Strong-arm Tactic

This is a good editorial by Sen. Ham Horton in today's Winston-Salem Journal...

Though June Atkinson, the Democrat candidate, won a clear majority of votes in the election, we still don't have a superintendent of public instruction.

The case went to court and the law was clear: A voter must vote in his own precinct. So 11,310 votes, cast out of precinct, were thrown out, and the State Board of Elections was ordered to declare a winner without considering these votes. Enter the Democrat majority in the State Senate, which introduced Senate Bill 82, which would take jurisdiction of contested elections away from the courts and vest it in the General Assembly with its clear Democrat majority. The idea of a fair, dispassionate hearing in the courts for election disputes was summarily discarded.

In short, SB 82 would mean that any Democrat could contest losing an election with the assurance that the General Assembly would award him the seat anyway.

And SB 82 would apply retroactively to the 2004 election. Talk about changing the rules after the game is over!

The brazen arrogance of this strong-arm tactic reminds one of sub-Saharan Africa. The rule after the colonial powers awarded self-government was "one man, one vote, one time." The end was one party rule.

SEN. HAM HORTON, Winston-Salem