News-Record.com

Are public bodies allowed to alter their past? Is parliamentary time travel possible? Apparently the Guilford County Board of Elections thinks so.

Hang with me; it takes a bit of explaining:

The board met Tuesday. At the end of its meeting, Chairman Jim Turner remembered - correctly - that back in December the board had voted to certify 441 ballots that had been cast out of precinct on Election Day.

Those votes are at issue in the contested election between County Commissioner Trudy Wade and John Parks and are the same type of ballots at issue in the contest of the state Superintendent of Public Instruction race. Since that meeting, the N.C. Supreme Court has ruled such votes are illegal but the county board hasn't gotten instructions on how to fix the problem.

As Turner recalled - again correctly - the three-member board voted to certify those votes but Republican member Jim Pfaff reserved the right to move for reconsideration later. Typically, a board can only reconsider a motion at the meeting where it originally passes or the next meeting.

That "next meeting" was in January and passed without anyone bringing up the issue of the 441 votes. In all likelihood, that won't matter because the state board will give the county board specific instructions on what to do.

But Turner said he wanted to keep all the board's options open. Essentially, he wanted the board to make a motion that would keep the issue of the 441 votes alive. But technically, because that January meeting had passed without anyone saying anything, the board had missed its window to do something.

What to do?

Easy.

Change the minutes.

Lead by Turner, board members voted to amend the minutes of their January meeting to say that they had, in fact, voted to continue the issue related to the 441 votes.

No kidding.

They voted to record in their minutes from January that they took an action that actually didn't happen until Feb. 15.

Turner said the move was legal because it corrected an oversight, despite the fact it would seem to conflict with NC GS 163-31 which reads:

The county board of elections shall keep minutes recording all proceedings and findings at each of its meetings. The minutes shall be recorded in a book which shall be kept in the board office and it shall be the responsibility of the secretary, elected by the board, to keep the required minute book current and accurate. The secretary of the board may designate the director of elections to record and maintain the minutes under his supervision.

Granted this is a small, procedural point and it likely will never come into play. But does anyone see a problem here? Anyone?

(Update: If it makes a difference, both Turner and Pfaff are lawyers.)