The chairman of the D.C. Board of Elections D. Michael Bennett will step down on September 30, relinquishing the position before the primaries next year.

Bennett submitted his resignation letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council on August 10. He was first nominated to the board by Bowser in 2016 and finished a second term in July.

“I just fundamentally don’t believe anybody should sit in those seats for long periods of time,” the 66-year-old said. “It seems like it’s time to go.”

The Washington Post first reported Bennett’s resignation.

The board drew scrutiny last year after some voters did not receive absentee ballots they had requested for the June 2020 primaries, the first election the city held during the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100,000 people requested an absentee ballot for the primary, tens of thousands more than during a normal election cycle, according to Bennett.

Election officials had also drastically reduced the number of polling places and urged voters to submit ballots by mail. On the last day to vote during the primary, some voters waited in line until after midnight to cast their ballot.

“That personally was very painful for me,” Bennett said. “It’s never pleasant to get criticism but I certainly understood it.”

He said the elections board weathered the difficulties as best it could and learned from it.

Voting in the general election in September went more smoothly. The board expanded to 80 polling places — up from 20 during the primary — all of which were open to any D.C. voter. Even Nationals Park was converted into a voting site. And the board sent an absentee ballot to every registered voter.

Bowser must nominate Bennett’s replacement, who must then be confirmed by the D.C. Council, according to city law. A spokeswoman for Bowser did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Last month, the board’s executive director, Alice Miller, stepped down to serve as a policy advisor to Monica Evans, her replacement.

In his resignation letter, Bennett suggested Bowser nominate former elections board member Dionna Lewis as chair.

He also said the city should consolidate the elections board with the Office of Campaign Finance, which the chair also oversees. He said the two offices already share information and would benefit from a central database. For example, he said candidates for office cannot get on a ballot unless they file paperwork with both the elections board and the campaign finance department.

“There’s a lot of data that overlaps,” Bennett said. “The agencies are just so dependent on one another they really ought to be together.”

Bennett also urged the city to keep drop boxes for ballots and citywide voting centers in future elections, echoing recommendations from some voters.

“I encourage the council and the mayor to support those items in any way most appropriate by the executive and legislative branches of the D.C. government,” Bennett wrote in his resignation letter.