It is an absurd move for two members of the Forsyth County Elections Board to force Gary Smith, the head of the elections department, to give up his key card to the county’s voter storage building. Mr. Smith obviously should have access to that facility as part of his job. Elections board member Brant Meadows claims this restriction on Smith “...was made out of an abundance of caution,” to lift “this cloud” floating above Smith and the department.

It was determined in 2007 that he probably did not do anything illegal, and we have had good elections in our county because of Mr. Smith’s leadership. I believe the elections board’s action was made out of an abundance of unnecessary political bickering, and the only floating cloud is a political smokescreen created to amuse the citizens. This cloud will dissipate by replacing Brant Meadows and Janis Thomas with more responsible people.

Forsyth County citizens should be very concerned that it took an expensive audit by Sawyer & Co. to identify 113 significant deficiencies in how our county government operates and handles our money. County commissioners and department heads should have the experience and expertise to identify and correct deficiencies without waiting for an audit. Don’t try to distract us by investigating Gary Smith again.  

Tony Gardner

Cumming