Friday, July 30, 2010
Politics Angry that Norwood was thwarted by judge? Don't be
Posted by Scott Henry on Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 3:19 PM
1) Georgia's restrictive ballot-access laws scuttled her campaign
It's more difficult here for a third-party candidate to get on the ballot than almost anywhere else in the country. As an independent, Norwood needed to come up with a ridiculously large number of petition signatures.
That said, those hurdles had nada to do with her failure to qualify as a candidate. They are two completely separate procedures. Every candidate — even write-in candidates — is required to qualify to run for office.
2) Commission Chairman John Eaves kept her off the ballot
Eaves apparently had threatened to challenge some of Norwood's petition signatures on what seem like picayune technical grounds, a move that made him look small and desperate. However, Eaves did not make Norwood miss the qualifying deadline.
3) The county's qualifying rules are impenetrable
Wrong. There may be plenty of hard-to-find or difficult-to-decipher documents on the Fulton site — and, indeed, most government sites — but the qualifying rules aren't among them. I found an explanatory PDF in about 10 seconds, after Googling "fulton county" and "qualifying."
And as instructions go, these couldn't be much clearer:
4) The county elections board zapped Norwood on a technicality
Yeah, like midnight, April 15, is a technicality with the IRS. It's called a deadline and if you miss it, you're not a candidate. It's not even as if it's a tight window. Norwood — and everyone else — had a four-and-a-half-day period in which to submit her qualifying forms. Frankly, cutting it as close as she thought she was — with less than half-an-hour to go before 5 p.m. — was courting disaster in itself. If she'd come in late because she'd gotten stuck in the traffic we all must deal with, would she still have asked the county to cut her slack? (My guess is yes.)
You don't hear much about qualifying because it's such a perfunctory, no-brainer process that there's no excuse for any serious candidate to screw it up. The last guy I can remember who simply failed to qualify was Ralph David Abernathy III, the smugly entitled son of the late civil-rights leader, who lost his state Senate seat in 1998 because he bounced his qualifying check — then blamed his wife for not putting enough money in their account. (He was indicted later that year and eventually served prison time for filing fraudulent legislative expense vouchers.)
Fulton Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter didn't waste any time in deliberating over Norwood's petition on Tuesday because the rules are so cut and dried, leaving nothing to discuss.
What has seemingly gone unnoticed in all of this discussion over ballot-access laws is that no one forced Norwood to run as an independent in the first place. She'd spent so much effort during the mayoral race clumsily distancing herself from the GOP that she apparently realized — with good reason — that she couldn't run as a Democrat without further alienating her mostly Republican base and couldn't run as a Republican without inviting charges of flip-flopping and political opportunism.
I wouldn't feel the need to spend so much time explaining all of this were it not for Norwood's shameful attempts to disparage election officials in an effort to draw attention away from her own failure to meet the qualifying deadline. First, she questioned the motives of county election board Chairman Roderick Edmond in rejecting her candidacy by pointing out that he's an Eaves appointee. Then, when the full board ruled against her, she claimed on her campaign website, "30,000 Petitions Submitted! Board of Elections Denies Ballot Access," omitting the fact that she forgot to qualify. I hope she doesn't plan to smear Judge Baxter for upholding election law, but at this point little would surprise me.
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Scott Henry,
SHAME ON YOU FOR DOING NO RESEARCH AT ALL. I volunteered to help Mary get on the ballot as an Independent. There was NEVER ANY INFORMATION ON THE WEBSITE UNTIL AFTER THE QUALIFYING DATE. Her campaign has screen shots showing that there was NO INFORMATION up there.
Get off your high horse - or should I say low horse - YOU DID NO RESEARCH FOR THIS ARTICLE other than the 10 SECONDS you did to pull this data. You're not a reporter, YOU ARE A FLEA. You must be pathetic in bed.
We need more options bc what's currently in place is not working. Fulton will go BANKRUPT at the RATE of Eaves' spending. And, Milton will be formed likely, leaving all of us south of Sandy Springs to deal with a bloated Mess.
YOU ARE PATHETIC.
You're saying Norwood wasn't apprised of the deadline because it wasn't on the website, MTTS? I guess it wasn't published anywhere else.
Henry Scott,
If you look at the PDF file and look at the page properties the last time the document was modified: Monday, April 12, 2010 3:54:30 PM
This date is well before the July 2nd qualifying deadline.
If Mary can keep up with one deadline how is she going to keep up with all the deadlines that the big elected positions she desires require.
Her incompentence has been exposed, her eternal victimhood has been exposed. and her constant blaming everyone but herself has been exposed. Hopefully she is never elected to anything again.
Aren't you dead wrong on your comment that Eaves' effort to keep Norwood off the ballot "made him look small and desperate?" Wasn't Eaves actually "small and desperate?"
Bottom line is that many of us are oging to lobby to get this ridiculous law changed. As for a time deadline, I went to the FC site and it was a 'dead link'. Doesn't matter when it was updated, it was not available until it was pointed out via Mary's attorney that the FC website was not functional. As for the comments that Mary wouldn't be able to do the job, it IS because she would do a great job in this position that she is feared by the insiders downtown. That bunch of crooked politicans and their followers would panic if she were to be elected as Mayor OR County Chair. She will stand up to the wrongs being loaded up on the taxpayers. Mary is fearless and don't underestimate her for one second. She would be good for us, she was the best council person we have had in decades.
Sophie, did I spot a typo in your comment? Did you mean "clueless" when you wrote "fearless?"
You are so far left you've fallen off the edge of the flat earth you live on.
GABlue: The timestamp means the PDF document was not modified. The PDF document was apparently not linked to on the website or not actually uploaded to their servers(I dont personally know). The timestamp doesnt mean anything with regard to whether the document was uploaded on their servers and linked to. Either way, the county is not required to have their stuff online.
But being 4 hours late does not create a burden on the county with respect to adding her name to the ballot, and it would not be illegal for the county to put her name on.
So, henry scott, why dont you write one article about why NOT to put her name on the ballot? What are the arguments against it? She was so late in filing that the ballots have already been printed? No. It would be illegal to put her name on the ballot since she missed the deadline? No. What other arguments are there? Other than "We dont want to and we have justification not to do it."
Why give her extra time? You're asking that we make a special exception for her by extending the deadline. Is she not required to follow the rules that are in place? What a sense of entitlement! She was either too dumb or too careless to get it there ontime. Tough titty! Not knowing is not an excuse. Isn't it her RESPONSIBILITY to adhear to the ELECTION RULES if she WANTS TO BE ON THE BALLOT? We hold our students accountable to deadlines for papers and such; should we really lower the standard for Norwood? Lower than what we demand of students at Grady High and GA Perimeter? Really? How embarassing! Better luck next time!
Duder:
Yes, I am saying that for the sake of the democratic process, somebody who raised enough signatures to prove that maybe she is the choice of the people should be put on a ballot considering that it doesnt represent any burden on the county to do so. Was she so late that adding her name to the ballot is a burden on the county?
I dont really care about fulton county comissioner since I live in city of atlanta. And I didnt vote for her for mayor. But refusing to put someone on a ballot (who may very well be the choice of the people) even though there is no reason not too does not scream "democratic process" to me.
QuestionMan:
Dont even know what it means. The way I see it, the arguments for keeping her off the ballot are:
1) Her being past the deadline makes it a burden on the county to add her name. Maybe if she was 1 month late yes, 3 hours late I dont think anyone would argue this.
2) The county has no say-- legally if the document are not submitted they cannot put her name on. This is not true, it is up to the discretion of the county, as far as I understand.
3) This is Georgia and we always enforce deadlines based on principal. Dont think so, since there are numerous candidates who dont file disclosure reports for years...
4) Punish Ms. Norwood personally for being late, like a student in school. Seems pretty petty to me.
If you can be the most democratic, why not do so? I just dont understand why not. Sure, it is her fault and the county certainly CAN keep her off the ballot. But why?
Maybe CLATL should stop with the insane anit-Norwood coverage (which could also be assumed to be anti-gay). Great picture Scott. You got your way: she is not on the ballot. Status quo for Fulton BOC. Next stop Milton. One angry intown resident who will vote Broadbent - just b/c...
Isn't this the wench that was instrumental in shutting down Atlanta nightlife? Good riddance, karma sucks when it's going the wrong way. Besides what are we really getting bent out of shape over? It's just another politician, they all suck, they're all dirty and they're all worthless. Now there is just one less for you to vote for.
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