WSSU official sends partisan mass e-mails

A politically partisan e-mail that wound up in the inboxes of Winston-Salem State University’s students and staff is causing tension between the university and the Republican Party.

The university’s Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michelle Releford forwarded an e-mail to the entire university community as per a student’s request — without noticing its political affiliation.

The e-mail contained information encouraging people to vote for the Democratic Party, but Releford thought it encouraged early voting.

Schools in the UNC system are not allowed to use university resources in political campaigns.

It was retracted immediately, but that did not fix the problem.

The university violated the law again Tuesday after it sent out an identical e-mail but with information encouraging people to vote for the Republican Party.

This e-mail was also retracted.

“We felt like we needed something for the Republican Party,” said Nancy Young, spokeswoman for Winston-Salem State University. “It was the only solution we could come up with at the time.”

She said neither e-mail was right.

“We immediately knew it was a mistake,” Young said.

Nathan Tabor, the party chairman for the Forsyth County Republican Party, said he is upset the university broke the law, and also said he does not think it was the first time this had happened.

“I would not be shocked to find out that they had not sent out multiple Democratic e-mails in the past,” Tabor said.

He said he was disappointed that there was no disciplinary action against Releford for breaking the law.

But Young defended Releford, saying the administrator is not registered to vote so she had no incentive to send political e-mails.

“She is not politically active,” Young said.

If it were anyone else, the repercussions might have been different, Young said.

“I am still not satisfied,” Tabor said. “I don’t think voters have been protected.”

After the incident, the Forsyth County Republican Party asked the Forsyth Board of Elections to remove the university as a voting site.

Tabor said it is not about stopping students from voting — it is about fairness.

The board decided to keep the university building a voting site this year, but the school will have to submit a written plan explaining how the mix up was addressed before the next election in 2012.

If this issue was about fairness to students there would be voting sites on all campuses, Tabor said.

All three of the board members expressed concern about fraud, he said.

Keeping the site on campus may not be about fairness but voter fraud, Tabor said.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.