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North Carolina GOP lays out plans to limit early voting

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D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...out-limit-crucial-early-voting-period-n633571

When Barack Obama carried North Carolina in 2008 and came close in 2012, it was thanks in part to a massive advantage in early voting. Now, aiming to avoid a repeat, state Republicans are waging a relentless and brazen campaign to limit early voting opportunities — all but acknowledging that lower turnout benefits the GOP.

The state is likely to be among the closest in the presidential race this fall, and it also hosts tight races for governor and senator. Any Democratic strategy for victory will rely heavily on turning out early voters.

On Monday, Gov. Pat McCrory asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put the ID requirement and the early voting cuts back into effect. The state did not challenge the restoration of same-day registration or out-of-precinct voting. If the high court declines to intervene, as looks likely, Republicans have a backup plan: Pressuring local election boards to make early voting as inconvenient as possible.

Early voting has become extremely popular in recent elections in North Carolina, and it's disproportionately favored by African-Americans. In 2008, over 60 percent of black voters cast their ballots early, compared to 44 percent of white voters, according to one expert analysis. In 2012, those figures rose to 64 percent and 49 percent respectively.

The first Republican effort to limit early voting came in 2013, when North Carolina Republicans passed a multi-pronged voting law that imposed an ID requirement, eliminated same-day voter registration, and cut the early voting period from 17 days to 10, among other provisions. That law was overturned by a federal appeals court last month, which found that Republicans passed the measure after receiving data showing that blacks vote early, and lack ID, at higher rates than whites.

The appeals court's ruling meant local election boards must now draw up new early voting schedules. Under the Republican-backed law, they'd been required to squeeze as many total hours of early voting as they'd offered in 2012 into seven fewer days. That requirement no longer exists, meaning counties can, if they choose, offer fewer total hours despite increasing the number of days on which polls are open.

By law, North Carolina's local election boards are all controlled by the party of the state's governor, who is a Republican.

On Sunday, Dallas Woodhouse, the chair of the state GOP, emailed Republican county election board members, asking them to "make party line changes to early voting," including reducing hours, not offering Sunday voting, and not putting polling sites on college campuses.

Woodhouse's email was obtained by the Charlotte News & Observer. He did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

"Many of our folks are angry and are opposed to Sunday voting for a host of reasons including respect for voter's religious preferences, protection of our families and allowing the fine election staff a day off, rather than forcing them to work days on end without time off," Woodhouse wrote in the email. "Six days of voting in one week is enough. Period."

He added: "No group of people are entitled to their own early voting site, including college students, who already have more voting options than most other citizens."

A day after Woodhouse's email was sent, the elections board for Mecklenburg County, the state's largest, voted to cut early voting hours by 238, compared to the 2012 election. The chair of the board, a Republican, had said she's "not a fan of early voting."

Woodhouse's controversial email came not long after Francis De Luca, the head of a conservative North Carolina think tank with ties to a major Republican donor, similarly urged local boards to reduce early voting hours, claiming "it's partisan politics - it's not racial or anything."

The election law scholar Rick Hasen wrote on Twitter Wednesday that the GOP drive to limit early voting "could put North Carolina back under federal supervision for its voting for up to ten years." Under the Voting Rights Act, if a jurisdiction is found to have intentionally discriminated in voting, it can be required to clear all election changes with the federal government.
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Can't say it surprises me at all.
 
L

Lightning_Roller

Banned
Oh fuck no!!! No no no!!! Supreme Court stop this horseshit in its tracks so us citizens can get them the fuck out of state government. Man, fuck republicans.
 
Hale-XF11

Hale-XF11

Member
The election law scholar Rick Hasen wrote on Twitter Wednesday that the GOP drive to limit early voting "could put North Carolina back under federal supervision for its voting for up to ten years." Under the Voting Rights Act, if a jurisdiction is found to have intentionally discriminated in voting, it can be required to clear all election changes with the federal government.
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Hopefully that's true, cuz if it is, it sounds like the NC GOP are fucking themselves in the long term for a small gain in the short term.
 
J

JHoNNy1OoO

Member
We need standard election rules to be nationalized ASAP. The GOP is just never going to stop and it will only get worse when they lose this one.
 
S

Slayven

Member
including reducing hours, not offering Sunday voting, and not putting polling sites on college campuses.
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Who can look at those suggestions and think they are good?

Know why they hate Sunday voting? Cause a lot of black churches organize transportation for their people to vote and sunday is pretty much the only day everyone si free
 
M

Mathieran

Banned
120v said:
thats cool GOP, you can have NC. not like we need it. as long as you feel better about yourselves
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Hey there's a ton of good NC folks. Don't leave us out in the cold :(

Edit: Just out of curiosity, has a conservative ever tried to give any reason at all to justify cutting early voting? I know they have dog whistles for all the rest, just haven't heard one for this.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
JHoNNy1OoO said:
We need standard election rules to be nationalized ASAP. The GOP is just never going to stop and it will only get worse when they lose this one.
Click to expand...

Consitution said:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing [sic] Senators.
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There could be
 
T

theaface

Member
Many of our folks are angry and are opposed to Sunday voting for a host of reasons including respect for voter's religious preferences, protection of our families and allowing the fine election staff a day off
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What the hell am I reading? What on earth has religion got to do with people exercising their right to vote? Surprised they didn't try to block Fridays and Saturdays for the sake of respecting the Sabbath as well. The absolute worst part though is 'protection of our families'. WTF is that supposed to mean?
 
S

Sobriquet

Member
My county had their board of elections meeting today. My wife and I couldn't make it and I'm trying to find out what happened...
 
S

SpiralZilla

Member
"it's partisan politics - it's not racial or anything."
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"We're not discriminating by race. We're discriminating by party affiliation...It just happens to coincide with race."

As if this is in any way a valid excuse. It doesn't even attempt to hide their sleazy motives.
 
J

jwhit28

Member
Slayven said:
Who can look at those suggestions and think they are good?

Know why they hate Sunday voting? Cause a lot of black churches organize transportation for their people to vote and sunday is pretty much the only day everyone si free
Click to expand...

I like the excuse that they aren't being picked on because they are black, just because they are most likely Democrats, like that is better.

I'm just surprised this hasn't lead to more states being caught. Is NC GOP really that much more stupid than everyone else?
 
H

HylianTom

Banned
This kind of shit is why it is imperative that we win in November.

This kind of shit goes bye-bye for a long, long time if we win.

If we don't win? It gets worse. We get a judiciary that gives its blessing, or looks the other way. This cannot stand.
 
T

teiresias

Member
I REALLY want someone to ask Kennedy in a public forum what he thinks about the need for pre-clearance now. The witless short sighted moron.
 
F

Fenderputty

Banned
Slayven said:
Know why they hate Sunday voting? Cause a lot of black churches organize transportation for their people to vote and sunday is pretty much the only day everyone si free
Click to expand...

Clearly black people aren't religious enough

"Many of our folks are angry and are opposed to Sunday voting for a host of reasons including respect for voter's religious preferences, protection of our families and allowing the fine election staff a day off, rather than forcing them to work days on end without time off," Woodhouse wrote in the email. "Six days of voting in one week is enough. Period."
Click to expand...
 
K

Kieli

Member
Why go through all this trouble. They may as well forge all the ballots and only leave themselves as the vote option.
 
W

watershed

Banned
Disgusting republicans continue to be disgusting. Their party is trash. They can't convince people to vote for them, so they'll stop people from voting instead!
 
P

PTG

Member
There should be more outrage from liberal groups. Where are the protests? This is voter suppression and it should be countered aggressively everywhere.
 
S

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
PTG said:
There should be more outrage from liberal groups. Where are the protests? This is voter suppression and it should be countered aggressively everywhere.
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No TPP No TPP
 
J

jwhit28

Member
Kieli said:
Why go through all this trouble. They may as well forge all the ballots and only leave themselves as the vote option.
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They sort of tried. They wanted to eliminate straight ticket voting in races between Dems and Reps, then make all first options Reps to get easy votes from uneducated voters in the smaller races as they just mark the first option available.
 
D

dabig2

Member
This is some shameful shit, but nothing new for the GOP. Hopefully people and the media push back on this nonsense leading up to November.
 
F

Fragamemnon

Member
Everyone's blaming the governor but he's just a patsy in this whole thing.

The true horror show is the NC General Assembly, whose exercises in overreach would make even Texas Republicans blush.
 
S

sturgboski

Member
Fuck the GOP and this bullshit. I hope there is a landslide and I hope Congress or the Supreme Court makes this shit, voter id laws and gerrymandering illegal.
 
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