Constituent Service

Sen. Charles Schumer's (D-NY) office has received complaints about the lack of privacy curtains during last month's election.

Voting booths with curtains weren't continued when the state upgraded to optical scanning technology, but in response to the 25 complaints they received, the Erie County Elections Commission are working on a remedy, while the Senator is lobbying the state.

Update: Clay Aiken Ministorm Averted

Clay Aiken has withdrawn his Wake County (NC) voter registration. County Republicans say their complaints weren't part of a "vendetta" and county officials say that maybe it's a "learning opportunity".

As I noted on an earlier post, Mr. Aiken came under fire for comments he had made in his blog, which were critical of the new Wake County Board of Education majority. As they threatened at the time, the Wake County Republican Party filed a complaint of voter fraud against him.

Because Mr. Aiken has withdrawn his registration, the county Board of Elections consider it a closed matter and will not be referring the case to the state for possible prosecution.

Clay Aiken Ministorm

Intermixed with a knock on Carrie Prejean, a story about losing a contact, an update on his next album, musings about possibly doing a PBS special and a review of the movie Precious, Clay Aiken posted a paragraph on his blog about the Wake County School board.

What happened to Wake County Schools?!?1 Now that i have a kid i am so much more invested and I am EXTREMELY disappointed that so many selfish idiots ran and won seats on the school board. i hope we can get rid of them as soon as possible before they ruin my school system. Idiots.

Mr. Aiken is a product of Wake County schools and a current resident of neighboring Chatham County, where he lives with his 15-month old son. In college, he trained to become a special education teacher.

When contacted by the Raleigh News & Observer, new school board member John Tedesco said it was "repugnant" for Mr. Aiken to call him an idiot when they've never met, he made an aside about someone finishing second (on American Idol) writing about those who finished first, then compared the blog comment to the title of the singer's last album, "Invisible".

A conservative activist, Joey Stansbury told the paper that he intends to file a Freedom of Information act request for Mr. Aiken's voting record because the State Board of Elections website shows that Clay voted in last month's school board election using his mother's Wake County address, while he doesn't live there.