Laughable. Curious. Arrogant. There are probably many other adjectives that could describe the smoke-and-mirrors protest filed last week by the Bladen Improvement Association PAC but, for now, any one of those three hit the mark.

Let’s not forget that this is a group that has long been suspected of questionable voting strategies through its tweaking of Get Out The Vote rules, has at least two members (who are also county commissioners) who have allegedly violated voting laws by either trying to vote twice or taken photographs in a polling place, and is blatantly intimidating and rude outside polling places.

Bladen County’s ballots are already under scrutiny because of two protests filed with the N.C. Board of Elections — one by McRae Dowless, who won his race for Bladen County Soil and Water supervisor, and one by Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign. Each protest points to voter fraud with fingers pointing toward members of the Bladen PAC — giving this county a black eye throughout the state.

In its defense, Horace Munn, who serves as the PAC president, claims the group has not strayed from the letter of the law in any of its actions.

While we are certainly not equipped to know whether that’s true or not, we do find it quite curious that Munn earlier this year was under a self-imposed gag order when asked to talk about his organization with us, but is now fully willing to open up now that the group is under attack.

We also find it incredulous that the PAC’s protest was filed with the Bladen County Board of Election on behalf of Democrat Kenneth Register Jr., who lost his bid for a county commissioner’s seat out of District 3 to Republican Ashley Trivette. It was register who all but sold his soul to the PAC by paying a “fee” to get the group to support his campaign in an effort to tip the scales of power on the Board of Commissioners.

Instead, Trivette pulled off two major accomplishments … winning the seat by a wide margin using simple, old-fashioned hard work during the campaign and handing the Bladen PAC its first major setback.

While the two state protests are going forward through the N.C. Board of Elections, we are relatively sure the local protest filed by Register through the Bladen PAC will be rejected — if for no other reason, the protest is an oxymoron. In our mind, Register and the PAC are protesting alleged voter fraud that was potentially perpetuated by them.

Recently, Bladen County Commissioner Michael Cogdell, who won his re-election easily on Nov. 8 but is under investigation for snapping photographs at a polling place, said this newspaper has made the Bladen PAC “look like a bunch of heathens.”

We won’t take the credit or blame for that. They can only look in the mirror to see the culprit for that.

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QUOTE FOR THE DAY

“Arrogance is an unhealthy ego in need of repair.” (Thomas Faranda)