Spankin' Time!!
-We knew there would be push back from the Statists all around, but were still taken aback when the Chair of the Wake County Board of Elections lectured us for our 553 voter challenges (of people who opted out of jury duty by claiming to be non-citizens), charging that our public act served to "undermine people's confidence in the system. She (Aida Doss Havel) scolded us to make the quiet phone call next time, so they could fix the problem without... paraphrasing here: arousing public suspicion that there is something deeply wrong with North Carolina's record of registered voters. After all, we don't want to encourage the stupid masses to demand things like...oh...voter ID or anything crazy like that.
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I reminded the Board and Ms. Havel that a public debate actually strengthens the system as people realize that citizens are maintaining the system by means of testing it's security. In the military, we call it "Red Team" when a band of aggressors work against the installation Commander's security measures to see if they can find the vulnerabilities. In the end, the Commander is usually humbled a bit but (s)he is also glad to get the evaluation...in the name of better security...which is exactly what I want for our electoral system. I explained to the room that I lay awake at night, fearing an Iranian-style election with angry citizens marching in the streets, knowing their election was stolen. The majority of powerful people in the front of the room disagreed with my position, but I had to think about their motives in order to figure out why.
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Reasoning never works with people who view you as an existential threat. While my "subtext" is that I want to help make the system more secure, protecting the public from those who would have no qualms about stealing an election and that I mean them no harm personally, they aren't hearing my underlying theme. Instead, a tape is running in their head that says something like, "this guy is threatening my ability to keep this position of power." When that meme is playing in the background, it's hard to hear any reasoned arguments. Instead, one will try to smack down the person making the arguments. In the immortal words of Saul Alinsky, "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." To our side, this is an exercise in civics. To many on the Left (but not necessarily to Ms Doss) we are attempting some sort of power grab.
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What next?
Many are asking that question, so here is the run-down. The State Board of Elections (SBOE) has taken our challenges for action, but not as official "challenges" until we individually can supply signed and notarized copies of each page (553 in all). We are working to comply with their demand and should have it this week. Meanwhile, Gary Bartlett (SBOE's Chairman) has already dismissed all but 41 of our challenges, claiming that the people challenged are actually US citizens. I hope he is able to prove that claim at the hearings.
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Which brings us to the next step: Hearings may be held on the 41 questionable voters. No idea what "may" means in this context, but we are pressing ahead toward that eventual outcome. A previous test of the vote list (by a WRAL reporter) found of the 83 names investigated, ALL were exonerated! All of them? Really? I asked him if that seemed a little suspicious.... He said "no."
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With skeptics like that in the dominant media, it's no wonder that NC's voter ID law is facing stiff, unified, opposition in our Legislature. After all, everyone on the Left has their mantra memorized: "There is no voter fraud in North Carolina."
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Right! That goes right up there with "these are not the droids you are looking for."
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...coveting your prayers,
jd
Actually, I did not “scold you to make the quiet phone call next time.” What I said was, if you identify a problem, or what you perceive to be as problem, come to us and tell us about it as an adult. There is no need for covert, “gotcha” type of tactics, and yes, those types of actions do undermine confidence in the system. If, instead, you walk in the front door and say, “I’ve identified something that may be a problem. Am I looking at it correctly? If so, how can we fix it?” you not only help us and help the system, but you give yourself more credibility.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing: please know that the thought “this guy is threatening my ability to keep this position of power” was the furthest thing from my mind. First, I/we as a Board do not have that much power; much of what we do is ministerial, and when we do sit as a quasi-judicial Board, we are always subject to review by the State BOE, and as was the case last fall with the Morrisville town council race, subject to reversal.
Second, service on this Board is a thankless task, one that takes up a fair amount of time and effort. There aren’t a whole lot of people standing in line waiting to take on this job. I do it because I truly love being part of a fair and transparent election process, and because the staff of the Wake County BOE are the most dedicated, honest, and professional group of government employees I have ever seen. They are not there just for a paycheck; they truly are “elections people” through and through who really care about getting it right.
I took the time to respond to your post because it was my personal opinion that the way you characterized yesterday’s meeting was inaccurate. However, it is not my plan to engage in a continuing dialogue with you, so this will be my only post. I invite your readers to any Board meeting to see how the process of preparing for and conducting an election actually occurs.
"There is no need for covert, “gotcha” type of tactics,"
Delete>>> If this is your idea of a snarky joke, it failed. Challenging voters who self-proclaim they are NOT eligible to vote is not a joking matter and as far removed from "gotcha" as your hubris is from humility.
What is 'covert' about the process we used, which was exclusively drawn from public documents?
Madame, if this is your honest position, you should immediately resign your 'thankless job' and open a place for someone with a less-than-paranoid view of those attempting to improve the process you manage.
"...come to us and tell us about it as an adult." Comments like that seem a tad condescending.
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When I led military officers and enlisted members, if I really needed to chomp down on a subordinate's posterior, I sometimes would start with, "this is a one-way conversation." Perhaps it would have been more polite to just say, "it is not my plan to engage in a continuing dialogue with you...."
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Maybe I'm the one being thin-skinned, but it just seems strange when a public official addresses a tax-paying citizen in such a tone.
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Also, filing challenges under NCGS 163 isn't (IMO) "gotcha." It's just the process established by law when a citizen wishes to challenge the voter registration of another citizen (or...in this case... non-citizen).
" service on this Board is a thankless task, one that takes up a fair amount of time and effort."
ReplyDeleteDifferent people respond to adversity differently. Some see a challenge and accept it as something worth fixing. Others just moan and spend their time coming up with excuses why they can't do anything. You appear to be the latter of the two.
Effort does not equate a satisfactory job. If you are putting 100% into these elections and still failing to catch these challenges, then maybe you are just insufficiently equipped for this position...