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The Chronicle
Volume43,Number48 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. THURSDAY, August 11, 2016
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Mendez
BY CASH MICHAELS
FOR THE CHRONICLE
RALEIGH ?The early voting site that was closed at
Winston-Salem State University must be reopened for the
November general elections, says one of the state's most
________________prominent civil rights lead
CAMPAIGN
That's the message the
Rev Dr John Mendez, pas
jLf JH | a tor of Emmanuel Baptist
r A*' ? ? Church in Winston- Salem,
plans to deliver to the
Forsyth County Board of
Elections (BOE) this afternoon when the Republican-led
panel meets to determine the new voting site plan in the
aftermath of the July 29 U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals striking down aspects of the restrictive N.C. 2013
voter ID law.
In ruling the law "discriminatory" to African
American voters, the three-judge panel mandated that
North Carolina's 10-day early voting period before the
Nov. 8 general elections immediately revert back to the
original 17-day early period the law originally upended.
"We need to have the voting site at [WSSU] re-imple
mented," Mendez told The Chronicle Saturday during a
statewide N.C. NAACP meeting in Raleigh.
To Mendez, the fact that the federal court determined
that the Republican-led N.C. legislature deliberately
intended to suppress the black vote is reason enough for
the Anderson Center on WSSU's campus to be reactivat
ed, after the Forsyth BOE, by a 2-1 Republican majority
vote on July 15, decided to close the early site which had
served the campus and African-American community
from 2000 to 2012.
When the board took WSSU off the early voting list
almost a month ago, Eric Ellison, chairman of the Forsyth
See Voting on A6
The Forsyth County Board of Elections will meet today
at 4 p.m. in the Forsyth County Government Center,
201 North Chestnut St. The board will be discussing
the county's early voting plan in the wake of the recent
federal court decision that reinstated the 17-day early
voting period. There will also be a public comment
session. Please call 336-703-2800 or go to
www.co.forsyth.nc.us for more information.
JoAnne Allen
switches to
write-in
candidacy
BY"tt5frDt!tcK
TftE CHRONICLE
JoAnne Allen ended her bi(
didate for mayor and will nov
candidate.
In order to get on the ballc
date, Allen needed 6,037
petition signatures, which is
four percent of registered
voters in Winston-Salem, by
Aug. 10. Petitions provided
by the N.C. State Board of
Elections require voters to
give their name, address,
date of birth and signature.
That information is then
checked against voter regis
tration records to make sure
the signers are registered to
vote in the jurisdiction of the
i to be an unaffiliated can
v be running as a write-in -
>t as an unaffiliated candi
I ' I
Alien
CAMPAIGN
HPH|VP!contest. Allen said she had
?try j| _ ?-^1 gotten more than 8,000 sig
0^4 #' ? P ' natures, but didn't turn them
all in. She said she decided
to go with a write-in candi
dacy instead because the Forsyth County Board of
Elections incorrectly discounted many signatures.
"If they didn't do their job, then why would I have
faith in them to come and do the next 3,500 correctly when
I submitted three (thousand) and they took over one thou
sand signatures from me?" asked Allen.
According to Forsyth BOE Director Tim Tsujii, out of
3,636 submitted signatures, 2.501 signatures were verified
as valid before the process was halted after Forsyth BOE
received a letter from Allen terminating her unaffiliated
effort on July 25. Tsujii said that many didn't count
because they weren't registered or lived outside of
Winston-Salem. He said stadff reverified discounted signa
tures that Allen questioned and reversed their decision on
about 160 signatures that were determined to be valid vot
See Allen on A6
Photo by Tevin Stinson i
Rolling Hills resident Camalla Clark makes a point during the meeting held by the Human Relations
Department and Legal Aid of N.C. on Thursday, Aug. 4. The meeting was held to educate Rolling Hills ten
ants on the Fair Housing Act.
Legal team helps Rolling Hills
tenants with unfit conditions
BY TEVIN STINSON
THE CHRONICLE
Last week city officials and Legal Aid of N.C., a
statewide program that provides free legal services in civil
matters to low-income people, sat down with residents of
the Rolling Hills apartment complex to discuss actions
they can take if their living conditions are unfit.
A handful of residents from the apartment complex
located in East Winston gathered at the Family Services
Learning Center for the crash course on everything from
how to file a complaint with the city, to the process of tak
ing legal action, and every step in between.
Managing attorney for LANC's Forsyth County office
Valene Franco said, after hearing about what was going on
in the Rolling Hills apartment complex, they felt the need
to let residents know what they can do to help. Last month,
city officials announced 97 of the 110 units in the low
income apartment complex had at least one housing code
violation. At that time city officials notified complex own
ers, Aspen Companies Management LLC, based.in New
Jersey, that all corrections must me made in a timely man
See Conditions on A7
Cook set to begin new chapter under new model
BY TEVIN STINSON
THE CHRONICLE
While the start of a new school year is an
exciting time for all the schools in the Winston
Salem Forsyth County School District, the start
of 2016-2017 has some added thrill for stake
holders at Cook Literacy Model School.
The first day of school, scheduled for Aug.
22, a week earlier than other schools in the dis
trict, will officially launch
the school's operation
under a new instructional
model focused on literacy.
In February, school
board members informed
parents that the school
would be adopting the
restart model, which calls
or an instructional overhaul
and various other changes, including scheduling.
It also calls for a new principal and replace
ment of the entire teaching staff.
Shortly after revealing the plan to turn around
one of the county's 11 struggling, low-income
schools in the district, board members announced
Dr. Paula Wilkins would serve as the schoo's new
principal. Earlier this week, Wilkins sat down
See Cook on A7
Dr. Paula Wilkins^
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