This past Tuesday, the Durham Republican Party Executive Committee convened for our monthly meeting.  As this was the first meeting since the Primary, we reviewed the election results and discussed what we need to do to improve.   The topic that drew the most attention was the anomalies in the voting process witnessed by our Republican poll workers.  Let me put it a bit more bluntly; there is significant evidence that Voter Fraud is alive and rampant right here in Durham.
As you know, there has been much discussion here in North Carolina about a Voter ID law.  Many on the left  are adamant in their claims that fraud does not occur or that fraud is not even possible.  They will tell you that the current system works and that any law requiring an ID to vote is similar to a poll-tax and therefore discriminates against the poor voter.  The reality is that it is pathetically easy to vote fraudulently in North Carolina.   Ultimately, it is far harder to prove voter fraud than to prevent voter fraud.  And the best person to prevent voter fraud is … you!
Across the state, many conservatives have complained about Governor Purdue’s veto of the Voter ID law passed by the Republican legislature.  If you are one of those folks, my question to you is: have you volunteered to be a poll observer?  
We have 57 precincts in Durham County.  Each precinct is a polling location.  We are allowed to have one Republican Judge at each polling location.  (The Democrats have two.) We are also allowed to have two observers at a time.  The judges and assistants must work the entire day.  The observers must work in four hour shifts.  As a result, most of our observers only work one 4-hour shift.  If you do the math, we need at least six observers for each precinct: 6 volunteers x 57 precincts = 342 precinct volunteers needed.  When we include judges and assistants,  the real need for volunteers is a still larger number.  
For the longest time, the Durham Republican party had too few volunteers even to staff all the positions allotted for Republican Judges.  For the past several years, we’ve been blessed to have Marilyn Flanary working diligently to fill all our  election worker positions.  She’s done a fabulous job.  However, this task is a huge one.  This past Primary Election,  only  6 precincts out of 57 had any Republican poll observers.  This is arguably one of the most important gaps that we must fill before the November General Election.  We need your help.  Remember, we need in excess of 342 volunteers!
As I mentioned earlier, this past Executive Committee meeting, we heard from our election volunteers.  Sadly, we heard numerous reports that, taken together, suggest that Voter Fraud is happening right here in Durham.  It is our duty to do everything legally possible to prevent this fraud from occurring.  The only way to fulfill that duty is for us to recruit the hundreds of volunteers that we need.  Will you be one of them?
If you are interested in learning more about this position, or volunteering for one of these positions, please contact our Durham GOP Secretary, Lee Green at Lee.Green@durhamGOP.com.
Remember, you have the power to prevent Fraud from occurring.  Tell your boss now that you will need to take a vacation day on November 6th.  And if you are a boss, allow me to encourage you to give all your employees the day off this November 6th.  Let’s all do our patriotic duty.  Let’s vote and let’s defend liberty by preserving free and fair elections.

Healthy Start Academy
807 West Chapel Hill Street,
Durham, NC.

All registered Republicans are invited to attend.

By Ray Gronberg

DURHAM – Following a complaint from a Durham County Republican Party activist, County Commissioners abandoned plans to adopt a symbolic resolution against the state’s proposed “defense of marriage” constitutional amendment.

The decision came late Friday, after County Attorney Lowell Siler sided with GOP activist Richard Ford.

Ford on Friday emailed county officials to say he thought a formal vote by commissioners would violate state law that bars them from using “public funds to endorse or oppose a referendum, election or a particular candidate.”

“Everyone must stand together to demand the neutrality of the government in elections,” said Ford, who’s also a newly appointment member of the city’s Human Relations Commission.

Siler responded by talking to all five County Commissioners, “and they all agreed to take it off” Monday’s agenda, County Manager Mike Ruffin said.

“My position is they’ve got another viable alternative” when it comes to the issue, Siler said on Monday. “They can still state what their individual positions are.”

He added that he thinks the law “is very clear,” particularly since early voting began last Thursday.

But the decision angered anti-amendment activists, who noted that at least 13 county boards across the state, all or nearly all led by Republicans, had previously endorsed Amendment One.

The amendment is controversial because it ostensibly bars same-sex marriage. Critics say it will also bar civil unions and affect unmarried couples of all sorts. Polls indicate that in general, Republicans are supporting it and Democrats are opposing it.

Pro-amendment county commissions include Wake County’s, whose Republican chairman, Paul Coble, in February brushed off a complaint like Ford’s.

It’d come from fellow Wake County Commissioner Erv Portman, a Democrat.

“When I went to high school and learned civics, I learned that a referendum is the government asking the citizens what they think,” said Portman, who voted against the Wake resolution and signaled opposition to the amendment. “Where does the county board get off? Is that not heavy handed, is it not arrogant? We’re using county staff, paid for county tax dollars, broadcasting to homes throughout the county, to support a position. Where’s the fair access?”

Coble, however, said Wake commissioners were entitled to express an opinion.

Their resolution “does not say that people should vote for this amendment,” Coble told his colleagues in February. “It says what the amendment is, cites the law and then it says the county commissioners endorse the marriage amendment to the North Carolina constitution. It does not say that anybody should necessarily go vote for or against it.”

Durham County’s draft resolution similarly did not urge people to vote one way or another. It was styled as a statement of opposition directed to the N.C. General Assembly and local legislators.

Critics of the Durham commissioners’ decision to back off questioned the motives of the board’s five Democrats.

One, minister Carl Kenney, said they had shown “a lack of courage” throughout, having moved to weigh in only after two of the county’s big-three political groups, the People’s Alliance and the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, announced opposition to the amendment.

“It’s hard to find [courage] while waffling between divergent political camps,” Kenney said in a blog posting. “It took courage when [Mayor] Bill Bell and members of the City Council took a position on the amendment long before the local political action committees voiced an opinion. They moved based on conviction, not what is politically expedient. That’s courage. That’s leadership.”

Kenney was alluding to City Council resolutions Bell and his colleagues passed last July and again last month.

A candidate running against four incumbent Durham commissioners in this spring’s Democratic Party primary, John Owens, also blasted the decision.

Owens, an opponent of the amendment, in an email to Durham Commissioners Joe Bowser, Brenda Howerton and Michael Page wondered whether Siler had tailored his advice to meet the wishes of a board that’s always been reluctant to weigh in.

“Until now, you have chosen not to vote on this issue. Was that choice politically motivated?” he asked. “Were you afraid that your positions would expose you to be woefully out of step with the rest of Durham? Would your vote hurt your electoral prospects? Did this fear translate into pressure on Mr. Siler that he offer you a way out?”

Even a supporter of the amendment thought commissioners were ducking the issue.

“I don’t think these folks are going to talk about it tonight because they’re afraid they’re going to lose some votes, either way,” political activist Victoria Peterson said.

Page said commissioners were free to state an opinion after Monday’s televised meeting.

Press accounts indicate that formal endorsements of the amendment have come from the Ashe, Avery, Brunswick, Caldwell, Davie, Lincoln, McDowell, Stanly, Surry, Union, Wake, Watauga and Wilkes County Commissioners.

Of the state’s 100 counties, only the Orange County Commissioners have formally voiced opposition to Amendment One.

At the city and town level, opposition has come from the Asheville, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro, Greenville and Raleigh councils.

New Bern’s council has endorsed the amendment.

The NC Family Policy Council also offers a voter guide.

North Regional Library, 221 Milton Road

South Regional Library, 4505 S. Alston Avenue

Duke University, Trinity Room, Chapel Drive, West Campus

North Carolina Central University Student Union Bldg, NCCU Campus

Board of Elections Office, 706 W. Corporation St, Durham
Voting Hours:
Thursday, April 19 through Saturday, April 21
9:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Sunday, April 22,
12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Monday, April 23, through Saturday, April 28
9:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Sunday, April 29,
12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Monday, April 30, through Wednesday, May 02
8:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Thursday, May 03 and Friday, May 04,
8:00 AM – 7:30 PM

Saturday, May 05,
8:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Healthy Start Academy
807 West Chapel Hill Street,
Durham, NC.

All registered Republicans are invited to attend.

 
We have heard that there will only be speakers opposed to the amendment. None in favor.