Watauga BOE Squelches Eric Eller's Motion to Refer Disallowed Provisional Voters for Investigation for "Fraud"

[This post partially answers in the affirmative the question asked earlier: "Is Watauga BOE Member Eric Eller Just Nathan Miller With Hair?"

So Republican members of the Watauga Board of Elections -- Chair Nancy Owen and fellow member Eric Eller -- voted this morning to refer over 200 would-be voters on November 6 to the State Board of Elections for the possible crime of election fraud. That motion died 2-2.

Democratic member Jane Anne Hodges had pointed out that the local election officials have always acted in accordance with State Board of Elections -- specifically their instructions to give any person requesting it a provisional ballot (instrux consistent with Federal law, incidentally). The would-be voter signs an affidavit affirming "I am a duly registered voter." As always happens in such cases, that would-be voter is subsequently researched to determine whether there is a proper registration on file in Watauga. If not, that ballot will not count. Over 200 of some 500+ total provisional ballots did not count. But Eric Eller thinks -- and thinks strongly -- that the signature alone constitutes potential voter fraud.

"Potential" is the operative word. It would be fraud if the voter knowingly made a false statement. Most of those 200+ disallowed ballots were cast by young people who had filled out voter registration forms in Watauga County but listed their residential addresses at the homes they recently moved away from -- where their parents live -- and did not understand enough about the process to know that they were in fact registering to vote in some other county.

Eric Eller wants those knuckleheads prosecuted for fraud. So does Nancy Owen.

Democratic member Marv Williamsen said he didn't want to participate in any aggression toward these would-be voters -- did they knowingly do anything wrong. Williamsen didn't like what message that would send to all young voters -- "We'll get you if you make a mistake trying to exercise your right to vote." Williamsen especially didn't want to go there in the current national churn of alleged "voter suppression."

At the mention of those words, Eric Eller went ballistic. He was shouting "no voter suppression, no voter suppression," but an 18-year-old who blundered into a polling place last November 6, thinking he was registered in Watauga County and who just wanted to participate in the national elections -- that would-be voter might disagree about the implied intimidation.

To be referred for possible prosecution for fraud -- when your vote didn't count anyway -- looks like very direct voter suppression to me.

Is Watauga BOE Member Eric Eller Just Nathan Miller with Hair?

Nathan Miller

Nathan Miller is the attorney currently leading the Watauga GOP from his first vice chair position. He was teamed with the infamous attorney Four Eggers through all the battles (2013-2017) over the voting rights of AppState students. Solo, Miller has successively sued three different Democratic members of the Watauga County Board of Elections. He sued Democrat Kathleen Campbell twice, once for her emails, a fishing expedition that produced nothing, and then he sued Kathleen Campbell to make her pay his lawyer fees for suing her.

He sued BOE member Stella Anderson, or rather he sued AppState University for her emails, another fishing expedition that produced nothing.

Now he's sued the latest Democratic member of the Board of Elections, Jane Anne Hodges, alleging she prejudiciously kept a Republican from working as a precinct judge.

Every Democrat who gets appointed to the Watauga Board of Elections can expect frivolous harassment by Nathan Miller.

That's only part of his war on voting. He sued in October 2017 to override the Wake Superior Court order for an early voting site at ASU, and losing that attempt but managing to delay the public notice period, he then sued to overturn the Boone Town Council elections and hold new elections because advertisement of early voting sites violated the statute. Miller's legal skip-rope did manage to delay the swearing in of new council members, but it also helped cement Miller's reputation as a joke in Raleigh legal circles.


Now ... Eric Eller, another Republican attorney who was appointed to the Watauga board early this year to replace Bill Aceto, wants to prosecute ASU students who voted provisional ballots when in fact they weren't registered to vote. Last Thursday and Friday, at the BOE's official disposition of provisional ballots, Eller complained about the almost 200 students who thought they were registered, who asked for provisional ballots, but whose ballots didn't count. Were they trying to commit election fraud? Eller actually suggested that those students might well be referred to the district attorney for prosecution.

Those students. They thought they were registered because they had filled out registration forms back in August, or September, or prior to the close of registration on October 12, but they had failed to include some required information -- last four digits of their SSN, a street address of residence -- or failed to check a box. Because they didn't include a phone number (which is optional), no one could reach them to get the missing information. So their voter registrations got tossed and their provisional ballots could not count. That's what happened to almost 200 would-be student voters.

We realize the Republicans have no desire to see certain people vote, or certain other people administer election law, but the willingness to use the legal system as a political brick-bat to retaliate against the other side ... is just so ... authoritarian.

Eric Eller, center

Change Gonna Come
On December 4, the present makeup of both the State Board of Elections and every county board of elections becomes legally null and void by order of a three-judge panel -- which had ruled even before the election that the Republican reorganization of all boards of elections was unconstitutional. The court ordered that the State Board must return to a 3-2 Democratic/Republican makeup, and each county board must return to a 2-1 Democratic/Republican makeup.

Naturally, the Berger-Moore forces in the NC General Assembly, in their rump special session which will convene next week, will come up with some new innovation before they lose their veto-proof majority. You can bet on it.

Republicans on Watauga BOE Refuse

At the meeting of the Watauga Board of Elections yesterday, Republican members Nancy Owen and Eric Eller refused to move three election day precinct polling stations out of local churches and relocate them more in the center of population.

Democratic member Jane Anne Hodges "spoke about the challenges of having polling locations at churches, noting that the elections board office has a handshake agreement with the churches not to campaign on their property" (Watauga Democrat).

The worst church is Mount Vernon Baptist, the polling location for New River 3. It's parking lot is actually in Blue Ridge precinct, and it's far away from the center of population in the precinct. But you probably already know that.

Republicans obviously think that having polling places in churches gives them an advantage in those precincts ... since God is so obviously, indubitably in their pocket.

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.