Moyers: North Carolina Passes the Country’s Worst Voter Suppression Law

[Triana]

. . .

In short, the bill eliminates practically everything that encourages people to vote in North Carolina, replaced by unnecessary and burdensome new restrictions. At the same time, the bill expands the influence of unregulated corporate influence in state elections.

. . .

Here are the details of everything bad about the bill, via North Carolina Policy Watch. It’s a very long list:

The end of pre-registration for 16 & 17 year olds
A ban on paid voter registration drives
Elimination of same day voter registration
A provision allowing voters to be challenged by any registered voter of the county in which they vote rather than just their precinct
A week sliced off Early Voting
Elimination of straight party ticket voting
A provision making the state’s presidential primary date a function of the primary date in South Carolina
A provision calling for a study (rather than a mandate) of electronic candidate filing
An increase in the maximum campaign contribution to $5,000 (the limit will continue to increase every two years with the Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics)
A provision weakening disclosure requirements for ”independent expenditure” committees
Authorization of vigilante poll observers, lots of them, with expanded range of interference
An expansion of the scope of who may examine registration records and challenge voters
A repeal of out-of-precinct voting
A repeal of the current mandate for high-school registration drives
Elimination of flexibility in opening early voting sites at different hours within a county
A provision making it more difficult to add satellite polling sites for the elderly or voters with disabilities
New limits on who can assist a voter adjudicated to be incompetent by court
The repeal of three public financing programs
The repeal of disclosure requirements under “candidate specific communications.”
“We will see long lines, many citizens turned away and not allowed to vote, more provisional ballots cast but many fewer counting, vigilante observers at the polling place and all disproportionately impacting black voters,” says Anita Earls, executive director of the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice and a former deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration. “This new law revives everything we have fought against for the past ten years and eliminates everything we fought for.”

The legislation should be a wake-up call for Congress to get serious about resurrecting the Voting Rights Act and passing federal election reform. Six Southern states have passed or implemented new voting restrictions since the Supreme Court’s decision last month invalidating Section 4 of the VRA, which will go down in history as one of the worst rulings in the past century. Voting rights groups (and perhaps the federal government) will soon challenge at least some of the new restrictions through a preliminary injunction, others sections of the VRA, or the state constitution. But if Section 5 of the VRA was still operable, North Carolina would have to clear all of these changes with the federal government and prove they are not discriminatory — practically herculean task given the facts. The new law would’ve been blocked or tempered as a result. Instead, the North Carolina legislature interpreted the Court’s decision as a green light for voter suppression, which it was, and made the bill as draconian as possible.

The rest:

http://billmoyers.com/2013/07/30/north-carolina-passes-the-countrys-worst-voter-suppression-law/

WORST cuts to UI insurance in the nation. WORST voter suppression law in the nation. My teabagger BIL and sister should move from Cali and live here! They'd LOVE it!

[DURHAM D]

1. Following is part of an email from a Democratic State Senator:

North Carolina voters were the big losers in the last days of the session. The Republicans have talked endlessly about preventing voter fraud by requiring a government-issued photo ID. But the bill passed last week had only three pages about photo ID while it had 53 pages of blatant voter suppression. Here is a summary of the changes:
•
Straight party voting is eliminated on the justification that it gives every voter a choice to pick individual candidates on the ballot one by one. But that is possible now under current law - a voter can already go through the ballot and vote for each candidate separately. Senator Angela Bryant presented a scatter shot graph that showed that minority voters chose straight party voting at a very high rate. This statistic could be used in a challenge to the bill in a court on the 1964 Voting Rights Act.
•
Early voting is reduced by one week and the last early voting Saturday is ended at 1:00 instead of 5:00 for those waiting in line, as it has been in the past. The Republicans said that 70% of people favor photo ID and that was why they were making it the law. But 82% favor early voting and it is heavily used by voters. And in another possible legal challenge, it is heavily used by African-Americans.
•
Counties are prohibited from extending voting hours past 7:30 even if long lines remain. After the closing time, voters may only vote by provisional ballots. We’ll have to watch the number of voting machines placed in precincts depending on race, historical voting patterns, etc. The Board of Elections is controlled by Republican appointees and we have seen this tactic in other states.
•
Public financing is repealed for judicial candidates, even though all but one Appeals Court Justices asked the Republican leadership to retain public financing because it relieves them of asking for contributions from those whom they are judging.
•
Same day registration which is used by many college students is also repealed.
•
Early registration for 16 and 17 year olds who often register at their civics class and who get photo ID when they get their drivers’ license is also repealed.
•
Any voter is allowed to challenge another voter, even going into the voting enclosure with the voter.
•
The presidential primary is effectively moved to be right before the South Carolina primary. This separates the presidential primary from state primary election days which will reduce voter turnout in state primary elections and, of course, increase the cost of running elections.
•
Contribution limits are raised to $5000.
•
“Stand by your ad” disclosure requirements by independent committees is repealed.
•
In a final irony, absentee ballots don’t require photo-ID. The largest voter fraud occurred in Florida absentee ballots.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. "even going into the voting enclosure with the voter."

WTF?! THAT will end badly.

I'm a middle-aged, lily white woman not likely to be challenged, but I'm just obnoxious enough to step in if I see it happening. Oh boy, I have a baaaaad feeling about this.

[DURHAM D]

3. Me too.

I find the presidential primary change really really interesting as well. Sounds like we may have a very early primary with only one race on the ballot.

ETA: Looks like NC is trying to be the 3rd state to hold Presidential primaries. I assume that is to help the most conservative Republican get a head start.