The D.C. Council has rejected Mayor Adrian Fenty’s nominee to serve on the city’s elections board, leaving a vacancy on the key three-person panel just as the presidential and local election seasons heat up.

Fenty’s nomination of Hiram K. Brewton never left the government operations committee, chaired by Councilwoman Carol Schwartz. The passive rejection of the candidate, a 40-year D.C. resident whose son is a friend of, and works for, the mayor, leaves a gaping hole on the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics at a critical time.