State elections board: Rightly cracking down

The State Board of Elections rightly sent a strong message to their local counterparts at its late December meeting: You must assure that elections are run with integrity and efficiency; partisanship and other bad behavior will not be tolerated.

The state board, in issuing a stern warming to members of the Watauga County board and expelling a member from the Beaufort County board, signaled to the public that the 2014 elections, the first to be run by Republican-controlled state and county boards since 1992, will be conducted on the up-and-up.

In Watauga, which has long had a reputation for bare-knuckled politics, the current local board has been embroiled in internal rancor all year. There was a local decision that appeared aimed at reducing Appalachian State University student turnout, and there have been various other problems locally.

According to WRAL-TV News, the state board warned the local panel that the kind of infighting and bad behavior seen in Watauga to date is not acceptable, and state board Chairman Josh Howard sent two of his members to Watauga to deliver that message.

In Beaufort, local board member Delma Blinson made a motion at a recent local tea party meeting to endorse Republican U.S. Senate candidate Greg Brannon, according to the N.C. Insider newsletter. On Friday, after Blinson confirmed that he had made that motion, the state board removed him from office.

State law prohibits board members from making "written or oral statements intended for general distribution or dissemination to the public at large supporting or opposing the nomination or election of a candidate for public office."

Republicans have majorities on the state and local boards because state law gives partisan control at both levels to the party of the sitting governor. But, state law and historic precedent also make clear that board members at both levels are required to act independently and without party favoritism.

Howard, the state chairman, and his members deserve kudos for taking strong action to reassure the public that electoral integrity will be maintained.