Howard County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Tony McGuffin called for an end to the “chaos and disarray” engulfing the county?s elections board ? a situation Democrats believe could open up the November election to fraud.
“The Republican infighting over the hiring of what should be a nonpartisan Board attorney is both unseemly and unsettling,” wrote McGuffin, in a letter Monday to Betty Nordaas, director of the Howard County Board of Elections. “[News] reports depict histrionic scenes of chaos and disarray. Moreover, the behavior of the Republican-controlled Board exposes the possibility of a partisan stacking of the deck with a partisan lawyer for post election manipulations.”
Nordaas, a Republican, said she forwarded the letter to the board members, who will provide McGuffin with a response.
The chairman of the elections board, Guy Harriman, also a Republican, said Tuesday that he could not comment on the letter, because he had not had time to review it.
A dispute about how the Board of Elections hired an attorney in the spring led to verbal sparring between one board member and the rest of the board.
Longtime Republicans Brenda Morstein and her husband, William Morstein, said the board did not advertise the position widely enough and was paying its attorney too high a fee. After listening to Brenda Morstein?s complaints, the board agreed to again advertise for the position, Nordaas said.
On Tuesday, District Court Judge JoAnn Ellinghaus-Jones extended to Jan. 11 a restraining order against William Morstein, whom two election board workers alleged was loud and belligerent with them last month and entered areas of the office reserved only for employees. William Morstein denies the allegations but has pledged not to return to the board offices, Brenda Morstein said.
McGuffin said the board?s Republican infighting, combined with questions raised about the legitimacy of national and state elections, make for an “alarming” situation that cheaters could take advantage of this November?s elections.
“Now isthe time to get the store in order,” he said. “We have electronic voting machines with no paper trails, Karl Rove is working the state on the [Lt. Gov. Michael] Steele campaign, and I don?t want someone stacking the deck.”
