State Board of Elections needs some training in group decision making process | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The State Board of Elections and all county boards of election are controlled, by law, by a majority of members of the same party as the Governor. That means that the party that loses out in the gubernatorial election loses the ability to control the local board of elections decisions and the State Board's decisions. Right? Nope, not in North Carolina. In some instances one person controls the decisions.

    But it is actually worse than that. At recent State Board training sessions for local board members the leadership of the State Board has emphasized over and over the "need" for unanimous decisions. Even when the law does not require a unanimous decision — which would be absurd anyway—the Chairman of the State Board has admonished local board members to "come together" and on controversial issues to seek to achieve unanimity.

    The problem is such an absurd demand is obvious. The majority does rule. Any rogue board member can throw a monkey wrench in the works. Such is the case recently when the State Board met to consider requests from local boards for relief from rules that set the hours for early voting.

    Susan Myrick, writing in the Civitas Review has the story.

    Yes, state board member, Maja Kricker, really did rule at the State Board of Elections (SBOE) meeting today. Her opinion was the only opinion that counted when it came to the five member SBOE voting on one-stop variance requests made by county board of elections.

    Here is the background to today's story. One of the provisions in VIVA (the Voter Identification Verification Act/HB 589) shortened the early voting period from 17 days to 10 days. At the same time, the number of early voting hours made available by the county boards of elections were to remain the same as in the most recent comparable election. This means the local boards must look back to the General Election of 2010 to determine how many hours they need to provide for this November's election. In addition, there is also a provision in the law that allows a local board to seek a reduction in hours, provided that the request is passed unanimously. In general, counties ask for a reduction when they have determined that the total number of hours required would exceed the number that was needed to accommodate voters. For example, one county reported that one of their early voting sites in 2010, on average, voted two people per hour. When a county board (made up of two Republicans and one Democrat) unanimously passes a plan they must then send it to the SBOE and the SBOE must approve it with a unanimous vote.

    This is where the Kricker criteria 'kicks' in. Kricker, one of the two Democratic board members, devised rules that counties seeking to reduce their early voting hours must comply with in order for her to vote in favor of their plans. And, since the SBOE vote must be unanimous she is ultimately making the decision for the five member board. The Kricker rules are:

    • On at least four weekdays, at least one site is open until 8:00 p.m.; OR alternately, on at least four weekdays, at least one site is open for at least 12 hours; AND

    • On Saturday, 10/25/14, at least one site is open for at least 3 hours


    Click here to go to the original source to read the rest of the story.

    Commentary

    The stance of the current Republican majority on the State Board of Elections is ridiculous. There is a reason the partisan composition of the boards are set as they are and it is nonsense for the Chair of the State Board, Josh Howard, Esq, to try to overrule that long time tradition in this state.

    He will learn, if he has not already done so, that unanimity in votes on a small (3-5 members) boards/groups does not mean unanimity in opinions or positions. What it degenerates into is watered down decisions that do not serve the general interests well at all. You get weak decisions, not based on principles, but on wheeling and dealing to achieve a certain outcome.

    One would think that the current chairman, who is a lawyer, studied this phenomenon in Law School if he took a good Constitutional Law course. Tombs have been written examining the voting patterns and how they are fashioned for both the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal (3 member panels) as well as state courts. Most of these voting groups are bi-partisan.

    Some of the worst decisions the courts have made mdash;and hence very bad law—have been made in an effort to control the vote rather than assess the law and its implications and arrive at sound jurisprudence. None is more obvious than the current Supreme Court's decision on ObamaCare. And there are legal scholars who have argued for years that the reason it took more than a decade to implement Brown v. Board of Education (school desegregation) was that the application of the unanimous decision Chief Justice Warren fashioned in Brown became a confusing and muddled mess when the lower courts tried to apply the "all deliberate speed" mandate of Brown. The reason, according to noted scholars, the Supreme Court allowed circumvention of the principles of "separate schools are inherently unequal," was that Chief Justice Warren corrupted the legal principles in Brown in order to get eight other votes on his opinion. Other cases of such wheeling and dealing are legion. One would think Mr. Howard would have studied these cases and would know that his penchant for unanimity is a bastardization of the deliberate decision-making that should be the hallmark of the State Board of Elections.

    North Carolina deserves better leadership than this. Perhaps it would be better if Mr. Howard took a workshop to two on group decision-making process. Group think is not usually a very effective decision-making process and forced group think is even less effective.

    Delma Blinson writes the "Teacher's Desk" column for our friend in the local publishing business: The Beaufort Observer. His concentration is in the area of his expertise - the education of our youth. He is a former teacher, principal, superintendent and university professor.
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