Throwing Us a Line

4-hour wait time to vote reported at this
Mecklenburg Co. site yesterday. Very
hot in the sun!

Some people saw the long lines yesterday on the first day of Early Voting as a celebration of democracy. I get that. But I also see those long wait times as the last gasp of voter suppression.

Fact: We have fewer Early Voting sites open right now in North Carolina than were open in 2012. High Point Enterprise reporter Paul Johnson noted that Guilford County voted 11,000 people on the first day of Early Voting in 2012, with numerous polling sites open. This year, the Guilford BOE Republicans opted to open only one site this week. Consequently, early voting on the 1st day in Guilford was down from 11,000 to under 2,000.

The worst reports we've seen are from Mecklenburg County, whose two Republican BOE members are well-documented enemies (scroll down!) of Early Voting. Four hours in line is unconscionable.

It's been the plan all along, IMO. When the Fourth Circuit threw out NC's election law, the ruling left the Republican Boards of Election with fewer arrows in their quiver. Without the suppressive mechanisms of a photo ID, with voting out of precinct restored, and with same-day registration revived, the Republicans were left with the singular tactic of long lines to discourage voting. Long lines because there are fewer early voting sites and reduced hours.

So far, the people look as though they intend to tough it out. Republicans claim that those long lines prove their innocence: "See, we haven't suppressed the vote." I look at those long lines and see an electorate energized against a ruthless power structure.

Yesterday in Raleigh: Shaw Univ. students
waiting to vote early

Notes on Profiling Voters
Not that all those people in line are voting Democratic!

I suspect we all do it: looking at the line of people waiting to vote and wondering who they'll be voting for. Yesterday morning in line I saw some angry faces, set jaws, pissed-off expressions. "Ah," I thought, "Trump voters!" I have noted over the years that conservatives arrive at the polls with a head of steam. You can tell from their faces that they're fuming.

In my experience, Democrats arrive at their civic duty with happier expressions, more open and jovial faces ... except, of course, for the Democrats intending to write in a name not on the ballot.

Profiles in "Following Orders": Mary Potter Summa

Old pict of Summa

Mary Potter Summa, the chair of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections who is proud to be no fan of Early Voting and who presided over cutting Early Voting hours in Mecklenburg for the upcoming elections, is a former staffer to Senator Jesse Helms and was "known for her active role in the development and writing of the Republican Party Platforms of 1988 and 1992" (according to Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, which gave "Mrs. Summa" a "Homemaker's Award" in 1992). Hattip to Rob Schofield over at NC Policy Watch.

For a more recent photo of Summa ... actually, an action shot -- the action being the Monday night meeting of the Mecklenburg BOE, which was in the process of cutting Early Voting hours -- see below.  "Mrs. Summa" is on the left. True to the Dallas Woodhouse marching orders, Summa equated people wanting to vote early with potential committers of fraud. Photo by Jim Morrill, Charlotte Observer.

What Will Eggers/Aceto Do with Early Voting in Watauga This Evening?

Watauga County is one of several key counties in North Carolina that will have show-downs at their boards of elections this evening (Watauga County Courthouse, courtroom # 1, 5:30 p.m., Monday, August 15).

Four Eggers

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in throwing out the entirety of North Carolina's 2013 monster law, also eliminated the requirement mandating that counties have the same number of early-voting hours in 2016 as they did in 2012. One of the options offered, but not encouraged, by the Executive Director of the NC State Board of Elections was a "default" to a county Board of Elections office for all Early Voting.

That's exactly where Republican County Attorney Four Eggers was headed, with BOE Chair Bill Aceto in tow, and it may be what the Republican majority attempts to implement this evening. We'll find out. But there are serious impediments (and not just the tiny nature of the Watauga BOE office on the first floor of the courthouse).

1. The metal detectors at the entrance of the courthouse. The SBOE has informed the local BOE that it cannot force voters to pass through those detectors. Four Eggers appears to have been angling to get the detectors removed for the 17 days of Early Voting, which would certainly compromise the safe operation of the courts.

2. By statute, an adjacent room in the courthouse may be used for voting, but Four Eggers, wanting to avoid State BOE review and likely reversal at any cost, has surely attempted to declare the county's Administration Bldg. as an "adjacent room," when it is in fact and quite obviously a separate building. By statute, the adjacent room can only be used for the act of voting -- not for check-in -- so presumably, under Four Eggers' bright idea, voters would get their ballots in the county courthouse BOE office and then trek down the street to the Admin Bldg to vote.

That won't fly. The whole concept of "ballot custody" would be at stake. Walking down the street with an un-voted ballot would make Watauga County even more the laughingstock of the state than it already is.

Also Mecklenburg County
Many more early votes are at stake this evening in Mecklenburg County, where the chair of the BOE, Mary Potter Summa, is on record: “I’m not a big fan of early voting...." She's hinted that she'd like to cut Early Voting hours tonight, and she's criticized specifically an Early Voting site on the UNC-Charlotte campus. Sound familiar?

Perhaps the presence of a large crowd of angry voters will convince Ms. Summa that she should make voting more accessible, not less. It certainly worked in Guilford County last week.

Barring an outbreak of realism, however, the Democratic (minority) member of the Mecklenburg BOE must vote "no" on any Early Voting plan that cuts hours and then submit an alternative plan to the state BOE. The election officials in Raleigh must be accountable for any bad decisions made on the local level.

Mecklenburg Board of Elections Breaks Ranks

The significant news below comes to us from Gerry Cohen, former director of Legislative Drafting for the North Carolina General Assembly (for 31 years). (He is also former special counsel to the North Carolina General Assembly, where he provided legal and research services to the Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and majority and minority leaders. He has experience and knowledge in local government and election law, legislative processes, and constitutional law, so we pay attention to his insights. He retired in 2014.)

It comes as something of a surprise that the Mecklenburg Board of Elections, going decidedly against Republican voting-access habits and practices, has changed directions for the 2016 primary. Cohen wrote:

Mecklenburg INCREASED early voting from 723 hours in the 2012 primary to 1,224 for this March, expanded from 9 to 17 sites, and added Sunday voting which they did NOT have in the 2012 presidential primary.

Why, we wonder. Possibly because it's more convenient for Republican voters, who'll have a hot presidential primary this March in North Carolina. The fact that Democratic voters will also benefit was perhaps wholly unintended but nevertheless appreciated.

Watauga County Republican Party Chair Anne Marie Yates must forward to the state BOE two nominees as replacements for the gone boy Luke Eggers, though we don't anticipate that any possible new Watauga BOE member will be allowed to think for her/himself and vote for expanded Early Voting opportunities, like on the campus of Appalachian State University.

One could always pray.