Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Myth of Unaffiliated Voters in Asheville

When I received my morning paper, I read with glee the failure of the Let Asheville Vote petition.
I giggled my was through the story, and have enjoyed reading the comments from the losers on the Asheville Citizen-Times Message Board.


I must have signed that stupid petition 50 to 60 times under fake names and addresses, and there were three of my friends who said they did the same. We figure we must have added at least a hundred names to their insipid list of crybabies.

This one lady let me sign her petition at least a dozen times because she didn't recognize me! I so hope that it failsby less than 50, then I'll be assured that I single-handedly brought down the whole effort!

THere are other people on teh interwebs in Asheville talking about this glorious failure, even Screwie Hoolie, who can't decide who to root for, when he should realize that the partisan elections will lock in the Progressive Take Over of Asheville. Then we can get to work on Buncombe County, and all of the 11th district. We will never have to suffer through another Charles Taylor again.


One of the big supporters of the petition was a guy named Tim Peck, and here is where he bragged about having enough signatures to put it over the top.

But the one I really want to hear is Matt Mittan, self-proclaimed unaffiliated, but really a libertariat in disguise. I may even call in to his show and gloat on Monday if I can sneak away from my work station for a few minutes. Looks like the Fab Four have defeated Dr. Doomittan, with a little help from the Green Wizard and and his Green Elves! I'll design a Trading Card and put it up later in the week to celebrate the victory over Dr Doomittan.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a total dick you are. Kill this comment if you want, I don't care. It's more important that you read it. Just know that by cutting out people's voices by intentionally trying to sabotage a petition, you're pretty much undercutting the whole point of democracy. You're wasting everyone's time, and for what? So that ONE TIME you can influence a vote in your favor? I'm as liberal and as green as they come -- much more so than your faker, greenie-wannabe, tool-of-an-activist, insightless ass -- and even I get this. How about actually trying to work with people to solve problems instead of just being a douche and fucking stuff up?

I realize you're probably getting a kick out of this, thinking you've tweaked someone. Nope. You've just further reinforced my fear that some people are utter jerks, regardless of how many of their beliefs I might share. In other words, I'm sad that you're ruining this for the rest of us -- those that actually care, and art acting out of some kind of weak sauce attack on anything they can't bother to think out the implications of first.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure you're going to get in deep shit over this. You don't operate in a vacuum, holmes, and what you did is also illegal when there's criminal intent behind it. (Which you've admitted to here, brighteyes. Probably not in for jail time, though. Just a lot of hassle.) Hope that IP address on your email and blogspot account doesn't give you away!

timpeck said...

It is not at all clear that the petition has failed.

The referendum petition was delivered to the City of Asheville at 5:00 PM on Monday, July 16th with 6,192 signatures. The Buncombe County Board of Elections has 10 working days to verify the signatures and validate the petition. This puts their deadline at July 30th.

BOE has gone through the signatures once and has apparently found 1,733 to be invalid. That is 41 short of the required 5,000. A second pass may regain the 41.

At any rate, 4,959 valid signatures on a petition to force a referendum should not be taken as good news for city council members running for re-election.

timpeck said...

"THere are other people on teh interwebs in Asheville talking about this glorious failure, even Screwie Hoolie, who can't decide who to root for, when he should realize that the partisan elections will lock in the Progressive Take Over of Asheville."

Point of clarification:

The petition drive was organized to force the issue of partisan elections to a vote of the public.

Marsha V. Hammond, PhD said...

The voters have a wisdom beyond politics---if you'll allow them to vote. The Fab 4 : Cape; Newman; Freeborn; Jones : have stated that the voters don't count. That it does not matter what their opinion is.

Stand up Green Wizard-----and let's see who you are. Hiding is a cowardly device for those who are incompetent and dickless.

Marsha Hammond, PhD: West Asheville: hammondmv@netzero.com

Anonymous said...

That's quite a boast Green Wizard.

I seriously doubt that you actually signed the referendum petition 50-60 different times using various fake names without someone noticing. The part about signing a dozen times, using a fake name, with the same women is just too much to swallow.

Thanks for the cock and bull story. I enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

I'm seconding the coward label. It's fine to disagree with someone's politics, but trying to derail a petition drive is just cheap. It's like something the Christian Coalition would do to keep gays out of a community or something. Very cheap. For shame!

Gordon Smith said...

This post is fairly cold, Green One.

For the record, I know which side I'm on. I'm for the referendum, and if enough signatures are confirmed, then I'll vote FOR partisan elections. I'll go into all that reasoning when and if it's relevant.

But to say that a Progressive takeover is an unmitigated good thing is to knowingly and willfully deny the voices of many people in the city and the county, many of whom are sensible people who don't practice Machiavellian politics. One party rule doesn't often end well.

Oh, and regarding those who like to name call, there's nothing wrong with anonymous blogging. Bloggers each have their own reasons to maintain anonymity. For some it's because their employment might depend on it. For others it's a way to free themselves up for more daring writing. Don't forget that quite a lot of our forefathers took nom de plumes when pamphleteering.

I've got a pseudonym, but I'm hardly anonymous.

Anonymous said...

come on,

this guy doesnt really have three freinds. certainly not more.

Tim Peck said...

"but trying to derail a petition drive is just cheap."

Actually, signing the petition falsely does nothing to derail it. Even if that was the intent.

It does not matter how many invalid signatures are on the petition. The only thing that matters is how many valid signatures are on the petition.

We will find that out in a matter of days.

Anonymous said...

Well, Green Wizard, maybe you should have fought for your vote when you had a chance because what you have admitted to doing in this blog is a felony. Actually, you admitted to a couple of different felonies (believe me, we've checked). Remember, convicted felons can't vote...

timpeck said...

I believe it's a Class 2 Misdemeanor:

G.S. 163‑221. Persons may not sign name of another to petition.
http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_163/GS_163-221.html

timpeck said...

Try this link:

G.S. 163‑221. Persons may not sign name of another to petition.

timpeck said...

If you take another look at the petition, it clearly states that it is illegal to sign another person's name:

http://snipr.com/1onxg

Tim Peck said...

"Voters will decide on partisan elections" by Joel Burgess, Asheville Citizen-Times, July 31, 2007.

"Referendum petition succeeds" by David Forbes, Mountain Xpress, 07/31/2007.