A Rotten Appointment

 

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Watauga real estate maven Bill Aceto was a notorious member (and then the chair) of the Watauga County Board of Elections. He did everything he could to make it hard for ASU students to vote, though he eventually couldn't overcome an order from a Wake County Superior Court judge.

The news of his controversial appointment to the NC Real Estate Commission broke four days ago. I'm just catching up. The following from WRAL:

The North Carolina Senate wants to appoint a real estate broker to a commission that is currently investigating him.

If approved, the broker, Bill Aceto, would be a member of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission when the commission hears complaints against him and his company, Blue Ridge Realty & Investments.

Aceto’s lawyer said his client would recuse himself if the matter comes before the commission.

A buyer’s complaint against Aceto alleges that around February 2022, one of Aceto’s brokers misrepresented the condition of a home for sale in Banner Elk.

The complaint states that after inspection reports from three prospective buyers were compared, it appeared that problems were identified and then covered up.

According to the complaint:

A rotten band sill was noted in the crawl space in old inspections, but the new inspector never saw it because insulation had been added, concealing the badly rotted band sill from the view of the inspector.

Old inspections also noted extensive wood rot on siding, window frames, trim, soffits and fascia. The new inspector and a contractor found several places where rotted wood had been painted over and some rot appeared to be concealed with wood filler.

The buyer also claims there were several other material facts that were misrepresented by Aceto’s broker.

Two general contractors estimated the home needed $24,750 worth of repairs.

In the complaint, the buyer, Heather Cobb of Mathews, submitted an email from the seller that said they didn’t provide past inspection reports because the prior inspector was "completely incompetent."

Cobb’s complaint alleges that Aceto then tried to make a deal. Aceto’s firm offered to return $15,000 in due diligence money — but only if Cobb agreed to not sue the seller, Aceto’s broker or the listing firm. Cobb would also have had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and promise not to file a complaint with the N.C. Real Estate Commission.

Cobb said she wasn’t presented a written agreement outlining those conditions, so she terminated her purchase agreement and filed a complaint with the commission. She also sued the seller.

Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said Aceto told his office about the complaint during the appointment process, though Berger said he wasn’t familiar with the details.

“My understanding is that the complaint was against someone that works in the firm and he was included because he’s the broker of the firm and not the person that was specifically complained about,” Berger said. “So, with that information, it was my judgment that we move forward.”

On Thursday, the North Carolina Senate advanced SB 754, which would appoint Aceto to the commission for three years.

Aceto’s lawyer, Stacy ‘Four’ Eggers, sent WRAL a statement suggesting that there has been opposition to the appointment.

"It is very unfortunate that someone would try to deny an appointment on an unadjudicated claim relating to an agent that works for Mr. Aceto’s company,” Eggers said. “Mr. Aceto is committed to his profession and to public service which caused him to accept the nomination for this position. When asked to serve by the Pro Tem’s office, Mr. Aceto disclosed the pending matter. If Mr. Aceto’s appointment occurs before the hearing with the Real Estate Commission, Mr. Aceto would recuse himself from any matter dealing with himself or any agent that works for his company."

Janet Thoren, legal counsel for the N.C. Real Estate Commission, said Aceto’s appointment "presents a problem for the Real Estate Commission."

Aceto’s appointment still has to pass the North Carolina House. If finalized, his term on the commission would begin Aug. 1. The hearing against him is tentatively set for August 2023.

It would be the first time the commission has ever held a hearing against a sitting commissioner, Thoren said.

New Sheriff in BooneTown?

 

A new Political Action Committee (PAC) -- calling itself "Appalachian PAC" -- has decided to get involved in the Boone Town Council races this year with endorsements (unclear at the moment whether they also intend to give direct money donations to individual candidates, but they're raising money). Their under-developed website brags that they're "non-partisan," but the evidence so far suggests something more complicated. With Bill Aceto and Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") as donors and guiding lights, "non-partisan" isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

"Oh, look, there's Luke Eggers too!" Photos taken at the PAC's "launch" party and posted to their Facebook page show a careful, mixed guest list, with Democrats and Republicans (for example, both Eggers and Tommy Sofield, who ran with the Republican team for Watauga County Commish in 2020) and independents -- some of whom might have more of an investment connection than a shared political ideology. The "launch" party was clearly weighted toward real estate brokers and business developers. 

I have questions about their goals, let alone their intentions. The website is short on policy statements, long on generalities that raise more questions than they answer: "Our goal is to elect pro-business and pro-university candidates in local and statewide elections." The banner across the top of their Homepage: 

UNIVERSITY • BUSINESS • COMMUNITY

The repeated emphasis on university, an odd leg on this three-legged stool -- that just stops me cold. AppState needs political help? Well, yes, in their view, which actually answers another question: How does the university need/use real estate developers? AppState and its 20,000 students are always needing habitation, and increasingly the university administration looks to the local rental market to supply a lot of their needs. Dormitories are expensive to build, expensive to maintain. And why go to that expense when there are plenty of developers ready to supply another kind of dormitory space -- stuff that advertises 4 bdrm/4 bath -- at no expense to the university but $700 a pop from the students who rent those units.

Some guys correctly identified the university as a cash cow many years ago.

I'm apprehensive if those same guys intend to make the laws of Boone more conducive to their goals.

Republicans on Watauga Board of Elections Want Polling Places in Churches

Of course they do.

Mount Vernon Baptist Church currently serves as the election day polling place for New River 3, the second largest precinct in Watauga County. It was chosen as the polling place by Bill Aceto and Four Eggers (via Luke Eggers) obviously because...

a. It's as far away from the urban-suburban center of population in that precinct as you can get and still stay in the precinct. It's in the middle of the countryside, miles from the population center and without any public transportation to reach it.

b. It's a hotbed of Republican Party activists who make no bones that you can't be a Christian and a Democrat at the same time. This was the church marquee on the eve of the 2016 election. Voters either drove or walked by it on the way to vote.

Aside from the obnoxiousness, the inconvenience, the absence of logic, Mount Vernon Baptist Church is the perfect polling place for the 3,989 voters registered in New River 3.

Watauga Board of Elections Chair Jane Anne Hodges proposed moving that polling place back to where it used to be, the National Guard Armory, but Republicans Nancy Owen and Eric Eller weren't having it. In fact, Hodges proposed moving all three polling places currently in churches to non-church sites which would also be more convenient for voters, with easier access and plenty of parking:

New River 3

from Mount Vernon Baptist Church ... to National Guard Armory on State Farm Rd.

Brushy Fork

from Oak Grove Baptist Church ... to Caldwell Community College

Blue Ridge

from Laurel Fork Baptist Church ... to Deer Valley Racquet Club

Those moves aren't going to happen as long as both Owen and Eller, the Republican members, oppose. Precincts can be moved by majority vote, and both Chair Hodges and the other Democratic member, Richard Rapfogel, want this for the sake of convenience to the public and avoidance of conflict-of-interest or partisan intimidation.

Watauga BOE Votes Unanimously for Early Voting Plan for the May Primary Which Includes ASU Student Union

Jane Anne Hodges

Bill Aceto is gone from the Watauga Board of Elections, and it's a brave new world.

The newly constituted Watauga Board of Elections, with two Republicans and two Democrats, voted unanimously for the May primary early voting plan submitted by Democrats Jane Anne Hodges and Richard Rapfogel:

Watauga County Admin Bldg, 814 W King St. -- early voting opens on Thursday, April 19, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., and continues every weekday through Friday, May 4th, and concludes Saturday, May 5th, when the polling place will be open 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Satellite sites:

ASU Student Union -- early voting opens on Monday, April 30, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., and continues that week through Friday, May 5

Blowing Rock Town Hall -- early voting opens on Monday, April 30, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., and continues that week through Friday, May 5

Deep Gap Fire Department -- early voting opens on Monday, April 30, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., and continues that week through Friday, May 5

Meat Camp Fire Department -- early voting opens on Monday, April 30, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., and continues that week through Friday, May 5

Western Watauga Community Center -- early voting opens on Monday, April 30, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., and continues that week through Friday, May 5


Democrat Jane Anne Hodges, the former director of elections for many years, was elected chair of the board by unanimous vote. Republican Nancy Owen was elected vice chair and Democrat Richard Rapfogel, secretary.

Bill Aceto Is His Name and Voter Suppression Is His Game

Nancy Owen and Bill Aceto

Yesterday the Republicans on the Watauga County Board of Elections, led by Bill Aceto, once again voted against an Early Voting site on the ASU campus for the May 2018 primary. Democrat Stella Anderson was the lone vote in favor.

Bill Aceto was joined by fellow Republican Nancy Owen, who last year for once voted with Democrat Stella Anderson for Early Voting at ASU for the municipal elections. Owen has obviously been disciplined and will not be making a mistake like that again.

So because the vote was split, the final decision will be made -- once again -- in Raleigh, either by a newly constituted State Board of Elections or by the Superior Court of Wake County.

The odd and ironic thing about the Republican Party's hostility to the student vote is that the students fully know it, and the more the Republicans try to shut out the students, the more determined the students are to vote. You'd think those political geniuses would finally get smart and start trying to win votes rather than alienating the voters.

BREAKING NEWS: Nathan Miller/Anne Marie Yates Intend to Appeal Watauga BOE's Vote Yesterday

File this one under "Lengths To Which They're Willing To Go."

Anne Marie Yates's lawyer Nathan Miller has informed the Watauga Board of Elections that he will be appealing the BOE's unanimous rejection of Yates's election protest and her demand for new municipal elections in Watauga.

The appeal must go to the State Board of Elections, which currently does not exist. If the Yates-Miller team are willing to appeal to a non-existent board after losing the vote of Bill Aceto locally, then they're no doubt quite willing to sue in the Wake County Superior Court.

BREAKING: Watauga BOE Rejects the Republican Election Protest

This morning and on the motion made by Chair Bill Aceto, the Watauga Board of Elections voted unanimously to reject the elections protest filed by Anne Marie Yates and Nathan Miller.

Once the decision is signed (later today?), the Yates-Miller team will have 24 hours to give notice to the BOE if they intend to appeal.

With the unanimous vote this morning, a successful appeal becomes more remote, but motivated by a cabbage worm's desire to ruin the whole cabbage, Yates-Miller may appeal anyway.

Watauga GOP Attempts To Nullify Municipal Elections

At 10 a.m. tomorrow morning (November 20), the Watauga Board of Elections (BOE) will conduct a preliminary finding of fact in response to Nathan Miller and Anne Marie Yates's election protest. The Miller-Yates team is asking for new elections because The Watauga Board of Elections did not sufficiently advertise the places for Early Voting.

Miller is vice chair of the Watauga Republican Party. Yates has been nominated to take a Republican seat on the Watauga BOE. They're leading the Watauga GOP in this action (and have a track record of harassment behind them: this and this).

My Own Findings of Fact

1. Voting was up in Boone in 2017 above 2015 -- 2,910 total votes in Boone Town Council races in 2015 versus 4,212 in 2017. Looks like people knew there was an election. And where to go.

2. It was the other Republican team of Nathan Miller-Bill Aceto that delayed announcement. Because Bill Aceto refused to approve the inevitable polling place inside the ASU Student Union -- the BOE vote was 2-1, with Aceto in the minority -- he then took his objection in a lawsuit to Wake Superior Court, and when that court thrashed Miller for the effort -- waving the Judge Donald Stephens order from 2014 in his face -- Miller-Aceto stomped off to the NC Court of Appeals and talked them into a temporary stay, which is not all that difficult and which was not lifted (inevitably) until the eve of Early Voting.

3. So do I have this right? Watauga Republicans block and delay the setting of Early Vote polling places until the courts order them at the last minute and then file to nullify the election because polling places weren't set early enough. Cool!

4. The Republican Party fielded no candidates in Boone in either 2015 or this year. Do they suddenly have some hot candidates they want to run in a re-do?

5. Or are they the termites eating the shelter?

6. Any action by the Watauga BOE tomorrow -- either finding just cause to nullify the election and call a new one or finding no just cause -- either one will take a unanimous vote. Aceto's with Miller, so you do the math.

7. What happens if there is no unanimous vote? Miller-Aceto can appeal to the State Board of Elections (SBOE), but the SBOE doesn't currently exist (thanks to monkeying with the law by Republicans in the General Assembly and the subsequent blocking court order), and the SBOE staff has limited power.

8. If also stymied at the SBOE, Miller-Aceto can always appeal to Wake County Superior Court. We'd almost pay money to attend that hearing.

Kim Strach Overrules Bill Aceto

Yesterday Kim Strach, Executive Director of the NC State Board of Elections, overruled Watauga County Board of Elections Chair Bill Aceto, deciding that the election day polling place next Tuesday for the Boone 2 precinct would be in the Appalachian State Student Union, the most logical place for it.

The Legends nightclub in the old (very old) A&P building flooded badly a week ago Sunday and cannot be used any longer as a polling site. Bill Aceto refused to move Boone 2 precinct into the Student Union and into the same room where Early Voting has been going on for several days.

Bill Aceto suffers from the ASU Student Voting Derangement Syndrome. Aceto even proposed erecting a tent on the Legends parking lot for voting next Tuesday. Anything to keep from going to the Student Union.

But Kim Strach wasn't having it. She exercised her emergency powers and ordered that the Student Union be used instead of a tent in a parking lot.

BREAKING: Court Lifts Stay on ASU Student Union Early Voting

The Bill Aceto/Nathan Miller gambit to shut down Early Voting in the ASU Student Union once again has failed in the NC Court of Appeals.

Early Voting will open in the Student Union tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. and will run every weekday through November 3, from 10 - 5.

More Cabbage Worms Than Cabbage Leaves

Nathan Miller

Watauga GOP officer and attorney Nathan Miller brags in the Watauga Democrat that he and Bill Aceto just love "the rule of law" all to pieces, which they have been self-righteously and vigorously exercising to prevent college students from voting in Watauga County. It's not the rule of law, scolds Miller, when Stella Anderson fights back in court, and it's especially a miscarriage when some judge or judges agree with her.

It's "the rule of law" when the mechanisms of government can be turned against the citizens, or against some of the citizens, to prohibit them from voting -- like the removal of polling places. That was a local innovation. Or like the recent state-wide new rule demanding a government-issued photo ID to vote ... any government-issued ID will do but not a state university photo ID (just by the way). ("Rule of law"? A state university is a governmental institution, but to the Republicans who thought up the ID law, now shelved as unconstitutional, a state university evidently doesn't have nearly enough guns and Bibles to qualify those 18-to-25-year-olds as "citizens.")

For Miller and Aceto, it's jungle law when the livestock fight back. And simply unacceptable when judges agree with the livestock!

So the NCGOP has decided that judges must become partisan bots. They passed a law to make judges run by partisan label, the only state in the Union since 1921 to force judges into partisan elections. Judges must wear either red or blue robes and rally to their designated colors.

They're also redistricting all judicial districts, down to superior court and district courts, and just incidentally (purely by accident, I'm sure!) effectively eliminating half of the black judges in the state by "double-bunking" them so they have to run against each other. (Almost half of those "double-bunked" black judges are women.)

Andrew Cox, The Appalachian

What else? They've over-ridden Governor Cooper's veto of a new law that simply eliminates judicial primaries and makes it easier for unaffiliated candidates to file. Seconds after overriding that veto, Republicans introduced Senate Bill 698 which calls for a statewide referendum on a proposed constitutional amendment reducing the term of every Supreme Court justice, Court of Appeals judge, Superior Court judge, and District Court judge to two years. Judges will perforce become perpetual candidates for office and partisans to boot, jockeying to please their bases.

And get this: Senate Bill 698 would set the referendum for the May 2018 primary, when turn-out will be guaranteed low, not for November 2018 when turn-out will be much higher. (That's how the Republicans passed the constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage too.)

Nathan Miller, that lover of the rule of law, is a mere local symptom of a wider Republican virus that must seize power to stay alive, and pass laws to make the seizures legal.

What Are Bill Aceto and Nathan Miller's Chances of Stopping Early Voting in the ASU Student Union?

Stella Anderson with her lawyers,
Wednesday in Raleigh

As you should know, Stella Anderson won her suit in Wake Superior Court on Wednesday: Judge Graham Shirley II ordered an Early Voting polling site on the ASU campus beginning on October 26 and running every weekday through November 3, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., thus overriding the intransigence of Board of Elections Republican Chair Bill Aceto.

Bill Aceto was able to "intervene" in the case on Wednesday via lawyer (and Watauga Republican Party Vice Chair) Nathan Miller, and according to the Watauga Democrat, Nathan Miller has declared that they will be appealing Judge Shirley's order to the NC Court of Appeals

How likely is Nathan Miller to impress the higher court panel of three, considering that Judge Shirley was not at all impressed by the coherence of his argument on Wednesday?

The Odds of Aceto&Miller Prevailing on Appeal

1. Aceto via his attorney Miller was granted "permissive intervention" last Wednesday at the discretion of the judge rather than "intervention as of right," which means that Aceto has no legally protectable interest in the case. (Aceto asked to intervene as an individual and not under color of representing the majority on the Watauga Board of Elections.)

2. On appeal, Aceto can ask the NC Court of Appeals for a stay of Judge Shirley's order.

3. The State of North Carolina, which is actually the defendant in Stella Anderson's case, has opted not to appeal. (Josh Lawson, chief counsel for the State Board of Elections, has said that he's happy with the judge's Order.) Without an appeal from the state, it will be much harder for Aceto to win because, although intervenors have all the rights of the parties, the Court of Appeals will understand that he is a permissive intervenor. Under those circumstances, lawyer Miller's argument to the Court panel will likely be even less coherent than it was last Wednesday before Judge Shirley. Miller will not have the State's argument to piggyback on.

4. The Town of Boone's request and funding responsibility should tip the scale here in favor of Judge Shirley's Order. Plus, a stay would upend the desire of the majority of the Watauga Board, since Republican member Nancy Owen voted with Stella Anderson for her Early Voting plan which included the ASU Student Union.

Bill Aceto Once Again Says "No!" to ASU Early Voting, But the Republican Majority Cracks

Owen and Aceto

It was 2-0 on the Watauga Board of Elections just minutes ago on a motion to place an Early Voting polling site at the ASU Student Union during the municipal elections, but Chair Bill Aceto voted no. No, no, a thousand times no! The vote had to be unanimous. The majority of 2 in this case -- which included Republican member Nancy Owen -- was defeated.

Owen had just said, "We have to give a little and take a little" in agreeing to a compromise Early Voting plan with Democratic member Stella Anderson. Owen and Anderson had agreed that the ASU site could be approved for reduced days and reduced hours. While Early Voting at the BOE site downtown would go on for 12 1/2 days from 8 to 5, the ASU Student Union site was proposed for only 7 days, 10 to 5.

Anderson

But Bill Aceto, proving himself the lamest of lame ducks but as always acidly partisan, was not having it. He said he couldn't justify Early Voting at ASU for a municipal election because of projected low vote totals. Stella Anderson pointed out that in the four years Aceto has served on the BOE, he has never approved Early Voting at ASU, not even when thousands were expected there in the presidential election last fall.

Plus the Town of Boone, in requesting the ASU site, had agreed to bear all costs. "It's what the people want," Anderson pointed out, and in the interests of serving the public in a non-partisan way, we should grant the request.

No one has ever accused Bill Aceto of being non-partisan.

Sign of the Times

This isn't just any old Baptist church in Watauga County. This is actually the polling site for the New River 3 Precinct, one of the largest precincts (in terms of population) in Watauga County.

It's no secret that Mount Vernon Baptist Church is a hang-out for activist Republicans. It was chosen as a precinct polling place partly for that reason by Watauga BOE Chair Bill Aceto and County Attorney Four Eggers and partly because it is as far away from the suburban core of that precinct as you can get without actually leaving the precinct. It's in the middle of the countryside, miles from the population center and without any public transportation to reach it.

We know where the leadership of Mount Vernon Baptist Church stands on this election, and we know the meaning of this sign. It's not appropriate for an official polling place. The church is partisan. The sign is partisan. This polling place must be returned to the Boone National Guard Armory, where it was for many years, before another general election.

The Race for Governor in North Carolina

PamsPicks.net, guest blogging:

Pat McCrory (Republican): https://www.patmccrory.com and Governor Pat on Facebook

Pat McCrory is the smarmiest car salesman on the lot.

A man who promoted himself in the election of 2012 as a reasonable moderate with a long history of more or less progressive management as mayor of Charlotte, Pat McCrory quickly turned into the weak, feckless doormat for an extremist Republican agenda promoted by more powerful men in the North Carolina General Assembly. Instead of trying to return to the mantle of "moderate Republican" in 2016, McCrory has obviously decided he can only win by grandstanding for the yahoos, aping Donald Trump, defending the indefensible (both HB2 and voter suppression, among other extremist measures), and going full Conservative Prick.

Only problem is he doesn't wear that hard-line mask at all naturally nor comfortably, so he perpetually looks like a man surprised by reality. Plus the real Republican Power in Raleigh -- chiefly Phil Berger, president of the NC Senate -- has consistently treated McCrory like a red-headed step-child, ignoring his meekest requests and full-out running over him when he's in the way. McCrory's vetoes have been overridden by the General Assembly about as often as the Republicans over-rode Democratic Governor Bev Perdue.

In short, McCrory has presided over the worst slide away from forward-thinking progressivism in North Carolina history. We can't retire this colossal failure soon enough.

Roy Cooper (Democrat): www.roycooper.com and Roy Cooper for NC on Facebook

Remember what I said in Pam's Picks back in 2012 about how important the Governor's race was?:

"Here's the thing: The Party of the Governor controls both the State Board of Elections and each and every North Carolina County Board of Elections. If Democrats do not win the Governorship, and the State House and Senate remain in Republicans hands, get ready for some serious voter suppression in North Carolina. And ASU students can bet their bottom dollar their voting precinct will be removed from the Student Union."

Well, it's certainly been a long three plus years fighting for equal voter protection here in Watauga, hasn't it?

My own greatest hope for the candidacy of Roy Cooper centers on the fact that his election will end organized voter suppression in North Carolina and especially in Watauga County … because his election will end automatically the reign of terror of majority Republicans on county Boards of Election. As we know so well in Watauga, Republicans running election machinery have been far more intent on limiting the vote than in encouraging it.

With Cooper in the governor's mansion, the voter suppression of Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") and Bill Aceto, current chair of the Watauga Board of Elections, will be over.

The fact that Cooper is an upstanding and effective Attorney General is just icing on the cake. I have known Roy Cooper since the early 90's, and he is one of the finest people I know. He is strong of character. He has stood up for basic fairness. He has spoken out against the extremist agenda of the General Assembly. He has defended the rights of consumers against predators of various stripes. He warned the Republican Overlords in the General Assembly when they were going too far and then refused to defend their bad laws when the federal courts unanimously ruled them unconstitutional.

This race is really, really important. Remember that on November 8th.

Lon Cecil (Libertarian): http://www.electcecil.org

Retired High Point engineer, Lon Cecil is making jobs the focus of his campaign. “We need to bring clean, modern industries to this state that can manufacture goods for energy, transportation and better environmental conditions. It will take more than short-term corporate tax bribes, however.”

Cecil is a newcomer to state-wide electoral politics, so it's unclear whether he might be a spoiler in the hot race for NC governor (though it's generally agreed that he will pull votes from McCrory more than from Cooper). Cecil did put himself into the US House 12th District race in 2010 and considered running again for that House District in 2014 but decided against it. He's a virtual unknown.

Cecil was born in Oklohama and got his degree there in electrical engineering. He's a veteran of the Vietnam War.

"Don't-Believe-Your-Lying-Eyes" Quote of the Week

Anne Marie Yates, Chair of the Watauga County Board of Elections, on the sorts of people she looks for to appoint to the local Board of Elections (quoted by the Watauga Democrat):

“I look first for people who can do the job, and have the time to do it,” Yates said. “Then I look for discerning people, and people who have proven themselves to be fair and equitable and not overly partisan.”

#FireFour

The only way we get rid of Bill Aceto and Nancy Owen on the Watauga County Board of Elections is to elect Roy Cooper as governor.

The only way we get rid of Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") as county attorney is to change the County Commission.

Below is the visible result of the latest Four Eggers directive to Aceto and Owen about the BOE:

Four advised his Republican puppets that they could legally cancel a regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the BOE. Raleigh experts in election law say he's wrong. The general counsel for the SBOE so far has remained silent.

When has Four Eggers been right? He was wrong about combining all the Boone precincts into one "super precinct." He was wrong about disenfranchising ASU students, first, by ordering no Early Voting site at all on the ASU campus in 2014, which Judge Stephens in Wake County slapped down as unconstitutional, and then he was wrong for pushing Aceto to choose Legends as the early voting site for the 2016 primary, which the SBOE slapped down in February, and then again he was wrong for insisting on Legends for this fall's election, which the chancellor slapped down yesterday. 

He was wrong about the SBOE's having jurisdiction over early voting in Watauga and was the laughing stock among lawyers last Thursday in Raleigh for even suggesting it.

He was wrong to get his own brother appointed chair of the Watauga BOE. He was wrong to run  both the BOE, via his brother, while also serving as county attorney. He was wrong to serve as attorney for both Watauga and the Town of Beech Mountain and to enter those parties into a notorious water deal that got slapped down by the County Commission after the citizens protested.

Aceto and Owen should be removed from office for failure to do their job and for intentional discrimination against a class of voters. Four Eggers should be fired for manipulating Aceto and Owen and for casting a pall of corruption over Watauga County for the last four years.

Aceto & Owen Boycott Their Own Meeting

At 5 p.m. today, Democrat Stella Anderson was at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Watauga Board of Elections, while Chair Bill Aceto and other Republican Nancy Owen boycotted. Now they're not doing their job at all ... out of spite? because the ASU Chancellor had just announced that the Student Union would be an Early Voting site.

Photo by Garrett Price, Watauga Democrat

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).

Aceto Suddenly Cancels BOE Meeting Scheduled for Tomorrow

Regular meeting of the Watauga County Board of Elections was scheduled long ago as "a regular monthly meeting," and it happened to coincide with the deadline set by state BOE for Aceto to get agreement from ASU Chancellor Sheri Everts for use of Legends for early voting ... or else early voting to default to Plemmons Student Union.

Hmmm....