SALISBURY — The Rowan County Democratic party held its annual convention virtually on Saturday.

The annual conventions are held by local party affiliates throughout the state to elect the year’s leadership and address other business with the party at large. The convention was open to all county Democrats to participate in via Zoom.

The officials elected this year are familiar faces, with all of the previous year’s leadership re-elected in short order. The list of officers is as follows:

• Chair: Geoffrey Hoy
• First Vice Chair: Chariel Dye
• Second Vice Chair: Shawn Rush
• Third Vice Chair: Mary Duckworth
• Secretary: Dianne Sartiano
• Treasurer: Linda Perdue

The convention also heard pre-recorded messages from state leaders, including Gov. Roy Cooper.

“During last year’s convention we had no idea how many Zoom meetings were in our future, but I’m grateful to join you virtually today,” Cooper said in the recording. “We’ve felt so much loss over the past year. Lost loved ones, jobs, time with friends and families, but North Carolinians are resilient. We will emerge stronger than ever.”

Four people — George Corey, Rush, Pat Sledge and Dye — were all named to the party’s executive committee along with Hoy as an automatic member as county chair.

The committee goes to state-level meetings twice per year. They will be hosted via Zoom this year.

Hoy said the county is allotted 72 delegates for the May District 13 convention as well. The party passed a resolution that gave the party’s executive committee to appoint 72 names to the list.

“Rather than trying to go through a complete list of nominating a complete list of 72 people, and we only have 61 on the call at the moment, what makes the most sense is for us to pass this resolution,” Hoy said.

The convention supported two resolutions presented by members. The first, outlined by Ed Hull, was in support of the creation of a federal effort to create a congressional commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African-Americans.

The second resolution supported eliminating voter suppression, including voter identification laws, disenfranchisement of felony offenders who have completed their sentences, gerrymandering and the desire to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.