Election Law Changes Highlighted at the Republican Men's Club | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The Director of Beaufort County Elections, Kellie Hopkins, graciously expended her time by extending to the Beaufort County Men’s Club (where there usually are as many women as men) her wealth of knowledge regarding the election process in Beaufort County. Kellie, as the Board of Elections Director, oversees the machinations of providing the platform for the administering the election for Soil and Water Commissioners to the President of the United States.

    Director Hopkins discussed with this group of Republican Activists seats up for election in this upcoming off-year election cycle to “curb-side voting,” for the truly disabled, to new North Carolina Campaign finance laws in the wake of yet more Democrats (read that two term Democrat Mike Easley) that have yet once again violated the integrity and the intent of the former campaign finance laws.

    Director Hopkins informed us that the thresholds for recorded contributions has been lowered, for recordation purposes, from 100.00 to 50.00 per person per day. Also, we were informed, the 3,000.00 total spending limit for a candidate has been lowered to 1,000.00. For example: No longer can I run county commissioner, spend less than 3,000.00 and not file. On a personal note: I have always spent anywhere from 2,900.00 to 4,200.00 in my previous 4 races. I had hoped to swing in that 2,900.00 range so I would not have to file, but, it does appear that never again will I avoid that distraction.

    The most important issue brought to this group, however, was an off-hand reference by the Director of Elections to a new voter registration effort by the Democrat majority in the General Assembly to register a 16 and 17 year olds to vote in the upcoming elections, providing they turn 18 before the next election. The pre-registration of these youngsters will be discussed is social studies classes, and students will be encouraged to take part in the democratic process.

    Many republicans in the room saw this new contribution by the reining Democrats governing in Raleigh as a bit overbearing by pushing these youngsters into the political arena of voting before some of them will be ready. The reasoning: The youngsters that are ready to understand the complexities of this world will register, and vote on election day. The others, who are enamored by television trash such as “Jersey Shore,” and those who are impassioned by the Hip Hop/ Rap flavor-of-the-day are perfect fodder to be indoctrinated, rounded up and herded to the polls to vote for the political flavor-of-the-day, providing they are Democrats, and this is the really sad part: Their vote counts just as much as yours, and mine.

    County Commissioner, and President of the republican Men’s Club, Hood Richardson mused, “This is a lockout for Republicans if this is run by the school system and the teaching establishment, because a majority of them are liberal Democrats.”

    Now for all of you that are offended by Hood Richardson’s comments, and those of you who might concur, may I add this closing observation. Hood’s comments, while always candid, are sadly … pretty accurate.

    As we all realize, we spend a tremendous amount of money in North Carolina and Beaufort County to educate our most renewable resource - the youth of this nation. We all should wish that the school system, and all educators as a whole, should remain apolitical. It isn’t, and it hasn’t been since 1994, as I acknowledge heretofore, in first person, the year I first became a county commissioner.

    Since then I have witnessed amazing political feats by the ever political Beaufort County School System, with many of their minion, or should I say pawns doing some crazy stuff: in the 2006 general election, they broke federal election laws by using the school’s e-mail address, and the school’s e-mail list, by committed, if not too sophisticated, volunteers to effect the outcome of a state sanctioned election; and I swear, more than once I do remember, at a number of the budget public hearings, that some of these school system cronies brought pom-poms, metaphorically speaking, to cheer their team to victory. You know … this indoctrination thing has been going on for quite a long, long time.

    Underage registration or indoctrination with a purposes? Regardless this is the latest move by the North Carolina General Assembly to insure that the intelligence quotient of the North Carolina electorate drop just a bit more.