That didn't take long. Hours after Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation overhauling North Carolina's voting laws, local election boards started making changes that will make it harder for college students to participate in elections.
The Watauga County Board of Elections on Monday voted 2-1 -- two Republicans against one Democrat -- to shut down an early voting site and an Election Day precinct on the Appalachian State University campus. They also cut the number of early voting sites overall from three to one, and combined three Election Day precincts into one. That will put 9,300 Boone residents in one precinct, though the Watauga Elections Director Jane Ann Hodges said state guidelines call for a maximum of 1,500 voters in any one precinct.
The move came in front of dozens of protesters who booed and chanted "shame on you." Republican board member Luke Eggers warned the vocal crowd that they could be sent to jail for up to 30 days if they didn't "obey the lawful commands of the board of elections," the High Country Press reported.
Bob Phillips of Common Cause points out that on the same day Watauga Republicans were shutting down the ASU voting site, Gov. Pat McCrory was doing interviews assuring the public that politics wouldn't play any role in determining where polling locations would be.
"They won't be selected based on politics or political partisan positions, which is wrong," McCrory told WUNC's Frank Stasio.
It's quite obvious that the Watauga board's move will make it harder for Appalachian State students to vote. The new law doesn't change how early voting sites are selected -- they are chosen by each county's board of elections. With Republicans in power, every county board contains two Republicans and one Democrat. Democrats, we imagine, sought political advantage through voting locations as well.
Early voting's goal is to make voting convenient for all residents, regardless of their registration. Cutting the number of days and the number of locations undercuts that goal.
Meanwhile, in Pasquotank County, the Republican-controlled Board of Elections is blocking a properly registered voter from running for City Council because he is a student at Elizabeth City State University. Senior Montravias King has been registered to vote in Pasquotank since coming to college in 2009. King filed to run for City Council, but the board ruled he couldn't use his campus address to establish residency, the Associated Press reported.
Lawyer Clare Barnett, representing King, cited an N.C. Supreme Court ruling that said students can register to vote in the towns where they attend college. Pasquotank wants a system where it's OK to vote but not OK to run for office? Probably not, actually: the county's Republican chairman says he plans to challenge the voter registration of other ECSU students.
Every move in politics, of course, is designed to give one party a political advantage. But for the millions of N.C. residents whose careers don't hinge on winning elections, the primary goal should be vigorous and widespread participation in our democracy. Looks like not everyone agrees.
-- Taylor Batten
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Let the voter clampdown begin
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32 comments:
I was confused there for a second. I thought everyone was up in arms because Republicans were infringing on the right to vote. Little did I know that everyone was up in arms to fight for the ideologically noble cause of voter convenience. Good to know. Perhaps in the next two years the O-Pinioners can focus on educating people on the fundamentally arduous task of obtaining a government-issued ID. There might not be time but at least they should try.
This proves that the republican do not care about fairness, but in suppressing the vote of the democrats.
All the talk about voter fraud IS FRAUD.
I want anyone to show where so called voter fraud put anyone in office anywhere in the USA---name the person---show the proof.
All the voter fraud horse manure is to try to keep the elderly, the first time voters, and the poor from being able to vote so the republicans think they will get more dictators in office!!!
First,while both parties my play politics with voting to some degree, only one party has actively engaged in voter suppression. Observer, please stop equivocating over these actions; Democratic and Republican actions with regard to voting are not equal.
Second, making it more difficult to vote is an infringement on the right to vote. This is a clear, concerted effort to discourage voters from voting. By attacking the mechanism for choosing our representatives, the North Carolina General Assembly is waging a war on democracy.
This General Assembly is worried more about passing laws that protect its majority than benefit North Carolinians. Why are they afraid to run on their record?
Carol,
Show the proof that it did not.
With 14 MILLION illegals in this country, many with illegally obtained SS cards and driver's licenses, it is ridiculous to think just because it's against the law for illegals to vote, that they obeyed the law and didn't.
You know, since they broke a myriad of laws to get here and get illegal documents.
The integrity of voting is worth having the IDs even if it only stops one person from voting illegally.
2012 True The Vote:
To date, 46 states have prosecuted or convicted cases of voter fraud.
• More than 24 million voter registrations are invalid, yet remain on the rolls nation-wide.
• There are over 1.8 million dead voters still eligible on the rolls across the country.
• More than 2.75 million Americans are registered to vote in more than one state.
• True The Vote recently found 99 cases of potential felony interstate voter fraud.
• Maryland affiliates of True The Vote uncovered cases of people registering and voting after their respective deaths.
• This year, True The Vote uncovered more than 348,000 dead people on the rolls in 27 states. ◦ California: 49,000
◦ Florida: 30,000
◦ Texas: 28,500
◦ Michigan: 25,000
◦ Illinois: 24,000
•12 Indiana counties have more registered voters than residents.
• The Ohio Secretary of State admitted that multiple Ohio counties have more registered voters than residents.
• Federal records showed 160 counties in 19 states have over 100 percent voter registration.
• The Florida New Majority Education Fund, Democratic Party of Florida and the National Council of La Raza are currently under investigation for alleged voter registration fraud.
"Show the proof that it did NOT"?!? That's not how proof works. Burden of proof is on the prosecution, not the defense. And besides that, there wasn't a move mentioned here that had anything to do with fraud, real or imagined. Funny how the application of the law seems to have nothing whatsoever with the reasons given for its necessity. I guess they'll get to the safeguarding our democracy stuff once they get rid of all those pesky college students. Oh, and the guy who filed the reams of paperwork to actually run for office while still in school at ECSU...yeah, I bet he has a government issued ID. Wonder why he's still having troubles with his registration...hmmm....
"Democrats, we imagine, sought political advantage through voting locations as well."
Of course, we can only imagine, because newspapers like the Observer were refusing to write about it when the Democrats were in power.
Once again, Wiley has demonstrated stunning intellectual dishonesty. And again, it is not ignorance or well-intended misunderstanding. It is calculated and intentional. For openers, True The Vote is a partisan, Republican organization. Hence, nothing from that point on deserves any credence. He cites no cases (I know of only one, that in Ohio) of a voter convicted of fraud in the last election. Disregarding that, is there any evidence that any significant number of those "dead people registered to vote" actually did so? Absolutely not. Mr. Coyote, do you really expect folks to say, 'Hey, I'm dying, so I'd better rush down and take my name off the registration books?" That's why they're listed - they've died and not been purged. That's no indication they "voted." He wants "proof that it did not," regarding voter fraud. Duh, it's mighty hard to prove something didn't happen. Luckily, democracy doesn't work that way. Otherwise, Mr. Coyote, I say you're an ax murderer and child molester. Now prove you aren't. Can't, can you? Neither can I. Here's the simple truth from a lifelong moderate and swing voter: These actions by Republicans are clear, calculated and, I suspect the courts will rule, unconstitutional efforts to prevent voters who're likely to support their opponents from voting
Carol, If you beleive all the talk about voter fraud is fraud, I submit to you a case in a city where I once lived and worked and had to deal with... Google "Ophelia Ford Memphis Fraud" for an intresting read on a black democrat running for a state office. Won by a few votes before officials found proof that hundreds of dead folks had voted, and all for her! Read for yourself. Voting is a right and privilege, we were never promised convenience. No different than airline security...
Roll Tide,
So I looked into the case you cited; unfortunately, you don't know the story at all:
(1) There were three bogus votes (not hundreds)
(2) The fraud was perpetrated by poll workers, the same people who would be checking the IDs.
(3) There was no evidence the "Black Democrat" even knew about the fraud let alone participated.
(4) Most of the changes to NC voting law having NOTHING to do with voter fraud!
Here's a link with a story from the JUDGE on the case:
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/may/22/judge-lets-air-details-of-fraud/
Blockhead,
You get the point. There is and has always been voter fraud, no matter how small the numbers are.
The Federal Government estimates fraud in the Food Stamp program to be over $800 million.
Fraud in the school lunch program to be %1.6 billion per year.
Fraud in Medicare and Medicaid to be about $25 billion.
Let's take that $25 billion.
There are 70 MILLION people just on Medicaid.
The 50 state Medicaid fraud control units obtained a collective 1,205 convictions, and claimed total recoveries of more than $1.1 billion in court-ordered restitution, fines, civil settlements, and penalties.
1,205 convictions out of 70 million people, with a little over $1 billion repaid through convictions. That leaves another nearly $24 billion in fraud out there.
To put voter fraud into perspective with all of the other fraud in immigration, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and the NSLP, to suggest there is no voter fraud is ludacris.
The arguments against voter ID hold no water.
Nice, Mr. Coyote. If you can't argue facts, do a u-turn and start talking about something else. Fraud in Medicaid? Yep, you bet your life there is. And in banking, and Sunday School and ... I'm surprised you didn't suggest that since there's fraud in used-car sales, somehow that's incontrovertible proof that elections are crooked. By the way, I found that your previous post (I was curious) merely block-saves and posts the first True The Vote site that pops up on Google. If any other posters are interested in the objective, uncolored truth about voter fraud (and how True the Vote and folks like Mr. Coyote are deliberately distorting facts) please go to Snopes.com and search voter fraud. Snopes is a nonpartisan site of unquestionable objectivity.
Blockhead,
One question:
How many cases of voter fraud is acceptable to you?
Wiley - How many people deprived of the right to vote because of these draconian laws are acceptable to you?
I submit that the difference in actual, documented voter fraud at the polling stations is literally 3 or 4 orders of magnitude less than the number of voters deprived of their opportunity to vote because of reduced early voting locations and hours, and prohibiting college students from voting at their school locations, let alone the number of the working poor and elderly who will, for one reason or another, not be able to procure an "acceptable" ID. Note that official school ID's are among those our intrepid legislators declared to be unacceptable. It's positively surreal.
This is nothing more than the GOP shamelessly declaring for all to see that they're afraid of fair elections, and that the only way they feel they can win elections is to game the system. As if scorched-earth redistricting wasn't enough. In other words, cheating on a vast scale. That's the real voter fraud being perpetuated. And it's disgusting.
Archie,
No one is being denied a vote.
Get an ID and go vote. It's that simple.
Only Democrats make it difficult.
I'll ask you the same question: how many fraudulent votes are acceptable to you?
Laws requiring photo IDs suppress minority voting, Democrats charge.
The facts say otherwise.
In Georgia, black voter turnout for the midterm election in 2006 was 42.9 percent. After Georgia passed photo ID, black turnout in the 2010 midterm rose to 50.4 percent. Black turnout also rose in Indiana and Mississippi after photo IDs were required.
It's amazing that Democrats continue to rant about how they are the only ones who can't find their way to a DMV office.
Over 30 states have these regulations so why are Democrats to dumb to get ID, register, and vote in North Carolina only?
What does that say for N.C. Democrat's intelligence level?
Let's see, they are smart enough to haul their tails out to get ID for welfare, foodstamp debit cards, for checking and savings accounts, for medicaid, and every other benefit known to man but they can't use those IDs for voting?
This will remain the law in N.C. after it goes to court so I suggest you people get used to it.
One question, do you Democrats know that Republicans have to abide by the same rules?
Why aren't they going to be disadvantaged? Why aren't their old people going to have problems, why aren't their students going to be hampered, why aren't their disabled going to have problems?
Why aren't Republicans talking about how unfair it is to their voters?
Because they are adults with brains that function, that's why. They aren't protesting losing elections by suing over everything.
We should have been doing all this court action for the 134 years Democrats were busy setting all this unfair stuff up to keep themselves in power.
Now they are gone and it's time to dismantle the expensive bull they perpetrated on all of us.
So I read sometime about a moose attacking and killing a man in NC (don't believe me, prove I didn't!). A moose attack can be really bad, probably, and long after they die their antlers can be deadly killing machines from beyond the grave! You can google "moose attacks in NC" and you'll be shocked and horrified like I was to learn that Mr. Coyote and his GOP friends have left us completely exposed to vicious moose attacks, with not a single law on the books to protect us! You can be totally moose attacked at any moment and the state won't lift a finger to stop it in this state! When will the GOP get off its hands and protect its people from the scourge of rampant, senseless moose-related carnage that we could start facing at any time now?
I put it back to you, Mr. Cartoon Character, how many moose attacks do you find acceptable? I say even one is too many moose! I demand legislation!
You want to stop REAL voter fraud? How about we repeal the laws - pushed through by Republicans - preventing electronic voting machines from having their source code examined? Google Wally Diebold - chairman of the company that makes many of these machines - and read what he said to a group of Ohio Young Republicans before the '04 election. He said he would "deliver the state of Ohio to George W. Bush". And so he did. In every single precinct where the vote was close to 50-50 it magically went Bush's way, even when the exit polls indicated a solid Kerry victory.
And Ohio decided that presidential election, just as Florida did 4 years earlier. BTW, that was the state that had Dubya's brother as governor and one of his former campaign organizers as Chair of the state Board of Elections. And the state where 60,000 ballots, mostly from urban areas, were somehow "lost", thus uncounted.
In other words, when Republicans engage in voter fraud, they do it on a vast, hidden scale. Meanwhile, the incidents of actual individual fraudulent votes being cast can probably be counted on your fingers - with a few digits left over. It's statistically negligible, if it occurs at all.
Archie,
We can talk about machines here in MEcklenburg County under Bill Culp and his Democrat cronies.
I can list cases of voter fraud over the past 12 to 15 years from many states. It isn't thousands and thousands but enough to warrant trying to get as close to a zero tolerance as possible and if having voter ID helps - as over 30 other states have - then so be it.
I don't care which party commits the fraud, both should be held accountable.
Again, I'll ask you the question no Democrat seems to want to answer:
How many cases of voter fraud is acceptable to you?
Here is something about the elections won by possible fraud. In 2010 in Colorado senate race Democrat beat Republican by less than 3,000 votes. Later it turned out that 5,000 non-citizens have voted
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/153079-gop-says-5000-non-citizens-voting-in-colorado-a-wake-up-call-for-states
Carol Justus, please show me one instance of an American blowing up an airplane while in flight....and yet...wait for it....WE HAVE TO SHOW PHOTO ID, AND GET X-RAYED AND FRISKED, TAKE OFF OUR SHOES AND OUR BELTS, AND WAIT IN LINES....IN ORDER TO GET ON A FREAKING FLIGHT.....EVERY DAY!!!!!!!!
Well? Indeed. Crickets is all I hear from you. Get a driver's license, or a government ID, or else you can't vote (ONCE EVERY 2 OR 4 YEARS)......or fly on an airplane.
Wiley coyote said
2012 True The Vote:
To date, 46 states have prosecuted or convicted cases of voter fraud.
• More than 24 million voter registrations are invalid, yet remain on the rolls nation-wide.
• There are over 1.8 million dead voters still eligible on the rolls across the country.
He or she posted a lot of numbers BUT NO PROOF!!
There are thousands of votes thrown out in every election because people voted for two people for the same office or it was not clear who they wanted to vote and several other reasons.
THE REPUBLICANS CLAIM VOTER FRAUD WHEN THEY GET BEAT, NEVER WHEN THEY WIN.
Voter fraud is also trying to register someone to vote when you do not follow the rules.
There was a woman who was giving out a pack of cigarettes to anyone who would REGISTER TO VOTE, SHE DID NOT TELL THEM TO REGISTER FOR A PARTICULAR PARTY, BUT JUST TO REGISTER AND THIS HAPPENED SOME 14 YEARS AGO IN MILWAUKE WI I BELIEVE, IT IS CONSIDERED FRAUD FOR SHE WAS GIVIN OUT SOMETHING OF VALUE FOR THEM TO REGISTER.
Back to my statement, show the proof that anyone has been elected to ANY OFFICE BY VOTER FRAUD----I KNOW ALL THE HORSE MANURE THE REPUBLICANS USE TO TRY TO COVER UP THE FACT THEY ARE SUPPRESSING THE VOTES OF THE DEMOCRATS PURE AND SIMPLE AND IF ANYONE DENIES THAT THEY MUST HAVE FAILED THE 7 GRADE
Carol,
I'll ask you the same question the other two people refused to answer:
How many cases of voter fraud is acceptable to you?
So sad that so many have been conned into thinking that something does not happen because they say it doesn't. Voter Fraud, even one vote, is voter fraud. Documented cases, especially the one in Chicago in 2006 that got the current 'empty suit' into office should be investigated, however, as long as he's there, he can prevent that as well as the release of his school records or even the fact that he attended the schools as shown on his filings. Oh, the sheep in the country, something that has helped in reducing the USA to the 3rd world country it is headed to being.
The only way to eliminate 100% of voter fraud is to eliminate all elections. While the benefit of eliminating voter fraud is obvious, the cost is great-many Americans will have their most basic right infringed.
There is no such thing as voter fraud? Unfortunately there are many examples. Wiley has mentioned a few.
Colorado found that 11,805 non citizens were registered to vote and 4,947 of them did vote in 2010. We have Obamacare thanks to probable voter fraud. In Minnesota Democrat Professional Clown Al Franken beat Norm Coleman by a few hundred votes. A year later it was discovered over 1800 felons had voted illegally. Who do you think the majority of them voted for? Obama care passed by a single vote. And voter fraud almost stole the presidential election of 2000 because Florida had an estimated 30,000 non citizens on the voter rolls while George Bush won by only 537 votes.
The Pew Center report from last year studied 24 million voter registrations. They found 2.8 million people who were registered in two OR MORE states. 1.8 million were dead. When the 240,000 South Carolinians who supposedly didn't have a valid ID were researched in connection with their voter ID bill challenge it was discovered that over 200,000 of them had either allowed their ID to lapse, had moved, or had died.
As to student voting? The issue is that many students are registered in both their home towns and in their college town. If they want to resister and vote in their college town fine...but then their residence should not be their home address where their parents claim them as a dependent and a tax deduction. I would think Democrats would be opposed to anything that robs them of more taxes wouldn't they?
The bottom line is that the Dems are using their same old playbook of creating bogeymen to rile up their clueless base. They have no positive successful programs to promote. After 5 years of Obamanism and a new normal of permanent malaise in the country they figure that if "hope" won't get out the vote for them anymore maybe "fear" will.
Interesting perspective on Bush winning Florida by 537 votes-this was a gift to Bush from the Supreme Court and Katherine Harris, plain and simple.
I wish the liberal media would give it up already. Voter ID is a good idea no matter who came up with it. Besides, people who protest this piece of legislation seem to think minorities are too stupid to obtain free ID. If someone can't handle a simple task like that then I'm not sure I want them voting in the first place.
There has never been a person elected and there has never been more than a handful of voter fraud ever found in this country!!
We here all the time the cry baby republicans talking all the time about voter fraud and NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN ELECTED BY VOTER FRAUD AND THE CASES THAT HAVE BEEN PROSECUTED HAVE BEEN LESS THAN 20 EVER SINCE I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO VOTE AND THAT HAS BEEN 57 YEARS AND I VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION EVEN IF IT IS ONLY FOR A JUDGE OR SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS---PRIMARIES AND GENERAL ELECTIONS AND I USED TO VOTE FOR REPUBLCIANS UNTIL THEY BECAME WORSE THAN BATISTA AND I WOULD NOT VOTE FOR ANYONE WHO SIGNS A PAPER TO VOTE AS HE OR SHE IS TOLD BY GROVER NORQUIST OR THE KOCH BROTHERS OR ANYONE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER.
WHEN PERSON SELLS THEIR ALLEGIANCE TO SOMEONE THEN WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO VOTE FOR THEM TO REPRESENT YOU AFTER HE OR SHE ALREADY HAS SIGN AWAY THEIR RIGHT TO MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS OR TO REPRESENT YOU OR I.
I agree! Let the voter clampdown begin! Let's have an electorate with some measure of comprehension of what (or who) it is that they're voting for!
Wiley Coyote said...
Carol,
Show the proof that it did not.
In the USA a person is innocent until proven guilty~!!
You are one who was saying there is voter fraud----now you are acting like a defense attorney when defending a rapist, he wants the girl to prove she did not instigate the rape---like they way she was dressed or where she was at.
Does not all Americans have the same rights to have a charge against proven instead of those charged have to prove they are innocent???
TYPICAL REPUBLICAN===MAKE CHARGES AND THEN ASK ANY ONE WHO DISAGREES TO PROVE THEY ARE NOT WRONG!!!
I would like to correct Mr. Batten on a few items.
* The United States of America is a Republic not a Democracy. I point out this to illustrate my point fully. Democracy (of the pure sort) is nothing more than mob rule. 50% + 1. If we allow all decisions of governance to be made on that basis it is not long before individuals liberties are trampled into the dust. The founders understood that the Tyranny of the Majority applies and is just as evil as Tyranny by Monarchy or Tyranny by Despotism.
* From an historical perspective, the founders never intended that every resident of this country or indeed every citizen of this country be eligible to vote. The founders (do not take my word for this do your OWN research as that is what INFORMED citizens do read with care the Articles of confederation and the Federalist Papers which give much reason behind the founders intent with the expression of enumerated liberties. Read also Letters Essays and monographs by Jefferson Madison Hamilton Washington and Franklin on the subjects of liberty and of proper governance) did not consider the vote to be a fundamental right. It meant very little in that day if one did not vote. It meant a great deal if one voted without care or forethought to the character of the candidate.
* Informed citizens voted not out of a sense of accomplishment or pride (pride was a deadly sin and many of our forefathers were devout Christians (Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptists, Methodists or Quakers) and feared eternal damnation for being prideful) but from a revered sense of duty.
Jefferson and Madison, particularly, would have cringed in horror and revulsion if they could but see today the sticker "I Voted!" upon the breast of so many people and heard but one or two sentences come out of their mouths giving rise to the opinion of their folly and ignorance. They probably would have much rather seen a lapel sticker claiming "I Made and Informed Decision at the Ballot box!" than to see "I voted!" without so much as an acknowledgement that the voter had indeed made an Informed and educated decision. Voter fraud has about as much to do with this conversation as a paint chip has to do with a home that has slid off of its foundation. The fraud in the current voter process is that their is a perceived (don't quote the 15th 20th and 22nd amendments at me they have no place in a discussion of founders intent)right to vote. To the contrary there never has existed a right to vote but a duty to vote and if one casts a ballot one has the additional duty of knowing everything there is to know about the candidates for whom one votes. At the very least the founders would agree that it is the responsibility of those who hold the ballot box to insure that those who cast a ballot are who they say they are, and that they have reason, beyond voting themselves benefit from the public coffers, to cast their ballot and that they can demonstrate through opinion and demonstration their knowledge and education on the moores, ideals, and policies of the person or persons for whom they choose to represent them.
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