NC's elections system must be fixed | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    In the last two months we here at the Beaufort Observer have spent more time covering election news that not only anything else, but more than all the other stories put together. We have learned a great deal. And what we have learned can be summed up in one sentence: North Carolina's election system is corrupt and miserably ineffective. Not every county and not every precinct, but in toto the system is broken. We have come to conclude that the major reasons for this abominable situation are: 1. Totally incompetent poll workers in some instances, 2. Incompetent staff and board members of a number of county boards of election and 3. A culture fed by a mindset that "close enough is good enough" when it comes to enforcing the basic principle that only qualified voters should be allowed to vote.

    Of course the first thing that needs to be done is require a photo ID in order to register and vote. But that is only a start.

    We've written about a number of the flaws we have seen firsthand and posted articles done by others. Taken in toto what it means is that Governor-elect Pat McCrory has his work cut out for him.

    The governor appoints the state board of election. The state board selects the local boards, upon the nomination of the local political party leaders in each county. The local board hire the staff. Thus, to fix this system McCrory will need to start at the top with the State Board of Elections. Appointing competent and honest people will be essential. Then the state board is going to have to hire honorable people with integrity to manage the system, not only the elections process but the campaign finance system as well. The state is then going to need to set specific, effective standards or each county board and its staff to follow in implementing the law.

    And the Legislature is going to have to address a number of issue that will require changes in the law. One of those changes needs to be the elimination of straight party voting. North Carolina is one of the few states that still allows straight ticket voting. It needs to be stopped simply because unscrupulous people of both parties have used it as a way of corrupting the voting process by having people cast votes that they have no clue who they are voting for.

    "Voter assistance" must be corrected also. The simple approach there should be to make it legal only for election officials to assist a voter who requests help and there must be one from each party providing the assistance. Both should be prohibited, under penalty of a felony, from suggesting to a person who they should vote for but be restricted only to providing information on the mechanics of voting.

    And we have written about how flawed the "recount" process was in Senate District 1.

    And finally, we believe the time has come for North Carolina to establish minimum competency requirements for voter registration. That should include requiring a person to pass a basic citizenship test comparable to the one now required for a person to become a naturalized citizen. We don't accept the argument that it will "suppression" voter participation. So be it. If a person is not qualified to vote their vote needs to be suppressed. Let the debate go forward about how we measure "qualified" but let the debate begin. A person has to pass a minimum competency test to get a driver's license and voting is more important than driving competence.

    Elections Analyst Susan Myrick hit the nail on the head in a piece she published in the Civitas Review in which she includes a video of a recent State Board of Elections in which the Culture of Malfeasance is clearly obvious.

    Click here to read Susan Myrick's post.

    And if all that is not enough to convince you, click here to read this story.

    Click here to read another article about the State Board of Elections.