The Town of Lake Santeetlah municipal election began in the usual way: five, full-time resident incumbents qualified to run and no one else decided to give it a shot.
During the nearly four months that followed registration to run, the town council busied itself with solving problems: kudzu’s rampant growth, water-quality testing, completing long-delayed maintenance of the water system, developing a plan to upgrade Internet service, completing a six-year process to modernize the zoning code, resolving a major lawsuit and approving a variance request for a 10-unit condominium kept the Town Council very occupied – sometimes holding two meetings per week.
While the people’s business was being handled, the plot by a small group of non-residents to abuse the election process was well underway. Within a very short time before the election, many non-residents decided to declare residency and were allowed to register to vote. This sudden burst of civic conscience by non-residents created a total of 27 voters – more than half the total votes were for write-in candidates who were not full-time residents. That is the highest percentage in the entire state of North Carolina.
Is this election fight just the usual contention in Santeetlah, or is it more?
Perhaps this election contention was happenstance, or just smart political strategy on the part of unhappy people. Perhaps the late registrants should have been rejected because they provided no proof of residence. Six of the late registrants are from one family who have no home in Lake Santeetlah. Their residence burned to the ground a few years ago. All six registered for the first time on Oct. 6, 2021.
Another late registrant did the same thing in the 2015 election and then gave up her claim to residence after finishing a very contentious term on the town council. That person now claims residency for a second time. She received enough write-in votes to be on the town council. Two other late registrants live elsewhere in North Carolina, demonstrated by their Graham County and Lake Santeetlah bills being mailed to their real residential address.
Making sure all phases of the election comport with state law is the responsibility of the Graham County Board of Elections. One of the issues that will be reviewed by the Board is the tsunami of late registrants. Is the claim that you intend to live here in the future sufficient to prove full-time residence? We shall see.
A handwriting expert should be hired to determine if the signatures on absentee ballots match the penmanship on the write-in candidates’ names. If the match is not established, there may be questionable activity by the organizers of the write-in campaign.
There have been numerous protests filed with the Graham County Board of Elections, the State Board of Elections, the N.C. Attorney General and the U.S. District Attorney.
This process will play out. The best outcome would be to call for a new election. The historically-apolitical Thunderbird Property Owners Association – which includes more than 100 owners in Lake Santeetlah – has asked for a new election. The Attorney General and U.S. District Attorney should open files and determine if anything questionable went on.
Just in case you think this columnist has a conflict as an incumbent or does not have faith in the Graham County Board of Elections, I did not file a protest and will not run if a new election is called. Public service has become a contact sport and roughing the incumbents without earning a penalty is the objective.
New homeowners who really are full-time residents need to step to the plate and be good stewards of the wonderful Town of Lake Santeetlah.
Roger Carlton writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. Email him at rcarlton57@hotmail.com.