Play Fair!

Play Fair!

The assumption in any game is that opponents have an equal chance of winning. The rules of the game are such that, given an awareness of the rules, each side can prevail. The winner is the one who knows the rules best or who plays better. One‘s chance is as good as the other.

Such evidently is not the case in politics. After years of efforts to gerrymander the districts by the North Carolina General Assembly (an effort determined illegal by the courts), it appears at least one candidate is willing to take it to the next level. It seems that Mike Harris wants to go to Congress so badly that he would employ “any means necessary” to ensure his election. So much so that the North Carolina Board of Election has refused to certify the razor narrow election of Harris in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. Even his Republican opponent in the primary questioned his methods.

The result, pending investigation, may be a new election in the District. Certainly voter confidence in the results has been shaken. The actions of Harris were anything but fair. It would appear it was a win at any cost strategy.

As I understand it, Absentee voters were targeted, particularly in rural counties. Harris supporters approached these voters with offers to “help” fill out the ballots. Those that were favorable were submitted, those that were unfavorable were discarded. The supporters may have gone further in some ballots, actually filling out the ballots for Harris, even if the voter intended otherwise.

While this race was close, it is not possible to count the number of ballots affected by this method. That it could be enough to overturn the election is beside the point. We cannot send to Congress people who would use such methods to win. Even though Mr. Harris professes to be a “Man of God”, such methods must be described as evil. Our assumption is that people elected deserve to be there. In this case that assumption is clearly wrong. The “one man, one vote” rule is clearly violated.

With North Carolina receiving national attention with the Legislators effort at gerrymandering and the oft stated concern with voting fraud, it is ironic that the culprit is from the party that seems most focused on this. Maybe it just like they said in the old days “The guilty one does the most talking”.

Maybe this investigation will lead to new elections in this district. At the very least voter confidence in election results should be restored. We must ensure this never happens again.

Fair play matters in politics as it does everywhere else.

Merry Christmas!

Brad Thompson