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.

The Fog Infesting the Forsyth and Guilford County Boards of Election

Seems pretty clear from investigative reporting by Travis Fain at WRAL that the staff at the State Board of Elections (SBOE) failed to follow the law and did not test the source code of new electronic voting machines that have been certified by the SBOE but whose security may be porous.

We read just this morning that the Forsyth County Board of Elections has decided to buy ES&S voting machines, the ones much criticized for producing a bar code that cannot be read by a normal voter (nor verified as accurate, apparently). At which we did a double-take. Whaaaa? Don't the members of the Forsyth County Board of Elections (Republican members, you are excused from this test by teacher), don't those public servants in charge of fair, free, and honest elections read the news? Don't they know the considered opinion of election computer software experts that the ES&S machines -- especially those -- can't necessarily be trusted.

Not just in Forsyth is there an emerging problem with the safety of the next General Elections. It's happening in Guilford County, too. Two days ago, according to reporting by Taft Wireback, the Guilford BOE seems to have been poised to also choose the ES&S hardware, but the attendance of many citizens (even at a 2 p.m. meeting) who argued against those machines, and the concern of at least one Guilford BOE member, persuaded the 5-member board to postpone its decision until next week.

Don't know if in the meantime those members will be seeking the opinions of election machinery experts, but they should. However, their past record doesn't argue for it. A majority of that board apparently wanted to get dispensation from the NC General Assembly to continue to use their old totally hackable electronic voting equipment in 2020-- machines now ruled by statute as banned from use in NC. That expressed desire to keep being foolish about election security amounts to the reckless disregard for the rights of voters.

The Great Voter-Fraud-Hunt Fail of 2014

In Forsyth County, whose local Board of Elections is wackier if not as out-and-out corrupt as Watauga's.

Voter Suppression in Forsyth County Also Backfires

The Forsyth County Board of Elections reduced Early Voting locations in downtown Winston-Salem to one, eliminating a site on the Winston-Salem State University campus. It's been the pattern all across North Carolina, including in Watauga County: squeeze the urban locations for Early Voting in an attempt to discourage urban voters.

But on Saturday, the last day of Early Voting, hundreds of people jammed the downtown Winston-Salem site, determined to "vote with a vengeance" against the blatant voter suppression that was going on. The last people in line on Saturday voted at 4 p.m.

Making long lines is just another tactic, and how have the Republicans accomplished that? One way was to eliminate straight-ticket voting, so that every voter has to mark potentially dozens of bubbles, which takes a long time. Someone tweeted on Saturday: "Hope the people made to wait long hours to vote are thinking of the politicians who created this situation!"

Make Early Voting inconvenient, slow up the lines, jam up the voters for hours -- maybe they'll just get discouraged and go away.

But, no, in Forsyth County, people were VOTING WITH A VENGEANCE and did not get discouraged. Chad Nance described the mood in line as "cheerful" and the line itself as "historic."

More About Those Circles on Maps

Josh Howard, Chair,
NC SBOE

Is it only coincidence that Watauga Board of Elections member Bill Aceto produced circles on the map of Watauga County (see last post, down-column) that are virtually identical to circles on the map of Forsyth County that the majority Republicans down there used to ram through their own Early Voting Plan that established one polling station for the entire city of Winston-Salem?

At the hearing (via tele-conference) on March 6 of the State Board of Elections to determine which Early Voting plan would be adopted for Forsyth -- the majority Republican plan based on circles that ignored population density or the minority Democratic plan that acknowledged the greater population of Winston-Salem -- State Board of Elections Chair Joshua Howard said -- twice -- according to the transcript, that he found the Republican map with circles "striking."

Put a circle on a map and SBOE Chair Howard is simply dazzled.

Is that why Aceto put circles on a map?

Joshua Howard is a lawyer and may be excused, we guess, for being incompetent when it comes to geographical and demographical facts about the landscape (even though NC statutes mandate that the Board of Elections shall consider those factors in locating polling sites for the convenience of voters). His previous claims to fame are that he assisted the pit bulls in prosecuting Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky and he worked behind the scenes on the confirmations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Partisanship counts for more than mere statistics relating to ballot access.

The Homophobe in Charge of Fair Elections in Forsyth

Watauga County is not alone in having a local elections board that's unfit for prime time.

Meet Forsyth County Board of Elections Chair Ken Raymond, who's doing what he can to supplant Luke Eggers as the most partisan elections official in the state.

Like Eggers, Ken Raymond was appointed to the Forsyth County Board of Elections by the Republican leadership back early in the summer, and from the get-go he was on a conservative Republican crusade to insert partisan politics into every nook and cranny of voting in Winston-Salem, but particularly nooks and crannies occupied by black voters.

Raymond has implied that massive fraud is happening in some polling places, particularly ones with majority black voting populations. He suggested placing sheriff's deputies in those precincts. He doesn't like a polling station at majority-black Winston-Salem State University. He's working to get Forsyth County Elections Director Rob Coffman fired, apparently because Coffman has opposed many of his partisan initiatives. Any of that sound familiar to Watauga Countians?

He also lacks a sense of humor about himself, erupting recently in a string of emails that displayed his inflated ego and, quite incidentally, a raging homophobia. To wit:

Back in December, the Winston-Salem Chronicle, a black-owned newspaper, called Raymond out for his allegiance to the Civitas Institute and for his resemblance to other silly far-right black conservatives:

“We think what really fired-up Raymond – who would be the result if Allen West and Herman Cain could produce a lovechild – is his contention that Coffman got snippy and disparaged the Civitas Institute, the Raleigh altar at which Raymond and other conservatives go to worship and receive their calls to action." (emphasis added)

At that provocation, Raymond went off in an email rant, horrified that the suggestion of male-on-male sex had somehow been hung around the neck of his parentage. He seems to have completely missed the if in that editorial sentence. Not that that qualifier would mean anything to this now unmasked homophobe. Raymond wrote the editor a blistering email:

“I’m a love-child produced by two men? Is this is (sic) what you call thoughtful and insightful commentary? This statement is extremely crude and unprofessional. In fact, that concept only leads your readers to think about some of the most debased things in our society.”

Like a boatload of other conservatives, just thinking about gay sex induces a bout of queer fear in Raymond that's perhaps much more revealing than he ever intended. We're embarrassed for him, quite frankly.

Chad Nance at Camel City Dispatch labeled this Raymond outburst as "a little homophobia mixed in with his delusions of grandeur."

He's fit to be a local elections board chair ... why, again?

Bellwether?

Early Voting in Forsyth County broke all previous records on Friday. Almost 100,000, compared to about 81,000 in 2008.

In Forsyth, about 18 percent of that grand total were unaffiliated.

Big difference in Watauga County, with unaffiliated voters actually out-performing Republicans in Early Voting ... first time that's happened that anyone remembers. The actual percentages of turn-out in Watauga based on party affiliation broke down this way (and talk about "neck-and-neck"!):

Democrats 33.43%
Republicans 32.45%
Unaffiliated 33.34%

Republicans improved their Early Voting performance substantially over 2008. The big question: Do the increased number of Rs turning out during Early Voting represent new voters, or do those early votes simply take away from E-Day turnout for Rs?

Forsyth Elections Chair Removed

We covered last fall some of the elections obstructionism occurring in Forsyth County, with the Democratic Chair of the local Board of Elections voting with the Republican member of that board to defy state rules for ballot access.

Well, that Forsyth board chair, Eric Elliott, has been removed from his position by the State Board of Elections for insubordination.

The Forsyth County Democratic Party could have replaced Elliott but didn't. Must be a lot of drama there.

Forsyth Elections Board Psycho-Drama

The Forsyth County Board of Elections voted 2-1 this afternoon to extend early voting on Saturday until 5 p.m. The picture to the left is from today in the Forsyth County Government Center, where voters waited literally for hours to vote. Forsyth County has been a poster child for obstructionism, opening too few voting sites for one of the state's most populous counties and then initially signaling that it had no intention of extending hours tomorrow ... until the State Board of Elections threatened the three Forsyth board members with expulsion.

They voted 2-1, but that hardly sums up the drama.

The board chair, Democrat Eric Elliott, denounced the state Board of Elections for essentially doing its job in trying to ensure ballot access for all citizens. But as Elliott put it, the State Board of Elections was interfering in a process which Elliott clearly believes is his alone to dictate ... interfering and trying to intimidate the local board. Right!

The lone Republican on the Forsyth board, Jerry Jordan, denounced the state Board and called their requirement to extend voting hours "unconstitutional" and "un-American," but (get this) "then surprised people by voting in favor of the extension."

That man's got principles! Although it was "un-American" to extend voting hours, Jordan voted for the extension, because (he said) "GOP officials thought longer hours would help their party."

We've seen a lot of nakedness this political season, but Mr. Jordan's naked partisanship in voting for something he considers "un-American" is just too precious!

There needs to be a house-cleaning in the Forsyth County Board of Elections. You betcha.

Forsyth Board of Elections

The state Board of Elections ordered the 100 county boards of election to keep early-voting sites open for an extra four hours tomorrow unless local officials unanimously decided that it is unnecessary.

And what does the Forsyth board do? It says it will vote at noon on Saturday, just an hour before all the early voting sites are due to close. In other words, it might vote to extend voting hours only after there can be little or no public announcement.

That the Forsyth board is trying to suppress the vote is crystal clear. Why is the $64,000 question.

Or make that the $10,000 question, if you choose to listen to Rob Coffman, the county's elections director. Coffman works for the elections board, mind you. He is not in charge but is clearly a large part of the problem down there. He whined to the W-S Journal that the extended hours would probably cost about $10,000.

The Forsyth board never opened enough early voting sites for one of the most populous counties in the state and have shown a callous attitude all along toward ballot access for the citizenry.

UPDATE
Even as we were posting this item, breaking news came in that the State Board of Elections has ORDERED the Forsyth board to make a decision today.

...the state told the local elections board this morning that it must meet today at noon to act on extending the voting hours or else face the removal of one or more local elections board members by state action.

Sounds like a plan to us! Then fire the elections supervisor!

The local board has faced pressure in recent days to make more early voting sites available or otherwise make it possible for more people to vote early. However, the local elections board has declined to alter the voting arrangements.

By a 2-1 vote on Tuesday, the board decided against distributing a handout to voters reminding them that a straight-party vote does not cast a vote in the presidential race.

That Board chairman -- an alleged Democrat, mind you! -- needs to find new work, and his continued employment -- also, mind you! -- is entirely up to the local Forsyth Democratic Party.

Forsyth Co. Board of Elections ... Stifling the Early Vote

Reading about Forsyth County's long lines for early voting, one realizes how really fortunate we in Watauga are with our local Board of Elections.

Since the beginning of early voting on Oct. 16, Forsyth, one of the largest counties in the state, has maintained only four early voting sites, two of them in the 12th Congressional Dist. and two in the 5th. Forsyth County accounts for some 38% of all the votes in the 5th District, and they provide only two early voting sites?!

Forsyth currently has the longest lines in the state and the fewest polling sites per capita.

The Forsyth Elections Board seems quite surly about it, too. They'll open more sites next week, they say, so in the meantime, wait in line over two hours or come back another day.

Members of boards of elections are appointed by the local political parties, two by the Democratic Party and one by the Republican (because the governor is Democratic. Don't yell at me ... that's the way the NC law is written). Wouldn't surprise us in the least if early next year, and if Bev Perdue wins the governor's race, there'll be some fresh blood on the Forsyth Board of Elections. If Pat McCrory wins, there'll certainly be fresh blood, and early voting will become even more problematic. As it will in Watauga too.