Equality NC Responds to Election Official's Resignation Due to Amendment One Conflict
Harnett County, N.C. - Sherre Toler stepped down from her seat as director of elections for the Harnett County Board of Elections on Jan. 3, citing major ethical troubles with NC Amendment One as her reason for leaving the position. Toler, in a letter sent to the progressive blogs Pam’s House Blend and BlueNC, said that her position on the BOE disallows her to speak publicly on issues involving campaigns and elections. But regarding facilitating an election that would possibly write discrimination into the state’s constitution, she said “I cannot and will not be a party to such actions.”
Toler went on to say that she has no major concern with a church
or faith congregation banning certain actions amongst its congregants,
but that the Amendment’s attempt to ban legal recognition of all couples
except for one-man-one-woman marriage is blatantly discriminatory and
has no place in our state’s constitution. She noted that marriage
provides over 1,000 legal rights and protections to couples and their
families--these being rights already denied to same-gender couples based
on two North Carolina statutes.
Toler pointed out that because the language of the North
Carolina Amendment is so broad it would also impact private contracts
between individuals, powers of attorney, and domestic partnerships
between both same-sex and different-sex couples.
She likened the Amendment and its attempt to vote away personal rights to a ban on interracial marriage, citing a 2011 Public Policy Polling poll that reported 46 percent of Mississippi citizens believed that interracial marriage should be banned in their state, with only 40 percent saying they believed the unions should be legal.
Toler told RealClearPolitics that she hopes to work with candidates and groups seeking to defeat the marriage referendum. "This isn't about me," said Toler, who quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: "'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.'"
Equality NC Executive Director Stuart Campbell said of her resignation, “Sherre Toler deserves to be acknowledged for her courage in standing up for what is right. Board of Elections officials understand their tasks are to be nonpartisan, independent arbiters throughout the election process. But putting this constitutional amendment on the ballot represents a departure from the everyday election and a move toward the jeopardizing of fundamental personal rights in our state by putting them up for a vote. Ms. Toler’s opposition to the Amendment is echoed by citizens across North Carolina, and her decision to step down at the Board of Elections is both understandable and deserving of respect.”
