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Billy Joe Fudge: Comment of City Mayoral Election issues

Personal Commentary

By Billy Joe Fudge

I recently had the pleasure of sitting through the hearing concerning the integrity of the city of Columbia's election which was before Judge Vance.

Oh yes, the proceedings wore on at a snail's pace but that is just how the wheels of justice roll, laboriously slow but they roll, and in the end, that is all that matters.

I would love to say that I came away from the proceedings extremely proud of the judicial process and the manner in which both "sides", if you will, presented their cases. Local folks discussing matters of great Constitutional importance can sometimes let emotions overcome good judgment. However, each of the parties conducted themselves with professionalism and with a soft and caring, neighborly demeanor.


Yes the election was wrought with:
  • several foul ups,
  • many inconsistencies,
  • some structural failures,
  • much lack of attention to detail,
  • poor planning,
  • and a couple of disturbing breaches of protocol.
Now were any of these individually or all of them collectively of such severity to have caused Curtis to win and Ben to lose? We will never know.

What we do know is that there were several voters who were disenfranchised in some capacity by the following:
  • there were several voters for which the process was so burdensome that their votes may not have been legitimate,
  • and there were those whose intent to vote may have been compromised by inattention to detail,
  • and there were some who lived in the county who could have inadvertently been allowed to vote in the city,
  • and there were some who lived in the city who may not have been able to vote in the city for any number of reasons,
  • and because of a couple of the precinct voter lock boxes not being sealed correctly, hmmm.
I would think that our new County Clerk is committed to:
  • eliminating the foul up
  • making the process more consistent,
  • building a solid infrastructure,
  • paying attention to detail
  • developing a strategy to assure the integrity of the process,
  • and to making sure that all protocols are followed in order to eliminate any suspicion of impropriety.
Now to the question I've been asked several dozen times by several dozen people. "Should we have another election?"

My answer is, "it is not my call and this is why Judge Vance is getting paid the big bucks", but I can assure you:
  • that if we can't maintain the integrity of the process here on the local level in little ol' Columbia,
  • then we won't be able to maintain the integrity of the process in Frankfort, consequently, we can rest assured that the integrity of the process will continue to be in question in Washington, D. C.,
  • and I fear, yes I fear that our "government of the people, by the people and for the people" may very well continue to diminish.


This story was posted on 2015-03-08 05:10:05
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Kenny Absher: Local library best entity taxpayers pay for

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View even more articles in topic Commentary
  

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