08/14/2026
This is the email I received back from the Secretary of State’s office (the person in the office who wrote the email did not identify themselves). It was regarding our County Collector Shannon VanKirk’s derogatory comments she made at the courthouse/active polling location about a candidate before the election. (Link to my original post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18p425fFHg/?mibextid=wwXIfr) (Also note that she has now deleted her comments under the original post, where she doubled down on what she said and also posted photos from when she was stalking the candidate’s property.)
They did not give any explanation as to WHY they think what happened did not constitute electioneering. The section of the list of prohibited activities that they highlighted starts with electioneering.
Here is Cornell Law School’s definition of electioneering (link below). “Electioneering refers to efforts by political groups or individuals to persuade voters to support or oppose specific candidates, political parties, or ballot issues in an upcoming election. This can involve displaying campaign signs, distributing literature, or directly soliciting votes for or against a person, party, or position.”
I heard our County Clerk Angie Curley herself on July 30th stop a commissioner in the commission meeting who simply said the name of a candidate (not a county race) and she immediately stopped him and said we can’t talk about things like that. Which was great that she shut it down immediately, but my point is that it needs to be consistently applied to everyone.
Angie’s response to my email was to say “Dear Katie Anne Gaither,
I hope all is well.
Please see below:”
and she copied and pasted wording from the SOS’s email and the statute.
I still believe that our elected officials should not be slandering or promoting any candidate while at the courthouse (especially while it is a polling place) or during any other time or place when they are in their official capacity whether it falls under electioneering or not.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/electioneering
