prettygirl - When Ms Clarke slandered me in a public meeting I came on this board to clear my name.
Heather,
here is Ms. Clark's statement, in full, which I copied from another thread. Kindly highlight what in here is slanderous to you. Also I would suggest that someone who made an exercise of attempting to file official accusations of wrongdoing against fellow citizens (apparently thwarted by failure to follow the process correctly, if I understand what you have written below correctly) based on nothing more than an outdated copy of GIS information should be a little more tolerant of having accusations thrown her own way. Dish it out, take it, you know, that whole thing.
Mayor, Commissioners, Town Manager, Attorney, Clerk, and residents, my name is Faythe Canson Clark, and this is my daughter, Maya Canson Clark. We live at 50 Chatham Forrest Drive, Pittsboro, NC.
I would like to address you concerning an incident that occurred last week, involving my family, and of great interest to the residents of the Town of Pittsboro.
On Tuesday, October, 20th my daughter and I voted in the election for Mayor and Commissioner. On Friday, October 23rd, I received a phone call that there was some question concerning the validity of my vote and whether or not I was a legal resident. I immediately called Dawn Stump of the Board of Elections, and she informed me that Heather Johnson had been in the office inquiring about my place of residence. Ms. Stump then told me she had done a “drive by” to see if there was indeed a residence located at 50 Chatham Forrest Drive, and confirmed for Ms. Johnson that she did indeed believe that some lived there. When I asked of what business was it of Ms. Johnson to check into my place of residence, I was told by Ms. Stump that she (Ms. Johnson) “takes an interest in all kinds of things.” As I went on to explain that I had voted previously in the Town, Ms. Stump told me she knew and had verified that I voted in the liquor by the glass initiative.
I asked Ms. Stump if it were typical for her to do a “drive by” when someone questioned a voter and she said no, we just did it because it was so close. I then explained that my son would be in to vote as well, and asked would he have trouble, and she said no, she doesn’t think there is anything to worry about. At that point, even though I was upset about being investigated in this manner. I decided to drop it.
On Sunday, October 26th, I returned from the grocery store to find a person parked in the lot. When I exited my car, she asked, “Do you live here?” When I told her yes, she asked if I was Faythe Canson Clark. I immediately became defensive as this person I had never seen before seemed to know more about me than I cared for them to know. She immediately, without identifying herself, went into being told that there was someone living erroneously at a business address and using it to vote in the Town. Then she asked me if I rent here. I, of course told her it was none of her business and walked away.
Here is my concern about this ruse:
o How does someone, who does not live in the Town have a right to question the residency of someone who does?
o Why did the Manager of the Board of Elections do a “drive by” on my residence if there was no formal complaint filed (and a complaint can only be filed by a person who lives in the Town)?
o What more proof than a voter registration card mailed to the address in question; presented as ID when preparing to vote; and, a previous voting history is needed to be recognized as a registered voter in the Town of Pittsboro?
o Last, what Town sanctions are there against innocent residents being harassed by non-residents and the press based on the unfounded accusations of a woman of questionable integrity acting, I hope, on her own to sabotage a political candidate?
You see, I am the daughter of the Late Virna M. Canson, Retired West Coast Regional Director of the NAACP. I spent the majority of the young life having bricks hurled through our front window, campaign signs burned on our lawn, car tires being slashed, and with a police escort to-and-from school because of my family’s insistence that equal rights under the constitution be upheld. I know the threat that angry individuals acting without restraint and again, I hope, without party affiliation and support can do to harass and intimidate voters they believe will buckle under their unique-style of pressure. I would hate to see the Town of Pittsboro become a place where this type of behavior from the past is allowed to resurface.
To Dawn Stump’s credit, I believe she simply made a mistake, and allowed her desire to keep this quiet and see everyone quickly satisfied get in the way of her judgment. I also believe she thought it was over once she verified that I am in fact a resident.
To Rebekah Cowell of the Independent Weekly, I sensed her deep regret at having interrupted my family time on a Sunday afternoon with questions about something of no concern, as she called me this morning to apologize.
To Ms. Johnson, however, who does NOT live in the Town of Pittsboro, and who has NOT had the courage to speak with me directly, I say had it been anyone else, someone not experienced in tactics used to incite unfounded emotions and accusations for the purpose of swaying public opinion, the result of your actions may have been quite different, and your behavior is out of order.
My reason for bringing this to you tonight is, I hope that we will all take personal responsibility to see that this type of harassment does not take place again in this wonderful Town. I especially ask that it never be allowed to take place by the same person.
Now, back to your post:
I was then accused of facilitating a witch hunt.
I didn't see anyone accuse you of a witch hunt, though I may have missed it. I did accuse you of a fishing expedition, and as more info about what your were doing became apparent, that characterization was shown to be completely accurate.
To prove that this was not the case, and upon the request of peacefulcapitalist, I posted the names of the registrations in question
Just to be clear Heather, I never asked you to post the names of the voters you tried to challenge. I only asked you to explain how you were choosing whom to challenge.
As far as I know, the only place you posted names was in reply #29 of this thread:
http://chatham-county-nc.com/bulletinboard/index.php/topic,15705.15.htmlAnd you will observe that there are no posts from me in that thread before you posted the names, and no one who posted before you asked for the names. The only thing close was a post from Claude Bowles asking if you had challenged Faith Clarke's voter registration, which is a question that I'm not sure required you to post a list of names as an answer.
Lastly I will add that I personally found this whole episode disappointing. I have many times said that while I don't support your views, the county needs an effective opposition force to check the power of the Coalition and hold them accountable for their actions in government. One party rule stinks, regardless of the party. The county (and the country) needs sane Republicans.
I had viewed you and Chris and your group as a significant upgrade from the calcified, old boy GOP (including the fake Democrats who are really GOPers) that the county was used to, in many ways.
However instead of providing vigorous advocacy for conservative issues that you believe in, you've provided the county with candidates who refuse to debate issues in public, and you've attempted to knock voters off the rolls rather than expand your base. In that way you've not only imitated the Coalition tactics that in 2007 you thought were so bad, you went further in it than they ever did.
Yes fishing through outdated public data looking for voters to challenge whom you don't know and otherwise have no reason to suspect of any kind of wrongdoing offends me deeply, maybe more so than it does others and maybe you didn't see it as a lowdown voter suppression tactic and an attack on those challenged for no real good reason. But it strikes me as such a lowdown tactic that I would not have expected from you and Chris. And using the pretense that Lyle Estill tried to register improperly two years ago is weak, considering that he was blocked by an alert BOE with no help from anyone else.
Hopefully the emotion of the Pittsboro election will fade and you will go back to positive organization, vigorous issue advocacy, and holding the progressive county leaders you oppose accountable for their actions.
My closing thought on this is: if only you guys would put as much effort into scrutinizing the county budget as you did the voter rolls.
And to quote Forrest Gump, that's all I've got to say about that.
