How Republicans Are Winning at Voter Suppression

We've certainly observed -- and closely -- the shenanigans of Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") and his minions on the Watauga County Board of Elections -- his poor brother Luke, putative chair of the BOE, and Bill Aceto, putative secretary -- and we know that Aceto bragged to a Democratic office-holder in August of 2013 that they were "going to take the gloves off" -- particularly with reference to "fixing" the ASU student vote so that it wouldn't plague Republican hopes in Watauga County any longer.

They did their best (worst), even though their scheme to turn Boone 1, 2 & 3 precincts into one voting "mega-precinct" was rejected at the state level. They succeeded in getting Early Voting off the ASU campus, and now they've moved one majority urban precinct (New River 3) to the Far Side of the Moon and put it into a mega-church engaged in well known partisan Republican activities (and possibly staffed now by a Democratic Demon Swat Team and Exorcism Unit to pray the devil out of any left-leaning voters who venture out there to cast a ballot).

But the worst damage that's been done (lately) to ballot access is that provision in the 2013 voter law passed by the NC General Assembly which disallows provisional ballots cast "out of precinct." People move frequently in this culture, especially young people, and they forget to update their voter information. So they go to their new precinct polling place on election day, only they're not on the rolls for that precinct, so they request a provisional ballot, because they ARE properly registered in the county, but the Republicans' new law sez "NO, you LOSE!" College students are disproportionately singled out for that treatment.

Bob Hall, executive director of the voter rights org DemocracyNC, has done research on hundreds of the provisional ballots that were thrown out in the May primary, and he has found evidence that 454 of those ballots would have been counted under election rules prior to the Big Republican Re-Write.

While black voters make up just 22 percent of the state’s electorate, they accounted for 39 percent of the rejected ballots. Fifty-seven percent of the ballots were cast by registered Democrats, who make up only 42 percent of North Carolina voters.

“It proves, really, what has been said about the discriminatory nature of the new law,” Hall said, noting that the people affected include a veteran, students and even a precinct judge.

We have to defeat these bastards (to use the scientifically precise term for them).

NC GOP, Waiting To See What They Can Get Away With

Strong editorial in yesterday's News&Observer against the Republicans' plan to introduce voter photo ID in North Carolina. Excerpted below, that portion of the editorial that says the current GOP leadership's "go slow" approach really has to do with waiting for the Washington Supremes to throw out the Voting Rights Act that applies in North Carolina:

Bob Hall of the government watchdog Democracy North Carolina made the case when Republicans first got up to these shenanigans in the last General Assembly session, when their Voter ID law was vetoed by Gov. Beverly Perdue. Answering those who claimed a Voter ID was harmless because people had to show identification to get insurance or buy groceries with a check or get a credit card, etc., Hall noted that voting was a right, not a privilege, and thus something that deserved protection.

Republicans are not interested in that argument. They want a Voter ID law, and with Republican Pat McCrory now in the governor’s chair, they’re likely to get it. This time out, though, they say they’ll move it slowly through the General Assembly, affording opponents and others with different ideas to speak and be heard.

Of course, the lack of a rush is more likely due to their awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case in which a county in Alabama is challenging a provision related to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, part of which required that any changes in election procedures in select states and in 40 counties in North Carolina be approved by the federal government in advance. A Voter ID law in North Carolina would constitute such a change.

But if Shelby County, Ala., succeeds in convincing the court to do away with that requirement for approval, on the grounds that the racial discrimination the provision was designed to prevent is nonexistent, then Republican leaders in this state will feel empowered to move ahead with their Voter ID bill.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/09/2736000/the-id-push.html#storylink=c

The New Jim Crowism

They tell us -- Thom Tillis tells us -- that voter photo ID voter suppression is coming to North Carolina.

Yeah, we knew that.

Governor McCrory Howdy Doody was nodding his head up and down yesterday, up and down, because he hearts everything the radicals in the General Assembly tell him to do. And, by the way, he equated voting with buying Sudafed, for which he said you need a photo ID without also distinguishing between the right to vote and the right to buy an ingredient in methamphetamine. Which in his mind script are evidently the same thing.

Yeah, we knew that too.

Yesterday, Sharon McCloskey published the complete, appalling list of all the cases of voter impersonation that have come to light since 2000, and it's an epic, long list -- 22 persons across a dozen years. That's approximately 1.83 cases of voter fraud per year, folks, and this outrage has GOT to end before this country elects another Muslim Kenyan, let alone another black man. How else will North Carolina keep elective office safe reserved for white people?

Bob Hall, a great North Carolina warrior for voting rights, issued a statement on the Republican push to restrict voting, which said in part:

"Democracy North Carolina continues to believe the photo ID requirement is a needless and expensive barrier to address a problem – voter impersonation – that is grounded in myth more than fact. Any new barrier will have a consequence, including making the process appear confusing and intimidating to some voters. Depending on how a photo ID requirement is implemented, it could cost millions of dollars and affect tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of active registered voters. It inevitably will have a disproportionate impact on low-income citizens, African Americans, other people of color, and seniors who no longer drive."

The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight Attempts To Take Aim

What's this? New caution on the issue of voter photo ID among Republicans in the NC General Assembly?

Interesting article on the subject in the Fayetteville Observer.

Best quote is from Bob Hall: What is showing a photo ID before you vote supposed to cure, asks he, since there's virtually no evidence of fraudulent voter impersonation at our polls? "What's being cured? People's mental perception that there's widespread cheating going on?"

"Mental perception," relentlessly promoted by right-wingers and Republican operatives to explain to their base why they lose elections. It can't be because voters reject the Republican philosophy! Why, it's all those illegal immigrants being bused to the polls!

Rather call it "irrational mental perception" or just pure "fantasy."

Justice WILL BE Partisan!

NC Senate Bill 47, which would restore partisanship to our judicial elections, has been pulled from the current General Assembly calendar and will be back on the calendar in the July session when the Clown College rams through its redistricting plan.

Sen. Jerry Tillman, the chief sponsor of S 47, "gained support for an amendment to delete the provision that would have killed Sunday afternoon voting," according to Bob Hall at Democracy NC, "so 'Souls to the Polls' faces one less threat. The bill still has a bucket load of obnoxious provisions, from ending Same-Day Registration and Voter-Owned Elections for executive branch offices to permitting corporate donations to political parties."

Sen. Dan Soucek is a proud co-sponsor of this piece of elephant dung, which would simply and clearly reestablish a political litmus test for judges.

The Clown College intends to take care of this last bit of election jiggering in July, at the same time they draw themselves and their Radical Right friends into safe districts.

More News From Rawly-Rawly-Creepy-Crawly

Republican leadership in the NC General Assembly make moves to return partisanship to the election of our judges. Because you can never be too rich or too partisan.

Bob Hall of the non-partisan Democracy NC (they raised hell about Jim Black's nefarious activities and about Gov. Mike Easley's shenanigans) testified at yesterday's hearing on the proposed voter ID bill, and resoundingly panned it. Of particular note is what he had to say about absentee voting:

...[The proposed law] doesn’t add any new safeguards on absentee voting; in fact, this bill makes it easier to get an absentee ballot. But here’s the truth: the rate of somebody impersonating someone else is ten times higher for people voting with absentee ballots than those who vote in person. Ten times!

Conservative Republican warhorse Carter Wrenn gets rueful about the "parade of lobbyists (from Insurance Companies, the Medical Society, the Hospital Association, the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Chamber of Commerce) sauntering into [Republican] Speaker Thom Tillis’ office beaming from ear to ear delighted at the prospect of tilting the laws in their favor." People in power sell to the highest bidder.

Two groups that Republicans have extended "personhood" to: corporations and fetuses. Not so lucky: people out of work and people about to be forced into unemployment by cuts to education in the NC General Assembly.

Deluge Coming

Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina is warning of voter gridlock in North Carolina come November 4 -- based on statewide voter registration growing to nearly 5.9 million as of last week. Hall is urging county boards of election to add more early voting sites and to have extra staff and voting machines ready for election day itself. Otherwise ... expect long lines and "a horrible traffic jam."

The Watauga County Board of Elections is ahead of the game. There will be five early voting sites in Watauga, instead of the usual two, and we understand that the one at the Boone mall will offer extended hours into the evening. Early voting will begin on Thursday, October 16.

Incidentally, "Democrats have added eight times as many voters as Republicans since the beginning of the year, Hall said. He noted that there are fewer registered Republicans today in 15 counties than in January, including Durham and Orange."