NEWTON - Sussex County is a pretty "red" place. People know that.

But there are times when local officials want to make sure no one forgets it. That happened Wednesday night when the County Commissioners called a special meeting to pass two resolutions.

One called for an independent investigation into the voter registration problems involving non-citizens that just surfaced and the second opposed recent state laws limiting local cooperation with ICE agents. Those laws included banning agents from wearing masks, a measure that is just about impossible to enforce. It was noted that Warren County passed a similar resolution.

With a Republican board, there was no doubt the resolutions would pass unanimously, as they did. Just to set the scene, Republicans have almost a 2-1 voter registration lead over Democrats in Sussex.

Still, there was much opposition to both resolutions.

Some of this was curious.

By any objective assessment, the voting-related resolution called for the state to do things the governor says it is already doing.

That includes finding out what happened and where improper ballots were cast. The state, in fact, has retained a law firm in which Jeff Chiesa, a former Republican Attorney General, is a partner to lead the investigation

Opposition to the second resolution - the one, essentially backing ICE - was more understandable.

One critic who identified himself as a former student at Sussex County Community College wanted to know if the commissioners cared that some foreign students may be targeted by ICE. After all, the county runs the college, he said. No one on the governing body replied during the meeting.

It was also noted that a county sheriff's officer stationed in the meeting room was not wearing a mask. So, why should ICE agents cover their faces?

Interestingly, the most colorful observation of the meeting, which in my mind was fairly tame, came the next day from Joseph LaBarbera, the Sussex Republican chair.

He condemned many of the critics thusly:

"Last night, while our popularly elected commissioners passed this resolution supporting election integrity, they were faced by 40-50 very angry elderly women who showed up to push the limits of decorum to oppose this resolution that is widely popular in the county. Several followed supporters of our commissioners into the parking lot screaming, "scumbag," and other obscenities aimed at good people, professional people, fathers, husbands, wives and mothers. Dark forces are at work that want our elections to be chaotic, untrustworthy, and full of unverified mail in ballots and 'software glitches' that threaten to destroy trust in our elections."

Whew!

He called for people throughout the state to attend their local meetings to demand "election integrity," and for Sussex residents to come to the next commissioners meeting to give thanks.

But how should they behave in the parking lot?