Bill Aceto's Newest Letter to Chancellor Everts

Thanks to the Watauga Democrat for publishing on its site the three-pager signed by Bill Aceto, which reaches new heights of unintentional irony:

1. First paragraph misrepresents the motion that the State Board of Elections voted on, which was this:

“Move that we adopt the plan I will refer to as the Bill Aceto Plan with the following caveats: if the Chairman of the Watauga County Board of Elections cannot secure in writing from the Chancellor, or Counsel to the Chancellor, permission by the Appalachian State University to use the Legends site within five calendar days [making the deadline Tuesday, Sept. 13, 5 p.m.], then Plemmons Student Union will automatically be used. Further: If permission cannot be obtained from ASU within 5 days -- written permission by the Chancellor, or Counsel to the Chancellor, to the Chairman of the Watauga County Board of Elections -- then Plemmons Student Union will be substituted in all places where the Aceto Plan calls for ASU Legends.”

2. "tremendous partisan pressure" -- Since Aceto holds all the reins of power RE ballot access in Watauga County, I guess that would make him an expert on that particular subject.

3.  The Molly Hundley opinion. She spoke against the Student Union as an Early Voting site as though someone were forcing her to use that site. No one was (or is) forcing her.

4. Ha! He quotes at length a comment by "Mike D" posted on this blog. (Ah, shucks!) He does not put into his letter to Everts an anonymous comment in response to "Mike D," which I think is an appropriate response:

Anonymous said...

Mike D., you have really jumped the shark this time. What a load of fantastical crap ... "shadowy doorways" ... "speak-easy or an unlicensed physician or a fortune teller." Good lord, man. You're straining for crazy comparisons to prop up an indefensible attempt to make voting more difficult for ASU students. Just be honest about it. You and Aceto are perfectly willing to reduce the numbers of student voters to protect your favored office-holders or promote your favorite office-seekers.

 5. Aceto once again attacks former Watauga elections director Jane Anne Hodges, implying that her destruction of electioneering complaints is the reason no electioneering complaints exist (other than Anne Marie Yates' purely partisan comments): "Many of the written complaints regarding this site [Student Union] were not maintained by the previous county elections director, but the absence of these reports does not mean they do not exist." If there's one thing I've learned from Judge Judy, their absence does mean that they don't exist.

6. "the uncompromising insistence by Ms. Anderson" -- Is the uncompromising pot calling the uncompromising kettle black?

7. "desire to gain partisan advantage through a site" -- As opposed to your desire to gain partisan advantage through a site as far away from the center of student life as you can lawfully place it and still be on the campus?

8. "To yield to the very vocal and insistent demands of partisan activists demanding the Student Union site would make you the instrument of those partisan activists." Did Aceto just call Chancellor Everts a "tool"? I believe he did.

Those of us who have been fighting Bill Aceto and his boss Four Eggers and Four Eggers's baby brother Luke Eggers for over three long years to ensure fair and free elections in Watauga County know a tool when we see one. Judge Stephens of the Wake Superior Court could also recognize intentional discrimination, and that's why Bill Aceto is so desperate that he would sign such a nasty letter (whether he wrote it or not).