funded job of administering the Board of Elections is a tightrope. Green did a good job of walking that tightrope. We’re sure Ellis will, too. But not all are equipped to walk that tightrope.