Brunswick Cty Board of Elections Shafts Republicans
Another Failure of Competence
The Brunswick County Board of Elections gathered on 19 August to confirm board members and election judges for the coming term. This means these people will be the overseers of our elections in precincts come 2026.
Democrats showed up in force wearing their traditional protest regalia, blue shirts sporting the latest slave party nonsense one liners—”Join our Party.” What an odd place to pimp for voters. Seriously, one has to be impressed by their organization. Local Republicans suck at this. Democrats are at war, and Republicans are just wandering around saying “can’t we all get along?” Memo to Republicans: Democrats are here for electoral war, and the “can’t we all get along” weakness lost us California, New York, and the entire upper midwest and Northeast. Get serious or go home.
Before getting to the most pressing topic of this post, one event during this meeting deserves remark.
Fake Residency in Holden Beach?
A Holden Beach resident, Michael Felmly [R] brought a challenge against Richard F. Smith [D] who is alleged to not be a resident of Holden Beach and somehow got onto the local board there. The evidence was pretty overwhelming that this person (Smith) is a resident of High Point. The BoE decided to move forward with an evidentiary hearing. I not all this in general because much praise should be given to Mr. Felmly, who, did the right thing by questioning voter residency. Democrats always seem to cheat in elections, and this, if the evidence bears out in the hearing, would be no different.
Board of Elections Staff and the Election of Judges
The Brunswick BoE staff thinks a lot of itself. They boldly claim they should have the authoritative voice to choose who election judges in precincts are, or should be. Note the end of the minutes here to see that fact (you will also see Felmly’s excellent residency challenge with evidence):
Now just to state this so everyone understands: there is no constitutional mandate we defer to experts to choose who our election judges are. This should be in the hands of the parties. Period. Frankly, some “experts” who work for the county are, incompetent to make these decisions, and yet, they think they are awe inspiring intelligent to make these decisions.
Melissa Chambers—Elections Chief Deputy Does not Follow the Law
One astonishing event occurred and the Board followed the lead of “expert” Elections Chief Deputy, Melissa Chambers. She made up a law not in the general statutes that requires “experience” as she defined it, to be not just a judge but a chief judge. She also made up a law requiring someone from a precinct to be appointed a judge if there was a candidate available. There is no such law.
There is no requirement in the general statutes for a resident of a precinct to be appointed chief judge. The board may or may not decide to appoint a judge outside precinct. The law is clear.
§ 163‑41. Precinct chief judges and judges of election; appointment; terms of office; qualifications; vacancies; oaths of office.
(a) Appointment of Chief Judge and Judges. – At the meeting required by G.S. 163‑31 to be held on the Tuesday following the third Monday in August of the year in which they are appointed, the county board of elections shall appoint one person to act as chief judge and two other persons to act as judges of election for each precinct in the county. Their terms of office shall continue for two years from the specified date of appointment and until their successors are appointed and qualified, except that if a nonresident of the precinct is appointed as chief judge or judge for a precinct, that person's term of office shall end if the board of elections appoints a qualified resident of the precinct of the same party to replace the nonresident chief judge or judge.
It shall be their duty to conduct the primaries and elections within their respective precincts. Persons appointed to these offices must be registered voters and residents of the county in which the precinct is located, of good repute, and able to read and write. Not more than one judge in each precinct shall belong to the same political party as the chief judge.
The only requirement is that the board MAY appoint a judge from precinct to take the place of a judge out of precinct, AND if they do so, then that out of precinct judge’s term ends immediately.
Got it?
But Chambers mis-stated the law saying the board MUST elect in precinct members IF one was available, AND (deemed by her) to have “experience” in the position. In other words, when “experience” was an issue in the precinct, and though a person from a party was nominated, Chambers chose the “more experienced” person every time. There is no law requiring such choices. The only requirement is that they must live in the county they are chosen for election judge. Period.
Much of what she stated as law, is, to be honest, not true, and she continued to state said non-truths during the entire meeting. In essence, Chambers made up the law, OR she is not competent enough to understand the law. Either way, she is not fit for her public position.
So what happened? This. In Precinct by Precinct votes, The Board unanimously adopted staff recommendations, which continues the dominance of the Democratic Party in appointed Judges of Elections. Of the 27 Chief Judges, 13 are Democrats, 5 Unaffiliated, 9 are Republicans. In the 10 most populous precincts, 60% (6 of 10) of the Chief Judge positions will be Democrats while only 3 have a Republican Chief. One Chief Judge is Unaffiliated. Of the remaining 54 precinct Judges, 25 will be from the Republican Party.
This is an outrage. You can watch Chambers in her own words mis-state the law, and making up some laws, and the board blindly followed:
The board, which is Republican controlled, are feckless. They think Democrats are here to play nice. They are not. And then they handed them the majority in election judging. Their simpleton acceptance of Chambers as some kind of expert was doubly embarrassing.
Our elected board does NOT in any way, have to follow the opinions of some unelected staffer who has difficulty in getting the facts straight.
Poll watchers will have to be vigilant because of all this in the meantime.
What a disgrace.
As usual, if I missed something, send me a note, and I will correct it if I got a fact incorrect.
I whole heartedly believe Brunswick County Republicans and independents are at war with the left and Democrats. Brunswick County Democrats who moved in from other democratic states have been moving to the area for 30 yrs and have been taking over the local towns and pushing democratic policies. The Republican good old boys have sat back and watched without taking any stance. Now the freedoms the locals once enjoyed and the simple lifestyle is going away and we are being nickel and dime to death to pay for extra amenities which we already had before the great migration into our beautiful county. I am so upset I have to pay to enjoy my own beaches which just 5 yrs ago I could park and enjoy with my family after a long work day.
I’m curious about some of the details. They might be actionable if y’all can install a country party chair who isn’t party of the Uniparty.
In the meantime, did anybody dig into the voting record of the unaffiliated judges? Are they Democrats in disguise?
Are any of the appointees from out of precinct?