Voter Suppression

The effort at suppressing the black vote in North Carolina (not to mention the college-age vote) got the attention of the NYTimes yesterday in an editorial that pointed out that early voting in our state, particularly among blacks supporting Barack Obama, shot up substantially in 2008. Which is all you need to know about the motivation of the new Republican majority in the General Assembly:

Mr. Obama won North Carolina ... by less than 15,000 votes. That state has had early voting since 2000, and in 2008, more ballots were cast before Election Day than on it. Mr. Obama won those early votes by a comfortable margin. So it is no coincidence that the North Carolina House passed a measure — along party lines — that would cut the early voting period by a week, reducing it to a week and a half before the election. The Senate is preparing a similar bill, which we hope Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, will veto if it reaches her.

The veto is the only weapon Bev Perdue has, and she's already proven that she's prepared to use it. After that, everything will depend on the Five Goobers from Demsville on whether the veto is overridden.