WSSU e-mail called illegal
6,400 students, staffers urged to vote early and help Democratic Party
Some 6,400 staffers and students at Winston-Salem State University received e-mail exhortations Monday to take advantage of early voting and help the Democratic Party, setting off local Republicans.
After a complaint by Nathan Tabor, the chairman of the Forsyth County GOP, university officials acknowledged that the e-mail — sent from the student-affairs division — was improper.
The university cited a state law that prohibits the use of a state employee’s authority or state property to support or oppose a person or an issue in any election.
“We regret it,” said Nancy Young, the director of public relations at WSSU. “We sent out a retraction and said to disregard the earlier e-mail.”
That wasn’t the end of it, though. Yesterday, the university sent out what Tabor called an “equal time” e-mail inviting all the same recipients to work for Republicans during early voting.
That message was to be retracted by the university last night once it had been out six hours — the same amount of time the Democrat message was out before being retracted.
Tabor said he’s upset that he had to call the university and complain.
“That is a tax-funded school,” Tabor said, calling the original e-mail “highly illegal and unethical.”
The university said it would try to discover who sent out the e-mail and whether it was sent intentionally or accidentally in a partisan form.
Early voting started last Thursday in Forsyth County and runs through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 2.
About 2,200 people had voted in the county by mid-day yesterday since the start of early voting. Slightly more than half the voters were Democrats, with Republicans making up 36 percent and unaffiliated voters making up another 15 percent, a board of elections official said.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
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Journal reporter Paul Garber contributed to this story.
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