Is He or Isn't He?

HippyHillNews.com (yes, for real) reports that Robert Glosson voted in Carrboro!

I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but this is the guy who legally filed to run for Mayor of Carrboro but was later disqualified when the Town Planning Director pointed out that Mr. Glosson lived just barely outside Carrboro's town limits. So if he can't legally run for office, then he certainly shouldn't be able to register and vote there.

This was an honest mistake but given that the error was exposed way back in August, someone should have rectified it by November. I imagine this is probably a case of incompetence more than maliciousness, but that's no excuse. It looks bad for the Board of Elections. Who else is voting in our towns that doesn't live here?

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Comments

Well, maybe he DOES live in Carrboro! Maybe, just maybe, he was the victim of partisan politics?

Melanie

or perhaps he just voted in the school board election if his precinct was partly in the city limits but entirely in the CH-Carrboro school district. Are we sure all the facts are in?

I was Glosson's campaign manager and treasurer...

The facts are this:

He has lived in the same location for over a decade.

He has voted in Carrboro from that location the entire time.

He grew up in Carrboro, and has voted in every election since he was 18, in Carrboro.

His job is to keep the water supply of Carrboro safe. He lives on OWASA/University property.

When he filed to run for office, the BOE checked the database before taking the payment and application, and found Glosson did live in Carrboro.

The news story about Glosson hit the papers, and the planning manager at Carrboro Town Hall called the BOE and told them Glosson does not actually live in Carrboro, but a couple hundred feet out. What promoted the call will remain a mystery. I do not claim any major conspiracy theory. Glosson is unsure.

To get Glosson out of the election, the Town of Carrboro or any voter had to challenge Glosson's candidacy. A week went by and that did not happen, but my informants told me it would for sure.

Glosson and I decided he should drop out rather than challenge a map showing a town line 200 feet off the property he lives on.

THIS IS WHERE CARRBORO SCREWED UP FROM WHAT I CAN SEE:

If Carrboro REALLY cared where Glosson lived, they would have filed a letter to BOE telling them to change his precinct status. I would bet lunch with anyone that Carrboro did not do so after they achieved the main goal--GETTING GLOSSON OUT OF THE ELECTION, after the filing deadline had passed.

If Carrboro followed through and sent a letter to BOE requesting the change, I am wrong, and BOE made a clerical error which had zero political motivation. Regardless--tihs is a joke.

The Chapel Hill News had Glosson's photo top and center of the December 31 issue, naming him the top story of the year. The CHH named him as a top story too. Neither paper got the real story which was--GLOSSON VOTED FOR VANKE!

I think more reporters read OP, than HHN, so maybe now they may pick up the phone and call Bob to confirm all of this, and print it.

HippyHillNews.com, all the news unfit to print.

Thanks Ruby for picking this up. I think anyone would find this absurd.

Once when I registered to vote after moving to Greensboro, the woman at the BOE told me that you are allowed to choose where you are registered to vote. For example, a student in school in one place could still vote where they grew up. You could only vote in one place, of course, but it was your choice as to where you where registered and voted. The woman at the BOE claimed her boss was registered in Florida. Anyone else with more knowledge about this?

It is totally illegal to vote in any precinct you do not have residency in, and spend more than 51% of your time in. That is what I am told. A Gephardt aid said Dean planned to bus voters into Iowa from out of state to attend caucuses, but that is another story.

Residency requirements differ from location to location I would guess.

College students spend more than 51% of the time at college, so I assume they could claim valid residency in the place they attend college.

PS--Requirements are spelled out on the voter registration form for NC found at http://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/pdf/form06.pdf

If you are not already registered, use the form!

I think most BOE's in NC currently allow college students to register either at their parents or at their collegiate address. This has been true for 25 years or so. Before 25 years ago, BOE's took the position that students could not vote at their collegiate addresses. UNC students and Chapel Hill activists took this issue to the NC Supreme Court in '78 or so. Last year's Board of Alderman candidate Steve Rose was one of the plaintiff's in that case, as it happens.

I'm not sure how or why you think that a phone call from Town staff to County staff re:Glosson's residency is 'political.' It happens that the planning director is probably more familiar with where the town limits are than anyone else in Carrboro. So it should not be surprising that he caught it.

What is outrageous is that Mr. Melet is so laudatory of Mr. Glosson aparently admitted and knowing violation of state law. Voting somewhere that you know you are not elligible to vote is a misdemeanor at least, I feel sure.

Carl Fox, where are you?

-Mark Chilton

Actually, it appears (after a quick review of Chapeter 163 of the NCGS) to be a class I felony.

-Mark Chilton

Mr. Glosson was never told to vote in another location and the BOE never determined what was right or wrong.

I did not say it was political of Carrboro to call BOE. I said what prompted the call was a mystery, and that I had NO conspiracy theory.

Correction--Glosson voted at a different precinct this time, but it appears was given the wrong ballot. He did not look to do anything wrong, and likely either did anyone else. This thread can die, and I would be cool with it. I don't think it's the story of 2004.

Without concluding that he necessarily had the intent to commit a Class I felony, according to HippyHillNews, he did vote for the office of Mayor for a Town he was told, only 3 months prior, that he didn't live in.

If he in fact received the ballot and did not intend to vote in a Carrboro race, I'm sure he would have just overlooked those uncontested races, right? No, according the HHNews, that didn't happen. In fact he affirmatively took up his pen and wrote in a name -- for an office he was told he himself was not a resident of, a town he was told he shouldn't have been voting in while he was living at the resevoir. Remember Vanke was not on the ballot. As we've been reminded by Jeff himself, no one accidently voted for Vanke. Each of his votes required some amount of deliberation.

I know it's not his job to police the actions of BOE workers, but wasn't he particularly well positioned to correct the mistake of being given the wrong ballot? He may not have looked to do anything wrong when he walked into his new precinct, but shouldn't he have corrected this? I find it very disappointing that he did not and then to announce, or allow this announcement to be made is unseemly.

Several years ago - less than a decade - I tried to go out to University Lake with a Brazilian couple that I wished to discuss something with. I planned to sit by the lake and talk.

Unfortunately the lake was closed (I'd never been there before and had no idea of the hours), so I parked on the grass beside the road just outside the gate, and the three of us sat down near the closed gate to talk peacefully.

After awhile a man came out of the house that I was parked in front of to tell us that the lake was closed. I told him that we were ok with that and would just talk where we were.

A few minutes later, this same man reappeared, this time with a pistol strapped around his waist. He told me to move my car from in front of his house. I asked who he was, and he told me he was the "warden" for OWASA. He showed me a drivers license when I asked for ID.

So I move my car a bit up the road off of his lawn and went back to talk with my friends beside the gate. If any of you know the recent history of Brazil, you might imagine the effect this sort of behavior had on my friends.

I called the head of OWASA (Everett something?) who lived down to his reputation of being pretty much useless.

But rest assured that if I lived in Carrboro and if this Glossen fellow is the same guy that I encountered, I would most actively oppose him. And if he's been the warden for a "decade", it's the same guy.

P.S. And, yes, the Board of Elections has a pretty much impossible job to do.

>Several years ago - less than a decade - I tried to go out to University Lake with a Brazilian couple that I wished to discuss something with.>

I think that's the opening of a LeCarre novel, but I kid.

The greater mystery is how the newspapers ever decided that Glosson's aborted run for office was the number one story of the year.

 

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