State sponsored voter fraud

by | Jun 14, 2018 | Editor's Blog, Voting Rights | 6 comments

Last night at 11:30pm, the GOP dropped another bill to limit access to the voting booth. This one would dramatically reduce the number of early voting days from 17 to 10. Rep. David Lewis says that’s not the intention of the bill and that 17 days will be restored. Who knows, though? The only thing that is certain about this bill is that the Republicans have been messing with the political process non-stop since they took control of the legislature.

The bill is almost certainly designed to reduce the number of people who might vote for Democrats, just like their voter ID amendment. Republicans understand that their base is older and shrinking. They’re trying to rig the political process to protect their majorities. They can deny it, but they’re only lying to themselves.

The massive voter suppression law that Republicans passed in 2013 was struck down by the courts for targeting African-American voters with “almost surgical precision.” The GOP’s initial response was to start trying to rig the judiciary. Now, they’re trying to pass the measures piecemeal instead of in a single bill. If they can’t rig the system one way, they’ll rig it another.

Republicans aren’t as worried about their ability to hold power now as they are about the future. They’ve taken a comprehensive approach to limiting access to the polls for African-Americans, young people and poor people. At the national level, they’re pushing back against shifting demographics by working to reduce the Hispanic population through deportations and brutal deterrence procedures.

Republicans criticize Democrats for making blanket accusations of racism. They have a point. Not everybody who voted for Trump is a racist and certainly not all Republicans are racist. However, the GOP has long been playing on racial resentment to garner support among their base for their most draconian measures. The goal might be political but the impact certainly looks racist.

Until Republicans took control of the legislature, nobody complained about how our elections work. Despite their claims, no evidence of widespread voter fraud existed and most fraud occurs in mail-in ballots, a method that tends to be preferred by Republicans. Their continued meddling in elections, voting and redistricting has done more to cast doubt on the validity of North Carolina’s democracy than anything individual voters have done. The real voter fraud is coming from inside the legislature.

6 Comments

  1. TY Thompson

    EV isn’t even done in the state I grew up in. They should ditch early voting altogether, it costs a lot of money, it’s getting harder and harder to find people willing to work the polls (especially on weekends), and there’s a time honored method for voting when you can’t get to the polls on election day…ask the BOE to send out an absentee ballot and return it in the mail.

    • The Ghost of Elections Past

      It’s also difficult to vote when polling places have been eliminated–especially near college campuses and other locations where minorities and youth would vote. In some areas in the USA, the polls have closed before some voters have been able to vote on election day. In our area, it is easier to get volunteers to man the few machines at EV sites than it is to get sufficient poll workers on election day.

  2. Walt de Vries, Ph.D.

    It seems to me that the first and most important test of a political party in a democratic representative government is their dedication to helping more citizens register and vote in our elections. If I were still a moderate Republican, I would leave that party for the key and vital reason that the Republicans in our General Assembly–=since they took control–have done all they can to restrict and discourage voting from those groups they believe would vote Democratic. But, be of good cheer, because starting this November, the retribution against their attempted destruction of democracy will be swift, clear and long-lasting.

  3. Norma Munn

    None of this passes the smell test, but no surprise there. Perhaps no legislation should be adopted after 5 PM daylight savings time,nor before 10 AM. Somehow late hours, like special sessions, seem to bring out the worst in Raleigh. It is hard to know who to be more outraged by — Trump’s constant lying and destroying relationships with long term democratic allies while supporting dictator thugs or the GOP led NC legislators.

    I can only hope all Democrats grit their teeth and vote in November, regardless of how difficult it becomes. Sitting on one’s backside should not be an option.

  4. Scott

    It calls for people to become professional politicians simply to know when and with what they can vote.
    Many citizens will go to the polls when they did as they did in past years, and be surprised.
    Gopsay are delighted with the Ohio decision and in NC are right on it going forward to eliminate from the polls as many Democrats as possible.
    Their agenda is the Gopsay “privatization agenda.”

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