First-Hand Account Of Voter Suppression In North Carolina
[su_right_ad]North Carolina attorney Michael Wells, Jr. writes about it at PoliticusUSA.
It is harder to vote in North Carolina these days. On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court, in Shelby v. Holder, gutted a landmark provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A majority of the justices struck down Article 5 of the Act, which had required federal preapproval of changes to voting practices in southern states. Eviscerating Article 5 effectively halted its protections and set the stage for sweeping efforts to disenfranchise minorities, women, the elderly and students. Six weeks later, emboldened by the Court’s ruling, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the nation’s most restrictive voting law all in the name of “preventing voter fraud.”…
The law’s restrictions are as follows: no same day voter registration; preregistration during early voting for 16 and 17-year-olds was eliminated; it shortens early voting by one week; out-of-precinct provisional voting was eliminated; and counties cannot extend polling place hours by one hour on Election Day in extraordinary circumstances (long lines). Most importantly, the law now permits anyone registered in the country to challenge a voter…
The one documented case of voter fraud in North Carolina involved an absentee ballot…
I witnessed the inequities of the law firsthand during the first day of early voting in North Carolina on Thursday, October 23rd. I voted in Winston-Salem at the Forsyth County Government Center. Several African-American voters told me they were told by people outside the polling place that it would take two hours to vote. I, a clearly upper-middle-class white man, was told forty-five minutes to an hour; it took fifty-five minutes. I have heard other similar stories of purposeful misinformation given to minority voters from through out the state.
In Boone, North Carolina, the Board of Elections tried to move a polling site located at Appalachian State University. The polling site draws primarily college students, and most of those students vote for Democrats. The Board’s efforts proved unsuccessful as a local Superior Court judge ruled the polling place must stay at Appalachian State, but do not be surprised if Tillis, Berger and others in the final days before the election file another frivolous lawsuit to keep college students from voting.
What the future holds for voting in North Carolina is unknown. What is known is that the damaging and chilling effects of this law will be felt for decades, even if the law is overturned this summer. Attempts to disenfranchise specific groups of voters will undoubtedly suppress voting in these communities for many generations.[su_csky_ad]
Budda November 1st, 2014 at 9:45 pm
Show up. Ask for a provisional ballot..make a scene.
tracey marie November 1st, 2014 at 9:46 pm
Definetly. If a race is close provisional votes are verified and counted.
granpa.usthai November 2nd, 2014 at 3:14 am
perhaps not so much in Florida? = or IF they are ‘counted’ maybe they should ask Georgia or Alabama to let some of their K-1 students count ’em instead of a selected Republican in Florida? As trifle as WHITE RepubliKlans may look upon it, 30,000 votes can sometimes influence the actual outcome of a SCOTUS SELECTION.
granpa.usthai November 2nd, 2014 at 3:09 am
or invite local members of the unarmed New Black Panthers Party to show up with billy sticks (or maybe pictures of a firearm taped to their trousers)? Surely if WHITE Males have the Constitutional Rites to vote while carrying firearms locked and loaded, other races have a rite to wear pictures of firearms taped to their sides?
tracey marie November 1st, 2014 at 9:45 pm
Texas does the same things. They piost signs at the precincts that state “republicans vote here” they announce that republican party will be held in the precinct polling place after the polls close. They demand more proof from minorities. They purge voter rolls 30 days before elections……
searambler November 1st, 2014 at 10:00 pm
Republicans really, really, really, really suck.
granpa.usthai November 2nd, 2014 at 3:04 am
Folks can spout all they want, but –
Republicans AIN’T AMERICANS!
tiredoftea November 1st, 2014 at 10:08 pm
Loving democracy so much, they want it all for themselves.
Larry Schmitt November 2nd, 2014 at 2:32 am
But that’s not democracy, is it?
tiredoftea November 2nd, 2014 at 10:13 am
It is for them.
granpa.usthai November 2nd, 2014 at 3:03 am
nothing democratic about a rigged system, but – if that’s what the people in the USA decide, might as well look on the brighter side of life. Be a lot of ‘remember when’ scuttlebutt with the five minute lunch break @ the Chinese rice fields, and they can all feel being a part of Mitt’s financial success!
tracey marie November 1st, 2014 at 10:14 pm
If there are an inordinate amount of provisional ballots in a precinct, county or state by law they have to be verified and counted and a reason for the denial has to be attested to by the election judge, a sworn testimony
Candide Thirtythree November 3rd, 2014 at 3:03 am
But who would even know since the people handling the ballots are all republicans?
KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker November 1st, 2014 at 11:00 pm
So how did this bullshit and birth certificates become issues in our nation?
I don’t recall voter fraud being an issue until after a black man became President of the United States.
granpa.usthai November 2nd, 2014 at 2:57 am
the WHITE RACIST Party can’t seem to figure out the math. If people with a black African heritage were to be truly represented in the US Government, then POTUS Obama would be the 7th such POTUS, so = my solution would be to appoint POTUS Obama POTUS4LIFE, but due to national security concerns, and the number of WHITE Republicans whose only concern is to keep the White House occupied by a WHITE ONLY POTUS, I think the USA would be better off if POTUS Obama were to be declared KING of The United States of America with a big azz Coronation Ceremony will full powers of the US Patriot Act and send any and all rebels who protest to Guantanamo for enhanced reconciliation – for however many generations it takes.
Kick Frenzy November 1st, 2014 at 11:10 pm
Sickening.
Utterly and literally sickening.
granpa.usthai November 2nd, 2014 at 2:40 am
WHITE NC Republicans at their best, I assure you.
NW10 November 1st, 2014 at 11:14 pm
Disgusting, but I’m even more disgusted with these loud voices on the professional left and the far left that have bashed Democrats for the past few months, which make these tactics to suppress votes all that more successful. We need a high turnout across the board on Tuesday to make these voter suppression tactics a moot point and ultimately irrelevant to the final outcome.
Kick Frenzy November 2nd, 2014 at 1:13 am
Can I vote that up eleventy thousand times please?
granpa.usthai November 2nd, 2014 at 2:39 am
If folks ain’t happy with a steady rebuilding of the US manufacturing base that was crashed/burned and sold off by the ‘New” Republicans in the 1980’s and opt to sit on their duffs, they’ll find out just how bad Republicans can run the national economy into the ground for the personal profits of the select few. (not to mention those who will decide to sit and watch the destruction instead of ‘regrouping’ again. Can’t expect the American people to ride the economic roller coaster down every time the Republicans have a need to feed the greed moment). May be best to disengage from the political scene altogether and wait for the Chinese Military Tribunal to sort things out.
Candide Thirtythree November 3rd, 2014 at 3:01 am
My daughter lost ALL of her 401k in Bush’s crash and burn, so much so that she OWED the fund money afterwards. She finally got it back up over 20k since then and she said that if republicans take the senate that she will pull it out and use it to pay down the land note because that is one thing that republicans can’t steal from you.
I told her not to be too sure about that because republicans steal land and houses and everything else all the time. At least we don’t live in Texas were the republicans put citizens in jail if they refuse to sell their land to Canadian pipeline owners.
Can you even imagine being put in jail so that the very people you voted for could steal your land right out from under you? AND they give it to FOREIGNERS! Not even American companies!
Jeannius November 2nd, 2014 at 1:44 am
Interestingly enough, I early voted in Asheville on Friday, with my daughter. I was surprised to see that the actual Voter ID part of the voter ID law doesn’t actually go into effect until 2016 here! I was sure that went into effect with the shortened voting hours and other parts of the law…. Boone is a bad situation. Rachel Maddow made that one national news when they first tried to move the polling place to some undersized, out of main town location which would make it very difficult for college students to vote as well as others. According to Maddow, McCrory and co also systematically replaced local election board members with people loyal to the GOP whenever possible, to try to make these changes to voting and locations etc…
granpa.usthai November 2nd, 2014 at 2:29 am
yep. Anyone who associates with the NC McCrory/Tillis Republicans are definitely off my list of options.
Sydney November 2nd, 2014 at 7:13 am
x 100
Sydney November 2nd, 2014 at 7:14 am
McCory needs to go.
KB723 November 2nd, 2014 at 1:52 am
Gonna get my Vote in and Kick some rethuglican NEK!!!!!
Pundit456 November 2nd, 2014 at 7:46 am
The example of so called “voter suppression” is so convoluted that only Alan Colmes would cite it. If you know the rules then North Carolina voters should also know the rules. Anyone who really wants to vote has plenty of time to make the necessary arrangements. If two hours is too long to wait to vote that person obviously did not really want to vote.
The language of the voting tights act gave the supreme court the authority to do what it did. Conversely, it had and has no authority to amend, repeal or invalidate an act of congress but you had no problem when it supposedly invalidated DOMA; which by the way is still the law no matter who wants to pretend that it is not.
http://thepundit456.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/cultivating-racism/
mea_mark November 2nd, 2014 at 9:14 am
Blatant corruption like this left unchecked leads to revolutions. We need throw the republicans out of office nation-wide and fix the way we elect our leaders. America needs election reform, bad.
Candide Thirtythree November 3rd, 2014 at 2:50 am
I play video games on-line with people from all over the world and we talk while grinding out a level. Before the revolution in Egypt, I asked one of my Egyptian team mates if he had gone vote that day because I saw it was election day.
He said that Mubarak made sure that college students could not vote by making it so difficult. He said first they make everyone vote in their home town NOT where they live while going to college then when that was not enough he made colleges hold exams on that day just in case anyone thought of ditching class and jumping on a train home to go vote.
As a matter of fact most of the things republicans do is the same things that despots and dictators all over the world do to keep down the election process and insure that despots and dictators stay in power.