Complaint Against Watauga GOP Filed With State Board of Elections

Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2016 3:26 PM
To: "Lawson, Joshua", Kim Strach,  "Matthew.Snyder"
Cc: Stella Anderson
Subject: Formal Complaint About Poll Observers in Watauga

Dear SBOE,

Please consider this email a formal, filed complaint with the State Board of Elections that our local Watauga BOE and Director have willfully refused to follow the directives of Director Strach's Numbered Memorandum 2016-21 as it related to Poll Observers. This in spite of the fact that it has repeatedly been brought to the Director's attention by several people that the directives are not being followed and in spite of the fact that the Board itself agreed at last night's Board meeting that the memo directives were not being followed.

The memo, which clearly addresses both early and election day voting, states that, "All observers, whether precinct-specific or at-large, may be relived after serving no less than four hours. GS 163-45(a). This means that at least four hours must have passed since the observer began serving before a replacement observer can take over from the prior observer."

Instead, at the ASU Student Union early voting site, while the at-large Democratic observers remain inside the polling location for the 4-hour requisite, the at-large Republican observers come and go at will. They are sometimes there for as little as 10 minutes before leaving. Another then takes that observer's place for perhaps another 15-30 minutes, and then the tag team continues. They are intimidating and, even Director Snyder admits, disruptive.

Yet neither our Director nor the Board will take any action to stop this clear violation without further direction from your offices that Director Strach meant what she wrote in the memo, something you have thus far apparently refused to confirm.

Now our Board is seeking a legal opinion from the County Attorney, Four Eggers, that Director Strach's memo means what it says, and I think we all know how that will go.

I know it is ridiculous that you should have to call or write our local Board and Director to explain to them that Numbered Memo 2016-21 means what it says and says what it means, and that the at-large poll observers must either remain in the polling location for a 4-hour minimum or forfeit the right of another at-large observer(s) taking their place until 4 hours is up, but clearly this is what you are going to need to do in order to ensure that our County Board follows the dictates outlined in the memo.

Again, please consider this a formal filed complaint and a request that you take action on this matter immediately.

*********

NOTE: The people Anne-Marie Yates appointed as "at-large poll observers" who are currently flouting the rules in the ASU Student Union:

Anne-Marie Yates

Nathan Miller

Margaret Eggers

Braxton Eggers

Watauga GOP Received and Paid Out Large Amounts in Cash

Below is the last page of penalty assessments for "Prohibited Transactions" charged against the Watauga County Republican Party by the North Carolina Board of Elections. The total fine tops $14,000.

This last page follows three pages of listings of donors to the party who gave cash in excess of $50, which is prohibited by law.  Nathan Miller gave $500 in cash. Four Eggers gave $300. The Party collected over $1,100 in cash at their Christmas Party in 2013 (and immediately paid most of it out in expenses for the party, according to the page below).

This last page shows cash disbursements, including a large one to the North Carolina Republican Party in 2014 (was that cash contribution listed by the NCGOP on its 2014 party filings?) and another large cash expense ($1,160.32) to an "Unknown Receipt Source."

Anne Marie Yates, who is still Watauga GOP Chair, presided over many of these transactions. The man who is now running Watauga elections -- BOE elections director Matt Snyder -- presided as GOP Chair over some earlier "prohibited transactions."

Bill Aceto for the Watauga BOE: Having His Cake & Eating It Too

Bill Aceto with BOE
member Stella Anderson

Coverage this morning in the Watauga Democrat is comprehensive about what we've been warning you all about -- here and here and here (just yesterday) -- the Four Eggers scheme to force all Early Voting for the November elections into the county BOE office. Eggers took the further step in writing a "legal opinion" that the county BOE office also actually includes -- surprise! -- an adjacent building.

In addition to that Eggers document, Anna Oakes in the Watauga Democrat includes a link to the letter that Four Eggers Bill Aceto sent to the State Board of Elections on Wednesday, a letter I was planning to publish here this morning. Oh, hell! Let's go ahead and publish it here too:

From: Bill Aceto
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2016 1:54 PM
To: OneStop.SBOE@ncsbe.gov
Cc: Matthew.Snyder; ,
Subject: explanation of one stop vote

August 24, 2016

Kimberly Strach

Executive Director, NC Board of Elections

VIA EMAIL:  Kim.Strach@ncsbe.gov

          Re:  Watauga County Early Voting Locations

Dear Director Strach:

          I write to you regarding attempts by the Watauga County Board of Elections to reach a decision for an Early Voting Plan in light of the decision of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down the changes to the Early Voting law.  I also write to clarify any misinformation you may have received from other parties regarding the status of the local boards efforts.

          As you are aware, the Watauga County Board of Elections is stifled by partisan wrangling and an inability to reach consensus on the possible locations of early voting sites.  The Board has investigated numerous options and potential locations, but has become deadlocked over the unsuitability of the Plemmons Student Center as a voting location.

          At our most recent meeting, I proposed an Early Voting Plan which mirrored my previous early voting plan I submitted several weeks ago to your office (which includes a early voting site on the campus of Appalachian State University at the location of our Boone 2 Election Day polling place) with the additional days required by the 4th circuit ruling early voting days were to be allocated to the county board of elections office.  Member Anderson spoke against my plan, insisting that she would not vote for a plan that did not include voting at the Plemmons building. Secretary Owen stated the County Board needed to seek unanimity on a plan, and that she would only second a motion which appeared to have the support of all members.  As such, my motion died for lack of a second.

          Member Anderson then made a motion for her plan, which included an Early Voting location at the Plemmons building.  When asked whether she would compromise on that location, Member Anderson advised she would not.  As such, her motion died for lack of a second.

          Therefore, the Watauga County Board of Elections adopted neither a majority or minority plan for Early Voting in the upcoming election.  As I read the statute governing this election, 163-227.2 in effect at this time means that early voting will occur only at the County Board of Elections Office since no Early Voting Plan was adopted for our County.  While this gridlock removes any discretion from the County Board of Elections, I am unsure as to whether a Board Member may still petition the State Board for adoption of an Early Voting Plan.  It is my understanding that Member Anderson has attempted to submit her proposed locations to the State Board in an attempt to have it considered. 

          While I believe this Default Option would be adequate for Watauga County based on the data compiled by the MIT software, in the event the State Board of Elections feels it has the authority to set an alternate Early Voting Plan based on these facts I wanted to present my proposal in the event they do consider this matter.  I have also sent in a set of Findings of Fact which I submitted with my previous (majority) Early Voting plan.  I believe these facts would help State Board members understand the dynamics in Watauga County. If you need for me to resend this information to you please let me know and I am happy to do.

          Please advise me at your earliest convenience on the conclusion of the State Board regarding their authority to consider these under the statute governing Counties that failed to have any plan at all?

          I appreciate all you and your team do for the voters of Watauga County.  The recent State Board meeting in Concord was a wealth of information.

                                                          Sincerely,

                                                          Bill Aceto

Enclosures

cc:  Matthew Snyder, Watauga County Elections Director

*************

Aceto's letter to Kim Strach is an interesting study in "absolutely, but maybe not." In the 5th paragraph, "As I read the statute," Eggers Aceto writes, Early Voting will occur only at the county BOE office -- and there's not a damn thing the state BOE can or should do to stop that outcome -- followed quickly by "I am unsure" and therefore I might submit my own Early Voting plan because Democratic member of the BOE Stella Anderson may have submitted her own plan, and I don't want to be called out once again as a complete zero in front of the higher ups.

The 6th paragraph gets even more interesting: "...I believe this Default Option [voting only at the BOE office] would be adequate for Watauga County based on the data compiled by the MIT software...."

The MIT software Aceto cryptically refers to requires some explanation: the SBOE gave Elections Director Matt Snyder (and all elections directors across the state) access to MIT-developed software meant to simulate "wait times" to vote based on expected turn-out, the number of machines available for voting, time required for check in, etc. Aceto is claiming that this simulation software shows that the "default option" of the BOE office would be "adequate," but he includes nothing to back up that claim. (Because he has nothing to back up that claim?)

As a matter of fact, Stella Anderson used the MIT software and ran simulations that show the exact opposite of "adequate." Even if Four Eggers should prevail in annexing the county's Administration Building to the BOE office, the MIT simulations show wait times stretching beyond four hours.

It has not escaped the notice of various persons that Eggers & Aceto have engaged in an active conspiracy to frustrate, cripple, bollix, and generally muck up Early Voting in Watauga County for purely partisan motives. 

Anne Marie Yates Presented a Falsified "Petition" to the Watauga BOE

Anne Marie's reach exceeds her grasp

Anne Marie Yates, the ineffable chairwoman of the Watauga County Republican Party, stood up during public comment at Tuesday's Watauga Board of Elections meeting and stated that she had "walked the Boone 2" neighborhood -- where the Legends nightclub is located -- and was turning in a petition signed by 30-something people who wanted to keep Early Voting at Legends. Her exact words (from the tape of the meeting: her testimony begins at the 57:18 mark on the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qcyj3pYKdeM): "I recently walked through that neighborhood, and I have obtained 30 signatures on a petition asking you [Watauga BOE] to keep that location at Legends."

Huh?

Since Legends has never been used for Early Voting, we decided that we needed to see this so-called "petition."

A call to Matt Snyder, administrator of the Board of Elections, produced a spreadsheet of people and their signatures on a sheet with no headers and hence no indication of what these folks were signing onto.

A call to one of the names on the so-called "petition" produced this information: the signer thought she was signing a petition to keep Legends as the polling place on Election Day, not for Early Voting. A totally different thing. A horse of a different color.

And therefore, Anne Marie's "petition" was a bogus little piece of fluff...

... apparently done -- we have to assume -- so that Watauga BOE Chair Bill Aceto could claim at least some semblance of public support for the action he took Tuesday night, moving Early Voting on the AppState campus to Legends.

Oh, Republicans! You're so transparently corrupt!

Uncovering Deception at the Watauga Board of Elections

Watauga BOE Chair Bill Aceto and his handpicked successor to Elections Director Jane Anne Hodges -- Matt Snyder -- have clearly colluded in attempting to mislead the state Board of Elections.

Background

Bill Aceto

Tomorrow in a teleconference, the State Board of Elections will vote on an Early Voting plan for Watauga County during the March primary. The Bill Aceto Plan denies an Early Voting site on the campus of Appalachian State University. The alternative plan submitted by "minority member" Stella Anderson provides an Early Voting site on the ASU campus.

Both sides presented their different plans in writing to the State BOE. The Anderson plan is accompanied by numerous displays, calculations of votes-per-hour during the fall 2014 elections (after an Early Voting site was restored at ASU under court order), and demographic information on population density.

Aceto's argument, on the other hand, relies on a factual lie.

Aceto & Snyder Collude

In his argument to the State BOE justifying no polling site on the ASU campus, Aceto attempts to show that a single courthouse Early Voting site for the entire town of Boone is perfectly adequate.

This is a direct quote from Bill Aceto's argument to the State BOE:

"For the November 2014 General Election, 6,142 early voters were easily accommodated by the nearby Board of Elections office site, which averaged 77.25 voters per hour …. Please note the calculations of voters per hour differ with those provided by Member Anderson, and I have verified my calculations with the Watauga County Elections Director [Matt Snyder]. In sum, these numbers do not justify having two sites within one-half mile of each other duplicating efforts when our funds could be utilized in other locations." (italics added)

Indeed, those "calculations of voters per hour differ" from Anderson's evidence … mainly because Aceto's numbers -- "verified" by Matt Snyder -- are totally bogus.

Matt Snyder

Aceto took the combined Early Voting turnout of both the courthouse site and the ASU Student Union site and attributed it to the courthouse site, never bothering to inform the State BOE members that 2,551 of those early votes attributed to the courthouse site were actually cast at the ASU Student Union and that in fact the ASU site hosted more voters per hour than the Administration site.

Why Do We Not Trust Elections in Watauga County?

Because the people in charge of conducting elections in Watauga County are transparently partisan in their goals and fundamentally dishonest in their behavior.

Here's a Secret: Out-of-Precinct Voting Is Still Legal

Incidentally -- and this may come as a surprise to the new Director of Elections in Watauga County, Matt Snyder, though we hope he knows by now -- but out-of-precinct voting and same-day registration & voting is still in effect and probably will remain in effect through the municipal elections in November, barring further court action.

Now you'll have to pay close attention to understand why: That paragraph above is true because of a strange combination of federal court rulings in the voting rights case just completed in Winston-Salem. Early last October, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (NC's own Judge James Wynn) enjoined the implementation of the ban on out-of-precinct provisionals and the repeal of same-day voter registration. 

Then about a week later, the US Supreme Court stayed Judge Wynn’s order. But in their stay the Supremes said that if they eventually denied certiorari to hear an appeal of Judge Wynn’s order, Judge Wynn’s order would go back into effect. So this April, the Supremes denied cert. At that moment Judge Wynn’s order sprang back into life, enjoining the end of out-of-precinct voting and same day registration. The effect was that the pre-2013 implementation of out-of-precinct and same day sprang back to life.

For a judge, or a gross of Yer Honors, to change that again before the voting begins this fall would throw even more people into chaos, though it could happen.

Bottomline: Mr. Matt Snyder had better be ready to allow out-of-precinct voters their ballots and to register new voters during Early Voting on the spot.

Another Chapter in the Corruption of the Watauga Board of Elections

An agenda item on this evening's meeting of the Watauga County Commission was a recommendation that Matt Snyder be allowed to start paid work as the new executive director of the Watauga County Board of Elections two weeks in advance of his actual appointment.

To recap, Matt Snyder is the former Republican Party Chair who got the job of running Watauga elections without a competitive job search or even an open call for applications.

It came out that Mr. Snyder is being paid $48,000 per annum for the job.

After the commissioners voted to begin paying Snyder in advance of his actual appointment (a motion that John Welch and Billy Kennedy voted "no" on), in the public comment period at the end of the meeting, we also learned this:

1. The $48,000 salary figure had been a "place-holder" in the annual county budget projections, a place-holder which became fact after that budget was voted on by the Commission.

2. Mr. Snyder had actually demanded a salary of $55,000, but he sent that request not to the Board of Elections which hired him but to the County Commission, which did not hire him.

3. It is required by law that the Board of Elections consider and decide Mr. Snyder's salary, not the County Commission. The BOE is then supposed to make a recommendation to the Commissioners. None of that happened.

4. What happened is that Mr. Luke Eggers, chair of the Board of Elections, simply set Mr. Snyder's salary unilaterally, bypassing his own Board, and further requested the two-week "running start" to that salary, also bypassing his own Board.

5. People speaking about this during the Public Comment section of tonight's agenda, including Kathleen Campbell, the Democratic member of the Board of Elections, who testified that no Board meeting was ever held to consider Mr. Snyder's salary, were essentially addressing their objections to the legality of those proceedings to Mr. Austin Eggers, sitting in as County Attorney. Austin Eggers is close kinfolk of Mr. Luke Eggers.

6. The Eggers Eggers Eggers & Eggers law firm seems to have cornered operational conflicts of interest in pretty much the Western World.

Welcome to Hard Times

Watauga County's new elections director, Matt Snyder.

Photo by Lonnie Webster

Former Chair of Watauga GOP Appointed to Direct Watauga Elections

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

Luke Eggers
Chairman, Watauga County Board of Elections Luke.Eggers@watgov.org
RE: Appointment of a director of elections to the Watauga County Board of Elections (“County Board”) pursuant to G.S. § 165-35.

Dear Chairman Eggers:

April 20, 2015

I am in receipt of your letters describing the County Board’s effort to secure a replacement for outgoingDirectorJaneAnnHodges,whohasservedyourcountyfornearlythreedecades. Iextend to Director Hodges my sincere appreciation for her years of service to Watauga County and my best wishes to her in retirement.

You have requested that my office review the nomination of Matthew Snyder consistent with my statutory duty under G.S. §§ 165-35(a) and (b), which require that my office approve any nominee submitted by a county board of elections, provided that my doing so is consistent with other state and federal requirements, and that the nominee is not otherwise ineligible pursuant to a G.S. §§ 165-35(a)(1)–(7). As you know, the exercise of this statutory responsibility is not an opportunity for my office to pass judgment on the propriety or relative qualification of a given nominee. Instead, my office is directed to ensure basic statutory qualifications are met and then to facilitate required training and support for the incoming director.

Having reviewed your initial letter and enclosure (received April 9), your supplemental letter and enclosure (received April 18), and video footage of the County Board’s April 1 meeting, I am satisfied that the majority has sufficiently evidenced its intent to nominate Mr. Snyder, though I would stress the importance that minutes be “full and accurate”. See G.S §§ 143-318.10(e), 163-31. The nomination is, therefore, appropriately submitted to my office. I am informed your nomination process did not include a public solicitation of applications and certain members of the public have objections to Mr. Snyder’s nomination on that basis. Applicable statutes do not require an open application process and practices in this regard vary from county-to-county. Absent any finding that Mr. Snyder is ineligible, I hereby appoint Mr. Snyder to the position of Director of Elections, effective July 1, 2015.

It will be imperative that your Board stress the necessity that Mr. Snyder abstain from political activities, as required by G.S. § 165-39 and the enclosed Notice Regarding Social Media. Impartiality and sound judgment are necessary to the proper administration of elections and are qualities critical

Page 2
for every director of elections. Mr. Snyder will be required to meet training and certification requirements, as set out in G.S. § 163-35(g), and we will look forward to scheduling training for Mr. Snyder in the coming weeks. When your Board has adopted duties and responsibilities for Mr. Snyder, please provide my office with a copy.

My office is committed to working with your County Board and with Mr. Snyder to explore ways in which the State Board of Elections can support the ongoing success of elections administration in Watauga County.

Sincerely,
Kim Strach
Executive Director, State Board of Elections
Encl.: Notice Regarding Social Media (August 5, 2014)
Cc: Bill Aceto, Secretary, Watauga CBE (via Bill.Aceto@watgov.org)
Kathleen Campbell, Watauga CBE (via Kathleen.Campbell@watgov.org)
Jane Ann Hodges, Director of Elections, Watauga CBE (via JaneAnn.Hodges@watgov.org)

The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight

Photo by Lonnie Webster

There are now three -- count 'em! -- three different sets of minutes about what actually happened at the April Fool's Day meeting of the Watauga Board of Elections (BOE). The Boys -- Bill Aceto and Luke Eggers -- were (perhaps) so embarrassed by their incompetence that neither of them showed up on Friday afternoon for a specially called meeting (another!) to try to fix what neither of them could ever admit were glaring mistakes of procedure.

Aceto and Eggers called in to the meeting via telephone. That's what we're now calling a public meeting of an important civic body.

Jesse Wood's coverage in the High Country Press is priceless, wherein we learn that Mr. Aceto loves the whole concept of "draft minutes," since they can be rewritten repeatedly until you get the outcome you need, or the outcome mandated by Kim Strach, the Executive Director of the NC Board of Elections, who has to put her rubber-stamp of approval on this cluster-frack.

In fact, according to Aceto in the Jesse Wood article referenced above, The Boys have been stumbling toward the light because Ms. Strach told them they had to get the appointment vote right before she could approve their pick of a political hack to run Watauga's elections.

The whole system is now corrupt, top to bottom, from the puppetry of the Watauga BOE (a wholly owned subsidiary of Stacy C. Eggers IV -- "Four" -- to the top dogs at the State Board, whose actions in regard to voting in Watauga County (their previous rubber-stamp of Eggers&Eggers' Early Voting plan) was ruled unconstitutional by the senior Superior Court judge in Wake County last fall.

Who among you can now trust the purported fairness and honesty of any vote in this county?

The Continuing Corruption of the Watauga Board of Elections

We can only assume that the falsifying of the minutes (see item, down-column) of the Watauga County Board of Elections was the final step in readying the submission of Matt Snyder's name for appointment as Watauga County elections director. State Board of Elections Director Kim Strach has the final say, and according to Jesse Campbell at the Watauga Democrat, word of that appointment had not yet reached Raleigh as of yesterday (or early this morning). Once Kim Strach has Snyder's name, she has 10 days to make a decision.

Watauga BOE Republicans Bill Aceto and Luke Eggers were in an awful hurry to get this appointment done, so rather than do the right thing -- call a special meeting and actually take the formal vote to appoint Snyder -- they chose the corrupt thing: rewrite the minutes and simply establish a fiction as the truth.

It's not the first time they've changed the minutes to suit their personal view of reality. Back at their very first meeting on the BOE, August 12, 2013, they "erased ... wide sections" of the minutes taken by the clerk and substituted their own sanitized version. That erasure made the Winston-Salem Journal.

This is a board that has been a partisan tool since it was appointed, making every effort to disadvantage Democratic and young voters. Their actions have been ruled "unconstitutional" by the senior judge on the Wake Superior Court, and that case is still moving through the higher courts.

Their appointment of a fully partisan elections director in Matt Snyder fits right into their pattern of corruption.

The Fictional Minutes of the April 1 Board of Elections Meeting

Watauga Board of Elections Secretary Bill Aceto has turned in his draft minutes for the April Fool's Day meeting of the board, the one during which there was a vote on calling the question to appoint Matt Snyder but no actual vote on appointing Snyder.

But take a look at what's recorded in Mr. Aceto's minutes, a falsified account that attempts to cover up the failure to properly appoint Mr. Snyder:

Under the section headed "Director Appointment" on the second page, these fictional minutes say, "Secretary Aceto called the question and Chairman Eggers ruled Aceto out of order and added additional remarks about his support for Matt Snyder. Chairman Eggers then called the vote for the director position...."

Well, that didn't happen, and there were dozens of citizens in the room who know it didn't happen. Eggers certainly didn't rule Aceto out of order. The vote was taken, 2-1, on Aceto's calling the question, and Chair Eggers was angrily stalking out the back door as people in the audience were calling out, "You never voted on the appointment."

Another thing: under the section of these minutes headed "Public Comment," Aceto writes that Pam Williamson spoke during public comment. She did not speak.

This lousy piece of public malfeasance -- and it's not as though there wasn't already a history of Aceto's simply making the minutes fit the reality he's peddling -- constitutes a transparent attempt to make an error committed in the April 1st meeting simply disappear. Like everything else this corrupt elections board has done since August 2013, the fiction is visible from outer space.

Eggers & Aceto: You're In a Heap of Trouble

Kim Strach

NC State Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Strach just denied the appointment of a new elections director in Duplin County. Reading the news below should alert everyone that the Republicans on the Watauga Board of Elections are in for some heavy weather over their appointment of ex-Watauga GOP Chair Matt Snyder.

In an unusual move, the executive director of the State Board of Elections is refusing to confirm the appointment of a new director at the Duplin County Board of Elections, citing concerns over the way the candidate was chosen by the local board, which includes two Republicans and a Democrat.

Kim Strach, the state board’s executive director, informed Duplin County Board of Elections Chairman Derl Walker late last week that she would not appoint the board’s nominee, Edward Hudson Jr., as Duplin elections director. The former director recently resigned.

“This office takes seriously its obligation to comply fully with state and federal laws governing the hiring process,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, the process by which your Board selected its nominee raises grave concerns that I cannot ignore.”

Strach’s letter was sent Friday. On Sunday, according to a letter provided by the state board, Hudson requested that the Duplin board no longer consider him a candidate for the position.

“May the Lord bless you in finding an individual who both you and the state consider deserving of this vital duty,” he wrote to Walker.

Circumstances around the appointment and Strach’s reasons for denying it weren’t entirely clear Monday, but documents provided by the state board provided some background. Before denying the appointment, Strach had requested from the Duplin board all job applications submitted by candidates interviewed for the position in late June, a list of the questions asked of the candidates, all notes and scoring sheets prepared by Duplin board members and any “additional items that support your position that Mr. Hudson was the most qualified candidate from among the pool of applicants considered for the position…”

Strach requested all job applications "submitted by candidates interviewed for the position." In Watauga, there were nine or ten applications. Watauga BOE Chair Luke Eggers admitted proudly last night that he had interviewed none of them, including the man he pushed forward for the job. Fellow Republican BOE member Bill Aceto said he had interviewed two and played phone tag with a third.

This should get very interesting, once Strach asks Eggers and Aceto for their supporting documents.

(Plus, O my brethren, the team of Eggers and Aceto didn't even actually -- legally -- appoint Snyder to the position ... because they don't know nor understand Robert's Rules of Order.)

Watauga Board of Elections: Give-a-Man-Enough-Rope Edition

Transparent men

Well, it is April Fool's Day after all.

Sure enough, this evening the Republican model citizens on the Watauga Board of Elections called the question on appointing former Watauga GOP Chair Matt Snyder as the elections director to replace the retiring Jane Ann Hodges. They voted 2-1 to call the question, but Chair Luke Eggers was so eager to get out of that room that he neglected to then conduct the vote on the actual appointment of Mr. Snyder. So there's that.

And this: it came out during the meeting that Chair Eggers had interviewed none -- zero -- of the almost dozen applicants for the job, including his own guy Matt Snyder. If that doesn't rise to the level of official incompetence, what would? Not to mention a blatant failure to perform even the most elementary tasks that go with being Chair of the Board of Elections. He interviewed no one. Because other men tell him what to do, what to think, where to be, and he obediently does it.

The reason is fairly obvious. He had been told by stronger and smarter men weeks ago who he would be putting into the job, so indeed ... why would he need to interview any applicant?

Minority BOE member Kathleen Campbell said it all very clearly in her remarks:

"...My fellow Board members have refused repeatedly to go forward with a search for the best-qualified person for this job. They refused in spite of the fact that this search would have cost nothing. They also never advertised the position on the County's website. Why would someone do this? There is only one reason. Because they already had chosen the person they wanted behind the scenes and were not interested in who might actually be non-partisan and qualified for the position. That's why Mr. Eggers put forward just one name, and Mr. Aceto never put forward any at all. Once another 9 people found out through the grapevine that there was a job opening, they applied for the position. Mr. Eggers has never interviewed any of these people at all -- even Mr. Snyder -- who told me last Friday that he had not heard from Mr. Eggers since he sent him a resume, right after he heard about Ms. Hodges retiring. Instead, Bill [Aceto] met with him about the job. But, in spite of never speaking to him, Luke [Eggers] had already made up his mind .... I cannot understand how this constitutes competence...."

It constitutes something, but it ain't competence.

The big laugh-out-loud moment came when Bill Aceto defended himself to Deborah Greene, who had applied for the job and who never got an interview. She said so during public comment. Mr. Aceto addressed himself to Greene, saying that her political activism had disqualified her from the job. At which point there were guffaws in the audience, some of whom apparently saw the glaring inconsistency of saying Deb Greene was too much the activist while the former Chair of the Watauga GOP, Mr. Snyder, gets off that hook scott free.

Kim Strach

What has never ceased to amaze this observer of this Board of Elections, since they took office in August of 2013, is the utter bland transparency of their every partisan move. Once again, they've plugged in their own personal neon sign for the world to see: "WE ARE PARTISAN HACKS WHO JUST APPOINTED ANOTHER PARTISAN HACK WHO'LL DO AS HE'S TOLD AND TILT FUTURE ELECTIONS OUR WAY."

If Kim Strach, Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, who has the final say on the appointment of Mr. Snyder, doesn't blush down to her designer footwear over the sheer balls of this appointment, then she too in supremely incompetent in her job.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Return of "Four" Eggers

Photo by Lonnie Webster

Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four"), who was outed by the Winston-Salem Journal in September of 2013 as the puppet-master behind the Republican-dominated Watauga County Board of Elections (BOE) -- and the author of its policies and procedures and of the correspondence that went to the State Board of Elections under his brother Luke's name -- made a sudden appearance at the special meeting of the Watauga BOE Thursday evening.

Brother Luke Eggers, who is the putative chair of the BOE, said his brother was there in his official capacity as Watauga County Attorney. Everyone in the audience thought he was there to make sure that Republicans win the municipal elections of 2015 and the general elections of 2016, by whatever means necessary.

Four Eggers is also on the Executive Committee of the Watauga County Republican Party, and it's clear that he's had a heavy hand in the picking of a former chair of the Watauga GOP as the new Elections Director to replace the retiring Jane Ann Hodges.

It was Four Eggers who made it his project to force the fair and impartial Jane Ann Hodges into retirement. That particular project included the rewriting of Director Hodges' job description in August of 2013, which included new harassment: she was not to receive visitors or phone calls that were not logged; she was not to be alone in the office without other staff people; she was not to offer her opinion -- an opinion based on 29 years of non-partisan election experience -- at BOE meetings, unless directly asked by the newly appointed young men who had zero election experience.

Jane Ann Hodges has said that she is retiring for the sake of her health. The strain has become too great. And she's said about leaving a job she loves and does well.

Four Eggers engineered the end of Jane Ann Hodges' career, and he used his younger brother as a willing pawn. Four was there Thursday night to make sure nothing went wrong with the installation of a political hack to replace Jane Ann Hodges.

It is the last piece of the puzzle that Four Eggers has been assembling since Pat McCrory moved into the governor's mansion in Raleigh and every Board of Election in the state changed hands. It was Four who proposed the "mega-precinct" in Boone that would have combined three Boone precincts into one, containing most of the students at Appalachian State University (that scheme got shot down in Raleigh). It was Four who decreed that there would no longer be Early Voting on the ASU campus (that scheme was shot down by a Superior Court Judge in Wake County). It was Four who decided that the largest urban precinct in Boone -- New River III -- should be moved way out to the farthest corner of the precinct, miles from town, to a polling place not serviced by Appal Cart.

Now Four will get his highly partisan Elections Director, and no one with any sense or a scintilla of awareness of what's been going on will ever trust another election outcome in Watauga County again.

Ask Yourself This
If the shoe were on another hoof altogether -- if a Democratic governor were in the brick mansion in Raleigh and if a Democratic majority on the Watauga BOE had the power and appointed as Elections Director a former chair of their party, not to mention a highly partisan political operative -- Republicans would just sit back and say, "Oh, well, guess we have to accept what they do, because that's just the way it is"?

If you don't want political nuclear winter, don't keep spilling radioactive acid.

This Is the Man That Eggers&Aceto Will Hire To Run Watauga Elections

Former GOP Chair (& soon-to-be Elections Director) Matt Snyder

Matt Snyder, past chair of the Watauga GOP, who was pictured in the High Country Press (photo by Lonnie Webster) in March 2014, pushing his partisan opinion that there should be no early voting on the ASU campus.

Did I mention "past chair of the Watauga GOP"?

So the director of the local Board of Elections to replace the fair and impartial Jane Ann Hodges will be a highly partisan political operative who likes getting in people's faces. Why are we not surprised?

Snyder's name was announced by Luke Eggers at the Watauga Board of Elections special meeting this evening. Luke allowed as how he "had been thinking" about a replacement for Director Hodges, and he listed a number of qualifications he had thought about:

a director should be organized
a director should be good with numbers
a director should be able to "put together many things" (model airplanes?)

That was it -- Luke Eggers' job description for the new Director of Elections. Experience? No. Non-partisanship? Absolutely not.

Bill Aceto had no recommendation, making it perfectly clear that he and Eggers had already decided on their guy. As it turned out, Democratic member of the BOE, Kathleen Campbell, came armed with some nine other applications, one of those Republican activist Deborah Greene, whom I would absolutely trust with Watauga County elections. I would. She's incorruptible.

Campbell argued with Eggers and Aceto that there should be a job listing and at least a state-wide search for an experienced elections professional. Eggers and Aceto were having none of that. No, they've had their partisan tool in mind now for weeks.

During public comment, Deborah Greene pointed out that the county website doesn't even list a job opening. Why is that?

Other speakers urged the board to be professional. "Don't make this a partisan appointment," said one speaker.

The presence of Luke Eggers' older brother and ghost writer Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") also drew comment. He has never before, since the advent of Eggers & Aceto, attended a board meeting, and suddenly he was there in his official capacity as county attorney. It was a bit embarrassing, since Four was very publicly outed as his little brother's puppet-master, and it seemed this evening that Luke felt he needed some legal backup.

They didn't vote to install Snyder. They couldn't, because their published agenda for this special meeting did not include an item for action. They'll appoint him at April's meeting, ignoring any other applications and refusing to do a search or even publish a job description.

Someone in the audience at today's meeting said (a great understatement), "They don't even try to cover up what they're doing."

They've got the power. They intend to politicize the Watauga County Board of Elections in ways none of us could have predicted even last year. Who will trust an election outcome in this county in 2016?