Repub efforts at student vote suppression fail in Boone. Spectacularly.

[appal_jack]

I am typing this with a newborn NC progressive in my arms, so I won't be able to participate in this thread much, but please spread the good news:

Minutes after the State Board of Elections selected an early-voting site on the campus of Appalachian State University for the general election on Wednesday afternoon, the N.C. Supreme Court stepped in and allowed a stay against an early-voting site on the college campus.

“It happened almost immediately,” said Ian O’Keefe, a member of the Watauga County Democratic Party.

The State Board of Elections held a special meeting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday to select the early-voting site. The board members unanimously chose the Price Lake Room in the Plemmons Student Union from among multiple recommendations from ASU officials and members of the Watauga County Board of Elections.

Enthusiasm of the local Democrats quickly dissipated initially as news spread that the N.C. Supreme Court had taken up the issue and allowed a stay against an early-voting site on the campus, which would mean that the State Board of Elections wasn’t legally bound to have an early-voting site on the campus and that the constitutional matter of no early voting at ASU could be decided by the courts after the general election.

“I am pretty disappointed … I think the Supreme Court decided to do something against the will of the people, and the will of this county, and they are actively engaging in voter suppression, and with the highest court in our state to be involved in that is disappointing,” O’Keefe said minutes after the N.C. Supreme Court ruling. “I think they should be ashamed of themselves, and their actions do not warrant their position.”

However, State Board of Elections spokesman Josh Lawson noted that the N.C. Supreme Court’s ruling didn’t void the State Board of Elections decision to have an early voting site on the campus of Appalachian State University.

“The State Board can adopt a new voting plan for a county really at any time,” Lawson said, adding that the State Board of Elections made the unanimous decision moments before the N.C. Supreme Court’s stay because it thought it was “under legal requirements” to do so.

“Unless the State Board were to meet again and establish a new plan for the county, the plan approved unanimously for [Watauga by the SBOE on Wednesday] stands,” Lawson said.

http://www.hcpress.com/news/early-voting-at-app-state-a-go-even-though-n-c-supreme-court-steps-in-to-allow-stay-against-campus-site.html

The local Democratic activists who sued and fanned flames in the media about local vote suppression are true heroes!

Also, if Cackalackers want to tell it to the wider world, I also shared it here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025701681

-app

[Eleanors38]

1. The FR GOPer WILL DO THIS. Went thru something

similar over 40 yrs ago when a "poll watcher" from the GOP made a residence challenge, and planned on doing a bunch more. I was election judge, and told the watcher to fill out the forms for every person as he encountered them in a separate room & away from voters, what the law required. He stopped doing it forthwith.

[appal_jack]

2. Second article/source: WRAL

http://www.wral.com/app-state-gets-early-voting-site-/14105557/

-app

[marions ghost]

3. Spreading it

we have to take back NC from these hijackers.