Support and Defend

This morning I took office as a newly appointed member of Pamlico County's Board of Elections. Sue Whitford, Pamlico County's Register of Deeds, did me the honor of administering the oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of North Carolina.

This is the ninth time I have taken such an oath, modeled on the one prescribed in the United States Constitution for the President.

I take the obligation to support and defend the Constitution very seriously. One way or another, I have devoted my adult life to that endeavor.

As oaths of allegiance go, the United States oath broke new ground. In European monarchies, the usual procedure when the monarch died was for all military officers and high government officials to swear allegiance to the new king (or tsar or kaiser). But our constitution provided for replacing the president every four years or perhaps more often in case of death. In addition, the president was not a sovereign. The people were sovereign.

So to whom should federal military officers and other public officials swear allegiance? Should they swear a new oath every time a new president was elected?

The solution was an oath to "support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." It also worked nicely as a presidential oath, avoiding the religious issues inherent in the British coronation oath.

The Board of Elections is a major player in defending the Constitution. If the people are sovereign, the way they exercise that sovereignty is at the ballot box.

I think we can be proud of the way elections are run in Pamlico County. I will work hard to make sure we continue that fine tradition.