Source Information Needed

I have lived in Pickens 20 years and I think last week’s election was nastier and more chaotic than most local elections I’ve seen

All elections are full of inaccurate, false and outright slanderous statements. Nothing new this time around. And don’t be fooled, much of it comes from the opposition campaign. The oldest trick in the book is the candidate stays positive aiming to look like Mr. Nice Guy to the voters, but his volunteers sling the mud at the opposition. We saw too much of that in the Easley election. Average voters do not care enough about who wins a local election to get on social media and smear a candidate with baseless statements and lies. Most of the time that person is a friend, relative or volunteer of the opposing candidate.

For instance, I voted “No” to closing Holly Springs and AR Lewis elementary schools, said it was a terrible idea on TV, in the newspapers, in speeches, in mailers I spent $1,000 of my own money on, and told the board members their names would “be mud in this county” if they closed the schools. Yet, the next time I ran, the opposition was telling voters I supported closing the schools.

Social media has made the mudslinging much worse. This is one reason why Twitter and Facebook are under so much pressure now. Volunteers, campaigns, political organizations and even foreign governments are using the platforms to manipulate the public and smear candidates with lies.

The Easley government put Fire Chief Butch Womack out on leave, and forbid him from using stored up vacation time so he could run for mayor. Many saw that as the government taking sides in the election.

The Greenville News published the criminal records of the candidates, and some thought the newspaper got too involved. That could be argued either way, I think. Some will say, newspapers should put the information out and let the voter decide. Others will say, the opposing candidates should bring out that information as they debate who is most fit for office.

The concern I had with it was the timing, just days before the election. Candidates spent months campaigning, spending their own money and most running for the first time. To drop that bomb in the 11^th hour, virtually ending their campaigns days before the vote, seemed unfair. Also, some of the published records were wrong or incomplete, prompting some to question the newspaper’s objectivity.

If a newspaper is going to publish such records, it should be early in the campaign so candidates can fully respond and voters have time to mull over the information.

Today much of what we are reading on social media and hearing at the local coffee shop is inaccurate, wrong or an orchestrated smear job by the opposition campaign. Now more than ever we need to strive for clarity, source information, and getting it out to the masses is more important than ever.

The Q&A’s the newspapers publish is a source of genuine information. Debates videotaped and posted on line are another. Easley had a couple of mayoral and council debates. Pickens had none, and it would be helpful if the Pickens County Courier or Progress-Sentinel newspapers partnered with the Pickens Chamber and to regularly hold such debates and post them on line.