After SPIN! Video: Should Unaffiliated voters get state representation?
Published June 20, 2017
After SPIN! "Question to John and Chris – When the legislature determined to merge the State Ethics Commision and the State Board of Elections it decreed that the new board should consist of 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans. Michael Crowell who is an unaffiliated voter sued the state, claiming that his rights were being violated because he was ineligible to be appointed to the new board. Unaffiliated voters consist of 30 percent of registered voters, just slightly fewer than Republicans. What’s your comment on this lawsuit and if successful, can you see this trickling down to all appointive boards and commissions?"
June 20, 2017 at 10:13 am
Richard L Bunce says:
Every law, regulation, etc in the Federal government and 50 States is written to maintain the grip on power of the two major parties. THAT is the biggest problem in politics, not money, not gerrymandering. Too often on NC Spin the whole conversation is built around the assumption that it is just Rs and Ds dividing the political pie.
There should be no mention in any law or regulation of any political party. Office holders appoint board members no matter what party they belong to or none. That must be accompanied by opening up ballot access of course as that is where the R and D stranglehold begins.
Thanks for bringing this topic up. It makes me very uncomfortable to be on the same side as Chris and not John.
June 20, 2017 at 10:16 am
Richard L Bunce says:
Although I understand John's technical point that this might just be political skulduggery to break the 4/4 tie. The way to do that is to not have any party requirements AND lock down what this committee is free to do so when it turns out to be not balanced it cannot lock one party or another into a stronger position in election regulation and execution.
June 20, 2017 at 11:44 am
James Laurie says:
John is totally off base about Unaffiliateds, and I take umbrage at his suggestion that Crowell's suit is "mischief". The Crowell suit is extraordinary because it is the only citizen-initiated suit seeking a constitutional remedy, in a sea of party-affiliated law suits seeking political gain. I am an Unaffiliated and have been since my registration in NC 25 years ago, and my ballot never looks like a straight party ticket, nor do the yard signs on my lawn, as some of my neighbors have noted with great party-affiliated consternation. I had already drafted and planned to file a nearly identical law suit to Michael Crowell's suit back in the Fall, but had to revise it three times due to the Bill changes and the two pending Cooper suits and rulings, so Crowell beat me to it, in a well-crafted and well grounded pleading. My point is that he is not alone; there are more than 1.8 Million registered Unaffiliateds in North Carolina, more than 30% of all voters, and are the fastest growing "party". In Wake County, as of this week, there are 60,000 more registered Unaffiliateds than registered Republican voters. There are plenty of Unaffiliateds who would not be mere party shills, who think voting rights and ethics enforcement by Boards staffed with individuals who are not party-beholden, are crucial constitutional and governmental functions that require competent people to sit on non-partisan Boards. Common Cause's anti-gerrymandering business advocates group is a large pool from both sides of the aisle, and neither side too, as are many League of Women Voter supporters. Barnacle scrapping the two established parties out of the non-partisan Boards in the statutes starts here with Crowell's suit, and can be readily accomplished through good legislative drafting. There are at least nine other Boards that could be addressed by the General Assembly, but will be addressed judicially by citizens, not parties, if not.
