Chaos? Meet Charlie Foxtrot.
Today, Michael Whatley and his team made the perfect argument for his termination. His big annual job — running the state GOP convention — went down this weekend. From start to finish, it has been a logistical nightmare. (Whether it’s been on purpose, or not, is your call.)
As we foreshadowed, the plan to vote electronically was a spectacular failure. The Whatleyites. swore voting security was not a problem. Meanwhile, people attending the convention as non-voting guests were able to vote. People not even IN Greensboro were allowed to access the voting component of the app. Vote totals by county showed more votes than the county’s total allowed delegates.
What should have taken an hour or so filled the afternoon with drama and anger. The app crashed at 
one point so NO ONE was allowed to cast votes. There were two attempts to carry on with paper ballots. The Whatleyites knocked down both efforts. After all, their man is the self-proclaimed election integrity guru of North Carolina.
Motions of ‘no confidence’ and ‘to vacate the chair’ came up, but were quickly dispensed with via parliamentary means by Whatley’s convention managers.
Like magic, a vote total sheet showed up indicating that ONLY votes for the chairman contest were counted. The tally showed Whatley with 62 percent of the vote. Of course — in line with Team Whatley’s wishes — there was NO paper trail to verify that or to resolve any of the other races.
Establishment goons have been prancing around declaring victory for their man Whatley. It seems incredible that this group of people can cheer about the reelection of a guy who ran on his management expertise and leadership in election integrity — in the wake of a disastrous convention and a dubious election riddled with problems.
The other state party offices have not been resolved. (There is no paper trail, remember.). Everybody adjourned for Donald Trump.
In his campaign speech at the convention, John Kane seemed to predict a mess like this:
[…] “Everyone in this room knows the cardinal rule of election integrity is there
HAS TO BE a PAPER TRAIL. Machines have issues, sometimes unintentional, sometimes intentional. As we get ready to vote for our Party leadership today it will all be done electronically. No paper trail.
This simple election was 100% under the control of Chairman Michael Whatley and he broke the cardinal rule of election integrity. Here today, just like the elections in our State, Michael Whatley doesn’t think we have a voter integrity problem.I do. […]
Michael Whatley has stood by and let a select few turn the NCGOP into something that in no way reflects the values of We the People.Even today, he stands and defends breaking the most basic and essential rule of Election integrity by having us cast votes without a paper backup while we electronically vote on an untested app. Michael Whatley continues to stand against you.[…]
Earlier today, I proudly stood WITH you in the censure vote and now, I’m asking you to stand with me in a vote to move the power away from a chosen few and back into your hands, our hands, We the People. ” […]
This has all the makings of at least one future court fight. HOW can anyone have any confidence in or respect for what happened in Greensboro today?
I was thoroughly disgusted today. Sign me up!
The ncgop is no longer governed by rules (the POO) and hasn’t been since the virtual convention of 2020. But this year, it’s so blatant that conservatives need to resort to extreme action to cut the cancer out of the ncgop……or just cut the ncgop down to size by deserting to a form or join a new Party.
“Carthago delenda est”
200 miles back from Greensboro. Just got home from the convention; the biggest cluster foxtrox yet! I have absolutely no confidence in anything that happened there. I don’t know if it was more incompetent than corrupt or more corrupt than incompetent. It’s hard to know whether it would be best to just leave the rotten carcass to rot or if the districts should go ahead and unilaterally have their conventions and try to salvage something from the worthless remains. The latter would take some measure of guts and initiative. I’ll believe that when I see it. The Whatleyites have no regard for convention delegates. Unity? What moron would want to unite with swindlers. I have no confidence in and no respect for these people.
The huge divergence between the results for the Kane supported positions on votes conducted by non-electronic means and the result from this clearly seriously flawed electronic voting system raise major doubts as to what the real outcome of the chairman’s election were. Whatley’s legitimacy as chairman is in serious question.
My takes from the convention: Most things the state party does is controlled in platform and rules committee, it takes a super majority to change their decisions. Thom Tillis’s super majority censure was the only time the establishment lost control. The electronic voting app should have been used the first day to show everyone what a complete fail it was.. They had two “hand counts” that that app could have been tested on before the important votes of which only one was “accomplished. Many people even missed a paid for VIP reception prior to the Trump dinner and a large group left for the dinner. In addition to those that left, many were disgusted with the whole voting process and the convention lost a quorum. Whatley spent a ton of money to get elected (including free food and an army of young campaigners ) and yet had a close/questionable “win”. Whatleyhas egg all over his face for this goat rope. And just like this convention, he has no concept of what is happening in NC voter roles where the next fraud WILL happen. How can he claim to the voter integrity guru when in 2020 he oversees a loss in the governor, Sec of State, and AG despite Trump barely winning.
Wow. Now I’m extra glad I changed from GOP to UNA during the corrupt Tillis House years. I like Mike Ross of the LPNC. Is the NCGOP actually funded by the DNC to guarantee Stein wins? Meanwhile the Mises Caucus won control of the National Libertarian party, hard core Christian Free Marketers. I’d rather not vote at all if there are no true conservatives in the ballot.
This is odd. I have yet to read one mainstream media report on the voting chaos surrounding the chairmanship. It was THE story of the day, followed by Dan Bishop’s emergence as one of the few reliable conservatives in the NC GOP universe, positioning Bishop as a guy who can run for any office he desires going forward. The establishment keepers in the convention hall squirmed as Bishop recounted the lies underpinning the so-called debt ceiling “deal”. The third top story was Mark Robinson’s remarks during which he made not one mention of why he should be elected governor.
Hmmmmm…..I noted this also about Mark’s obvious opportunity to make his pitch for NC Gov. I will be attending the Lincoln Douglas Reagan Dinner in Wilmington, NC in July and will be taking special note of his remarks then.
Could Mark Robinson go from Lt. Gov. to Vice President in the 2024 elections?
Words of the weekend: “paper ballots”, “accountability”, “accept responsibility” and “let’s move forward, together”. Let’s work together to win now and in 2024.
We MUST stand our ground and insist that our vote NOT be disenfranchised!
This was my first ever NC State Convention. I was extremely disappointed in how ineffective the organization on the convention floor was. Business was not conducted in a productive manner. It became very obvious early on that the decision to make voting electronic HAD NOT been discussed with the NC County delegates who actually vote on how the leaders at the convention level are decided. Delegates were not happy. The system was “sold” as being more efficient and time conserving. HA!! Anything but was actually evident to all! By 7:00 P.M. the quorum dwindled away and the diehards that hung on who had reservations for Trump’s dinner left by 8:00, looked for remaining seats and received our dinner just as President Trump came on stage. Being there to hear our President was THE highlight of this NC Convention. Someone MUST inform President Trump about Michael Whatley and his extremely inefficient record!
Doubt that would help. Trump habitually makes bad personnel decisions, aside from his judicial picks, which I’ll give him credit for. He endorses the current Chairman and pardoned the last. He endorsed Thom Tillis. That’s a triple play! I’m completely over Trump.
I think Trump MAY have know about this debacle but maybe not soon enough. Have you ever considered that Trump elevates those to power in an effort to expose them? Look what we have learned about Kevin McCarthy, Ron DeSantis, and others?
When I first got involved in Republican politics in the early 1970s, Republicans used to pride ourselves in being the party that operated from the bottom up rather than from the top down like the Democrats. We cannot make that claim today. The top down approach really started when Bill Cobey was chairman, but it has really gotten bad under the last two state chairmen. That tends to hollow out a party because competent people are less likely to stay involved in a top – down operation.
At this past convention, the motion to use paper ballots instead of the toxic electronic voting received a majority vote from delegates on Friday, which during most of the years I have been attending conventions would have driven a stake through the heart of the electronic voting monster. However, under Whatley, the rules have been changed so that it takes 2/3rds to overrule the Rules Committee (and other committees). While Carl Mischka’s motion for paper ballots got a solid majority, it did not get a 2/3rds majority. That top down power play by the Whatley clique to impose a 2/3rds requirement is what left us stuck with electronic voting when the majority of the delegates did not want it.
There are too many road blocks to grassroots influence in the Rules and also the Plan of Organization that have been imposed under the past two NCGOP chairmen. What is needed is a very thorough housecleaning to restore grassroots control of our party, something we have clearly lost and need badly to restore.
I spent five and a half years advising pro-western political parties in eastern Europe, and one of the things I stressed to them was that a party that operated with internal democracy within the party made it a stronger party and one more appealing to volunteers. Sadly, while I was helping parties abroad develop internal party democracy, that very principle was going backward in my own party back in North Carolina. I would have been ashamed to have any of the leaders of the parties I worked with abroad observe what happened at one convention this past weekend.
Well said. I believe if we do not follow this very good advice our party is doomed here in North Carolina. Following the timeline Steve laid out we can easily document how many good people we have lost during this time period. I know I can. After this weekend we are likely to lose more. For the party to be worth saving we’ve got to make it worth saving.
The voting started with John Kane and Michael Whatley making their speeches.
Listen to John Kane here at about 23 minutes into the video: https://rumble.com/v2tfyku-ncgop-convention-on-saturday…
Well, this app was a total embarrassing disaster! The vote was for our new NCGOP Chair. We did not even get to vote for the vice-chair. The app did not work for many, people from outside the room were able to vote, people in other states were allowed to vote, many counties had more votes than voters, and the internet was very slow which caused many to have a hard time logging into the app.
We were there for over 4 hours and the final count went for Whatley. Only people in the room were allowed to vote, this is the law. They would not allow anyone to leave or get in when the vote started. That is a long time to keep people locked in a room. That did not matter because others outside the room who could not get in, were able to use the app and vote.
After the final vote, John Kane made a speech and did not concede. Michael Whatley did not make an acceptance speech.
Facebook LIVE videos during the voting could not be done because the internet was very slow. Phone videos of the NCGOP Afternoon Business Session (voting meeting) are uploaded to Rumble located here: https://rumble.com/c/c-3205968
Yes, this past weekend was a total disgrace, except for the censure of Traitor Thom Tillis. I understand the frustration of good Republicans, especially those new to the process, that would tempt them to leave the Party. However, I implore those folks to stay with the effort to get the NCGOP back to where it ought to be. Nothing can be reformed from outside. What the GOP is supposed to be is worth staying in the fight. I used to be in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I didn’t want to be. I had been ordained in the Presbyterian Church in the United States before the hostile takeover that formed the PCUSA. But while I was in the PCUSA, I continually struggled to make it better. Their leadership were becoming more apostate all the time, and many true believers couldn’t take it anymore and left. While I understood their feelings, I have often wondered whether, if they had stayed, we might have been able to avert the complete spiritual ruination of the PCUSA that occurred. The congregation I was serving in 2013 finally had all they could take and voted to leave and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. By that time, I had no more motivation to resist such a move, and went with them. I see the same thing happening to the Republican Party, but I have nowhere to go. So I beg you, my fellow conservatives, stay in the fight, and let’s fix it. We have shown that we can give the elitist liberals who are ruining our Party conniptions if we stick together. I think the GOP as it was meant to be is still worth the struggle. We just have to be determined that we will not give in until we take it back. I am very proud of John Kane for not conceding the election, and the failure of Whatley to deal honestly with the situation and say openly that he was not actually reelected shows that we dealt the RINOs a serious blow. We need to follow up and finish it, and I am adamantly calling on everyone on our side of the question to stick it out and demand, among other things, that our primaries MUST be closed to anyone who is not registered Republican. Letting people who are not registered in our Party vote in our primaries is virtually the same as allowing illegals to vote in any American election. Let those who are on our side of the issues come back and help us rebuild the GOP as it should be.
I’m strongly relating to all you said. I’ve been on a similar course on my church journey.
It is my opinion that you are absolutely right about our situation with the party. As distasteful as it is, we are better off making our stand here. When we leave, we make ballot access so much harder. When we leave, we surrender our party to the control of factions devoid of righteousness and honor and leave our world in an even worse condition. Someone has to make a stand against those things that are not righteous. It may as well be us.
Billy erred when requiring a 2/3 vote on my amended motion to use paper ballots in the election of Chairman and Vice Chair as we had NOT yet approved the 2023 Rules and were operating under the 2022 rules which require a simple majority 50% + 1 which we may have had. Two or three days after this fiasco, much reading, and I will definitely stay involved and try to right the ship which seems very much off-course.
My first State Convention like many others was a big disappointment! We spend a lot of money staying two nights at the hotel and paying for the basic ticket. My husband was one that didn’t vote due to issues with the APP on his phone. I know John Kane would make a great leader for the NCGOP and pray someday soon he will serve in that capacity. We must be strong and bold to clean house for a better future! ??
I have attended all the state conventions since Whatley took office. Each year voting has gotten worse. This year especially so, with clear evidence of cheating and corruption they decided to except the vote anyway. That like catching a child cheating on a test and saying well we will except the part we didn’t catch you cheating on … seriously ?. That is absurd is it not. The entire vote was flawed the people requested a paper ballot to be done yet mr voter integrity stood silent and excepted the outcome. Shame on you Mr Whatley you showed us you don’t care as long as u get the outcome you want. Where is your values and your integrity? How could anyone trust you going forward especially with the country wide voter integrity. 6 counties votes were removed and 200 voters votes silenced and you think that’s is ok. As far as I am concerned as Trump is still my President .. Kane is my NCGOP chair and I for one will NOT recognize Whatley going forward. For a guy that talked about bringing us together you have divided us more then the democrats ever could of. SHAME ON YOU !