You’ve got to give the leaders of the North Carolina legislature credit. They’re staying on message, even if that message is damaging to our country and our democracy. Donald Trump has been setting the stage for his loss in November by falsely claiming the electoral system is rigged. Governor Pat McCrory, Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore claimed the same thing when the federal court threw out their voter suppression bill.
Their claims are Orwellian. The system is, in fact, rigged. Just not like the Trumpists would have you believe. The system is rigged because gerrymandering ensures that even though Democrats won a majority of Congressional votes in 2012 in North Carolina, they only won four of 13 Congressional seats. Nationally, Democrats also won a majority of Congressional votes but Republicans wound up with a 33 seat majority.
Republicans have put together a comprehensive program to ensure they maintain control of government even if they lack the votes. In North Carolina, they used the most extreme gerrymandering of legislative and Congressional districts in the country. They then passed the most restrictive voter suppression laws in the nation. Even principled conservatives admit what the GOP is doing.
Trump and the GOP leadership are preparing their base to reject the outcome of the 2016 election. Our country has survived because of the peaceful transfer of power. Now, Trump, McCrory, Berger, and Moore are telling their supporters that the government is conspiring against them. After 30 years of demonizing government, the story is believable to the mob of angry, uneducated voters who have been left out of the system and form the core of Trump supporters.
While conservatives and responsible Republicans across the country are struggling with the Trump candidacy, the North Carolina Republican Party is falling in line. They’re using the same divisive tactics, demonizing government and the system (the same one they’re trying to rig), to enrage their supporters and erode trust in our democracy. Trump, McCrory, Berger, and Moore are harmful to our country and state. They’re more interested in maintaining power than bringing our divided country together.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Ignore the message, attack the messenger. Typical liberal ruse.
The next time you hear Hillary Clinton – or any other Democrat – ranting about Republicans wanting to disenfranchise minorities by requiring voter ID, keep the following in mind:
* In 59 voting districts in the Philadelphia region, Obama received 100% of the votes with not even a single vote recorded for Romney. (A mathematical/statistical impossibility).
* In 21 districts in Wood County, OH, Obama received 100% of the votes . GOP inspectors were illegally removed from polling locations – not one vote recorded for Romney. (Another statistical impossibility).
* In Wood County, OH, 106,258 voted in a county with only 98,213 eligible voters.
* In St. Lucie County, FL, there were 175,574 registered eligible voters but 247,713 votes were cast.
* The National SEAL Museum, a polling location in St. Lucie County, FL, had a 158% voter turnout.
* Palm Beach County, FL, had a 141% voter turnout.
* In one Ohio County, Obama won by 108% of the total number of eligible voters.
NOTE: Obama won in every state that did not require a photo ID, and lost in every state that did require a photo ID to vote.
You can bet your bottom dollar Hillary and company are already rounding up all the dead “voters” they can. The level of corruption is going to be enormous in November, just like the last time around with Romney.
It’s so very easy to Google things these days.
The ONLY references I could find for a sample quote from the above spewage were a post on a right-wing website, and a snopes.com entry debunking of the email likely used by that website.
This is like the Nigerian money scam: more BS floating around the Internet.
The problem with right wingers is not what they think, it is that their scholarship is so poor. The right produces massive amounts of disinformation and manufactures lies for the unsuspecting – “a conveyor belt of misinformation.” The “facts” alleged above come from a discredited email.
Here’s the site. http://www.factcheck.org/2013/01/voting-conspiracies/
It took about a minute to research these lies. The right is also incredibly lazy.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438981/donald-trump-voter-fraud-warning-hes-right-media-philadelphia-pennsylvania
On to the next accusation for Ebrun, I’m sure. He or she will not comment on the debunked information. Let me emphasize again: Obama DID win 4 states that have a voter ID requirement. The states he lost would have voted for a Republican anyway.
“In 2014, political scientists Jesse Richman and David Earnest, writing in the Washington Post, summarized their finding, based on their examination of thousands of voter interviews from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study: “Our best guess, based upon extrapolations from the portion of the sample with a verified vote, is that 6.4 percent of non-citizens voted in 2008, and 2.2 percent of non-citizens voted in 2010.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438754/james-okeefe-voter-fraud-videos-prove-voter-ID-laws-needed?target=author&tid=902877
You apparently have made a good living helping undocumented persons meet legal requirements in the U.S., Ghost, but that does not mean that your attempts to denigrate those of us concerned over fraudulent voting are legitimate. Your vitriolic rants don’t change the fact that several studies and survey research have found that a small percentage of non citizens residents vote in U.S. elections. A survey of non citizens residents of California found that around 12 percent had voted illegally in at least one election. The results of survey research by two political scientists that was published in the Washington Post estimated that 6.4 percent of non citizen residents in the U.S voted in the 2008 national elections.
So resorting to personal invective (right wing internet troll, outright bigotry, dog whistles, blatant bigotry, denigrate good people, liar, etc.), against those who advocate for honest elections suggests that the left will resort to whatever tactics necessary. including illegal voting, to acquire and/or maintain political power. You should be ashamed of yourself.
I seldom comment on the drivel being put out by right wing internet trolls, but this time Ebrun has gone so far that I must protest! He is using “dog whistles” to support outright bigotry. Ebrun is not the only one. A local county GOP chairman recent cited “illegals” as being one of the reasons for the GOP war on voting rights.
For years, my law practice has served everyone from a member of the KKKK (Knights of the Ku Kux Klan), typical North Carolina residents, quite a number of gays and lesbians, common criminals, rednecks, and a great number of undocumented residents–in other words, a cross-section of the NC public. Of one thing I can assure you, only an extremely foolish “illegal alien” would even attempt to vote–even if using a false SSN. As Disgusted pointed out, they want to avoid contact with any of our governmental entities as much as possible. In fact, I’ve had quite a practice correcting birth certificates of “dreamer” kids whose parents gave aliases when the children were born in local hospitals because they were so paranoid that ICE (formerly INS) was imagined as spying from behind every bush.
Stop the blatant bigotry, Ebrun. I generally let others refute your false use of economic statistics and false political “facts,” but when you denigrate good people who have often risked their lives to come to this country to better themselves and you lie about their characteristics–just like Herr Dumpf’s claims, you go too far and should be ashamed of yourself!
Since 9/11, it has gotten exponentially hard to get a driver’s license because of federal ID requirements.
Here are the requirements: https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/driver/license/
The NC DOT requirements for a driver’s license show how easy it is to obtain a government ID in NC. It has been well documented that thousands of illegal residents have obtained employment in the U.S. using fraudulent or stolen SS numbers. So when taxes are withheld, they will receive a 1099 or W-2 form with the their false SS number on it. And a utility bills or other “government” documents are easily obtained.
The requirements for a NC Driver’s License are so lax that states like Florida, which have much stricter requirements including requiring an official birth certificate, will not accept a valid NC license to receive a Florida license.
Apparently you didn’t read the document list.
I’ve been thru the process twice recently, in NC and VA and it’s almost as bad as getting a passport.
Here’s the link for the federal program:
https://www.dhs.gov/secure-drivers-licenses#
“Now, I hope you see why republicans so love FLAT TAXES. They aid the rich and screw the poor.”
the tax Name game the Republicans are playing changing income tax to sales tax is placing the tax burden on the backs of the middle class and poor and they know it. the average poor family will end up paying about $425 dollars and year more that they did under the old tax plan and the wealthy will save about $2500 dollars. in the long run the scam will cost the state about $2 billion dollars over time …
“This Tax Week, the Budget & Tax Center released analysis of the cumulative impact of recent tax decisions by the Governor and the North Carolina General Assembly which are estimated to reduce revenue by nearly $2 billion annually when fully implemented. These tax decisions have effectively swapped income taxes–by reducing the income tax rates–for sales tax, by broadening the base to more goods and services while keeping the sales tax rate the same.”
“Replacing the personal income tax with a greater reliance on the sales tax means that North Carolina would lose all the benefit of revenue growth during economic expansions. While revenue from the personal income tax tends to fall faster than the sales tax when a recession hits, the decline is typically from a higher level. Thus, the personal income tax will generally still raise more money than the sales tax.”
source : http://www.ncjustice.org/?q=budget-and-tax/prosperity-watch-issue-60-no-2-tax-swap-will-erode-public-investments-over-time
So basically what they were busy doing when they had such a hard time writing the state budget was finding a way to mask or delay the ” Kansas effect ” from voters to avoid blame.
What’s really appalling is that foreigners are buying elections through secret money channels opened up by Citizens United. The investments by Russian oligarchs that Donald Trump bragged about seven or eight years ago, saying money from Moscow was a huge part of the investment capital the Trump organization relied on (after every US bank declined to lend him another dime after 25 years of his ripping them off) are likely putting tens of millions into Trump’s accounts to cover him for the $50 million in “loans” he claims he has forgiven the GOP for this year alone; and when he needs more, he’ll get more, from Putin and his tovarishchi.
That is voter fraud. Thirty-one individuals discovered, after a five-year investigation by the Bush “justice” department, to have voted illegally, led to a grand total of 13 indictable offenses — during a period when more than half a billion votes were cast altogether.
Ebrun’s GOP-fed pretense that there is “widespread” voter fraud is more of his BS, and he knows it. You must present a valid Social Security number and show a valid ID to register in North Carolina. A SSN is proof of citizenship, since you can’t get one unless you’re a citizen (or a member or friend of the Mob, like Trump).
There are also thousands, or tens of thousands, of elderly African Americans who were born in rural districts in NC before WWII and have no birth certificates, because they were born at home and registered only in their family Bibles and church records. Most have voted legally since 1965, when the Voting Rights Act passed; some have now been denied the vote by NC Republicans.
You must exist in an alternative universe, A.D. There are thousands of fraudulent SS numbers being used for employment and income tax returns. Many are stolen, some are from deceased individuals. A SS number is no proof of citizenship. And there is no ID requirement to get a drivers license In NC. Once one receives their license, it can be used as a valid ID.
And are you claiming all those “elderly African American” aren’t getting social security checks and Medicare or Medicaid benefits? At some point they had to prove who they were. And there are thousands of deceased persons still registered to vote in NC plus thousands who have moved to other states but are still on the voter rolls.
And nowhere have I claimed there is “widespread” voter fraud. Another fabrication on your part. That there is some voter fraud is obvious. No one knows, myself included, how frequently it occurs.
Good then you agree that we should use all of the above identification methods that you mentioned to implement automatic voter registration of all north Carolina citizens upon their 18th birthday to assure the most inclusive and democratic election possible.
“Automatic voter registration has been approved in five states, and dozens more are considering following suit. Overall, 29 states plus the District of Columbia have considered measures in 2016 that would automatically register citizens who interact with government agencies and ensure that voter information is electronically and securely sent to election officials.”
That is, Unless you Oppose democracy ..
‘To put this in perspective, the 31 incidents below come in the context of general, primary, special, and municipal elections from 2000 through 2014. In general and primary elections alone, more than 1 billion ballots were cast in that period.’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/
Just about any adult can register to vote in NC, D.G. No birth certificate or other proof of citizenship is required.
That’s just one of the voter fraud problems. Another is non citizens’ illegal voting in U.S. elections.
Only in your wildest imaginary dreams… Ebrun
If that were the case; or even close; or even a bit close; to being the factual truth…then, You should be able to cite with the direct links to governmental or court case to prove your argument.
Just provide only the documented facts of the proven votes cast in NC by non citizens’ illegals.
..and…. (Please spare me and all the others by not posting your normal rag cites, links, and or ramblings). You made the claim so, you prove it.. with real facts!
To make it even easier for you, just base it only on the period from Jan 2011-2016 (that’s the period repugs have been in utter dictatorial control of all this states Election Boards)
You should be able to easily come up with 10’s of thousands of cases in that period proving that illegals have been voting… (prosecuted or, charged, held on charges, being prosecuted or even deported ) and that’s only asking for the ones that have happened only in this once great state of NC.
Now, Ebrum show us all, what “facts” you really know…
I believe, I’ll listen to the crickets while I wait …
Even though you may be new to these conservations, Andy, I am not going to post redundant comments. If you’re truly interested in facts instead of partisan talking points, I refer you to my comments under
the discussion on this blog entitled “In #ncgov, no time for euphemism.”
But BTW, I should add here that, of course, there are very few, in any, cases of “documented” illegal voting NC due to the very fact that there is no voter ID requirement and no proof of citizenship is required when registering to vote in this state.
Disgusted, I really like your posts, but please learn the difference between “then” and “than.” It makes you seem uneducated.
As a district judge just pointed out the real voting problem in North Carolina is Election Fraud enacted by the racist NCGOP “with surgical precision” . Whereas Voter fraud in North Carolina is a “Conspiracy Theory” cooked up by the Republicans to justify their blatant racism. the Sergent of the guard doing roll call in the state legislation building should introduce each republican Rep. as “the honorable Klansman”
The system IS rigged. The Republicans have rigged it. In North Carolina, the Republicans are over-represented in the state house and in Washington as a result of the system. Voting laws are not uniform around the nation. Voting laws are controlled by the states, which might be fair when the races have only statewide or county-wide consequences, but in elections where the nation must suffer the consequences, a national standard should by implemented.
The nation was held in suspense while Jeb Bush’s state scammed the nation with hanging chads and dimples. The Supreme Court embarrassed itself with a decision it should have declined to make. Four years later, we were able to see that same kind of manipulation in Ohio. In both states, the officials in charge of the elections were also chairmen of the party that won the election. It was a national disgrace. What we have learned from tight races is that there is a fraud factor in every election. The margin of victory must exceed the margin of fraud in order for the prevailing candidate to be free from suspicion. There are people in the United States who will never believe that George W. Bush won his office fair and square. He didn’t, but without Republicans tampering with the ballot boxes, the elections would never have been close enough to rig.
Our elections are riddled with fraud because the right wing games the system with a variety of illegal and unfair tactics, each of which are designed to benefit from voter suppression. Voter suppression does not stop with the requirement of Identification. Voter suppression is a multi-faceted set of tactics designed to keep minorities, young people, elderly people and poor people from the polls. Republicans have admitted that the tactics are expected to suppress the vote of people who have traditionally voted for Democratic candidates time and again.
Early voting, out-of-precinct voting, voting by mail, same-day voting and extended hours were all eliminated or severely restricted by the Republicans in the General Assembly in an effort to keep the majority away from the polls in North Carolina. The Republicans were caught red-handed preparing to steal this election by the high court. The Republicans were shamelessly employing racist tactics to deny the vote to blacks by virtue of their choice of home state.
There is no evidence of widespread voting by false pretense. Republicans have falsely claimed that, without voter suppression laws, elections would be decided by dead people or people who have no right to vote. It doesn’t happen. It’s a big fat Republican lie.
On the other hand, Republicans have employed effective illegal and dishonest tactics which have nothing to do with identification papers. They have sent voters home based on erroneous reports of felony convictions, knowing the charges were false. Republicans have used vote switching software which indicates a vote for the Republican when the voter intended to vote for the Democrat. Republicans have made voting inconvenient in the extreme by creating lines at the polls which made exercising the franchise an 8-hour ordeal for some. Republicans have made it easy to vote in their own precincts by providing plenty of voting machines and almost impossible to vote in predominantly Democratic precincts by providing few voting machines or machines that do not work. Republicans ordered Diebold voting machines which do not provide a receipt so that vote switching could not be proved. The owner of the company promised to deliver the election to the Republicans, and he did. And it is nothing new. Since the Bush v. Gore race, Republicans have depended on gaming the system to obtain an unfair result. If all races were fair, Republicans would be in the minority in North Carolina.
Voter suppression laws are a big hammer used to wipe away large segments of the population in order to prevent an extremely rare crime. Voter fraud has never altered a single election in any district in this or any other state. The instance of voter fraud is less than one per state per election cycle. It happens so rarely that there are virtually no prosecutions for it.
Voter suppression laws are a big lie told by the minority in order to retain control of the government that they do not have the numbers to control.
The people should choose their representative, but here in North Carolina, the representative chooses who will get a chance to vote.
The most common type of voting fraud involves people who own houses in multiple states and vote in each of those states (see Ann Coulter).
But that’s not what the GOP is selling, now, is it??
The democratic party obviously hates poor people. If not, why do they support the same politics that have made poor people more poor? The wealthy have gotten wealthier over the past 7.5 years.
1) You’re an idiot… or
2) You are intentionally playing the role of an idiot. Given that every SINGLE people-centric / democratically supported piece of legislation was crushed by the TEA BAGGER House or the Republicon Senate which magically wielded a majority with just 41 votes (due to the Cloture Vote game no Senate had ever played before in such a wholesale morally bankrupt fashion), we were forced to mark time while the Republican’ts played their obstructionist Know-Nothings game. Heaven forbid that half-black Obamination might accomplish half of what he set out to do! 20 years from now historians will praise Mr. Obama for persevering in such a brutal racist headwind. Please take your con, which might work with a low intelligence crowd (like that found at a Drumpf rally?) to the appropriate venue.
If only the Tedster had stuck around for more than just the ACA vote. But No Worries. We’re going to make sure that Hillary puts in place at least 80% of what Comrade Sanders recommended, unless yet another surplus of House Mouthbreathers and Grifters make that impossible for another 4.
And who has been running the country lately? Not Democrats! The Republicans have controlled the House since 2011 and the Senate has blocked everything that President Obama has tried to do. Also, many states were taken over by Republicans in 2010, such as NC, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and subsequently run into the ground by those legislatures. The GOP is the party of big business, big banks, and the rich.
Hate to break this to you, Mooser, but Wisconsin, Michigan and especially NC are prospering under Republican leadership. So are other GOP-dominated states like, SC, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, Ohio, etc.
And Kansas, too, huh?
Actual that former BoA employee , now state budget director that replaced Art Pope, the former channel of the Koch Brothers in North Carolina , is a expert book cooker.
If you dig a little deeper in the “Carolina setback” you will find that
*Many communities did not see growth over the last year. Even while the state and national employment continued to grow, roughly 1 out of every 5 counties in North Carolina lost jobs since this time last year. Moreover, the number of people employed or looking for work decreased in almost half of the counties in North Carolina. These two figures show that statewide employment figures mask the degree of economic strife that persists in many communities.
*More than half of N.C. counties have a higher unemployment rate than before the Great Recession. While some parts of North Carolina have gotten back to the level of unemployment that existed before the great recession, roughly 6 out of 10 counties across the state are still contending with elevated levels of unemployment. This is particularly worrisome given than many communities were struggling even before the recession hit.
*More than half of the counties in North Carolina are still below pre-recession levels of employment. Even after years of economic recovery, 53 of North Carolina’s 100 counties have fewer jobs today than existed before the Great Recession. The state population has increased and job growth in parts of the state has been significant, but many communities still do not have enough jobs for everyone that wants to work.
*Lack of recovery is not limited to rural communities. Only three metropolitan areas have a lower unemployment rate than before the Great Recession. Moreover, the number of people out of work has grown faster than the number of people with a job in all of the following metropolitan areas: Asheville, Durham-Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Greenville, Jacksonville, New Bern, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem.
The NC administration failed to mention that amount of Federal grants that North Carolina received last year was very close to the amount of the mentioned “projected” surplus.
data source : http://www.ncjustice.org/?q=budget-and-tax/media-release-economic-growth-stalled-across-much-north-carolina-june
And…
as in the children of Flint as in Michigan, are prospering under Republican leadership too, huh? Nice work Rickey.
Coal Ash pollution of surrounding wells being swept away in NC under Republican leadership too, huh? Nice work McDuke and gang
You should work on your GED. Ignorance of the world around you is going to be a problem for you.
What hypocrisy! Well over 70 percent of the public approves of voter ID requirements. Yet liberals and Democrats fight tooth and nail to overturn voter ID laws across the Nation. This in turn fosters suspicion on the part of substantial portion of the public that our elections are riddled with fraud.
And when legitimate concerns over election fraud are raised, liberals and partisans like Mr. Mills claim Republicans are “damaging….our country and our democracy,” when it’s liberals and Democrats who turn a blind eye to illegal voting by opposing all attempts to put reasonable anti-fraud measures in place.
And it’s an outrageous partisan lie to claim Trump, McCrory, Berger and Moore “are telling their supporters that their GOVERNMENT is conspiring against them.” In fact, GOP leaders and their supporters know that it is the Democrat party and their supporters, including Democrat appointed federal judges, who undermine public confidence in fair elections by endorsing tactics that tolerate and , in some instances promote, illegal voting by non citizens and others.
What an extremely partisan post, Ebrun!! Shameful, since you hate all things partisan, right? And it’s the DemocratIC party, please.
“Democrat” is a noun. “Democratic” is an adjective.
Yes, that’s true. So what? Would you refer to someone as a “Jewish doctor” or a “Jew doctor”? When you use a noun as an adjective it becomes a slur. The official name of the party is The Democratic Party.
A “slur?” You must be nuts. Just trying to be grammatically correct and you claim that’s a slur. What an over-the top, emotional reaction.
And there you go, Ebrun. A personal attack is all you’ve got left. I’m nuts, huh? The official name of my party is the Democratic Party. The word “Democratic” is an adjective that modifies the noun “party.” The word “Republican” is both a noun and an adjective.
And there you go, Ebrun. A personal attack is all you’ve got left. I’m nuts, huh? The official name of my party is the Democratic Party. The word “Democratic” is an adjective that modifies the noun “party.” The word “Republican” is both a noun and an adjective.
Sorry for the duplicate post. Not sure why that happened!
You posted the following: “When you use a noun as an adjective it becomes a slur.” My question, where’s the slur in anything I have posted? “You must be nuts” refers to your assertion that I was using a slur. If you still think that, then you must be nuts.
I wasn’t talking about YOU specifically. I should have said “When one uses a noun as an adjective, it becomes a slur.” I notice you had no comment on “Jew doctor” versus “Jewish doctor.”
Why should I comment on the term “Jew Doctor, Betty?” I have never used that term, you did. It seemed to be an irrelevant point or a non sequitur to me.
It appears that “Photo ID” is a issue of convenience for conservatives. For instance their livid opposition around the county of “Photo ID” , registration , and background checks for guns.
We can only assume from that, like Trump does, that votes are more dangerous to them that guns.
Brilliant riposte: thank you! And, realistically speaking, yes, votes are significantly more dangerous to the GOP than are guns.
Dude, You really have to be more aware of the shinnanegans that go on in Raleigh where amendments are slipped into bills like lovers into bedrooms in the night. Where contracts like the insane 50year managed lane bill can be passed off as ok when they are in fact notoriously filled with acknowledged aspects damaging to our our economy and people. When bills like HB2 are smokescreened with anti-LBTG rhetoric while removing your and my civil rights to sue in State Court eroding more and more freedoms that you and I must have in this State. Don’t be fooled. They don’t have to tell, they just act.
McCrory stated he didn’t like the nature of the HB2 bill and it should be looked at more deeply, but that was simply lip-service as he signed it into law regardless of his beliefs. By his very actions doing more than what his words could do! The same can be said of the I77 debacle where the House (representing all of us) passed a bill cancelling the contract, the Senate and McCrory who represent a minority of Lobbyists and the upper 1% stonewalled and killed any hope of retaining our ability to build our own roads.
And how about Duke and the coal ash ponds that are poisoning our children and everyone else? Now, after appearing as if he is on our side, McCrory turns around and states that they don’t have to resolve the problem in all ponds. They don’t have to remove the poison that is slowly killing our citizens, your and my children and grandchildren. j
If that is not the government conspiring against us, what else is?
And don’t get me started on the b.s. about voter ID. Stop acting partisan and start thinking human!
Someday God will get them; but the Democrats might help the Lord out as soon as this November.