My thoughts

This week as the New Hanover County Commission met, its inability to swear in and seat the two highest vote winners from the November election was another low point.

For more than a year, commissioners had been hampered by the absenteeism of beleaguered Commissioner Brian Berger. Berger’s term thankfully expired along with that of Tom Wolfe’s, appointed to fill the remainder of now Rep. Rick Catlin’s two-year term.

For many in the county, seating two new commissioners was a high priority. The county needed to refocus on county business, not county drama, but the board remains the old board of four, and drama swirls once more.

A man named John Christian Anderson has caused a delay in seating the freshly elected Skip Watkins and Rob Zapple. Not many knew Anderson’s name before he inserted himself into the election process with his protest. Anderson said he has lived in the county “a long time,” but would not say how long. He said he is in real estate and construction businesses, but would not elaborate. He lost the protest and has appealed to the state.

Watching election returns at the government center on election night, as the vote tally for the commissioner’s race switched up again and again, it was clear every vote was going to count. The final precinct to tally was the 29^th, voting at Williston school, in the inner city.

W29 saw 758 voters on Election Day; another 550 votes were cast pre-election. Anderson, whose address on his protest is listed in Long Leaf Hills, was not one of them.

Anderson’s protest says, from his vehicle outside the elections board office at 11:30 p.m., he observed the final ballot box being delivered into the election board by the back door. For whatever reason, Anderson finds this suspicious.

For the chief judge to come in by the back door was legal, but not encouraged. Chief election judges like this one, who worked nonstop voting, picked up their election materials from this very same back door, but all were told to bring the ballots to the front door election night.

Anderson’s protest alleges misconduct of election officials and questions the integrity of the votes cast in the W29.

In his zeal, Anderson went to the work place of a Williston precinct judge. He was turned away there, but not before the judge gave him his phone number. Anderson inexplicably returned the next day. Following this second visit, a text arranged a meeting at the Oleander office of Congressman-elect David Rouzer. During this interaction with the 20-something, well-regarded judge, Anderson referenced his connections in Raleigh, that he had relationships, people he knew including a “Rep Lewis,” and Rep Tim Moore, (but not the local delegation).

He questioned the judge about blue Democratic election materials left in the voting booth on Election Day. Anderson then filed a protest asking to disqualify the votes from the Williston precinct (which would change the outcome of the election) or hold a new county commission election.

While no campaigning materials are allowed to be distributed within 50 feet of the voting place, voters may take in with them anything they need to cast their vote with no restrictions, including sample ballots. Leaving them behind, however is a no-no.

Precinct judges say they took action as soon as they were made aware of the ½ page blue election materials, removed them and then monitored the situation as best they could at this busy polling place. Even though three poll observers were present, no complaints have been made from anyone at the 29th precinct, or from the local Republican Party.

Campaign materials incidents are apparently not uncommon; similarly, materials stacked on a table inside the Northeast Regional Library, on Military Cutoff Road, were the subject of an incident report, but this incident didn’t stall the election results.

At the library, a couple saw the materials, in this case Republican sample ballots, inside the 50-foot protected area and took their concerns to Phil Bloedom, chief election judge at that polling place.

In the incident report, the incredible back-and-forth dialogue between the voters and Bloedom, if true, is highly disturbing, much more so than the blue election materials at Williston.

Why then did the Democratic materials found in the voting booth at Williston put a lockdown on the seating of the new commissioners?

These are training issues, not an issue of law or statute, the NHC GOP chairman said, which was echoed almost word for word by the NHC Democratic Party chair.

As the final precinct reporting on election night, Zapple’s win was assured by the votes from Williston. The W29 is a heavily Democratic precinct; of the 4,275 registered voters in W29, 3,033 are Dems; Republicans make up only 244 of registered voters, 995 are “other.”

Election Day, there was a crowd in line as the doors closed at 7:30 p.m.

When the tally was finally in, candidate Derrick Hickey received just 71 votes to Commissioner- elect Rob Zapple’s 604 votes in W29. Skip Watkins received only 13 more than Hickey. Zapple had a combined total of 1,037 from the W29, however Patricia Spears received 27 more votes in the precinct than Zapple.

In this overwhelmingly Democratic precinct, for Dr. Derrick Hickey to win over Rob Zapple would have been a shocker.

Listening to a recording of Anderson speaking during an interview after his protest was denied by the Board of Elections, he consistently used the royal “WE” as in “we believe, we feel . . .” When quizzed on this use of “we,” he said he was friends with Derrick Hickey, then quickly added, he was friends with all of the candidates.

The hearing of the BOE was pretty bizarre, with Anderson interrupting, audibly and visibly angry, challenging the chairman, shouting, arm in the air, then storming out.

Anderson said this week suspicion was a “matter of habit” for him.

Speaking with Anderson creates more questions than answers.

In this Much Ado About Nothing, one wonders what is really going on here, but no one is laughing. What dog does Anderson have in this fight? How close a friend is he of the Hickeys? And what could Anderson hope to gain by overturning the election?

All good questions. In the meantime, the county commission is on pause yet again.