Oh, Watauga GOP! You're So Predictable

 

Anne-Marie Yates, who is once again the chair of the Watauga GOP, has filed election law complaints against two local groups who put up billboards, an absolute right they have to express a political opinion. It's the same right Anne-Marie Yates has. (The same right the guy up on the billboard has, though he may have violated some private property rights to express it.)

Yates was maybe reacting to the rumor that West End Women were actually a bunch of Antifa-adjacent, possibly Soros-financed, pro-abortionists out in the vast Western stretches of the country, like maybe in Nevada: “These shadow groups are funneling dark money into our local elections, and the voters deserve to know who is funding these advertisements,” said Yates.

Who is funding those billboards are two separate groups of Watauga County concerned citizens who raised the money among themselves. For the West End Women, no one contributed more than $200, which would be the threshold for itemizing their names on the FEC report, which isn't due until after the election. The expense of renting the billboards is considered an Independent Expenditure and is perfectly legal. And commendable, as a matter of fact, since the Trumpists in Watauga can't abide the sight of a Biden/Harris yard sign.

Despite the heavy breathing of professional hall monitors in the Watauga GOP, political activism and free speech are still viable options for ordinary citizens.

Political Notes (From All Over)

1. Buncombe County state Senator Terry Van Duyn, who came in second in the crowded Democratic primary field for lieutenant governor, has announced that she won't request a run-off against state House representative Yvonne Holley of Wake County, who came in first but failed to get the 30% to avoid a run-off. Five strong and diverse candidates ran in that primary and fragmented the vote accordingly.

Getting to know Holley, I crib this profile from PamsPicks.net (minus all the active links):

Holley announced her candidacy on February 27, 2019. She’s a Baby Boomer born in 1952. She grew up in Wake County, was a front-line elementary student in the desegregation of the Raleigh school system, excelled and went to Howard University. She spent her entire working career in state government, retiring as a state procurement and contract agent. She ran for and easily won her seat in the NC House (District 38) in 2012 and has never gotten less than 79.9% of the vote in any of her reelections. 

Holley has not been “a mover and a shaker” in the House. She represents an older style of politician — reverent of institutions, a calming presence, standing respectfully but with a spine made of hardened steel. She’s very much in the moderate tradition of her father, J.D. Lewis, the first African-American TV broadcaster in the Raleigh/Durham market and Director of Minority Affairs for WRAL-TV (which had also been the editorial home until 1972 of one Jesse Helms). J.D. Lewis “is remembered today as having contributed significantly to the positive dialogue between polarized sectors during an epic time in the nation’s history” (Holley’s website). 

Her Campaign: Holley states a platform of affordable housing, economic development, food security, reliable public transportation, and strong support for public education. She offers a too barebones website (which unaccountably doesn’t provide links to her Facebook and Twitter accounts), but she makes a good video impression and should do more.

2.  Last Saturday at the Watauga County Republican Party convention, Karen Lerch resigned as chair of the Watauga GOP one year into her two-year term. The resignation appears to have come as a surprise to the party. She announced her resignation "at the end of the event," and the vice chair, Melissa Searcy, did not take over the chairmanship:

Nathan Miller, N.C. GOP Fifth District representative, said that at the March meeting of the Watauga County Republican Party, people can send their nominees to the party’s executive committee, then they will likely be voted on. Miller said that depending on the “executive committee’s prerogative,” the final vote could be held off until April. (Watauga Democrat)

Judging from the report in the local newspaper, the Watauga GOP will be making a major push for the AppState student vote: "John Moncrieff, president of the ASU chapter of Turning Point USA, said that most college students are apolitical and that the Republicans need to reach out to them. Moncfieff also that he and his group will hit ASU hard with 'Trump flags everywhere' in the next year."

Trump flags everywhere. Yeah. That'll do the trick.

Turning Point USA, incidentally, is a far right org aimed at turning the mushy heads of college students toward the charms of fossil fuels and the National Rifle Association. The Anti-Defamation League refers to it as an "alt-lite" organization. Its leaders mainly operate by stirring up outrage at "liberal excesses" like Black Lives Matter and #metoo.


3. Have you heard? Trump continues to twist the knife in poor Jeff Sessions' back. Trump has endorsed Tommy Tuberville for the US Senate in the upcoming Republican senatorial primary run-off in Alabama. Tuberville finished first in the primary with 33.4% of the vote to Sessions' 31.6%. They're both vying for the nomination to face Democratic Senator Doug Jones.

Poor Sessions! He's been reassuring Alabamians that he's a loyal Trumpist even while Trump continues to disdain him. Just how much groveling are Republicans willing to do in the autocracy they've created?

Why So Pale and Wan?

We've been highlighting here the growing wave of Democratic energy since Twitterman took control of all the TV remotes in the White House many moons ago, but Republican energy is a little harder to judge. We look for signs of enthusiasm, or signs of fatigue. We look for burning passion or dying embers. What are Democrats up against in 2020? What, in fact, are Democratic prospects right now in 2019 in two special congressional races in North Carolina?

(The most experienced Democratic political operative I know in North Carolina thinks dimly of Dem prospects in those two special elections. Fortunately, his is not the last word. Not until votes are cast and counted.)

Plenty of burning desire on the Republican side so far. There are 17 confirmed Republican candidates in the NC-3 special election on the coast --17 Republicans in a primary where somebody's got to get to 30% to win and avoid a run-off. They're enthused -- 17 of them at least -- because the district is overwhelmingly Republican, and that's a House seat they consider theirs, by right and by birth and by Divine guidance, so why wouldn't they line up three deep to try to grab it?

There'll be a bunch of Republicans running in the 9th too. We already know about Stony Rushing. But there's at least three more, including Matthew Ridenhour, with additional people still considering it. Candidate filing in the 9th opens tomorrow and closes Friday. You gotta jump and run, Brethren.

Then we read this today on conservative Brant Clifton's page:

I’m hearing that the GOP grassroots is not exhibiting a lot of excitement this year. Many counties that met today [GOP county conventions, Sat., March 9] reported poorer-than-average attendance than previous years. Over in the 9th district, Union County — arguably with one of the largest cohorts of Republican voters in the state (2nd largest in the 9th) — had attendance numbers that will easily be beat by counties around the state with much smaller GOP registration. People are worn out, I am hearing.

Yeah, but why?

I looked in vain at coverage of the Watauga GOP Convention in the Watauga Democrat, and there was no picture or mention of attendance, let alone enthusiasm. Their biggest news: Watauga GOP Reelects the Same Chair From Last Year. Party chairs often have to fall on their swords after an electoral drubbing, but not in Watauga.

I'd love to believe any Republican listlessness is at least part Trump-trauma, Twitter exhaustion, good old revulsion from repeated exposure to hideous behavior.

Watauga GOP Dragging Its Feet on Making Recommendations for Local Board of Elections

The list of recommended partisan members of all 100 county boards of elections is on-line, and we notice that the Watauga Republican Party has made no recommendations.

Those appointments were due to be made this morning at the State Board of Elections (SBOE) meeting in Raleigh.

Coach Jerry Moore Gets Used by the Watauga GOP

AsheCountyLine has the story.

At the Election Eve prayer meeting on the Watauga County courthouse steps last Monday night (they streamed it live), Republican faithful were urged to supply themselves with the yellow flyers advertising "Coach Jerry Moore's MVPs," an obvious counter-attack on "Pam'sPicks," a decades-old election year endorsement by a local progressive warrior that I happen to know very well.

"PamsPicks" is well known and closely attended to by people in and out of Watauga County and has attained a certain local fame.

The Republicans needed a celebrity name to attach to an "endorsement" of their candidates, and someone apparently thought, "I know! Legendary ASU football coach Jerry Moore ... that's the answer! The students will swoon!"

But someone's enthusiasm for a bright idea got ahead of their performance of that idea. No one bothered to ask Coach Moore for his permission.

So they produced their flyers ... actually several versions of their flyer. There's the one pictured here, and there's a better designed one with Coach Moore's photograph that's reprinted with the AsheCountyLine article, but on election day, there were other versions circulating that had no "Paid For By ____" disclaimer on them, which is required by North Carolina state election law and which caused the complaints that alerted Coach Moore that his name was being tossed around as the celebrity supporter of the entire Republican ticket, including all six constitutional amendments.

Oops.

There's sloppiness ... and then there's the Watauga County Republican Party.

Watauga GOP Shoots Self in Kneecap

Just leaving this here without comment.

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?

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.

Why Would the Watauga GOP Nominate Anne Marie Yates to the BOE?

High Country Press

According to reporting in the Watauga Democrat, the Watauga Republican Party nominated Anne Marie Yates to the Watauga Board of Elections. Interesting idea, since Ms. Yates's husband Perry is a County Commissioner who would presumably be running for reelection during her term of service -- creating a flagrant conflict of interest.

Or perhaps her nomination was actually a veiled announcement that Mr. Yates will not be seeking reelection in 2020?

Has Anyone Seen the Watauga Republican Party?

Curious-er and curious-er.

The Watauga Republican Party held its annual county convention last Saturday -- with Virginia Foxx as featured speaker -- but have you seen one peep about it in any news media? There's nothing on their Facebook page. Their website -- http://www.wataugarepublicans.com -- is just plain disappeared.

After speaking at the convention, Foxx fled Boone for her mountaintop aerie rather than step down the street to the tea-and-cookies reception held in her honor by High Country Forward, which actually had more people in attendance than were at the Republican convention.

Photo Ken Ketchie, High Country Press

Photo Ken Ketchie

But what happened at the Republican convention? Since there's a press blackout, we have to turn to what sources we can find, and what we find is this:

Anne Marie Yates refused to run for another term as chair. Apparently, no one wanted to be chair, so they nominated and elected someone who wasn't even present: Karen Lerch. She ran (unsuccessfully) in 2016 for County Commission against John Welch. Now she's head of the party. We assume someone's told her.

So Much To Do, So Little Time!

Watauga GOP Chair Anne Marie Yates, on why she challenged the legitimacy of ballots cast only by registered Democrats and Unaffiliated voters, quoted by the Watauga Democrat:

“ 'We would have challenged the Republican voter from Boone II if we had had enough time to do so,' Yates said, but she did not elaborate further on that point."

Anne Marie Yates and Watauga GOP Accuse Eight of Election Fraud

Anne Marie Yates attempts to block
videotaping during a Dan Soucek town hall
meeting in December 2013

The leadership of the Watauga County Republican Party has challenged the constitutional rights of eight Democratic and Unaffiliated Watauga County voters who cast ballots in the November 8 elections.

These eight voters appeared in person during the Watauga early voting period to register and vote on the same day. The election judges at the site approved their completed state voter registration forms and their state-required documentation of proof of residency before allowing them to cast their ballots.

Those who have challenged these voters’ constitutional right to vote assert that these eight voters cast fraudulent ballots because their “voter verification cards” were returned as undeliverable, since the voter had not included his/her mailing address on the registration form. State voter registration forms do not require a mailing address for a valid registration.

On or about November 5, Kelsey Wright (past Chair of the ASU College Republicans) submitted a public records request for copies of verification cards that had been returned to the elections board as undeliverable from voters who cast one-stop ballots.

The next day, Wright called the Watauga Board of Elections and asked that the list she requested be sent to Anne Marie Yates (Chairwoman of the Watauga Republican Party) instead of to her.

Nine names were provided to Yates as having verification cards returned. All were Democrats except for one Unaffiliated voter and one Republican.

On November 8, seven Republicans appeared before a notary with the Miller & Johnson, PLLC, law firm (a law firm in which Nathan A. Miller, the Vice Chair of the local Republican Party, is a partner). The notary signed and witnessed their "Notices of Challenge.” The Republican voter whose verification card had been returned was not challenged.

The names of the challengers who disputed the constitutional voting rights of these eight voters are a matter of public record: Kelsey Lauren Crum Wright, Linda D. Byrd, Kim Brackett, Richard Lee Woods, Mark Templeton, James Marshall Lawrence, and Elizabeth M. Rupp.

State law requires that the eight voters who were challenged be notified that their right to vote has been officially called into question and that they have a right to be heard at the local Board of Elections meeting on November 18.  The state requirement for notification to these voters is “achieved” by mailing them a notice of that challenge to the same address that has already been determined as “undeliverable.”

The challengers of these voters, we assume, will attend the November 18 hearing to explain under oath:

(1) Why they decided to challenge the constitutional rights of the particular voter they singled out to contest;

(2) Why and how they acted in a coordinated fashion to challenge these voters; and

(3) Why, considering their significant concerns with voter integrity, they decided not to challenge the Republican whose verification card was also returned as undeliverable.

Under state law, any person who knowingly makes a false allegation against someone else's right to vote can be found guilty of a Class I felony.

Did the NCGOP Shoot Themselves in the Foot?

Come on, Dear! Time for the
down-ballot

Among the other noxious things the Republican overlords in the NC General Assembly did to voting and ballot access in 2013, they eliminated straight-ticket voting. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned most of that election law rewrite, but the judges didn't touch the provision eliminating straight-ticket voting, mainly because that particular part of the law was never challenged in the initial lawsuits.

Did Democratic plaintiffs have magical foresight?

The ballot this year is long and perhaps exhausting for a voter unfamiliar with the down-ballot races. (I relished every little bubble I filled in and took my sweet time doing it!) As we've seen, Trump is mainly interested in his ego, and the adulation of thousands at his rallies. He's relatively uninterested in anything outside that egotistic sphere, like educating the voters on races down-ballot. He's left all that field work to local Republican parties.

How have they done, those local Republican parties, at educating their base about the down-ballot races? Dunno, really, except what I could witness at the early voting site on the Appalachian State University campus. Watauga GOP Chair Anne Marie Yates and her small team of volunteers sporadically showed up among the students, didn't stay long usually, and handed out a long paper slip, printed both sides, headlined "CONSERVATIVE CHOICES."

Yeah, there's a winning pitch for the under-25 crowd!

The first four names on that Republican handout: Donald J. Trump, Richard Burr, Virginia Foxx, and Pat McCrory. From talking to students intensively over several days, I can tell you that even members of the Young Republicans on the ASU campus can't stand Donald J. Trump. Everybody else hates Virginia Foxx, and there is zero respect for Pat McCrory. (Nobody has an opinion about Richard Burr, which might work in his favor, another irony in a year full of them.)

That's not a list nor an electioneering ploy likely to persuade young people this year. "Conservative" means, first, anti-gay to young voters, and with good reason, and they're not trying to board that particular boat. "Conservative" also means hateful and stingy and uncharitable to young people, again for abundant reasons offered up daily by "conservative" talking heads and elected officials like Virginia Anne Foxx, who sneers at students with big loans to pay off. Charity? It ain't the first synonym that leaps to mind for conservative.

So I doubt that the Watauga GOP won many down-ballot votes on campus with that piece of educational material, even if they got a few Trump voters. The problem may be even greater if indeed there are a lot of non-traditional voters who show up next Tuesday to vote for Trump. They'll be showing up because they want to stuff a Molotov cocktail up the tailpipe of American politics. Will they also know much about the down-ballot races? Perhaps Anne Marie will greet all of them at the local polls and hand them each a "CONSERVATIVE CHOICES."

Straight-ticket voting would have helped the Republicans this year, but they maybe shot themselves in the foot getting rid of it.

Did the Newspaper Quote Nathan Miller Accurately? Seriously?

Miller

Nathan Miller, former Watauga County Commission Chair and current vice chair of the Watauga GOP, announced that the recent $14k fine by the NC State Board of Elections will be contested by the local party.

“This is just election year hijinks,” Miller told the Watauga Democrat. "It is appalling that the State Board of Elections would join in with the local Democrats to issue this notice right before this general election, when the Democrats have been harping on this with them for the last couple months. It is politically motivated.”

BWAhahahaha!

For the record: the Watauga Democratic Party has not "harped" on anything to do with the Watauga GOP and its financial dealings. WataugaDems have not complained to the SBOE, have not been in contact with the SBOE, have not communicated in any way with the SBOE regarding Watauga GOP bookkeeping.

We did begin posting on this site about the charges after they broke into the open, amazed as the rest of you about the carelessness of Miller & Company.

To suggest that the SBOE fine is "politically motivated" and that somehow the Watauga Democratic Party is in cahoots with the Republican-dominated SBOE is low comedy. It may come as a surprise to Mr. Miller, but the Watauga Democratic Party is not high on the invite list at the SBOE.

Mr. Miller is practicing some of the oldest tricks in the politician's bag o' tricks ... deflection and distraction.

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."

Watauga GOP Slapped With $14K Fine by SBOE

For bad bookkeeping, going back in some instances to 2009 ... failures to provide employment/employer information, failures to provide addresses of donors, and prohibited cash transactions.

Today at ASU

Sour Grapes

Anne Marie Yates, Chair of the Watauga Republican Party, posted this picture of the Watauga Democratic Party Independence Day float, with members of the AppState football team posing down front -- posted it twice! -- and many thanks for that! -- on the Republican Party's FB page, and is mightily pissed off that the Democrats got the photo and the Republicans did not.

Bwahahaha.

Bill Aceto Is His Name, Voter Suppression Is His Game

Bill Aceto, Republican Chair of the Watauga County Board of Elections, wrote a letter to the presidents of Appalachian State University and Caldwell Community College which is unusually revealing about Mr. Aceto's continuing efforts to put stumbling blocks in the path of student voters.

1. In his letter (below), Mr. Aceto speaks for the Board as though discussions and votes have been held. We are told that he is acting and speaking unilaterally, or else the two Republicans have been meeting privately without the Democratic member.

2. Mr. Aceto says the Board is looking at the possibility of establishing Early Voting on either the ASU or the Caldwell Community College campus. As far as we know, there is still a standing court order that an Early Voting site must be placed on the ASU campus. We would welcome a site on both campuses.

3. Mr. Aceto lists three sites that the Board is considering. All three are on the far edges of the campus. He does not list the Student Union, where the site was located for the March primary. He goes further on page 2 of his letter and explicitly rules out the ASU Student Union: Don't even think about recommending the Union for Early Voting, he says.

4. Mr. Aceto justifies ruling out the Student Union by alluding to numerous complaints about the "buffer zone." An examination of the "complaints file" in the Board of Elections office reveals no complaints -- zero -- dealing with the Early Voting site in the Student Union in the 2016 primary election. There were complaints about Election Day voting at the Legends site, mainly about how long and slow the lines were (which is on Mr. Aceto and his administration of voting in this county).

5. It is clear that Aceto, his boss "Four" Eggers, and the rest of the colluding power structure in the local Republican Party will continue to flaunt their subversion of Judge Donald Stephens' order from 2014 to make voting accessible to ASU students ... until the entire power structure is changed in the state of North Carolina.

Luke Eggers Resigns from Watauga BOE

Chair Luke Eggers has tendered his resignation from the Watauga County Board of Elections, effective today.

Everyone knew this would have to happen after his aunt, Becca Eggers, was appointed to a local judgeship. It's finally happened, one day in advance of the filing period for the 2016 elections.

Now taking bets on which hardliner Anne Marie Yates & Team will appoint in his place.