Sunday, October 25, 2015

State elections board removes Rowan County official who made racist posts - Winston-Salem Journal: News

North Carolina's elections board dumped a local official who made racially tinged Facebook posts praising the Confederacy and suggesting that blacks who protested against Republican policies weren't "productive good citizens" with jobs.

The State Board of Elections voted 3-2 to dismiss Rowan County Elections Chairman Malcolm "Mac" Butner, whose social media accounts also expressed support for individual candidates in violation of state law. Butner's case marks the first time the state board has removed an elections official over social media postings.
,,,
Butner made national news last year for Facebook postings extolling the Confederacy, denouncing gays and blasting demonstrators protesting the priorities of Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Pat McCrory.

On Facebook, Butner displayed a photo taken at one demonstration in Raleigh and noted the black participants. "I GUESS THE WHITE FOLK COULD NOT GET OFF BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO BUSY BEING PRODUCTIVE GOOD CITIZENS," Butner wrote in 2013.

Butner was chairman of a local housing agency at the time and a public housing resident complained anonymously to a U.S. Housing and Urban Development official in Greensboro. Butner did not seek reappointment when his term ended in August 2014.

Butner resigned his seat on the state Republican Party's executive committee in June to join the three-member county elections board and told The Associated Press a month later he wouldn't resign under any circumstances.
"I'm the victim," he said then. "The problem is, in this society, you can't express your First Amendment rights. You have to be politically correct."

State elections board removes Rowan County official who made racist posts - Winston-Salem Journal: News

No comments:

Post a Comment