For all the glowing recommendations of Alissa Northrup running for County Clerk, not a word has been uttered abut the incompetency coming from that office, specifically her role as voter registrar.  Not a word has been spoken of the complaints filed against Northrup regarding the rejection of valid voters’ signatures on the recent petitions circulated around the City. The most recent, the anti-fluoride initiative petition, had more than a dozen signatures rejected that should have been deemed valid. Many of those signatures were considered valid on previous petitions.  One in particular was newly registered at the time she signed the petition so the signatures matched exactly, yet that was the reason for rejection: her signature didn’t match.

This problem first surfaced when recalls against Councilmembers Charles Slert and Kathrine Murray were turned in, along with an initiative to roll back sewer rates. The County Clerk discounted over 200 signatures.  People like long time resident Ken Towe had this to say, "I’ve lived and voted in the same house for 46 years. Now they tell me my signature doesn’t match. When I went down to confront them, they wouldn’t change it. They’re forgetting that when I signed, the Declarator also signed and witnessed my signature under penalty of perjury."

Ken Towe along with a number of other people sent in their complaints to the Secretary of State’s, Elections Division concerning voter fraud back in February, 2010.  A second round of complaints have been sent off in regards to the signatures on the fluoride intiative.

For example signatures from people living in the apartments on Harding were counted as "NC."  That translates to "Not in the City."  County employee Susan Mealue was confronted and asked to check on the city limits.  She returned to say they made a mistake and that they were in the City.  To date, the numbers have never been corrected.

Problems with counting accurately is nothing new.  Remember the furor over former City Clerk, Dianne Nickerson’s count on the protest vote to the sewer rates increases on November 5, 2007? She and her staff counted only 1310 legitimate protests. Over 2300 signatures were turned in. True, many were not valid. But, when she was confronted with those numbers and a recall was started against her, she resigned. 

This paper cannot endorse candidate Alissia Northrup for County Clerk. We need someone who is willing to change the way things are being done: someone who will make every attempt to keep the voting accurate; someone who knows the boundaries of the City; someone who will go out of their way to make sure every citizen that wants to vote is registered to vote.  We hope and anticipate that candidate Allen Winogradov is the person for change.