First of all: our local Cleveland County Board of Elections, the Director and Staff have excelled in their attention to detail, professionalism and non-partisanship in the 2016 General Election. The Board of Election ran a low key but effective operation that should be reported to all and congratulations are certainly in order. Of course there were problems and issues that will be reported and discussed later in this article. But observation of the Cleveland County Board of Elections operations during the 17 days of early voting, a large turnout on Election day, a fast, furious and accurate vote count here in Cleveland County and the major problems with the inaccurate vote counts and obvious voter fraud in other counties in North Carolina show just how good our elections are run here at home. We, at Citizens For Good Government, usually concentrate our attention on problems with our government agencies, as that is the best way to focus efforts on improvement-by fixing the problems. Also, most county agencies pat themselves on the back enough already in their press releases. However, the Cleveland County Board of Elections just concentrates, without fanfare, on doing their job right in the first place, didn’t complain about all the work or the last minute orders from activist judges that basically gutted accurate voter identification. Job well done by the CCBOE and other county agencies should follow by example.
Unfortunately Governor-Elect Roy Cooper will appoint a new Board of Elections in all 100 counties in North Carolina as well as the State BOE that will be controlled by Democrats, who don’t believe there was ever any voter fraud. Oh well folks, elections have consequences. And a Democrat controlled Boards of Elections will be formed in Raleigh and over time in most every county in NC.
Now, for the rest of the story:
Here at home in Cleveland County numerous cases of improper voting were discovered by the Elections Board Staff and a report by a private citizen which have caused a series of special called meetings of the CCBOE. At the November 22, 2016 and November 28, 2016 meetings the most outrageous local violation of election law discovered to date was a convicted felon, Robert Dean Hudson, who is presently serving probation on a felony charge as was described recently in The Shelby Star. Basically Hudson showed up at a Cleveland County voting location during early voting and illegally voted.
Hudson was convicted of the felony in September 2016 and was placed on Probation. (The record of Hudson’s felony conviction had not yet showed up at the Board of Elections or Hudson would have been turned away.) Part of that Probation stated that Hudson was required to not commit any crimes while on probation. This is a standard condition for most (maybe all) felony probation conditions. According to North Carolina law, convicted felons like Robert Dean Hudson are not allowed to vote until their sentences; Prison time, Probation, Restitution, etc. have been successfully completed and their right to vote is restored. Hudson’s probation was not completed and his right to vote had not been restored. Hudson just illegally voted in the early voting session and was reported–basically caught “red-handed” as the Board of Elections record of who voted clearly shows Hudson voting in the early voting period and then the that fact was compared to the Department of Corrections felony conviction records. I looked this up myself and Hudson did illegally vote, a felony all by itself, and simply got caught.
