Two know-nothing media types from another network, said on-air on election night that the two write-in candidates for Lubbock I.S.D. school board were a waste of time and money.  "Why should we be having an election for only 161 write in votes?" one of the air-heads asked. Both were reported to have said “if the candidates can't file on time they shouldn't be on the ballot.”

First, filing as a write-in candidate is a legal method of running and those write-in candidates did file on-time as write-in candidates.

Second, people running for office is not a waste of money, it’s the bedrock of how our civic society works.

And third, if these talking-heads were as knowledgeable as they believe themselves to be, they’d have known that the candidates were appearing as write-in challengers solely because the Lubbock I.S.D. cheated, lied, or made a strategic error – whichever description you prefer.

The Lubbock Independent School District chose not to use the form proscribed by the Secretary of State to post, as the law requires, the dates, times, and place when and where a citizen could file to run for school board. Instead they used their own statement, signed by board president Gordon Wilkerson, which specifically gave the wrong dates for filing. They listed dates well past the filing deadline, set by state law, for their board election.

The result was that voters did not get a legitimate chance to vote, in a regular and normal manner, for candidates who wished to challenge school board incumbents.

Why did local media not report this major story of election rigging? Whether a mistake or purposeful, the administrative actions of the Lubbock I.S.D. affected the election.

© 2006

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