Words

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

Through the Looking Glass.

The White Queen

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Alice in Wonderland.

Public Records

We've had a few discussions over the past year or so about public records in North Carolina. Among other things, a public record is pretty much any record made of the public's business.

Here's what North Carolina General Statutes have to say:

"§ 132 1. "Public records" defined.

(a) "Public record" or "public records" shall mean all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data processing records, artifacts, or other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance in connection with the transaction of public business by any agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions. Agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions shall mean and include every public office, public officer or official (State or local, elected or appointed), institution, board, commission, bureau, council, department, authority or other unit of government of the State or of any county, unit, special district or other political subdivision of government.

(b) The public records and public information compiled by the agencies of North Carolina government or its subdivisions are the property of the people. Therefore, it is the policy of this State that the people may obtain copies of their public records and public information free or at minimal cost unless otherwise specifically provided by law. As used herein, "minimal cost" shall mean the actual cost of reproducing the public record or public information.)"

Seems pretty clear.

So any record made by a public official in connection with the people's business is a public record. It doesn't matter whether it was made on or with a privately owned piece of equipment, it is a public record. And it must be turned over to the public agency's official custodian of public records.

More on Learning

It's good to learn from your mistakes.

It's better to learn from those of others. As Eleanor Roosevelt once noted, you can never live long enough to make them all yourself.

Learning

A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.

Will Rogers

Voting Convenience

I've been telling people about the on-line conveniences for voters in North Carolina, but I hadn't tried them out.

Until now.

I decided to look for my very own sample ballot for the May 4th Primary. Here's how:

1. Log on the the Pamlico County Government web site;
2. Click on Departments;
3. Select Elections;
4. Click on "Registration Lookup and Sample Ballot;"
5. You will find yourself at the State Board of Elections site;
6. Fill in your name and date of birth, then select Pamlico from the drop down list of counties;
7. Click "submit" and you will see your voter information, including voter history;
8. Click "my sample ballot," and you will see your very own ballot style for the May 4th Primary, based on your party registration and where you live.

Amazing!

The State Board of Elections has posted this information for every registered voter in North Carolina.

You still have to make up your own mind who to vote for.

Voter Qualifications

Every citizen of the United States has the right to vote somewhere - unless that right has been taken away by a court. Even citizens who live abroad have the right to vote.

It wasn't always that way. As I pointed out elsewhere, the United States began with a restricted electorate, but has been expanding it over the years. Of the four individuals who take part in meetings of the Pamlico County Board of Elections, I am the only one who would have been allowed to vote by our original constitution. If, that is, I had owned enough property and didn't adhere to the wrong religion.

I am old enough to remember poll taxes, white primaries, protracted residence requirements, domicile restrictions (wife must have the same domicile as the husband), literacy tests, and polling place obstacles preventing those with handicaps from voting. My mother was born before women had the constitutional right to vote. My daughter in law's parents (Pottawatamie and Cherokee tribes) were born before Native Americans were granted citizenship rights. I remember when voter registration offices were seldom open.

Those obstacles have all been removed.

There are procedures to be followed, but the presumption is in favor of the opportunity of the voter to vote, not in favor of procedural obstacles to voting.

The reason we have election judges at polling places is that some circumstances require judgment. As the Executive Director of the NC State Board of Elections has said, "Since the voting process involves so many people and a never-ending variety of situations may present themselves, we must trust our elections officials to use good judgment and common sense."

Wallace v. Sanford

Many people remember the key sound bite from George Wallace's 1963 inaugural address as Governor of Alabama: "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

Fewer remember the central theme of Wallace's 1962 campaign: opposition to registration of African American voters. That theme emerged as early as 1959 when then circuit court judge Wallace refused to turn over voting records to a federal commission investigating discrimination against black voters. He eventually turned the records over under threat of jail, but continued to posture against the federal government.

Elsewhere in 1962 while Wallace was running for governor, Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi incited a mob of people proud to call themselves "rednecks" to riot at the University of Mississippi to prevent James Meredith from entering the University.

1963 was a blur of events: George Wallace "stood in the schoolhouse door" to oppose entry of two black students into the University of Alabama; Medgar Evers was shot and killed; Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech in Washington, DC.

Almost unnoticed in the rest of the country, four days after George Wallace's defiant inaugural, Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina said it was time to "quit unfair discrimination and to give the Negro a full chance to earn a decent living for his family and to contribute to the higher standards for himself and all men."

A long-lost eight-minute film of that speech - a unique declaration by a Southern governor in that era - was shown publicly for the first time earlier this evening in Chapel Hill.

Talk about a profile in courage!