For more information contact:
Brian Irving, Press Secretary, 919.538.4548

LENOIR (March 8) -- The Graham County Commissioners are giving new meaning to the observation of Joseph Stalin “He who votes decides nothing; he who counts the votes decides everything.” The commissioners are locked in a legal dispute with the county's board of elections over who can hire and fire elections board employees.

The dispute began in November when commissioners moved a full-time employee from the BOE to the county tax assessors office. The election board hired two-part time employees as replacements. When the commissioners refused to pay the salary of the second part-timer, the elections board took the matter to court.

“There is nothing more essential to the honesty and integrity of our elections than an independent board of elections,” said Jordon Greene, North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections president. “The actions of the Graham commissioners strike directly at the heart of our electoral process.”

“If elected officials are the judge of their own elections, than our electoral process means little,” Greene said.

Superior Court Judge James L. Baker ruled that under North Carolina law commissioners “have no right or power to fire an employee” of the elections board. In the ruling issued just 14 days after the lawsuit was filed, he said the commissioners had “failed to perform their ministerial duty.”

Judge Baker also noted that the commissioners had no legal authority to transfer the employee, the action that led to the lawsuit. He issued a writ of mandamus, a legal order, for the commissioners to make payment.

“Saying that the board failed in their 'ministerial duty' is a legal way of saying they did not do their job,” Greene commented.

Greene noted that the judge's ruling was supported by opinions from the State Board of Elections and from two former North Carolina attorneys general.

“The Board of Elections is not a 'county board' in the usual usage of that term, but is an independent entity created by the General Assembly, and appointed by the State Board of Elections,” Attorney General Rufus L. Edmisten wrote in August 1981. His successor, Lacy Thornburg, reiterated that view in October 1985 when he wrote “This office has traditionally viewed employees of the County Board of Elections as being under the control and authority of the Board of Elections, not the Board of County Commissioners.”

Don Wright, State Board of Elections general counsel, said that while these cases “may have a few years on them,” nothing newer was available “because the laws is so clear on the issue and the law has not changed since the dates of these letters.”

“You would think that with state law being so clear, coupled with the opinion of the state board of elections, and the opinions of two state attorneys general that the Graham commissioners would be able to understand the law and abide by it,” said Greene. “Apparently not.”

The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners is helping pay for the Graham commissioners appeal, another aspect of the case Greene finds disturbing. The Graham Star reported (March 3) that the NCACC has pledged $13,000 to $15,000 to support the appeal.

“So not only are the Graham county commissioners using taxpayer money to fund this appeal, including hiring outside lawyers, they are also getting the help of a taxpayer-funded lobby,” said Greene.

“The thought of having elected officials whose salaries are paid by taxpayers, in league with a taxpayer-funded lobby, using taxpayer dollars to deny taxpayers free and proper elections is very, very troubling to me,” he said.

Not only does North Carolina law make it clear elections boards are independent entities, it also specifies who can and cannot serve on the board, Greene noted. Elected officials and candidates for office are barred from serving.

Green said that allowing the board of commissioners to interfere with the running of the board of elections makes them de facto members of the BOE. So they get to count their own votes.

In this particular instance, the situation is further complicated because three of the five commissioners are up for election this year. They are Steve Odom, Billy Cable, Eugene Trull

-30-

NCFPE-PAC
2206 Planters Way - Lenoir NC 28645
(828) 729-4509