When the Enemies of Democracy Are Judges

 

"The order didn’t give the legal reasoning to grant the GOP’s requests."

--Gary D. Robertson, reporting for AP 

As I predicted last week (wasn't it?), the Republican-heavy Court of Appeals has reversed the Wake County Superior Court judge who refused to stop the usage of UNC-Chapel Hill's brand new ID system, the "UNC One Card," as the approved NC ID for voting. The One Card meets all the standards of what a valid photo ID must contain, as written in the Republican law -- that was the ruling of the State Board of Elections (SBOE) which the Wake judge was upholding. 

But according to the NCGOP, the very notion of "digital ID" was a red flag, like "digital" identity -- flashed via hand-held phone -- was a new witchcraft for voter fraud. The Republicans actually chose to argue against the One Card that it just wasn't fair to all the other universities, which were forced to use physical, laminated plastic cards containing a photo -- letting Chapel Hill alone get away with this flashing of a cell phone to vote. Especially if the device was in the hands of a young voter. Why, Good Lard, with the UNC system you'll have ineligible voters by the billions casting ballots through electronic manipulation. That was the argument that caused three appellate judges to reverse the Superior Court. 

Oh yes, we're familiar with the Robinson Calculation, that someone nefarious is somehow and somewhere faking things on-line to make conservatives -- Robinson particularly -- look like frauds, because A.I. and gawd-knows-what-else can manipulate a computer to delete whole identities and steal votes and write bad checks, and they're doing it all the time to benefit Democrats. 

The Democratic National Committee and a UNC student group who joined the case defending the use of the One Card said the SBOE rightly determined that the digital ID met the requirements set in state law. The DNC attorneys wrote that preventing its use could confuse or even disenfranchise up to 40,000 people who work or attend the school so close to the election.

The NC Court of Appeals has an 11-4 Republican majority. The ruling discussed here. unanimous among three judges whose names are being kept secret for some reason -- just incidentally also "didn't give the legal reasoning to grant the GOP's requests." Three separate judges, eyeing each other across a conference table in Raleigh, agreed to do a favor for the NCGOP and rule that the Chapel Hill system did not constitute a valid photo ID. Is it not remarkable they won't put their names to this decision? For reasons we can immediately and accurately guess, if I were guessing. 

There's a Silver Lining: Students and permanent employees can still obtain a physical ID card instead -- conveniently at Chapel Hill locations and at no charge for those who received a digital ID but want the physical card for voting. There has got to be a major informational push on that campus to tell students where to go to get the other ID.