The Watauga BOE and GOP "New Speak"

What do you do when the facts are against you, even though you hold all the political power in the state?

You simply re-label the facts with words that reverse reality. That's the North Carolina GOP "New Speak" in a nutshell, and it's on amazing display in the front-page article in today's Winston-Salem Journal, wherein Republican Chair of the Watauga County Board of Elections, Luke Eggers, gave a quote to reporter Bert Gutierrez.

Asked by Gutierrez whether the Agricultural Conference Center, as the polling place for a newly formed "mega-precinct" with over 9,000 voters (3rd largest now in the state) could handle the traffic, Luke Eggers said:

Our decision to relocate this polling place was not made lightly. In evaluating our alternatives, I considered the ease of access to the polls, the logistics involved with the various possible locations, the demands on elections staff and university staff, the handicapped accessibility of the sites, and other logistical concerns. I am confident that this location will provide an appropriate voting location, and will be an equitable and accessible polling place for all eligible voters,” Eggers said.

That is some outstanding "New Speak," and a fine vintage it is, too!

Everyone knows that Luke Eggers was appointed to the Board because his big brother, County Attorney Stacy Eggers IV ("Four"), was somehow rejected in Raleigh for the job, so Luke got the nod because he would be a compliant drone operated like a flying-bot from the county attorney's office. The other Republican member, Bill Aceto, was never meant for anything other than a second, majority vote on all issues. (More in a story about the Watauga BOE fiasco posted on dKos. Eggers and Aceto are nationally famous now, thanks in no small part to the segment on the Rachel Maddow show Thursday night, linked in the dKos story.)

But I digress. Back to GOP New Speak:

"Our decision to relocate this polling place was not made lightly" = we thought it was going to be easy

"I considered the ease of access to the polls" = discouraging ASU voters was goal # 1

"logistical concerns" = partisan political goals

"an equitable and accessible polling place for all eligible voters" = ASU students are not citizens, in our opinion

Bert Gutierrez interviewed a student about "ease and accessibility" right there on Poplar Grove Road, which is the connector from the campus to the new mega-precinct polling place: