Don Cole Qualified for Office

The late Tip O’Neill, Speaker of the US House of Representatives during the Reagan Administration, once said, “All politics is local.” He even wrote a book by that title. 

Local politics is government closest to home. You can see news reports about events around the world, but you feel it when your car hits that pothole in the street, or the garbage truck runs late. 

Because “all politics is local,” I qualified for Ward 3, Cordele City Commission last Friday, August 20. Continue reading

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Restore Confidence for January 5 Runoff

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that confidence in our elections administration in Georgia is in the gutter. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger can issue all the announcements he wants about how secure the election was but he may as well be saying that professional wrestling is real. There are more eyeballs rolling at his announcements than there are wheels on rolling on I-75. Continue reading

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We Ran the Race

When I let it be known that I was going to run for the 2nd District US House, many well-meaning people said that I was wasting my time and my money. Because of a long-time incumbency, the demographics, and socio-economics, the district has always been written off for a Republican challenger. 

If an analysis of the data was my basis for running, then I would have come to the same conclusion. My basis for running; however, was not merely on political analysis. Continue reading

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Randolph Did right

Southwest Georgia’s Randolph County board of elections did the right thing to abandon the plan to close voting precincts. The county hit the national news when the Elections Board considered a plan to close 7 of 9 voting precincts and consolidate them into two. The proposed plan was a local decision made by a local election board based on a recommendation from a consultant.

When Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee for Governor, heard about the plan, he was the first elected official to speak out against it: “we strongly urged local officials to abandon this effort and focus on preparing for a secure, accessible, and fair election for voters this November.” State Representative Gerald Greene, a Republican, also opposed the plan. But it was Democrat nominee Stacey Abrams and the Georgia Democrat party who saw the opportunity to make it a racial issue and blamed Republicans for attempted voter suppression.

Democrats seized on the news and shrewdly spun it as a sinister plan of Republicans to suppress the black vote. Randolph County’s population is 61% black and it is one of the poorest counties in the nation.

Chart of Precincts in Randolph County, GA

Precincts Won By Donald Trump in Red

In politics, perception is reality and the spin, based on misrepresentation, achieved the goal of attracting media attention and promoting a message that Republicans are the enemy of black Georgians. The truth is that President Trump won 5 of the 7 precincts that were on the list to be closed and nearly half his votes came from those precincts.

The Randolph County Elections Board has two members, one black female and one white male. The consultant’s recommendation was based on locations not being compliant with the Americans for Disabilities Act. It would have also presumably saved the county money by having two polling places rather than nine.

County Attorney, Tommy Coleman, who at one time was the Executive Director of the Georgia Democratic Party, told a reporter from the Washington Post, “I’m quite sure the Board of Elections didn’t intend to disenfranchise any voters. . . . This morphed into something that wasn’t their intention.”

The consultant apparently looked at voting as if it were a merely a mechanical process that could be done more “efficiently.” The recommendation to close 7 precincts and consolidate into one was not based on racial considerations. In a way, it was even more insidious. It was based on a philosophy that views public administration as a science that only professionals can understand. It is a philosophy that creates one-size-fits-all templates while losing sight of the importance of individuals and communities.

Following an outcry from the entire community, the Elections Board met a second time and quickly reversed their decision. They also terminated the consultant who recommended the plan. They did the right thing.

A process to hold and manage fair elections is a basic function of American government. In rural areas the small precinct represents a community. The best government is the government that is closest to the people. These small precinct voting places in fire stations, community centers, churches, schools, and similar gathering places are not just a place to gather votes. They are places where the freedom to vote is an open display of our great nation making the basic decisions on how we the people will govern ourselves.

The volunteer fire station where a small number of people come to vote makes a powerful statement. The elderly farmer, retired school teacher, young married couple, and single mom with a toddler walking by her side, go to the polling place. There they see other people that they know. They know the polling worker who has worked that same polling place for years. They cast their votes for everything from county commissioner to President of the United States. They take that action right there in their own community.

The money spent to provide polling places closer to the people is well spent and should be a priority in the local government budgets. Some voting precincts will be in more densely populated areas and therefore have more voters. Some will be in sparsely populated areas and have fewer voters.

Voting places in communities serve a vital role. They stand as a living witness at every election of the liberty and freedom we have as Americans. In a very real way, those tiny precincts in rural areas remind us that we are a nation of the people, for the people, and by the people. Randolph County did the right thing. I hope that other counties who might be considering similar actions will pause and ask the people before they make such a move. I also hope that counties which may have already taken such measures, will go back and reconsider reopening the smaller precincts in the less populated parts of the county.

In the Randolph County case, Republicans and Democrats wholeheartedly agreed. It was the right thing to do.

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Your Vote Counts

Your vote counts. It is so easy on election day to get busy or have something unexpected come up and, at the end of the day, you realize that you forgot to vote. Then you rationalize and tell yourself that it doesn’t really make any difference anyway.

Two candidates for Board of Education, District 3, Lanier County, Georgia will quickly tell you differently. In the Republican Primary held on May 22, three candidates ran for School Board, District 3. Phillip Connell fell just 9 votes short of winning without a runoff.

I do not live in Lanier County but I do know Phillip Connell. If I lived there Phillip would have received my vote.

In the July 24 runoff, when all the votes were cast, the result was a tie – 170 votes each. So they go another round on August 21, but there is yet another cliff hanger.

One of the candidates, JJ Strickland, is an attorney. He has filed a lawsuit “demanding” an injunction to stop the 2nd run-off and give one of his supporters an opportunity to cast a second vote in the runoff. Here is what happened.

On election day, Tyler Westlake, went to vote. He received a ballot for School Board District 4. Tyler Westlake lives in District 3. When he looked at his the ballot, the candidates for District 3 were not on the ballot.

I know you are thinking that the problem should be easily resolved. He simply had to call an election official and point out that he did not see the candidates from his district.

The election official could void the erroneous ballot and give a correct ballot, or at least a provisional ballot, until they can straighten out the matter of which ballot the voter should receive. Election officials will tell you that these questions come up in every election.

The voting machine itself has a large notice on the screen before the ballot is cast. After making all selections and before casting the ballot, there is a final large screen to make a final review before casting the vote. At the very top of the screen, in large letters is this notice:

Photo of Voting Machine with Notice

“Carefully read all instructions before proceeding. If you have any questions, DO NOT touch anything: contact a poll worker.”

Step 3 of the instructions clearly states, “Your vote is FINAL when Cast Ballot is touched.”

Westlake proceeded to cast his vote. It was only after he voted that he told the election official of the mistake.

Instead of contacting a poll worker, as soon as he saw that District 3 candidates were not on the ballot, Mr. Westlake ignored all the instructions and went ahead and voted. After he cast his ballot, he told the poll worker that received the wrong ballot.

Even with paper ballot voting, the rule is always clear: After you drop your ballot in the ballot box, the vote is final. It is too late to change your mind. It is too late to ask questions. All questions, concerns, doubts, are to be resolved before pushing the button on a voting machine, or releasing the ballot to fall into the ballot box.

Until that moment, a voter can change as often as he or she wants. But once the ballot is cast, it is cast and that vote is final.

Mr. Strickland’s lawsuit is a desperate Hail Mary pass. I suspect that there are more than a few voters in Lanier Board of Education District 3 who view this as grasping for some technicality instead of honestly doing the work to ask every voter for his or her vote.

Common sense and bold faced instructions are clear, “DO NOT touch anything: contact a poll worker.” One cannot change the rules after the game has been played. This sounds more like Democrats in 2000 and hanging chads or Hillary blaming the Russians than it does a Republican Primary in South Georgia.

From a political point, this stunt is an extremely unwise move. I predict that it will hurt Strickland in the 2nd runoff.

Lanier County is a small close-knit community. It is one thing for a person to choose to not vote in an election. Tell that same person that a candidate is asking a judge to take away his or her right to vote and “thems fightin words.”

Lawsuits like this are why lawyers are not held in high esteem in the first place. This “demand” to take the election away from the people and have a judge give Strickland’s supporter a second vote is ludicrous. This kind of thing only adds to the greasy reputation of the legal profession.

There will be a hearing on August 16 to make a determination. Strickland has already said that if the judge rules against him, he intends to file an appeal. Yet, another unwise move on his part. In the mean time, early voting has started and the election is still on for August 21.

I suspect that more than a few voters who voted for Strickland in the primary and first runoff, will not be voting for him in this one. There are probably a few who did not vote in either of the previous elections but will go vote in this one just to vote against Strickland. Voters do not like politicians who who try to find a technical loophole that robs them of their right to vote.

This November, you will have your opportunity to vote. Go vote. Your vote counts.

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Preachers and Politics – No Subject is Off Limits

Be assured, God is not deaf to the cries of the millions of innocent babies callously killed as if a sacrifice to the god of convenience. Then as if mere killing was not enough, Planned Parenthood and other organizations determined that if they killed the baby is just the right manner, they could butcher the body and sell the parts to highest bidder.

Our nation cannot continue down this path and expect that there will not be consequences from the just and righteous Creator who watched over us and formed this nation of freedom. Do not think for a moment that the great United States of America cannot fall under God’s judgment. Continue reading FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailby feather

Perpetual Half Mast

Have you ever reached for the radio dial to find a news station when you saw a flag flying at half mast? Two words probably ran through your mind. “Who died?”

When a flag was at half mast, it meant that a senior statesman died or there was a tragic event. When a flag was at half mast, it got your attention. It stood out.

Today, our flag is at perpetual half mast. Victims of terrorist attacks have barely been laid to rest before we hear of another attack. Continue reading FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailby feather