Forsyth Elections Board Psycho-Drama

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reagan's Chief of Staff Endorses Obama

In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Ronald Reagan's White House Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein said he would vote for Barack Obama on Tuesday. Apparently, Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama was a deciding factor: "Well let's put it this way - I think Colin Powell's decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama."

The interview will air on CNN on Sunday afternoon.

Gold Star Mom Fires Back at Madam Foxx

Summer Lipford, the dead Iraq War soldier's mother featured in the Roy Carter campaign ad, has posted her response to Virginia Foxx on the W-S Journal article in which Foxx lied about being responsive to Lipford's pleas for help. Lipford's post:

Posted by (SummerLipford) on 10/30/2008 at 02:50 am.

I am pleased Roy Carter's campaign is not pulling the ad concerning Foxx's total disregard concerning the death of my son. There is nothing that can be done to correct what Foxx did or did not do for my family when Steven died, I cannot attend his Memorial Service at Ft Benning, due to the fact I was not considered his family because he had married before deployment to Iraq, which Foxx would have been aware of had she contacted my family when Steven died, I cannot forget the hurt that Steven was left on the belly of a plane for 5 hours,until after dark, because this administration was ashamed to allow flag draped caskets to be seen by the American people, that 30 minutes before his funeral I was told I may need pall bearers because the casualty officer was not sure the Honor Guard would be there on time to carry my son to his grave, that no government official, local or otherwise attended Stevens funeral or sent a representative or even contacted me, that I was lied to about the circumstances Steven died under and had to force the military myself to get a different version, not the truth, concerning his death.........and so many other hurtful things, far too many to mention, all could have been prevented by Foxx's intervention if only she had a staffer from her office contact me. Contacting me 10 weeks after his funeral with a form letter of condolence does not constitute her assistance, assistance not that I asked for, but begged for. I am not malicious, disgusting or dishonest, I had nothing to gain by telling my story, I am a mother who grieves everyday for my child and prays no other mother has to walk my path, no other mother has to live with the lack of concern and disrespect shown to my son and myself by Virginia Foxx As I have stated, none of this can change for me, but by electing Roy Carter I know it will not happen again.

Summer Lipford

This was the lead story last night on WXII News, something few voters in Watauga would have seen since Charter chose to delete Channel 12 from its line-up months (years?) ago.

Forsyth Board of Elections

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Early Voting Hours Extended on Saturday

Just received this news ... that the Watauga County Board of Elections will extend Early Voting this coming Saturday (which is the last day for Early Voting) until 5 p.m. at one site only, the County Courthouse. The other four sites will close at 1 p.m., as previously scheduled.

It Wasn't an Idle Threat

Kay Hagan is suing Elizabeth Dole for the she's-an-atheist TV ad, as she promised to do yesterday if the ad wasn't taken off the air. Dole responded, "Up yours," so Hagan says she's going to the law. She has 20 days to file the libel complaint, so we'll have to wait. It's the principle of the thing, no matter how the election is decided. Looks like defamation to us (though our law degree is a bit dusty), and Dole ought to pay the piper for that particular tune she chose to play.

In the meantime, Gary Pearce recaps political libel suits from the recent past in NC. In 1988, Jim Gardner beat Tony Rand for lieutenant governor. Rand later sued Gardner over an ad that associated Rand with drug dealers, and Rand apparently won a big settlement from Gardner. Pearce says "apparently" since the case was sealed as part of the settlement.

After the election of 2000, Attorney General Roy Cooper was accused of libeling an opponent. A suit resulted, but once again any settlement is shielded from public view

Following the election of 2002, Carolyn Grant filed a similar suit against Congressman Brad Miller following Miller's first win of his seat in the 13th Congressional Dist. Miller made accusations that Grant took $40,000 from her son's college fund to buy a car. According to the Fox News candidate profile of Miller, Grant was given the right to pursue the lawsuit, but she dropped it in 2006, not, according to Pearce, before Miller was forced to spend a lot of money defending himself.

Liddy Dole's Naked Desperation

The Charlotte Observer editorializes today that Liddy Dole's Kay-Hagan-doesn't-believe-in-God ad is "indecent." It is Dole's apparent attempt to get down to Jesse Helms's level of campaign rhetoric, says the Observer, which invokes Helms's infamous "white hands" ad against Harvey Gantt in 1990. Somewhere, the late Helms must be "smiling and cheering from the great beyond."

The ad, says the Observer, "is also a deliberate attempt by Dole's campaign not just to distort the truth, but to shatter Hagan's admirable record as an elder for more than a decade in Greensboro's First Presbyterian Church, as a Sunday School teacher and a volunteer in her church's fundraising campaigns, worship services and community service programs."

But here's the real question: if Dole's claim against her opponent is that Hagan doesn't believe in God and Liddy Dole DOES, we'd like very much to know what God sanctions this kind of lying. Would he be MAMMON?

FOOTNOTE
Carter Wrenn, guru of NC conservative Republicans: "My guess is the next sound you may hear will be the roof falling in on Liddy Dole."

Watauga Early Voting Numbers

These are from yesterday, so they're moving up even as we type:

● about 14,500 Watauga citizens have voted so far at the county’s five Early Voting stations, with three days yet to go, as compared to roughly 10,000 for all of Early Voting in the 2004 Presidential election.

● some 5,311 had voted at the Appalachian State University student union Early Voting station.

● it is still conceivable that 20,000 Wataugans will have voted early by the close of Early Voting this Saturday at 1 p.m.

● breakdown by party affiliation of those 14,500

Democrats 5,600
Republicans 4,600
Unaffiliated 4,300

Republican End-Game: Close Your Eyes and Swing Wild

The dangers of treating Joe the Plumber like a foreign policy expert. He gets totally embarrassed by (get this!) Shep Smith on Faux News.

Then there's Liddy Dole, trying to tag Kay Hagan as "godless." Mark Binker of the News & Record has the most complete coverage of Dole's last minute smear, noting that Hagan "is about as angry as I've ever heard her." Hagan is, fer gawd's sake, a Sunday school teacher at a Greensboro Presbyterian Church.

We predicted the GOP would go lower than we've ever seen them go before, but we wouldn't necessarily have predicted that Dole would be the leader of that particular slime crew.