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We are making progress! Wisconsin Becomes 28th State to Ban ZuckerBucks Before 2024 Election https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/wisconsin-voters-approve-measures-that-will-change-the-way-elections-are-run-in-the-battleground-state/ar-BB1kYynZ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=12dcd44974df42dcba62c9c39491c035&ei=10 Wisconsin voters on Tuesday night approved two Republican-backed measures that will change the way elections are run in the pivotal battleground state. A majority of Wisconsin voters supported a state constitutional amendment to prevent local governments from using private donations to fund the administrative side of elections. They also voted in favor of a rule that prohibits anyone other than election officials from performing election-related duties. Republicans have championed the amendments as methods of decreasing outside influence on the state’s elections. Meanwhile, Democrats have opposed them, arguing they lead to unnecessary ambiguity for election officials, especially as they have struggled with resources in recent years. The measures are aimed at addressing concerns conservatives had during the 2020 election over millions of dollars in grants being donated to Wisconsin’s largest cities by a voting rights group. That year, the Center for Tech and Civic Life donated more than $8 million to five major Wisconsin hubs as part of a national initiative to help local governments manage the costs associated with elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Election officials who received the money said it helped them meet increased demand for absentee ballots and vote-by-mail initiatives. But Republican groups argued the money was largely spent in Democratic strongholds and tilted the results of the race. Related video: Voters eager to cast ballots in Wisconsin spring election, despite terrible weather (WTMJ Milwaukee, WI)

Click here for a website that has a list of links to access state laws in every state

States rush to combat AI threat to elections • New Hampshire Bulletin This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI – a form of artificial intelligence that can create new content, including images, audio, and video – became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. But, while Congress has done little to address the issue, states are moving aggressively to respond – though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be. The New Hampshire House passed a bill Thursday to require that all political advertisements in the state disclose to viewers if they used “synthetic media,” defined as any image, audio recording, or video recording of an individual’s appearance, action, or speech, that is realistic but fake. That bill, House Bill 1596, would mandate that disclosure for all advertisements within 90 days of the election. The disclosure would need to be visible on a static or print advertisement, appear for the whole duration of a video advertisement, and be spoken clearly at 2-minute intervals for an audio advertisement. The bill would apply to people, corporations, and political committees. News organizations that replay AI generated clips as part of a news report would be exempt as long as the outlet clearly identified the media as false and AI-driven. The bill also includes exemptions for satire and parody efforts. The problem is global. Last year, a fake, AI-generated audio recording of a conversation between a liberal Slovakian politician and a journalist, in which they discussed how to rig the country’s upcoming election, offered a warning to democracies around the world. Here in the United States, the urgency of the AI threat was driven home in February, when, in the days before the New Hampshire primary, thousands of voters in the state received a robocall with an AI-generated voice impersonating President Joe Biden, urging them not to vote. A Democratic operative working for a rival candidate has admitted to commissioning the calls. In response to the call, the Federal Communications Commission issued a ruling restricting robocalls that contain AI-generated voices. Not all have been in favor of legislative efforts. In New Hampshire, half of the members on the House Election Law Committee opposed the bill. Critics said it would have a “chilling effect on freedom of expression” and could cause candidates or campaigns to self-censor. After its passage in the full House Thursday, the bill heads next to the Senate. Some conservative groups even appear to be using AI tools to assist with mass voter registration challenges – raising concerns that the technology could be harnessed to help existing voter suppression schemes. “Instead of voters looking to trusted sources of information about elections, including their state or county board of elections, AI-generated content can grab the voters’ attention,” said Megan Bellamy, vice president for law and policy at the Voting Rights Lab, an advocacy group that tracks election-related state legislation. “And this can lead to chaos and confusion leading up to and even after Election Day.” Disinformation worries The AI threat has emerged at a time when democracy advocates already are deeply concerned about the potential for “ordinary” online disinformation to confuse voters, and when allies of former president Donald Trump appear to be having success in fighting off efforts to curb disinformation. But states are responding to the AI threat. Since the start of last year, 101 bills addressing AI and election disinformation have been introduced, according to a March 26 analysis by the Voting Rights Lab. On March 27, Oregon became the latest state – after Wisconsin, New Mexico, Indiana, and Utah – to enact a law on AI-generated election disinformation. Florida and Idaho lawmakers have passed their own measures, which are currently on the desks of those states’ governors. Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, and Hawaii, meanwhile, have all passed at least one bill – in the case of Arizona, two – through one chamber. As that list of states makes clear, red, blue, and purple states all have devoted attention to the issue. In New Hampshire, Rep. Angela Brennan, a Bow Democrat, praised the House vote on Thursday. “I am grateful that, in this first election year where artificial intelligence is accessible at everyone’s fingertips, the House was able to come together to pass HB 1596 on a strong bipartisan voice vote,” she said in a statement. “The dissemination of disinformation is detrimental to our democracy and this body is sending a strong message that Granite State voters deserve better than dirty tricks.” States urged to act Meanwhile, a new report on how to combat the AI threat to elections, drawing on input from four Democratic secretaries of state, was released March 25 by the NewDEAL Forum, a progressive advocacy group. “(G)enerative AI has the ability to drastically increase the spread of election mis- and disinformation and cause confusion among voters,” the report warned. “For instance, ‘deepfakes’ (AI-generated images, voices, or videos) could be used to portray a candidate saying or doing things that never happened.” The NewDEAL Forum report urges states to take several steps to respond to the threat, including requiring that certain kinds of AI-generated campaign material be clearly labeled; conducting role-playing exercises to help anticipate the problems that AI could cause; creating rapid-response systems for communicating with voters and the media, in order to knock down AI-generated disinformation; and educating the public ahead of time. Secretaries of State Steve Simon of Minnesota, Jocelyn Benson of Michigan, Maggie Toulouse Oliver of New Mexico, and Adrian Fontes of Arizona provided input for the report. All four are actively working to prepare their states on the issue. Loopholes seen Despite the flurry of activity by lawmakers, officials, and outside experts, several of the measures examined in the Voting Rights Lab analysis appear to have weaknesses or loopholes that may raise questions about their ability to effectively protect voters from AI. Most of the bills require that creators add a disclaimer to any AI-generated content, noting the use of AI, as the NewDEAL Forum report recommends. But the new Wisconsin law, for instance, requires the disclaimer only for content created by campaigns, meaning deepfakes produced by outside groups but intended to influence an election – hardly an unlikely scenario – would be unaffected. In addition, the measure is limited to content produced by generative AI, even though experts say other types of synthetic content that don’t use AI, like Photoshop and CGI – sometimes referred to as “cheap fakes” – can be just as effective at fooling viewers or listeners, and can be more easily produced. For that reason, the NewDEAL Forum report recommends that state laws cover all synthetic content, not just that which use AI. New Hampshire’s proposed law does that: The legislation applies to any image that has been “created or intentionally manipulated,” and is not limited to generative AI. The Wisconsin, Utah, and Indiana laws also contain no criminal penalties – violations are punishable by a $1,000 fine – raising questions about whether they will work as a deterrent. The Arizona and Florida bills do include criminal penalties. But Arizona’s two bills apply only to digital impersonation of a candidate, meaning plenty of other forms of AI-generated deception – impersonating a news anchor reporting a story, for instance – would remain legal. And one of the Arizona bills, as well as New Mexico’s law, applied only in the 90 days before an election, even though AI-generated content that appears before that window could potentially still affect the vote. Experts say the shortcomings exist in large part because, since the threat is so new, states don’t yet have a clear sense of exactly what form it will take. “The legislative bodies are trying to figure out the best approach, and they’re working off of examples that they’ve already seen,” said Bellamy, pointing to the examples of the Slovakian audio and the Biden robocalls. “They’re just not sure what direction this is coming from, but feeling the need to do something.” “I think that we will see the solutions evolve,” Bellamy added. “The danger of that is that AI-generated content and what it can do is also likely to evolve at the same time. So hopefully we can keep up.” New Hampshire Bulletin reporter Ethan DeWitt contributed to this report.

Thank you Cher for sharing this with us and for attending our meeting on 3/27. As Sheila Franklin shared, it would be good for phone calls or emails to be sent to the City Council, the mayor and to the City Manager about the mural. It is important to speak in a kind but firm tone in why we should not have the Pride flag on a welcome to Hendersonville mural. Here are the websites to meetings: I put these on my calendar to remind me when the meetings are… Here is the School Board Meeting website and schedule and where to see the agenda… Next meeting is April 8th at 4… which is the eclipse day.  I will be at the Masters in Augusta, GA. https://www.hendersoncountypublicschoolsnc.org/district/administration/school-board10/board-meeting-notices-2/board-minutes/board-agendas-and-minutes-school-year-2023-24/ Here is the website to the City Council meetings and agendas. The next meeting is April 4th at 5:45. https://hendersonville-nc.municodemeetings.com The next DEI meeting is not until May 14 at 4:30. https://hendersonville-nc.municodemeetings.com/ The flag in the suggested mural is EXCLUSIVE not INCLUSIVE. The US Flag represents all of us and needs to replace the 'Pride Flag' that sends the wrong messae and does not represent the good will of Henderson county as a welcome place for all.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/supreme-court-texas-ruling-should-be-wake-up-call-for-biden-on-immigration-opinion/ar-BB1kfhnb The Supreme Court decision allowing Texas to enforce its new immigration law, allowing state officials to detain migrants who enter Texas without authorization, is clearly an important ruling that is to be applauded nationwide. As a response, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that "we fundamentally disagree" with the ruling. Under his immigration proposal of January 20, 2021, Biden would create an eight-year path to citizenship for the nation's estimated tens of millions of unauthorized immigrants. Perhaps that explains why no Senate Democrats voted for Senator Bill Hagerty's (R-Tenn.) Equal Representation Act, a piece of legislation intended to ensure that only legal citizens are counted when tabulating the size of congressional districts and the Electoral College map that determines presidential elections. It is hard not to see the political agenda behind the three years of silence from the White House on the millions of migrants coming through our southern border, an issue that will be crucial to deciding the 2024 elections. All this was unimaginable just a few years ago. Another Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. illegally was charged with the murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student found dead on the campus of the University of Georgia last month. A Guatemalan illegal alien was convicted of sexually assaulting a child and rearrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he was released by a Massachusetts Court. Last December, another "undocumented male subject" murdered a Texas high school cheerleader. An illegal immigrant from Mexico killed a Washington state patrol trooper earlier this month. And the list goes on and on. To be clear, the U.S. needs more immigrants—legal immigrants, especially high-skilled foreign workers. Our annual H-1B visas account for roughly 22 percent of all temporary visas, at 65,000 visas approved each year and an extra 20,000 for the cap. These numbers should increase. Typically, over 200,000 applicants seek H-1B visas every year. Under the current annual quota, only about 40 percent are accepted, so foreign-born skilled workers may give up applying and seek other countries to work in and contribute to. We are at risk of losing the international brainpower that will help ensure our country continues to lead technological progress globally. We need to expand legal immigration, yet we allow millions to enter the country illegally, most of whom are barely skilled and some of whom have criminal records and should not be permitted under any circumstances. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services needs more funding to cope with processing legal immigrants, including working permit applicants. Diverting funds to process illegal migrants while hundreds of thousands of applicants wait for their papers to be processed in our daunting, years-long (and pretty much broken) immigration process is not only unfair, but unacceptable. Some people, like the man who murdered Laken Riley, simply should not be here. Period. Reinstituting the "Remain in Mexico" policy is one action the administration should take immediately to stop the flow of illegals. The intended purpose of asylum—protection from arrest and extradition given especially to political refugees—must be a guiding policy for all asylum seekers. People living in Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado—states far from the southern border—are now identifying illegal migration as a key issue for the 2024 election. And with heinous crime raising throughout our nation, rightly so. Dr. Sasha Toperich is senior executive vice president of the Transatlantic Leadership Network. From 2013 to 2018, he was a senior fellow and director of the Mediterranean Basin, Middle East, and Gulf initiative at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own. Related Articles I'm an Asylum Seeker Fleeing Iran. I'm Stuck in Limbo Due to Economic Migrants | Opinion Sorry, Texas: You Can't Jail and Deport People. Biden Is Right to Fight You | Opinion Migrants Aren't Animals and Donald Trump's 'Bloodbath' Is Not Inevitable | Opinion Start your unlimited Newsweek trial https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-supreme-court-just-tipped-the-scales-for-house-republicans/vi-BB1kMg0f?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=7340c8479d8141e1b7c3cf0dd1e61ad0&ei=10

It has been 40 years since a Republican presidential candidate won Washington state. Today, Democrats enjoy a “trifecta” there, controlling the governorship and both chambers of the Washington State Legislature. But despite Democrats’ firm grip on state government, conservatives just scored their own “trifecta” victory in the deep-blue stronghold. The conservative grassroots organization Let’s Go Washington collected 2.6 million signatures across the state on six ballot initiatives, which amounts to over 420,000 signatures per measure. In early March, under pressure to act on the Republ ican-backed ballot initiatives, the Washington State Legislature enacted three of the six measures after holding hearings. The three measures, which become law within the next 90 days, will: Remove restrictions on reasonable police pursuits. Give parents the right to examine their children’s classroom curriculum, books, and other materials, and grant parents the right to see their children’s school records. Bar the state, counties, cities, or other jurisdictions from implementing a general income tax. Read https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/03/14/conservatives-win-triple-header-in-one-of-americas-bluest-states/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Top5&mkt_tok=ODI0LU1IVC0zMDQAAAGSCtIWRaNDI8jRsSNSFEKINCdEmPAuntrUwnzKK-oHXbJzEu66TllbL0lKCyycKdu-aB7tgecrGvCo1Iyxs1XZNHTOw7taGl7wGKuE4CqY3075tAdKZw

JAMES K. WOMACK Summary Jim Womack is a West Point graduate with over 40 years of scientific, engineering, and executive management experience across a broad spectrum of technology and business disciplines. He possesses a depth of public sector experience from his service in federal, state and local government agencies. He has extensive executive leadership and management experience in the private sector.  His employment experience includes strategic planning, business development, business unit management, client relationship management, executive -level consultation, and information systems architecture. Professional Experience North Carolina Election Integrity Team (NCEIT) Role: President & CEO                                                                                               01/22 – Present Founder and President of the statewide election integrity organization in North Carolina, chartered and mentored by the national Election Integrity Network (EIN). Womack manages the team of over 1500 volunteer election Integrity (EI) staff (including poll observers, poll judges, poll workers and board of election members) committed to free and fair elections in the state.  Womack directs the NCEIT team’s activities in all eight lanes of voting and election integrity including-Maintenance of clean and accurate Voter Lists, Surveillance of Voting Machines & Technology, Protection of Vulnerable Voters, Monitoring of Absentee by Mail Ballot Processes, Statewide Training of Team Members, Organizing and Educating Local EI Task Forces, Audit of Election Processes and Outcomes, and Legislative Advocacy for Statutory Changes.  Womack is responsible for directing the creation and circulation of training resources so statewide volunteers operate within legal and administrative constraints in all elections.  He is responsible for improving state statutes within the constraints of the NVRA and HAVA.  He has authored more than a thousand statutory line-item changes for the NC General Assembly among more than two dozen related bills.  Womack also conceived and directed the development and subsequent implementation of two important automation suites that enable EI operations among the organization’s volunteers.  Womack chairs and manages the EIN National Working Group on Election Machines and Technology, and he is a cabinet member of the EIN National Working Group for Election System Audits.  He regularly collaborates with Congressional leaders and the Elections Assistance Commission to source and impact federal advisory and resource-related decisions. Lee County Republican Party Role: Chairman                                                                                                           03/17 – Present Chief executive responsible for leading, directing, resourcing and administering the full range of political operations for Republicans residing in Lee County.  Interacts with the Congressional District and State Republican leadership as required to assist Republican candidates with their campaigns and to elect them to public office.  Manages a staff of 19 officers and an Executive Committee of 45 members.  Accomplishments include improving voter registration numbers and overall percentage in Lee County to convert the county from a heavy democrat county to republican leaning- as evidenced in the past two general elections in which Republicans won all contested races.  Raised unprecedented amounts of funds for the local party.  Top county among one hundred counties in the state for per capita GOP fundraising, raising $10 per registered republican, per annum, which is more than ten times the state average.  Maintained the state’s largest and most productive year-round headquarters for party activities, including a merchandise store, statewide headquarters for the Women for Trump movement, a dining room, meeting rooms, and a kitchen. Independent Consultant Role:   Executive Consultant for Enterprise Class Information Systems                       12/07 – Present Independent collaborator and executive consultant to state Information Technology (IT) organizations and companies pursuing public sector healthcare IT business at state and local government levels.  Managed and directed proposal efforts including preparation of the software architecture, advised corporate leaders on risk mitigation strategies for various bid opportunities, and assisted in executive reviews of IT contracts.  Instrumental in Netsmart Technologies’ proposal effort that resulted in a $50M contract to implement an enterprise-wide mental health solution for Los Angeles County, CA. State of North Carolina Role: Chairman / Vice Chairman of North Carolina Oil & Gas Commission  07/12 – 12/22 Chairman of the NC Oil and Gas Commission (OGC), renamed from the state Mining and Energy Commission (MEC) in 2015; responsible for rulemaking and legislative coordination to facilitate North Carolina becoming an all-of-the-above energy producer.  Chairman of the previous commission from inception of the MEC (08/2012) through end of initial term (07/2014).  Elected as inaugural chairman of the OGC in May 2018 through August 2019.  Vice Chairman from August 2019 to December 2021, then again as Chairman through 2023.  Directed the commission’s rule-making committees and study groups in identifying and adopting industry engineering and environmental best practices for responsible shale oil and gas extraction in the state’s Triassic basins.  Served as the appointed representative to the MEC from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC).  Served also on the national (NACO) Energy, Environment & Land Use Steering Committee and as the Vice-Chairman of the Energy/Renewables Subcommittee.  Served on the (state) NCACC’s Environmental Steering Committee.   Womack also served as a charter member on the Board of Directors of America’s Counties for Energy Independence (ACEI). Lee County, NC Government Role:  County Commissioner                                                                                         12/10 – 11/14 Elected official responsible for executive oversight and approval of county-wide strategic plans, the $65M annual operations budget; the $100M capital improvement program, and administration of 325 employees among the county’s 12 departments.  Represented Lee County Government as a director on the regional Workforce Development Board and the local Economic Development Corporation. Netsmart Technologies Role:   National Director for Public Health                                                                   10/06 – 11/07 Practice General Manager, Vice President and National Director for Netsmart’s Public Health Practice.  Responsible for thought leadership in the company’s public sector healthcare vertical.  Consulted with state and local government clients to identify client needs and to promote industry best practices and technology solutions that could be employed to solve public health information systems challenges. In addition, Mr. Womack: §  Maintained executive relationships with 15 state clients of Netsmart Public Health §  Managed Netsmart’s internal software product developments for clinical and practice management, electronic health records, and statewide vital records systems §  Managed channel partnerships with leading COTS and Commodity software vendors §  Directed staff development for 60 professional and technical staff across the Public Health practice §  Was responsible for executive oversight of and external Quality Assurance over statewide public health projects. Covansys Corporation, Public Sector Division (later Saber Corp, then EDS, now HP) Role:     Account Executive, Regional Manager, VP & Business Unit Manager       02/01 – 10/06 Account Executive for Covansys Public Sector information systems clients and projects throughout the Southeast U.S.  Mr. Womack maintained client relationships with public sector program and project managers, developed strategic business opportunities, reviewed and directed State- and local government engagements in mainframe, client-server, and Web application development. In addition, Mr. Womack: §  Managed delivery for a team of 30 IT professionals and served as Delivery Executive for 10 project and staff augmentation accounts §  Consulted with State Clients on enterprise systems development, web-to-enterprise integration, legacy systems maintenance and support, business intelligence, and a variety of contemporary regulatory challenges (including HIPAA, HAVA, PRWORA, Reed Act, and other Federal mandates) §  Developed the business opportunity then wrote the winning proposal for a $42M enterprise health information system for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.  Directed all sales and business development activities for this bid over a 15-month period. §  Sold and managed over $25M in local business to the City of Raleigh and State of North Carolina while simultaneously managing the delivery activities of 30 subordinate staff in Raleigh. Following acquisition by Saber Corp., served as Practice & Business Development Director and Vice President for the Enterprise Health Practice.  Responsible for thought leadership in the company’s public sector healthcare vertical.  Converted all Covansys Public Sector accounts over to Saber accounts as part of the corporate transition.  Consulted with state and local government clients to identify client needs and to apply best practices and technology solutions.   Managed Saber’s channel and commodity vendor partnerships for all healthcare related offerings.  Maintained direct oversight over all bid response efforts, acting as chief editor and proposal coordinator. State of North Carolina, Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Role:          Public Health Systems IT Manager                                             09/99 – 01/01 Mr. Womack was Senior Departmental Information Systems Manager responsible for the design, development, testing, training and deployment of 14 legacy mainframe and client-server systems supporting the full range of public health business operations, statewide. In addition, Mr. Womack: §  Managed and directed a staff of 20 information systems professionals in OS/390 CICS/Batch COBOL programming and legacy data management in DB2, IMS, and VSAM files §  Directed n-tiered client-server development and maintenance for specialty staff in Public Health §  Completed time-sensitive application implementations for Year 2000 and Current Procedural Terminology code conversions §  Supported 3500 end-users and knowledge workers with transactional processing through Web- and TN3270-hosted user interfaces §  Analyzed and directed implementation of Federally mandated Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) security, privacy, transaction and code-set features in all systems containing personally identifiable health information §  Served as Senior Architect and Strategic Planner for design work on the State’s e-Government solution for an Enterprise Health Information System to accomplish HIPAA mandates and upgrade from antiquated legacy health systems. State of Washington, Department of Social & Health ServicesRole:    Development Manager                                                                       07/98 – 08/99 Mr. Womack was Senior Manager responsible for developing and maintaining large-scale, federally-sanctioned, online transactional processing systems constructed around (legacy OS/390) ADABAS and Oracle database management systems. His scope included the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS). §  Architected and directed n-tier, client-server development of 25 system modules in Delphi/Midas, hosted in a Win/NT server environment to improve economy and efficiency of transactions among the 3,000 end-users across the state.  Cut mainframe costs by 40% annually while substantially expanding the business functionality of the system §  Directed the development, maintenance, and support of the Agency’s Enterprise Data Warehouse, engineered with an Oracle 8 RDBMS, and hosted on UNIX/AIX Servers §  Directed the development of a heterogeneous (Web-accessible) transactional system to capture and manage all childcare training records for 18,000 facilities, statewide §  Exceeded all (Federal) SACWIS and National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System requirements for data management and reporting §  Converted all supported systems to meet Year-2000 compliance six months ahead of schedule, without external assistance §  Received 1999 Departmental Award for Best Organization/Team. Helped Washington State IT officials secure national award as the nation’s “Most Digital State” in 1999. Digital Force Consultants, Inc, Copperas Cove, TX Role:    President and CEO                                                                                                06/97 - 07/98 Conceived, coordinated, and developed the strategic plan for creating the U.S. Army’s First Digital Installation. This Business Process Reengineering and Strategic Planning project was scoped to provide the Army’s largest garrison (Fort Hood, TX) with mainstream automation, networking, and telecommunications systems in meeting all Department of Defense Title X requirements for the early 21st Century.  Coordinated the plan among the 15 separate Divisions and Agencies at Fort Hood, organized a government-industry partnership, and developed a sound operational budget for execution of the plan over a three-year period. U.S. Army III Corps, Fort Hood, TX Role:    Force Integration Director & Chief Technology Officer                                         04/95 - 06/97 Chief Technology Officer for U.S. Army III Corps with a soldier population of 40,000.  Performed strategic and operational planning for deployment and support of 17,000 Win/NT PCs and 1500 UNIX client workstations operating off the Campus Wide Area Network and numerous supporting Local Area Networks.  Executive staff official responsible for testing, evaluating, then deploying $95M of hardware and software for garrison and tactical use.  Modernized III Corps systems architectures with heterogeneous business applications, tactical local area networking, tactical video-teleconferencing, whiteboard, and Army Tactical Command and Control Systems.  Managed tactical systems deployments to five geographically dispersed installations.  Directed information systems training programs for 10,000 soldiers.  Directed a staff of 5 officers, 10 Army civilians, and 20 contract employees in reengineering staff control processes for tactical administration, logistics, intelligence, and operational services.  Awarded the Army’s Legion of Merit for superior service. U.S. Army, Various Sites in U.S. and Middle East Role:    Executive Manager and Commander                                                                       02/87 - 03/95 Served in successively more responsible leadership positions as an Army Senior Manager and Director.  During assignment as a Senior Systems Technology Officer at the Pentagon (1987-89), was called repeatedly as an expert witness before Congressional Committees and Department of Defense forums in support of the Army’s planning and budget process.  Awarded the Bronze Star and Meritorious Service Medals for distinguished combat leadership in Saudi Arabia and Iraq during Operation Desert Storm (1990-91). Organized, trained, and led the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters Command. Managed continuous telecommunications, automation, and power distribution for three command post complexes, dispersed over 100 miles, despite harsh environmental and threat conditions.  Managed all communications complexes to provide 24x7 voice and data connectivity in a mobile tactical environment for 7 consecutive months.  Senior plans, operations, and training manager for a 3500-person combat Brigade (1992-93).  Course and Program Director of the Army’s 10-week Officer Basic Course at Fort Knox (1993-94).  Re-engineered the full spectrum of analog training into a Synthetic Training Environment, integrating virtual simulations and automation, to enhance outcome-based training experiences for 1200 students.  Chief executive and commander for a 560-man armored combat battalion (1994-1995). Directed a staff of 35 in executing the full range of training, operations, administration, and logistics. U.S. Army, Various Sites in U.S. and Europe Role:    Junior Staff Officer and Commander                                                                        06/77 - 01/87 Served in successively more responsible leadership positions as a junior staff officer and Commander.  Led a 30-man platoon and executive officer for a 110-man company at Fort Stewart, GA (1977-79).  Executive officer and Commander for a 110-man company, & Aide-to-Camp for a General Officer in Germany (1979-83); III Corps Staff Planning Officer and Staff Contingency Plans Officer for a 540-man unit at Fort Hood, TX (1984-87). Education U.S. Army Command and General Staff College – Fort Leavenworth, KansasMaster of Military Arts & Sciences (Operations, Plans & Training), 1990 American Technological University – Killeen, TexasM.S. (Business Management), 1985 United States Military Academy – West Point, New YorkB.S. (Engineering), 1977

It is my understanding that the NCGOP will be voting for a new NCGOP Chair next Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at the NCGOP Committee Meeting. I am urging you to please vote for Jim Womack.  You know Jim because he has worked diligently and successfully with the NC General Assembly to get election integrity legislation passed in S747 that addresses transparency, accountability, and citizen oversight in our elections. As GOP Chair of Lee County, Jim also far outperforms any of the other one hundred counties for fundraising each year.  (His resume in the private sector attests to his success.) The GOP is sucking on fumes because there is little faith in the honesty and integrity of the GOP leaders who don’t hold their elected officials accountable to the Republican Party platform and demonize their activists because they do. These grassroots patriots also have little regard for a Party that dismisses the stellar work of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team’s (NCEIT) efforts as ‘the other party’ when Jim has led the way to make it easy to vote but hard to cheat. NCGOP has done nothing to improve our election laws but takes great delight to take credit for NCEIT’s hard work. These patriots feel disenfranchised and cheated.  The rigging of votes in the past conventions and anointing of establishment hacks adds to the glaring pile of disillusionment.  Will it be any different this time? Unlike the NCGOP, Jim Womack as CEO of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team (NCEIT), has presented an annual legislative agenda to the General Assembly by attending meetings, giving testimony and motivating activists across the state to lobby. Last but not least, Jim has a huge following of grassroots voters who have either walked away from the local GOP or become unaffiliated voters, the largest block of voters in NC.  Want to begin to restore their faith? Jim Womack is THE Grassroots Conservative leader in this state. If you want to continue disenfranchising conservatives who are the activist wing of the Republican party, vote for the other guy. The GOP will continue to hemorrhage supporters. Guaranteed.  If you want to begin to heal the fracture between the GOP and the grassroots, vote for Jim Womack. If you want to work hand-in-glove with the true activists who will work with you to assure that we have free and fair elections and to continue to make North Carolina the model of election integrity in NC and across this nation, please vote for Jim Womack.  We need a great change. Jim Womack's Resume Jim Womack on NCGOP Simmons Debacle … Team Whatley planning to install Simmons as party chairman? (Trump supposedly “WANTS” this.)

"The Federalist connected the dots to Biden’s Executive Order 14019, and its headline read, “DOJ Is Using Bidenbucks To Encourage Illegals And Felons To Vote, Says Mississippi Secretary Of State.” The EO, issued in March 2021, ordered “hundreds of federal agencies to interfere in state and local election administration by using U.S. taxpayer money to boost voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities,” Federalist author Shawn Fleetwood wrote." https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/its-perfect-storm-drivers-licenses-illegals-noncitizen-voting/

" ... In an accidental moment of truth, newly appointed Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Whatley appeared to undermine the Republican case for Donald Trump’s reelection. Whatley posed a straightforward question: 'Were you better off four years ago than you are today?' However, his response diverged from the expected Republican narrative. 'The answer for this entire country is no,' he stated. Whatley attempted to correct himself but inadvertently again admitted that the country is better off under President Biden when he said, 'I mean, yeah, we are better off today.' " Read the rest of the pathetic story here. https://www.meidastouch.com/news/rnc-chair-says-americans-are-better-off-under-biden-than-under-trump-