This bill apparently pertained only to Haywood County. The true reason, despite all the other claimed reasons, would be to make it easier for the uninformed GOP voters to vote straight GOP. Therefore the GOP voters would not need to research the candidates background, education, position on issues, etc. Currently the largest number of registered voters in Haywood County are unaffiliated. 

However, the number of Republican registered voters (55%) is somewhat larger than the number of Democratic voters 45%. I believe that is the reason Madison Cawthorn won the election by 5 points in the last primary in Haywood County. Despite his inexperience, education, lies, his background and his snafus, too many Republicans voted for him because they did not do any research. So, my point is, I believe if all elections in Haywood County were partisan the Democratic candidates have the odds stacked against them because too many Republican voters do not keep current on candidates, nor do they want to be bothered to keep current. 

Then Pless and Clampitt both tried to interfere and dictate to local governments about controlling local zoning laws. This was a well-kept secret which surprised local governments. Is this dictatorship or is this working with local government? They should both be ashamed of wanting to control local government. One would think they both should be working on non-partisan issues. 

A prime example might be looking at the DMV rules and regulations. If you go to the DMV for anything that requires a notarization, they will charge you $15. They will not let you take the paperwork elsewhere to have it notarized for free. The DMV will not allow a title in the name of two people to use “or” rather than “and” between the two names. Thus, when one of the two people dies, you are required to pay $65 (plus a notary fee) to have a new title issued in the survivor’s name because DMV will not allow “or” to be used between the two names. Both of these DMV regulations need to be changed.

Pless and Clampitt need to pay attention to issues like this and stop trying to dictate laws that pertain to only the GOP.

Ron Rookstool

Maggie Valley