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PAGE 4A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008 Editor: Angela Gary Phone: 706-367-2490 E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com Website: www.banksnewsTODAY.com Opinion “Where the press is free and every tnan able to read, all is safe.” — Thomas Jefferson Says voters need to be educated Dear Editor: In order to make an educated decision when vot ing, it is necessary to take into consideration the ability of each candidate to perform the duty of the job they are seeking. The importance of this cannot be overly emphasized, whether it is a national election or a local campaign. Do not expect every candidate to “lay it on the line” when trying to build up their character, espe cially when an incumbent has things they had rather not discuss. There is available to the public the financial state ment of every governmental branch in Banks County. Don’t scream or refer to anyone as an “idiot” until you have researched and know all the facts. The BOE in Banks County has had to go to a finan cial institution and borrow money to operate time and time again. They have recently had to pay $60,000 in terest on their last note simply because the funds were not made available to them by the tax commissioner’s office. In fact, they are, as of this writing (Nov. 12), $864,000 in arrears from the tax commissioner’s office. Guess who paid the $60,000 interest? Go look in the mirror! Mrs. Ausbum issued 780 Fi Fes in the past week or so, to collect on delinquent taxes, some of them dating back to 1989, meaning some of these uncollected taxes are nineteen years old. I’m sure some of these people have either moved, been foreclosed on, or had to file bankruptcy in this time, meaning these taxes are uncollectible. As you all know, the tax commissioner recently reported to the sheriff’s department that there was a deposit error of $14,600. In the same statement, she said it showed up on her “daily deposit.” This deposit was made in late July. Conveniently withholding this information until the day after the November election is absolutely inexcus able, although it was good political strategy. I com mend the Banks County Sheriff’s Dept, for immedi ately notifying the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. By writing this, I’m not trying to make any enemies. In fact, if more people were interested in harnessing the full circle of the importance of their voting decision, there would be no reason for the writing of this letter. The truth is, I feel bad about writing this letter, for I hope I didn’t insult anyone for not doing their home work before casting their ballot in the recent election. Sincerely, Hank Taylor, Baldwin Contact Us Anyone with general story ideas, complaints or com ments about the news department is asked to call editor Angela Gary at 706-367-2490. She can also be reached by e-mail at AngieEditor@ aol.com. Anyone with comments, questions or sugges tions relating to the county board of commission ers, county government, county board of education and crime and courts is asked to contact staff report er Sharon Hogan at 706-367-2350 or by e-mail at sharon @ mainstreetnews.com. The Banks County News website is updated through out the week and may be accessed on the Internet at www.banksnewsTODAY.com. The Banks County News Founded 1968 The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga. Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher Angela Gary Editor Justin Poole Sports Editor Sharon Hogan Reporter Anelia Chambers Receptionist Suzanne Reed Church News Phones (all 706 area code): Angela Gary Phone 367-2490 Angela Gary Fax 367-9355 Homer Office Phone 677-3491 Homer Office Fax 677-3263 (SCED 547160) Published weekly by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc., P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 Subscription in county $19.75 Subscription in state $38.85 Subscription out of state $44.20 Military with APO address $42.20 Senior citizens get a $2 discount Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga. 30547 Postmaster, send address changes to: Subscriptions, The Banks County News, PO. Box 920, Homer, Ga. 30547 Member: Georgia Press Association Georgia Sports Writers Association National Newspaper Association "We've got the Christmas lights up, the presents are bought and wrapped, the cards are sent. ...Looks like we're ready for Thanksgiving !" The law of unintended consequences strikes again There is a longstanding tradition in Georgia that the political party controlling state govern ment will try to give itself an advantage over the opposition by fiddling with the election laws. Every time a party messes with the election code, however, the law of unintended conse quences always seems to backfire on them. The latest victim was the Republican Party and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who now has to worry about losing a Dec. 2 runoff election to Demo cratic challenger Jim Martin. This whole mess started decades ago when the Democrats were in power and enacted a law that required a candidate to get at least 50 percent of the vote to win an election. If the first-place finisher had less than 50 percent, a runoff election was required. The 50 percent rule was intended to prevent black candidates from winning primary elec tions with a plurality of the votes. The thinking was that if you could force a black candidate into a runoff, white voters would team up to defeat him. That worked fine for the Democrats until 1992, when U.S. Sen. Wyche Fowler was run ning for reelection against Republican Paul Coverdell. Fowler finished first in the general election but the presence of a Libertarian candi date in the race held him just below 50 percent of the vote. That required a runoff election in which Coverdell narrowly defeated Fowler to win the Senate seat. Democrats decided they would fix that prob lem by changing the law so that a runoff was not required if the first-place finisher received at least 45 percent of the votes. That change allowed Republican Linda Schrenko to win re- election as state school superintendent in 1998 even though she received just 49 percent of the vote. This turned out to be a disaster for Geor gia’s public schools not because Schrenko was a Republican but because she was a crook. Schrenko was subsequently indicted and is now serving a prison sentence for stealing federal education funds and converting them to her own personal use. We might have been spared that embarrassment if the Democrats hadn’t tinkered with the election laws. When Republicans gained control of the governor’s office and the Legislature several years ago, one of their first initiatives was - you guessed it - to try to rig the election laws in their favor, just as Democrats had done for years. They promptly moved the election require ment back to 50 percent of the votes. They also adopted a law re quiring voters to show government-issued pho to identification on elec tion day and they greatly expanded early voting by allowing citizens to cast a no-excuses absentee bal lot up to 45 days prior to election day. The belief was that these changes would benefit Republi can candidates in future election cycles. Once again, the law of unintended conse quences reared its head in this year’s general election. African Americans who wanted to vote for Barack Obama lined up in record numbers dur ing the early voting period in Georgia - they accounted for nearly 700,000 of the two mil lion ballots cast prior to election day. The 50 percent requirement also trapped Chambliss, one of the most prominent Repub lican officials in the state. Chambliss finished 109,000 votes ahead of Martin and garnered 49.8 percent of the vote. In almost every other state, that would have sent him back to Washington for another six-year term. In Georgia, it forced him into a high-risk runoff election on Dec. 2. If you go by past voting patterns, Cham bliss would ordinarily be the favorite to win that election because there is usually a heavier dropoff in voting by blacks than by whites in runoffs. But this has been one of those election years where the conventional wisdom, in many ways, has been overturned. If Martin goes against the conventional wisdom and wins the runoff, Republicans will have lost one of their most prestigious political posts in Georgia. It’s simply another illustration of why legis lators should not tamper with election laws to try to obtain a temporary political advantage. Evidently, it’s a lesson that has yet to hit home here in the Peach State. Republican leg islators are already talking about changing the election laws yet again to cut down on the early voting period, if not eliminate it entirely, and to drop that 50 percent requirement back to 45 percent. When will they ever learn? Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news service at www.gareport.com that covers government and politics in Georgia. He can be reached at tcrawford@ capitolimpact. net. tom crawford Peterson no longer with Peace Place Dear Editor: As you know, Peace Place is the shel ter and programs that serves the domestic violence victims of Barrow, Jackson, and Banks counties. The board of directors recently ex pressed concern over the troubled econo my and decided to eliminate my CFO po sition which was created last year in a staff restructuring. I no longer work with Peace Place and my duties have been absorbed by executive director, Charlene Garrett, who has faithfully worked for Peace Place for seven years in several roles. I am pleased to leave the agency in good, sound financial condition, and as a solid institution. Charlene and Peace Place need your continued support (as do all non profits), especially in this poor economy. More than 1,400 women and children have been sheltered at Peace Place since its in ception, plus many more helped through our other programs and services. Indeed, still more domestic violence victims will be assisted in the future. I have thoroughly enjoyed my service to Peace Place, beginning eleven years ago and am deeply grateful for all the wonder ful support given to Peace Place and to me during that time. Thanks ever so much! Sincerely, Pat Peterson Winder Letters to the editor policy given The Banks County News has established a policy on printing Letters to the editor. Letters to the editor must also be signed with the address and phone number of the person who wrote them. The address and phone number will be for our verification purposes only and will not be printed unless the writer requests it. Mail to, The Banks County News, P.O. Box 920, Homer, Ga. 30547. E-mailed letters will be accepted, but we must have a contact phone number and address. Letters that are libelous will not be printed. Effectivness of Broun questioned Citizens of the 10th Congres sional District are stuck with Paul Broun for at least two more years. I say “stuck” with Broun al though I’m not really sure that word is appropriate. You see, Broun re cently won his re-election bid with lit tle trouble. The extrem ist right-wing Republican had a simple, although ef fective, strat egy: crank up all the conser vation buzz words and cliches and let the chips fall where they may. The strategy worked to perfection. Broun’s first term in office was filled with press releases condemning ev erything from illegal immigrants, gay marriage, abortion, Democrats in general and anything else that wasn’t in step with his ultra-right wing banter. The only problem with this rheto ric is that it has nothing to do with serving the people of the 10th dis trict. On the surface, Broun had a for midable opponent this fall in Dem ocrat Bobby Saxon. An Iraq War veteran, Saxon actually had ideas which would have benefited the citizens he wanted to represent and would have be beneficial to the dis trict as a whole. Saxon is anything but a left-leaning liberal (despite Broun’s attempt to portray him as one). He brought credibility to the table where it was sorely needed after Broun’s first two years in of fice. Yet as the race wore on, there was really never any doubt Broun was going to be re-elected. Saxon did everything he could to gain traction, but he was like a football player competing on a rainy Friday night without proper footwear. No matter how hard he tried, most people sim ply didn’t take notice of his cam paign. They didn’t care about his credentials. They didn’t care that Broun was all talk and no action during his first two-year term. The reason? It’s simple really. A majority of voters in this area have fallen into the of simply voting for the Republican candidate. It doesn’t matter if it is Bozo the Clown, Homer Simpson, Hank Hill or Paul Broun. It didn’t matter to the ma jority of voters in the 10th District that Broun’s outrageous comments, while good for rhetoric and right- wing blogs, do nothing for those he is elected to serve. So citizens of the 10th district get what they vote for. Not long after the Nov. 4 election, one which was truly historic for our country, Broun cranked up his extremist right-wing propaganda again by hurling com parisons about Barack Obama with Gestapo and Marxists tactics. Some people did call Broun for his asi nine statements this time, but what did it matter to the Congressman? Hey, he was just re-elected by an overwhelming margin. Meanwhile, the voters turn a tru ly qualified candidate like Bobby Saxon, with solid ideas and plans for the citizens of the 10th district, away. One can only ponder how much he would have accomplished had he been given the chance. Instead, the 10th district is given at least two more years of Broun and his right-wing press releases claiming he believes in freedom but in reality believing in you are free to think the way he does. Voters of the 10th district I have a simple and direct question for you? What in the world were you think ing when you sent Paul Broun back to Washington for another term? It doesn’t seem to me much thought at all was put into your vote. Chris Bridges is an editor with Mainstreet Newspapers. E-mail comments about this column to chris@mainstreetnews.com. chris bridges