BRUNSWICK COUNTY ELECTIONS…THE NEXT MARICOPA?

Just the appearance of Brunswick County’s contract with a Zuckerbucks organization puts to question the integrity of our local elections and could taint voters’ confidence forever.  Just like Maricopa County, AZ.  Your county needs your help.

On January 6, 2023 Elections Director Sara Lavere of the Brunswick County Board of Elections signed an agreement for membership with the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence which is an offshoot of the left leaning Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL).  CTCL is a Chicago based election reform advocacy group funded by Mark Zuckerberg and organized by those with a history of election bias. The Alliance may have good intentions but with what we know about the orgs that created it and who funds it…there’s too much opportunity for manipulation.   It is the view of many in Brunswick County and across the country, that this is a carefully coordinated attempt to convert our Brunswick County Election Office into a get-out-the-vote operation for Democrats and to insert political operatives into our election office in order to influence and manipulate the outcome of the upcoming 2024 election.

As previously mentioned, CTCL is financed by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.  These funds are commonly known as “ZuckerBucks” which came to prominence in the 2020 election cycle.  Zuckerberg issued some $350 million to hundreds of county and city elections officials in 47 states.  Brunswick County was specifically targeted to become a Center for Election Excellence using Zuckerbucks and all the resources that go along with the membership.  Brunswick County was targeted along with 7 other counties and two municipalities across the entire country.  Please read the well researched document in the hyperlink below to discover for yourself how far the left has advanced into infiltrating the Brunswick County Election Office. 

 From the above document, you can clearly see that the Alliance already has influence in our Elections Office.  Our Elections Director, Sara Lavere openly admits that she has used Alliance forms and resources as voting tools here in our county.  And it comes at a cost.  She states, “I get something and give something.”  The Honest Elections Project document above reveals that Ms. Lavere even utilized the Alliance to help defend local criticism by using Alliance talking points and hyperlinks.  She also admitted that she used Alliance help to author a local newspaper article that was published under her name.  Today it appears we are getting very close to having the left leaning Alliance run our Elections Office.

Many states (26 as of 1/20/23) have made such private contributions to our elections illegal. And many other states are working on bills to do the same. In fact, the North Carolina Legislature is currently working on SB 89 which would make these private funds illegal.  

Many concerned citizens would like this local contract with the Alliance nullified.  They agree that this outside influence has no place in our elections.  In fact in May of 2022 Rasmussen Reports published their election integrity polling of all U.S. National Likely Voters stating: “70% say private ‘Zuckerbucks’ type partisan election funding is ‘a bad thing for American Democracy,’ including 52% of Black voters and 62% of Democrats.”  (polling conducted 12/21-22/2021).  

On Saturday 3/11/23, the Brunswick County Republican Party held its 2023 Convention.  At that Convention, a resolution overwhelmingly passed which supported NC SB 89.   Last year SB 725 passed both houses and was essentially equivalent to and carried the same intent as the currently active SB 89. That bill was vetoed by Governor Cooper.  Brunswick County’s Republican Senator Bill Rabon, and Republican Representatives Charlie Miller and Frank Iler supported that bill. 

Since that resolution passed at the Republican County Convention concerned citizens got motivated and started contacting our County Commissioners and Board of Elections members to urge them to nullify this contract.   The good news is, on March 20th the County Commissioners unanimously signed a resolution that “strongly encourages the Brunswick County Board of Elections to terminate its membership in the Alliance;”…and that the commissioners “supports legislation to prohibit private money from influencing North Carolina elections, such as Senate Bill 89…”

On March 21st the Board of Elections considered the commissioners’ resolution as well as a similar resolution brought forth by Board of Election member Randy Pelton. The board chair, Mr. Boyd Williamson stated that he’d heard from many citizens about this issue and there were 5 public comments at the meeting itself. One public comment was made by Commissioner Pat Sykes who has been a loud voice against this contract since its discovery a few weeks ago. We then heard from election director Sara LaVere who defended the contract but failed to convince many in defining the problem the “Alliance” and only the “Alliance” could solve.   After some debate the board decided to table this discussion and any further action until their April meeting leaving the contract with the “Alliance” operational for another month and requesting Ms. Lavere to search for a “suitable alternative organization.”  It appears we are searching for a solution to an unnamed problem. “Making our elections better” is not defining the problem.

Citizens remain doubtful about the integrity of our elections and the security of our ballots since the infusion of this dark money into our elections across this nation.  Locally, our board of elections members seemed very concerned about the reputation of our local elections due to this issue and citizens are reminding them that any third party, outside influence in the any part of the election process casts doubt on election integrity.  As one concerned local citizen put it in a letter to Board of Elections members, “I fear that after the Alliance is finished with the newly established Brunswick Center of Election Excellence our Election Office will look more like Maricopa County, Arizona than this county that we love. “

If this contract isn’t nullified in full the Brunswick County Board of Elections would be acting in opposition to:
NC bill S89 and S725
The Brunswick County Republican Party
The Brunswick County Commissioners (who fund the Board of Elections)
Representatives from the NCGOP who spoke against this money at a local meeting
26 states and counting

WE THE PEOPLE

 What can you do to help stop this partisan meddling in our elections??
  
Contact your North Carolina state senators and representatives and ask them to support SB 89 and get it moving forward.  Look up your state senators and representatives here: https://ncleg.gov/findyourlegislators

If you live in Brunswick County contact the Board of Elections members before April 18:
Mr. Boyd Williamson(board chair): boydcwilliamson@yahoo.com
Ms. Sara Lavere (director of elections):  sara.lavere@brunswickcountync.gov
Mr. Randy  Pelton: grpelton@usa.net
Mr. Stuart Smith: Stuart10076@gmail.com
Ms. Paula Clarity:  paula.clarity@gmail.com
Mr. Ed Lewis: aggie6926@gmail.com

Ginny Quaglia
Chair, Brunswick County NC Action 
BrunswickCoNCAction@Protonmail.com