There probably could not have been a worse scenario for the Bladen Improvement Political Action Committee than for the governor’s race to be so tight that recounts and close scrutiny of each county’s voting practices comes into play.
That’s exactly what has helped to put the Bladen PAC in the cross-hairs of the Gov. Pat McCrory campaign and the N.C. Board of Elections, and we couldn’t be more pleased. In short, it amounts to an IRS audit — political style.
For the better part of a year, at least two local news organizations, including the Bladen Journal, have attempted to get information about the Bladen Improvement group — its officers, its financial statements, its mission statement, etc. At every turn, led by the group’s President Horace Munn, the responses were both evasive and uncooperative.
But now, with a full-blown investigation being conducted by the current governor and the state’s Board of Elections, the arrogance of those heading up the Bladen Improvement group won’t be an option.
We would be severely remiss if we didn’t also give kudos to McCrae Dowless, who initially filed a complaint with the N.C. Board of Elections over what he said was “a massive scheme to run an absentee ballot mill involving hundreds of ballots, perpetrated by and through the Bladen County Improvement Association PAC.”
While Dowless may be pointing specifically to his own race, who’s to say the scheme didn’t also run the gamut of races?
To further the evidence of fraudulent balloting, numerous Bladen County ballots have been examined by a forensic document handwriting expert.
Although Dowless’ complaint centers around his own candidacy for Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor, it has allowed for the opening of a can of worms — creating the Bladen Improvement PAC’s worst nightmare.
Running lockstep with this investigation is also an investigation by the state Board of Elections into the fact that Michael Cogdell, a Bladen County commissioner and member of the Bladen Improvement PAC, illegally took photographs inside a polling site during early voting — which hearkens back a few years when Delilah Blanks, also a county commissioner and member of the PAC, was caught attempting to cast a ballot twice (she claimed she was testing the system).
Locally, many voters and candidates alike have experienced just how rude, threatening and intimidating members of the Bladen PAC can be at polling sites.
It is our hope that the investigations into the Bladen Improvement PAC will clearly reveal what we have suspected for years now — that this group has anything but an interest in improving Bladen County and has operated (allegedly) illegally using any means necessary to accomplish its divisive and, at times, racist mission.
It really needs to be ripped apart.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“A bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind … for your pocket-book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved. This is true for farmers and politicians alike.” (George Washington)