This morning's Galloway Post puts us on the wrong track and Party Elders and elected officials need to work hard at fixing this ginned up controversy today.
This is Normal post election process
I made a request to review the ballots myself Wedneday or Thursday of last week. I did so because I want to understand how the vote split urban/rural and how that might impact Reform efforts.
I was not given immediate access to the ballots. And that kind of suprised me at first blush. I was told there is a process that needs to be adhered to (like a lot of things with the DPG it apparently is not written down). I put in a formal request with the Chair and he responded that he was referred to the Secretary. It appears that Mr. Sterling's request was responded to in precisely the same manner.
There are many reasons to request a review of the ballots. and it SHOULD NEVER be interpreted as a prelude to a challenge of the election result. The assumption that a private request to see the ballots is ANYTHING more than just that is dangerous. In an email to the AJC this morning amplifying this Sterling said that he and the Mayor support Dubose as Chair and no one is protesting the results. Hopefully that puts an end to the controversy.
The ballots are public records and everyone has the right to see them. And in fact that was stipulated by all the candidates in lieu of a Roll call vote that's required by the Party Bylaws (we have been doing signed ballots for quite some time and ignoring the stipulation). Former Chair Jane Kidd chimed in this morning saying that requests to see ballots happens a lot. People want to understand the results so they can not make the same mistaken assumptions again. There is nothing contrversial about this .
No one is being denied access to the Ballots. It is just "process" and insuring the original documents are maintained during that review process. Completely legitimate to make a request privately and completely legit to have a good process surround the request
What the real issuse is
I am making no assumptions as to Mr. Sterling request. I don't know his motivations but to be honest it is none of my business or anyone else's. That Mr. Sterling's request was made public (apparently by a third party) is what people ought to be concerned about. Bringing the private and quiet request into public scrutiny brings far more disunity than the private (below-the radar) request itself. The request was in private... just as mine was.
Look. Politcs is multidimensional People need tounderstand the art of politics and the need to open mutiple diplomatic lanes of communication (nuanced or not). People need to understand the nature of political leverage: What it looks like, how it gets created and how it works. People need to sit down and let politicians build the stage necessary for real unity to take place. The political contruction necessary for Democrats in Georgia is being built as I write this. No one needs to be walking around with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer.
Stoking or staging needless controversy creates disunity. It chokes off reform... It chokes off money. It chokes off unity. and no one benefits. Going to Galloway was an unbelievably asshat thing to do. And predictably it has backfired. The real question is how does true poliitcal leadership respond.
What I really think.
People need to be challenged for getting involved in things they know very little about. It was quiet request. The only reason anyone even knows about the request is because someone whispered in Galloway's ear. The question is who. The leak to Galloway was juvenile, myopic, uninformed and shameful conduct.
Anyone who suggests that the election result is in doubt or will be challenged is a fool. It would have happened immediately after the election and it didn't. It's Done!
People need to follow the breadcrumbs and look for "Party Insiders" with one-dimensional political skills in three dimensional world; because that is where the issue is and that's the biggest obstacle to party unity.
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