Design Crafters

Before you waste a stamp and send those photo Christmas cards to any North Carolina government officials, you may want to take note of this…

According to the News and Observer, it is officially unlawful for North Carolina government officials to accept Christmas cards from lobbyists. Now how they determine the fine line between a lobbyist or someone truly wishing goodwill, I do not know.

When I first read this I thought “of all the silliest nit picky laws….”. Then someone I was sharing this with suggested it could be because those Christmas cards often included a “donation” which could be interpreted as a bribe or sway a government officials’ views. That makes sense I guess.

So when some of the NC officials didn’t know what they were supposed to do with the cards, they turned to Gov. Mike Easly for advice.  He advised they simply buy stamps and send them back. Ouch. Hopefully those people know about the law so they’re not too offended. With the upcoming elections, offending people is the last thing they want to do. There is however a loophole to the law. It does not indicate a certain time frame which the cards must be returned. It will be interesting to see if they send them back out after the elections are over.

So before you get offended when you receive your good hearted Christmas card back in the mail from a North Carolina government official, just know it’s not personal ;0).

You can see the full article relating to this at: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/869670.html