Watauga County, NC: All Hell Broke Loose at the Board of Elections Meeting (Corrupt Bastards)

[TalkingDog]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/17/1231845/-Watauga-County-NC-All-Hell-Broke-Loose-at-the-Board-of-Elections-Meeting

There's a lot of local backstory associated with this story, but the short and skinny is that these two meathead Republican Board members came to the meeting with a prepared-but clearly-not-by-them Tea Party agenda to:

1. Eliminate the Appalachian State University (ASU) early one-stop voting site.
2. Force all early voting into one location hard to access by students, faculty, and staff at ASU.
3. Outlaw any verbal public comment at Board meetings and require that written comments be screened to ensure they were "pertinent" and communicated without cussing or libel.
4. Require that the 27-year Elections Board Director, a woman totally on the straight up and beloved by the entire county, not be allowed to meet with anyone in her office without supervision.
5. Mandate that anyone calling into the local BOE office have their names recorded.
6. Move the "New River" precinct (a heavily populated precinct in and around the town of Boone) out into the very corner of the precinct into a virtually unknown location and as far away from municipal voters as possible.
7. Combine three Boone precincts into one Super Precinct consisting of 9,300 voters and 35 parking spaces. Oh. And away as far as possible from ASU.

The crowd of 60 plus (considerable for our little Town) was pissed as hell. We're talking screaming, yelling, booing, "shame on you," "what are you trying to hide,".... At one point one of the Republican meatheads threatened to have the public arrested. The response from the crowd was an immediate "bring it on."

[Triana]

1. Jesus Christmas. The justice department needs to get involved in this. NOW.

I realize the Tea Baggers thugs on the USSC overturned Section 5 of the VRA but this shit is hideous and MUST be challenged!

[NCarolinawoman]

4. Is Eric Holder doing anything yet?

I know he wants to concentrate on Texas, but it seems something could be done here at the same time.
From what I know of the city/town of Boone, it is populated with well-educated Democrats. They are in the majority. Another wonderful progressive mountain oasis.

[Triana]

9. I haven't heard that he is even thinking of NC - just Texas - yet...

...NC's voter suppression laws are worse!

[tosh]

2. Well done, Watauga County, well done!

[Iliyah]

3. Still won't stop gopers

in NC apparently they have no soul. Good to read about the resistant tho and all of the effing voter suppression laws will eventually go back to the USA lovely five assholes.

AND CONGRESS, not doing a damn thing.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Do you remember Alaska's "Corrupt Bastards Club" from 2006?

The legislators were taking bribes from Big Oil and were so brazen about it that they even had hats made up with CBC embroidered on them. Several of them went to prison. Maybe some of the old hats are laying around here somewhere that your guys could use.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2101151

[TalkingDog]

6. Thanks for the link (and the suggestion) I might make up some hats to send them

just for fun.

[Orrex]

7. Incidentally, that subject line violates rule six.

[TalkingDog]

8. Elmore will abide.

May he RIP

[barbtries]

10. wow, that's quite an agenda.

i'm serious the republicans in this state have completely jumped the tracks. i pray (and i'm not generally a praying person) that they get spanked but good next year, and in 2016.

[Downtown Hound]

11. Republicans: The Party of Freedom

It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad.

[gklagan]

12. Wait, it gets worse!

"Wide sections of a first draft of minutes for a contentious meeting on Aug. 12 of the Watauga County Elections Board were erased at the request of the board chairman, increasing concerns among some critics here about what in their view is an erosion of transparency."

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/article_05632b10-0a04-11e3-949f-001a4bcf6878.html

Good thing there was a live streamer there to document and ARCHIVE the entire meeting... http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/37217611

[TalkingDog]

13. Thanks for the update and links.

Although I hate to give an inch of ground to those idiots, the minutes need to reflect proper protocol.

And she (or somebody) needs to file charges against those two tea-ijits.