SBOE

According to a tip from the Outer Banks, the NC Association of Realtors has been desperately searching for the Lost Colony of Dare County realtors who may have been negatively affected by the Transfer Tax that has been successfully implemented in Dare County.

NCAR and, Wake County realtors in particular, have been bombarding their Dare County colleagues with requests to write letters saying the Transfer Tax has hurt their business. All of the realtors contacted by the source say the Transfer Tax has had no impact on their business.

Meanwhile, the NC Realtors PAC, has failed to account for $127,600 in in-kind contributions that it did not report for two years. In March 2007 the NC Realtors PAC submitted revised summaries for 2005 and 2006 to the State Board of Elections but failed to submit revised data files itemizing the newly reported in-kind contributions made over the two year period. SBOE informed the PAC of this deficiency June 29th. As of writing the revised data files have not been posted at the SBOE website.
 
 

On the same day Republican State Auditor Les Merritt failed to present any evidence of voter fraud to a state Senate committee, he submitted incomplete documents to the state Board of Elections.

Merritt filed on Tuesday a Statement of Organization that was unsigned and incomplete. That afternoon he presented a state Senate committee with vague and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in order to delay passage of legislation that would make it easier for people to vote.

Such actions are consistent with a national GOP plan to intimidate low-income and minority voters through false claims of voter fraud and frivolous Election Day challenges.

I finally got my hands on the Petition for Judicial Review by Richard Morgan, who is challenging the decision in favor of Art Pope's electioneering organization by the North Carolina State Board of Elections earlier this year. As you may recall, Pope's money was poured into the contest between Morgan and Hairdresser Puppet Joe Boylan, tilting the playing field and handing Boylan a surprise victory.

For new readers to BlueNC, this has been covered exhaustively, and with good reason. What's at stake is the integrity of our elections. Specifically, the state board found that a rich guy with unlimited corporate cash can spend as much as he wants to influence the outcome of elections. To be clear, no one (in this case) is questioning Pope's ability to spend his personal money. That's not the issue. Rather, the money used to influence this election came directly from Pope's business - which means it's corporate money.

If Pope wins this appeal, businesses in North Carolina will be free to pour millions into elections, effectively swamping the voices of We the People who are limited by campaign contribution laws in the amounts we can give.

The petition for review is 11 pages long. I've excerpted part of the section called "Bases for Appeal," which you can see if you click on the image. It's a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, which you may find interesting, but there's an even more startling basis for appeal, which I wrote about on the day of the hearing.

Today is the day that the initial eye-hand recount of 3% of precincts in the 8th District will be started. The recount of 13 precincts chosen at random from the 10 counties is expected to last only two days.

As was discussed in the comments on this thread written by Sam Spencer, each county will have at least one precinct counted by hand with Cumberland, Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counting two precincts.

Each precinct will be chosen at random by elections officials in each county according to an article in The Charlotte Observer. Of the 10 counties that make up the 8th District, Larry Kissell won six. Hayes carried Cumberland, Union and Cabarrus and Stanly counties.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has certified Jim Black as the winner for another term in the North Carolina House.

Let the games begin!

Now would be a good time to email your rep and let him or her know the qualities you think are important in the person who will lead the House.

The Charlotte Observer has the story.

The rumor mill is abuzz this morning. Apparently the North Carolina Homeowner's Association (recently established to help builders get rich by electioneering protect American families) has been engaged in what most people would call money laundering.

In this case, the Realtor's PAC apparently "loaned" a shitload of money to the electioneering scheme, which may account for the fact that there are no contributions listed on the organization's filing. All of this, of course, brought to you by the Puppetmaster and the Money Laundering Watchdogs at the State Board of Elections!