Tuesday, October 08, 2019

Democrats: Compromising Voter Access to the Polls Is Unacceptable


"Good Lord Almighty!" as my grandfather might have said. What were they thinking?

"What the hell!" as any voter today might say, seeing how "compromise" on the Forsyth County Board of Elections is never good news for the voters.

They just want to get along in Forsyth County, so the Democratic majority gave up Sunday voting in exchange for an early voting site on the campus of Winston-Salem State University -- the first such poll on campus since 2010.

Gave up Sunday voting. Got an EV site at WSSU.

Should have insisted on both, and they could have had both if they had been willing to make their case for greater ballot access to the State Board of Elections. The Forsyth Democrats could have dealt with a split vote -- Early Voting plans have to be unanimous on local boards, otherwise the State Board of Elections adopts the plan after hearing from both sides. If BOTH Sunday voting and the EV site at WSSU are good for voters, then both should have been fought for. And right now the current State Board of Elections seems to favor greater ballot access. I would think the Forsyth Democratic majority's plan would get a fair hearing in Raleigh. Do the math.

Why the Democrats on the Forsyth Board are so prone to compromising away more access to voting for some elusive (and illusory) bi-partisan consensus -- I don't get the weakness of that. I don't understand it. When Democrats finally have a majority on boards of election, they continue to act like underdogs, and complacent underdogs at that.

ONE MORE GRIPE
From the Winston-Salem Journal: "Although Democrats also wanted early voting at the Miller Park Community Center, in the end they dropped that plea." Miller Park Community Ctr. is smack in Ardmore, south of Business I-40, in a neighborhood of very small house lots originally platted for workforce housing from 1910 into the 1920s. Guess who votes there now.

The Forsyth Dems gave up too much. They didn't have to give up anything.

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