Thursday, August 11, 2016

What Four Eggers & Bill Aceto Are Up To: The Future of Voting in Watauga County

Bill Aceto
When the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out North Carolina's new election laws, it also threw out a requirement that Early Voting hours in 2016 equal Early Voting hours in 2012 (at least).

Ah ha! cried Republican-dominated county boards of elections. We can now reduce Early Voting under legal cover. That intention in Guilford County led to the uprising we saw earlier this week.

Bill Aceto (doing the bidding of County Attorney Stacy C. "Four" Eggers) has decided to push that envelope even further. All county board members were told at this week's statewide training session that they had to meet to consider Early Voting options in light of the Fourth Circuit. "Let's don't risk a public meeting!" -- appears to be Four Eggers' thinking. Plus ... no meeting means no official plan for Early Voting ... means this:

The Eggers-Aceto maneuver would default Watauga County's Early Voting to only one location -- the Board of Elections office on the first floor of the County Courthouse. That would be around 17,000 expected early voters (150 voters per hour) trying to find a parking place in downtown Boone to cast their ballots in the Board of Elections office.

More specifically, the Eggers-Aceto scheme would close all satellite Early Voting sites in the county -- all of them, including the ones in Blowing Rock, Deep Gap, Meat Camp, and on the campus of ASU -- and force everyone to come to the Courthouse, pass through metal detectors, and try to vote in a room not big enough for a good case of prickly heat.

Why are EggersAceto pushing in that direction? They'll do anything to keep from having Early Voting on the campus of ASU. They'll do anything, including not calling a meeting of the BOE to adopt an Early Voting plan. Anything, including closing all Early Voting sites in the county, imposing long lines and impossible conditions on the voting public.

Kim Strach, the Executive Director of the State BOE, has asked all local boards of elections to keep waiting lines for voting to no more than 15 minutes. If EggersAceto succeed in locating all Early Voting in the BOE office, expect wait times at around four hours.

That's voter suppression on steroids.

Why Four Eggers Absolutely Must Suppress Student Voting
Four Eggers
Four's job as county attorney is on the line. In presidential years, especially, ASU students tend to turn out in large numbers. When ASU students turn out in large numbers, sometimes there's turn-over in the County Commission. Turn-over in the County Commission means Four Eggers loses his job and hundreds of bill-able hours.


Four Eggers deserves that comeuppance, no?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

When will the Democrats of Watauga County say "enough!"?

When will the students of ASU say "enough!"?

When will voters stand up for their rights?

Pam Williamson said...

What do you mean when will the Democrats of Watauga County say "enough"? My God. We're out thousands of dollars in lawsuits (where we have been winning BTW). We'll fight this time around too, even if that means we end up all the way to the 4th District court for justice. And this time in addition to suing the State BOE, we'll sue Aceto and Owen personally as well for intentional and complicit violation of constitutional rights. So my question back at ya is when will everyone complaining chip in a dollar or two for our upcoming legal fight? You can do that here: https://secure.piryx.com/donate/sVJ8qUtA/Watauga-County-Democratic-Party/

henery said...

“I’m not a big fan of early voting," says the chair of the Mecklenburg Board of Elections, but she's still calling a meeting and admits that easy access to Early Voting is an absolute MUST in any rational world. (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article94651907.html) But any rational world is not where Four Eggers lives. Aceto is merely Four's tool and has no brain other than Four's.

Deborah Greene said...

In a manuever to keep early voting out of student union, the "stupid party" now wants to make it hard on the rural voters also. This is a presidential election! We complain as Americans that voter turnout is pathetic and then as Watauga County Republicans, we try to stop a certain age grouo from voting- even if it means making it harder for all voters. Well, thiose who work for the county will have the advantage as they will have the opportunity during the workday and parking will not be an issue for them.

I guess we can request an absentee ballot or do they have something up their sleeves to stop that too.

This is nothing more than revenge and this is what our lical Republucan Party leaders are all about; they thrive on it.

Opinionated said...

Deborah,
Of course, the people complaining about low voter turnout are those of us like you and me who believe in people voting.....EVERYBODY voting. But you and I also know that some people are so obsessed with keeping their little patch of power that they are perfectly happy to sacrifice the rights of everyone else in the service of keeping that power and control. Funny how the people who do that are never the ones (like the men in my family) who made real sacrifices in the name of those Constitutional rights.

Anonymous said...

One big reason for low voter turnout is because for many decades there has been little or no difference in the controlled parties; they pursue the same destructive agenda.

Also, because as Stalin stated, 'They who cast the votes, decide nothing: they who count the votes decide everything.' The major media organization can and do rig elections.