Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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JANUARY 17-23, 2018 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM POLITICS Rare illegal ballots still matter by JOHN HOOD President Donald Trump's claims about voter fraud are preposterous. No credible evidence suggests that millions of people cast illegal bal- lots or that candidates who outpoll rivals by several percentage points can accomplish that by fraud under modern election administration. Now that I've completed the req- uisite throat-clearing, I have a ques- tion for progressive readers: does the recent contest for control of the Virginia House of Delegates make you even a little bit uncomfortable? anks primarily to the prevail- ing anti-Trump political winds, Virginia Democrats did very well in November. eir net gain of 15 GOP-held seats put them just one seat away from a tie and a likely power-sharing deal in the Virginia House. at seat might have been won by Democrat Shelly Simonds in a Newport News-centered dis- trict. After the election-night tally showed her just 10 votes behind incumbent Republican David Yancey, Simonds sought a recount. It put her ahead by a single ballot. Republicans then successfully chal- lenged that ballot in court. e resulting tie was settled by drawing a name out of a bowl. Yancey got the luck of the draw. e GOP retained control of the legislative chamber, however unimpressively. Tied elections aren't unknown in North Carolina. As e Charlotte Observer recently reported, tied municipal races in Alleghany County, Sampson County and Mecklenburg County have been resolved by chance in recent memory. If we broaden the category a bit to include races settled by dozens or hundreds of votes, there are many more cases in municipal, county and even legislative races. For that matter, who can forget the 2000 Florida recounts? A few hundred ballots separated George W. Bush and Al Gore in a state with enough electoral votes to sway the presidential race. Com- plaints about hanging chads, butterfly ballots and premature media calls de- pressing turnout in the Florida panhan- dle weren't the only relevant controversies. Another was illegal voting, either by felons or by snowbirds and students with residences in multiple states. Over the years, North Carolina has implemented a number of policies to deter illegal voting. Still, after the 2016 election, the State Board of Elections conducted an audit that found 508 votes cast that shouldn't have counted. Most involved felons whose right to vote had not yet been restored. But there were also 41 substantiated cases of votes by non- citizens, 24 substantiated cases of double-voting and two substantiated cases of impersonation fraud, one in person and one by absentee ballot. Some activists claimed this post-election audit proved that additional measures to ensure election integrity were unneeded. eir reasoning was faulty. e audit established a floor, not a ceiling, for illegal votes cast. Impersonation fraud, for example, is likely done most of the time by people voting on behalf of their relatives, as was the case with the two substanti- ated cases in 2016. But such an audit can catch that only if the titular voters are deceased. What about voting on behalf of shut-ins or relatives with mental disabilities? Rules for both absentee and in-person voting need to be stricter to deter that. Residency fraud also merits more attention and could be better policed in part by voter-ID require- ments. If people with living quarters in multiple states – be they retirees, professionals or students – want to make North Carolina their residence for the purposes of voting, they should be required to pos- sess a state-issued ID as an indication of their true intention. (Most are already required by state law to have North Carolina driver's licenses if they want to operate a vehicle in the state for more than a few weeks, although they don't always realize that.) If you think election-integrity initiatives are nothing more than a Republican plot to suppress the vote, you should know that downplaying rare but potentially consequential cases of voter fraud only strengthens the resolve of those who favor voter-ID laws and the like, as a new Public Opinion Quarterly study con- firms. A more productive response would be to work with Republicans to implement a low-cost insurance policy against fraudulent electoral outcomes. JOHN HOOD, Chairman of the John Locke Foundation. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. The best step on North Korea: A step back by D.G. MARTIN If Charles Robert Jenkins were still around, we could ask him about how to best deal with North Korea. Jenkins, in case you don't remember, was the soldier from Rich Square, North Carolina, who spent 40 years in that country after desert- ing across the border while serving in the U.S. Army in South Korea. Before he died last month, he told Los Angeles Times writer Jonathan Kaiman the lesson he learned from his time there. "I don't put nothing past North Korea," he said. "North Korea could to do anything. North Korea don't care. "Ain't nobody live good in North Korea. Nothing to eat. No running water. No electricity. In the win- tertime you freeze – in my bedroom, the walls were covered in ice." at insight might help us better understand the nature of the country that is threatening a nuclear missile attack against major U.S. cities. But it does not lay out a strategy for dealing with the North Korean threat. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the current administration recognizes the challenge. "When President Trump took office, he identified North Korea as the United States' greatest security threat," Tillerson said. "He abandoned the failed policy of strategic patience. In its place, we carried out a policy of pressure through diplomatic and eco- nomic sanctions. "A door to dialogue remains open, but we have made it clear that the regime must earn its way back to the negotiating table." But the North Koreans have not jumped at the opportunity to talk to the U.S. Surprisingly, they are now talking to the South Koreans about the possibility of participating in the Winter Olympics, which South Korea is hosting next month. Responding to these talks and the possibility of North Korean participation, Sen. Lindsey Graham said the U.S. should boycott the Olympics if North Korea participates. "Allowing Kim Jong Un's North Korea to participate in #WinterOlympics would give legitimacy to the most illegitimate regime on the planet," she tweeted. Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un and our president trade angry threats like bullies in a school yard. Contrary to Tillerson's assertion that North Korea is our "greatest security threat," the greatest threat to the U.S. may be the fixation of people like Tillerson, Graham and Trump on Kim Jong Un. Is there a better way for the U.S. to deal with North Korea's nuclear threat than Trump's boastful threats to destroy North Korea militarily if the U.S. is provoked? e extraordinary attention given to the North Ko- rean threat is understandable, but it might be counter- productive. Our efforts, our threats, our daily absorp- tion arguably could be doing more harm than good. We may be paying too much attention to North Korea. Maybe we should take a step back, get out of the direct confrontation mode, disclaim the primary responsibility for dealing with North Korea's nuclear fixation, and adopt these guidelines: 1. Cede leadership and responsibility for North Korea to those most at risk: China, South Korea, Ja- pan and perhaps Russia. Make it clear that we will be supportive of their efforts and will cooperate with the solutions they develop, but we will not dictate terms or take the lead in any negotiations. 2. Continue to work with other nations and the U.N. to enforce and expand the sanctions against North Korea, working as a partner and not insisting on directing the effort. 3. Continue and accelerate research and construc- tion of expanded anti-missile capability, quietly and without unnecessary disclosure, working as rapidly as possible to check the North Korean missiles should they ever be launched. 4. Quietly develop, test and improve contingency plans for a strong response to any North Korea mili- tary action against South Korea. As Jenkins pointed out, there is no good way to deal with the North Koreans. But maybe a step back from confrontation would be "less bad" than our current frantic and provocative approach. Charles Jenkins D.G. MARTIN, Host of UNC's Book Watch. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. After the 2016 election, the State Board of Elections conducted an audit that found 508 votes cast that shouldn't have counted.