There are some things in this world that I, as I'm sure you also,
take for granted. For instance, when I turn the faucet on, I will get
water. When I turn the key in my ignition, my car will start. When
I fill out a voter's registration card and turn it in to the clerk's office, it
will be filed with the state and I will be able to vote on election day.
What if you went to start your car and it
didn't start? You would be upset. You would possibly call AAA.
You would get it fixed. Is it anyone's fault your car didn't start?
No. It happens. But we take for granted that it will start
when we want to go somewhere. What if you didn't have any water when you
turn the faucet on? Again, you would be angry but it's no one's fault you don't
have water. You will call the water department. They will take care
of it. That's the way the world works. Unless, it's the Boone County
Clerk's Office.
On September 6th, I filled out a voter's
registration card changing my party. I have been a Democrat since I was
18. I didn't know the difference in the two parties and frankly, I've
never voted party. I've always researched my candidates and voted for the
person I felt was more capable of completing the job they were being elected to
do. I filled out a card changing my party to Republican, because frankly,
I feel we have to be more fiscally responsible.
Many of our local elected officials have changed parties from
Democrat to Republican including the current county clerk, who ran on the
Democratic ticket unsuccessfully in 1996 for State Rep. The difference is, when others change their
party affiliation, their cards were entered into the state system without
incident. Mine was not.
I filed my letter of intent to run for County Clerk on October 3rd,
as a Republican. I had a press release
stating that I am a Republican. Imagine
my surprise when I went into the county clerk’s office on December 27th
to file my official papers to run and found out that the state system still
showed me as a Democrat! I was
shocked. The Deputy Clerk said she knew
a card had come in for me with a change, but she didn’t know what the change was. She saw the card. It was on her desk. Okay, it’s a mistake that it didn’t get
entered. It happens. I don’t claim to be perfect. No big deal, right?
The Deputy Clerk goes to the file to retrieve my card to enter it
into the system. It’s not there. Hmmm…it’s not entered into the system, it’s
not in the file. Mistake? Doubtful.
I’m running for the position of County Clerk. The overseer of elections. I could possibly see a mistake in not
entering it and it being filed properly.
I could possibly see a mistake in it being entered into the system, but
misfiled. But both? Fat chance.
This sounds deliberate to me.
I filled out a new card and filed my papers to run for County
Clerk. No harm. Except, what if I hadn’t gone into the office
to file my papers before December 31st? Would there have been a problem? Yes.
You only have until December 31st to change party affiliation
to run for office in the primary. That
is the cutoff. Of course, later that day
when I went back in to file the completed paperwork, the voting supervisor was waving
around the computer printout of my card.
They had scanned it into the local clerk’s office computer system on
October 11th. 35 days after I
filled it out. They still had it. They had never bothered to enter it into the
state system, which dictates how you vote.
They never filed it. They lost it
after that 35 days. But they scanned
it. Big deal. It wouldn’t have allowed me to run for office
or vote on May 20th.
I kept quiet about this for 18 days. I kept thinking they would find it. They did not.
I then went on the Boone County Neighborhood Facebook page and suggested
that anyone who had filled out a voter’s registration card in the past few
months contact the clerk’s office to make sure it was done since mine had not
been entered. Miracles of miracles, the
next day I got a phone call from the Deputy Clerk, saying they had found my
card filed in the “P”s. It only took me
going public for this to happen.
When I went to the office to see the actual card, because
basically at this point I don’t trust this office at all, the voting Supervisor
told me that it was my fault, because on the line with my signature is a date
to be filled in. I had put 8-6-2013 and
seeing my mistake, wrote a 9 over the 8.
REALLY????? This caused them to
not enter my change into the state system and lose my card??? To file my card
in the “P”s without entering it? MY
FAULT??? No apologies. Nothing but blaming me.
When I’m elected Boone County Clerk, the “mistakes” will not
happen. This is ridiculous. Of course, not surprising since things have a
way of disappearing from the clerk’s office if they might be a detriment to our
current clerk. FMLA certification papers
from a locked file in his office. His
voting record from November 2008, immediately after questions were raised about
his voting history. But those are
stories for another day.
For today, I’m disgusted with the lack of integrity in this office
and we as citizens need to restore integrity to the office of Boone County
Clerk. Vote for Ramona on May 20th!
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