Braxton Eggers Will Be the Next Chair of the Watauga County Commission

 

The Watauga Board of Commissioners will have a complete turnover of power on Monday, December 2nd, at its regular evening meeting, when returning Republican Commissioner Braxton Eggers will be formally elected chair of the board by the other returning Republican Todd Castle and newly elected Republican Ronnie Marsh.

The new Republican board will also be appointing Nathan Miller as county attorney, and they plan to pass a resolution giving Miller some eyebrow-raising powers of his own. Miller is well known to the authors of this blog for the lawsuit he initiated targeting the voting rights of AppState students (and see here), for the long-running harassment of elections expert and AppState professor Stella Anderson, and for exacting retribution against the town of Boone by unilaterally changing how sales tax revenues are distributed -- among other public and legal activities he engaged in while chair of the County Commission and then as a lawyer for the Watauga GOP. According to the board packet for Monday's commissioner meeting, the Republicans intend to pass a resolution granting Miller what looks like a free hand to act like a member plenipotentiary of the commission, with no guardrails.

The language in the resolution granting Miller a free hand:

The County Attorney is authorized to initiate and pursue legal action for the County on any matter, including but not limited to imminent domain, contractual breaches, declaratory action, and such other matters as the County Attorney deems advisable and in the best interests of the County, without need of further Resolution or Ordinance to be adopted by the Board of Commissioners....

"...and such other matters as the County Attorney deems advisable...." Whoa! From his recent history, we know that Nathan Miller deems a lot of stuff very advisable for his particular partisan disposition.

That's where we're starting the Braxton Eggers reign. Can't wait to see the additional chapters.

If You're Lauren Boebert-- Sued for Defamation--Who You Gonna Call in Watauga? Why, Nathan Miller, Natch!

 

Boebert

Monday morning in Watauga Superior Court, Judge Gary Gavenus will hear a motion to dismiss a defamation and malicious prosecution civil suit against Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. The suit was brought in Mitchell County back in October by the American Muckrakers and its president David B. Wheeler. 

(American Muckrakers was the org that made Madison Cawthorn's last months before the May primary fairly uncomfortable, and then turned its guns on Lauren Boebert in Colorado who eventually won reelection by less than 600 votes. American Muckrakers president David Wheeler ran a vigorous campaign against Ralph Hise in 2018 in NCS Dist. 47.)

The lawsuit alleges that Boebert defamed Wheeler and American Muck (which is a registered PAC), saying they “knew what they said [about her past activities] was a lie, and posted it anyway” in regard to Boebert's allegedly having two abortions, being an unregistered paid escort, and causing an ATV accident in Moab, Utah, in 2019.

Miller

"The lawsuit will show that Boebert had no idea that all of the PAC and Wheeler’s information came directly from hours of recorded phone calls and other written and verbal information with former employees, former friends, and Republican political operatives in Colorado. She lied, and she knew she was lying, and she damaged the PAC and Wheeler, which entitles Plaintiffs to have their day in court." [American Muck press release]

Watauga County Lawyer Nathan Miller, representing Boebert, is moving for dismissal "for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction, Lack of Standing, Lack of Personal Jurisdiction, Improper Venue and Failure to State a Claim." We doubt very seriously that Lauren Boebert herself will be present for the hearing.

The Case Against the Watauga County Commission

 

On April 16, 2013, the Republican majority on the Watauga County Commission -- Chair Nathan Miller and members David Blust and Perry Yates -- voted to redistribute county sales tax revenues on an ad valorum basis (based on the values of homes in the towns of the county) rather than on the previous basis of population (based on the numbers of people actually living in those towns), a move meant to punish the town of Boone for its stubbornness about zoning. Plus the Republican majority introduced a further ripple into their scheme, getting the governments of the wealthier towns to agree to "kick back" funds to county government to keep Watauga from hurting itself with the change. Democratic commissioners John Welch and Billy Kennedy voted "no."

Fast-forward five years, to 2018: The Town of Boone estimates that the punishment the Republican commissioners dished that April night in 2013 has amounted to a total loss of some $10 million in revenue for the town, about $2 million per annum.

 

Here's the thing: The Town of Boone collects between 60 and 70 percent of all the sales taxes collected in Watauga County. By 2020 under the method of distribution that Nathan Miller et al. engineered, the town of Boone only receives 12.29 percent of sales tax revenues.

 

Here's the other thing: By December 2020, Nathan Miller, David Blust, and Perry Yates were all gone from the commission. All five seats belonged to Democrats, none of whom show any inclination for righting an historic wrong.

 

Before he voted "no" in April 2013, John Welch made an impassioned speech about the revenge Miller et al. were poised to take against Boone:

 

“The main issue I have is, obviously, the lack of transparency and openness. To be honest, we’ve heard the threat of the sales tax change for however long here, but for me an issue that touches every taxpayer in this county should be done in the open, transparently with input with the towns in a joint meeting,” Welch said. “If there is an issue with the sales tax, by all means lets have an open and honest discussion, but I can’t be a part of a process that brings personal and professional vendettas that will not only hurt 17,000 county residents within the Town of Boone, but also county residents that own a business in the Town of Boone, does business in the Town of Boone, without having an open and honest discussion.” 

 

Here's the final thing: Arguably, statistically, the five Democrats on the Watauga County Commission owe their elections to the voters in the Town of Boone. Yet, the Democratic majority -- who retook control of the commission after the election of 2016, and they have to -- under state law -- reaffirm every April in its budgeting process the method of distributing sales taxes passed by Miller et al. There hasn't seemed to be much hesitation in maintaining a system of civic malfeasance that has hurt Boone's ability to maintain its infrastructure, keep qualified staff, and expand its programs.

 

Frustration with the commission's inertia led the Boone Town Council to sue for injunctive relief in February of 2020, which caused the Democrats on the commission to hunch their shoulders and go silent. That suit was summarily thrown out last month by Superior Court Judge Gary Gurganus, ruling that Boone doesn't have standing to sue. Whaaa? I certainly hope and trust that Boone will appeal.

 

I write this as a progressive activist. I live in the town limits of Boone and have admired all of our commission members. I worked to elect all of them. But I'm also feeling alienated from their continued willingness to continue a tax distribution policy that actually hurts their most loyal constituents.

News Flash: Republican Members of Watauga Board of Elections Seek Injunction Against Early Voting Site in AppState's Student Union

 

Eric Eller and Nancy Owen, the Republican members of the Watauga County Board of Elections, have filed a complaint in the Wake County Superior Court seeking to block an early voting site in the Appalachian State University student union.

Eller and Owen are represented by Boone attorney Nathan Miller, who has a long history of bringing suits to suppress the student vote.

Eller and Owen are asking for an expedited hearing on their complaint. Early voting is due to begin October 15.

Watauga Judge Halts Boone's New COVID Restrictions

Watauga County Superior Court Judge R. Gregory Horne issued a temporary restraining order late yesterday that forbids the town of Boone from enforcing a 14-day quarantine on visitors from out-of-county which was passed by the council on Thursday evening. 

The request for a temporary restraining order was filed at 4:07 p.m. by Anne-Marie Yates, Mountain Resort Management LLC (dba Holiday Inn Express), Hospitality Group of Hickory, and Smokey Mountain Hospitality LLC. The parties are represented by Boone attorney Nathan Miller.

Both Anne-Marie Yates and Judge Horne are former chairs of the Watauga Republican Party (Horne prior to becoming a district court judge in 2004), and Nathan Miller was a former vice chair of the Watauga GOP and past chair of the Watauga County Commission. Anne-Marie Yates has been a perennial plaintiff in lawsuits brought by Miller.

A hearing before Judge Horne is scheduled for 10 a.m. on June 1.

Meanwhile, the Boone Town Council is meeting in closed session this morning at 11 a.m.

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.

Who Are the Big Losers?

Yesterday was a big day, with two major developments related to voting:

1. Judge Paul Ridgeway in Wake Superior Court ended the Nathan Miller attempt to derail the Boone Town Council elections and ordered that the newly elected council members be certified and cleared for swearing into office.

2. Doug Jones won the Alabama special Senate election.

The Losers

Nathan Miller and the Watauga GOP. What will they try next to show their hatred of young voters?

Steve Bannon. His plans for a Trumpist empire look slightly crimped this morning. Twitter is reporting that Bannon aides are now saying that Steve really wanted Mo Brooks for that Senate seat, but was sort of forced to accept Roy Moore (because, uh, Moore won the Alabama primary).

Donald J. Trump. Hahahaha. Trump tweeted this morning that he was right all along about Alabama because when he was stumping the state for Luther Strange, he said in public that Roy Moore could never win the general election. Trump is 0-2 in picking candidates to campaign for, but because in his head he's always right and always a winner, he's drinking this rationalization in a great gulp.

Roy Moore. We hear his horse has applied to the witness relocation program. And before we forget seasons greetings -- Happy Hanukkah, Mrs. Moore!

Virginia Foxx. If a pro-choice Democrat can be elected to the US Senate from Alabama, then anything can happen in the year ahead. You might want to think about that, Madam Foxx. Perhaps you can get President Trump into the Fifth District to campaign for you.

Photo: Alex Brandon/AP

BREAKING NEWS -- Judge Ridgeway Rules in Favor of Boone Town Council

Judge Paul Ridgeway just agreed to grant the petition for a Writ of Mandamus from the three newly elected Boone Town Council members.

Story is still developing.

Nathan Miller's Attempt to Derail Boone Town Council Elections Now Hurtling Toward Resolution Today

Nathan Miller

Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway will hear the petition for a Writ of Mandamus filed by Sam Furgiuele, Marshall Ashcraft, and Connie Ulmer today, Tuesday, December 12, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. in Courtroom 3C of the Wake County Courthouse. The defendant in this action is actually the State Board of Elections, which the judge can direct to order the local board of elections to certify the November 7 election so that Furgiuele, Ashcraft, and Ulmer can be sworn in on December 21, as previously scheduled.

How We Got Here

Furgiuele, Ashcraft, and Ulmer win the Boone Town Council races on November 7; Watauga GOP through Nathan Miller files election protest over early voting site in ASU Student Union; his protest is voted down as "without merit" by the Watauga County Board of Elections; Miller appeals to the State Board of Elections (which currently doesn't exist)

State Board of Elections attorneys tell Miller he must appeal to the Wake Superior Court by a date certain; Miller misses the appeal date and says he doesn't care what the State Board of Elections attorneys tell him. He claims his protest can wait until a proper SBOE is appointed, and until then, no new municipal office-holders can be sworn in.

Furgiuele, Ashcraft, and Ulmer petition for a Writ of Mandamus to end Miller's protest and to declare their election certified. Their petition contains a motion for expedited hearing, which Judge Ridgeway granted yesterday, scheduling the hearing for this afternoon.

What Newly Elected Boone Town Council Members Are Asking

So I'm asked to explain a "Writ of Mandamus."

For those of you who had a misspent youth and didn't learn your Latin, mandamus means "we command" in that ancient language. The "we" refers to judges of superior jurisdiction who take charge of a situation where an obvious injustice has occurred. A writ of mandamus is a commandment to make things right. Mandamus, for example, is used to restore rights to a complainant who's been denied them, and writs of mandamus have traditionally been issued in response to abuses of judicial process.

If Nathan Miller isn't a walking abuse of judicial process, then we don't actually know a hawk from a handsaw.

So the petition filed in Raleigh on Friday by plaintiffs Sam Furgiuele, Marshall Ashcraft, and Connie Ulmer requests an order from the Superior Court directing Kim Strach, Executive Director of the NC State Board of Elections, to notify the Watauga County Board of Elections that the election is over, that the plaintiffs won and should be certified as the winners, and that furthermore the Nathan Miller election protest is dead for failing to meet its deadline for appeal.

Will Boone Swear in New Town Council Members on December 21?

Photo HC Press

Winners of the 2017 Boone Town Council elections still haven't been certified (and therefore can't be sworn in as scheduled on December 21, pending legal action filed yesterday in Wake County -- see below) because of Nathan Miller, prominent Boone lawyer and vice chair of the Watauga Republican Party.

(Note: The hold on certification of newly elected officials applies to all of Watauga County, including the municipal winners in Blowing Rock, Beech Mountain, and Seven Devils.)

Outline of Miller's Solo Attack on the Whole Elections Process 

October 13, 2017: Judge A. Graham Shirley enters an order in Wake Superior Court establishing an early voting site at ASU. Nathan Miller with Bill Aceto as plaintiff promptly intervenes and appeals Judge Shirley's order to the Court of Appeals.

October 18, 2017: Court of Appeals grants Miller-Aceto a temporary stay.

October 25, 2017: Court of Appeals dissolves the stay. Judge Shirley's original order is back in force, and it's the Eve of Early Voting on campus.

October 26, 2017: Early Voting opens on schedule at ASU. (Voting has already been going on at the downtown courthouse site since October 19.)

November 7, 2017: Election Day for Boone, Blowing Rock, Seven Devils, and Beech Mountain. There are winners and losers.

November 16, 2017: Now with Anne Marie Yates as plaintiff, Nathan Miller files an election protest with the Watauga (holdover) Board of Elections alleging an "irregularity or misconduct" in the Boone Town Council election and requesting a new election. Miller's whole argument: The law requires 20 days of advertisement to precede the opening of Early Voting, and the space between the Court of Appeals action on October 25 and the opening of Early Voting on the ASU campus on October 26 was precisely one day, not 20, and therefore the election is invalid. (Never mind Judge Shirley's order and the precedent of 2014.)

November 20, 2017: The Watauga County (hold-over) Board of Elections

votes unanimously to reject Miller's protest. Board Chair Bill Aceto says the protest has no merit.

November 21, 2017: Miller files Notice of Appeal with the state Board of Elections (SBOE), appealing the Watauga BOE's rejection of his election protest. General Counsel for the SBOE responds that because the SBOE does not exist currently (due to a lawsuit pending in the Supreme Court), the finding of the local Board stands as final. Any appeal must now be addressed to Wake Superior Court (as provided for by statute).

November 27, 2017: Nathan Miller replies to the SBOE General Counsel: We reject that interpretation of the law and maintain that until a proper SBOE is appointed and can rule on our objections, no certification of Watauga County municipal elections can be made.

November 28, 2017: General Counsel for the SBOE tells Miller he's wrong on the law and has until noon "tomorrow" -- November 29 -- to file a Notice of Appeal in Wake Superior Court. Miller rejects that, misses the deadline for appeal, and says he can wait until hell freezes over or until there's a new SBOE installed to hear his complaints. Therefore, according to Miller, no new municipal officials exist in Watauga County and exactly none may be sworn in.

That's where it stands. Or did, until Boone Town Council election winners Sam Furgiuele, Marshall Ashcraft, and Connie Ulmer filed a petition in Wake Superior Court yesterday (Friday, December 8) for a Writ of Mandamus to end this cynical and calculated circus.

What's this all about? Student voting, an existential threat to Trumpism.

Lame-Duck Boone Town Council Poised To Do the Wrong Thing

During its last hour in office on December 21st, the current Boone Town Council (including all the members who were just kicked out of office on November 7th) is set to vote on a major give-away to Appalachian State University.

The proposed text amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance will allow ASU to rent any and all space (offices, storage, etc.) in the M1 (Manufacturing), B3 (General Business), and O/I (Office/Institutional) districts of the town. B3 is of particular concern because it includes so many existing buildings on all the main corridors.

This text amendment would allow the university to move in for long-term use (up to seven years with the possibility of further open-ended extensions -- see below), putting university functions including possibly classes all over the business districts without requiring the university to go through the normal procedures required for such consequential changes in use.

ASU is reportedly going to need a lot of space, like in a whole lot and more, because the Old Lowe's Building must be vacated and other demolitions and renovations are going to throw many faculty, staff, and whole programs with their required classes out into the town of Boone. The only use excluded for ASU in the B3, M1, and O/I districts will be residential.

This major adjustment to the town's already capacious accommodation to ASU has been moving quietly along the path to passage, with a Public Hearing last week that not many citizens knew about, though renters of empty property did know about it. During that public hearing one property owner stood up and said it's a fact that ASU already owns Boone, so why don't we just go ahead and make it official with this text amendment?

What Is Especially Pernicious About This Planned Vote

Under normal procedures, this text amendment would be voted up or down by the newly elected Boone Town Council, which will be sworn in at 5:30 on December 21 (barring Nathan Miller and Anne Marie Yates's ridiculous attempt to overthrow the election). But the current council -- Lynne Mason, Jeannine Underdown Collins, Charlotte Mizelle, Quint David -- with Loretta Clawson vigorously opposing the text amendment -- scheduled a "Special" session at 4:30 on December 21st, an hour before they're officially off the job. They clearly intend to vote this text amendment through while they still can.

Their rush to pass this before the new Council takes office speaks loudly, and the message is not flattering to the old Council.

What the University Wants, the University Gets

The very generous "planners" on the Boone Planning Staff wrote it into the text amendment that the university could have the rentals for three years with a one-time renewal for three more years, for a total of six years.

But the university wants more and has requested "through counsel" that the initial term be for five years with a two-year extension, and wanted this language added to prepare for going beyond those seven years: "An additional extension may be granted upon a showing of unanticipated and extraordinary circumstances" -- and there's no end to that "additional extension."

How does a university take over a town? With the willing collusion of a town council.

Blind Justice the North Carolina Way

North Carolina judges -- District Court judges, Superior Court judges, Judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court -- all of them are currently political targets. General Assembly Republicans are fucking with them big time.

Why are Republican bosses mad at judges? Because North Carolina judges have found so many of their laws (mainly power-grabs) unconstitutional. Simple as that. When judges find your ambitions out of line, what do you do? Change your ambitions? Or change the fucking judges. Make them work for partisan approval. Put them in your pocket.

Phil Berger, your office is calling.

Berger and his colleagues want to redistrict judicial seats -- ah, the magic of creative gerrymandering! -- thus double-bunking an impressive kill list (Susan Ladd):

district court judges  25% of them double-bunked, including 43% of all black or African-American district court judges and 31% of female district court judges.

superior court judges 27% of current judges double-bunked, including 18% of black or African-American superior court judges and 32% of females.

You know what double-bunking is, right? Political Thunder Dome for People We Can Do Without: two judges enter, one judge leaves. Guaranteed to deliver, at one stroke, 12.5% fewer district court judges and 13.5% fewer superior court judges, with no political effort whatsoever. Just draw them into oblivion with lines on a map. (100% of Hispanic female judges are double-bunked, by the way, all one of her.)

Plus the Republicans also want to make judges run for reelection every two years under partisan banners. Can you imagine? Every two years, all judges in a free-for-all election, with no primaries, meaning possibly dozens of competing names on a General Election partisan ballot -- my God are they kidding?

Kidding no. Bulldozing yes.

Berger's real goal is getting to appoint the judiciary himself. (Brief but important footnote: he already got his boy Phil Berger Junior on the NC Court of Appeals, so you can recognize the itch.) Berger wants to change the state's Constitution to eliminate elections for judges altogether, make them all appointed by a "merit" system, run, just incidentally, by Berger et al. in the General Assembly. Not making this up.

Susan Ladd suggests that we'll know something more definite in January, after the General Assembly reconvenes and Phil Berger tells them what they're gonna do. Put a constitutional amendment on the ballot this coming May to change the way judges get onto the bench? It'll be May, because turnout is guaranteed to be way down for a May primary, and maybe you can sneak something highly questionable through. That's how they did Amendment One, their infamous constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage -- put it on a May primary ballot, and it passed.

Meanwhile, On the Judicial Front in Watauga County...

The Watauga County Republican Party continues to distinguish itself as a black frost over the very concept of a free election. Without entering any Republican candidates in Boone town elections on November 7, they nevertheless fought through several levels of court to try to keep an Early Voting polling place out of the ASU student union. That failed, utterly, and they're now using that failure -- the length of time it took to adjudicate the issue -- as

the basis for a brand new escalation: Early Voting at ASU was illegal, says the "Election Protest" signed by Anne Marie Yates, and therefore the elections must be done over, because there wasn't sufficient notice to the public (minimum of 20 days by statute) following the judge's rejection of the Republican argument that there should be no Early Voting in the ASU Student Union. Here's the logic, if I'm following it: First, Republicans blockade Early Voting at the student union to the full extent of their legal rights, and when that blockade finally crumbles, they argue that the judge had no right to the order he made because the calendar had run out on proper public notice. Run out the calendar on justice and you can tie the hands of judges in adjudicating the rights of the people. That's the argument Yates's lawyer Nathan Miller is making. No kidding.

The judge had no right. That's the common thread of this post.

Anne Marie Yates's suit would nullify all municipal elections in Watauga County -- not just in Boone but Blowing Rock too, and Seven Devils and Beech Mountain.

Why are they doing this? What do they hope to gain? Just the pleasure of pulling down the temple?

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.

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.