First-Hand Account Of Voter Suppression In North Carolina
Click here for reuse options!It is harder to vote in North Carolina these days. On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court, in Shelby v. Holder, gutted a landmark provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A majority of the justices struck down Article 5 of the Act, which had required federal preapproval of changes to voting practices in southern states. Eviscerating Article 5 effectively halted its protections and set the stage for sweeping efforts to disenfranchise minorities, women, the elderly and students. Six weeks later, emboldened by the Court’s ruling, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the nation’s most restrictive voting law all in the name of “preventing voter fraud.”…
The law’s restrictions are as follows: no same day voter registration; preregistration during early voting for 16 and 17-year-olds was eliminated; it shortens early voting by one week; out-of-precinct provisional voting was eliminated; and counties cannot extend polling place hours by one hour on Election Day in extraordinary circumstances (long lines). Most importantly, the law now permits anyone registered in the country to challenge a voter…
The one documented case of voter fraud in North Carolina involved an absentee ballot…
I witnessed the inequities of the law firsthand during the first day of early voting in North Carolina on Thursday, October 23rd. I voted in Winston-Salem at the Forsyth County Government Center. Several African-American voters told me they were told by people outside the polling place that it would take two hours to vote. I, a clearly upper-middle-class white man, was told forty-five minutes to an hour; it took fifty-five minutes. I have heard other similar stories of purposeful misinformation given to minority voters from through out the state.
In Boone, North Carolina, the Board of Elections tried to move a polling site located at Appalachian State University. The polling site draws primarily college students, and most of those students vote for Democrats. The Board’s efforts proved unsuccessful as a local Superior Court judge ruled the polling place must stay at Appalachian State, but do not be surprised if Tillis, Berger and others in the final days before the election file another frivolous lawsuit to keep college students from voting.
What the future holds for voting in North Carolina is unknown. What is known is that the damaging and chilling effects of this law will be felt for decades, even if the law is overturned this summer. Attempts to disenfranchise specific groups of voters will undoubtedly suppress voting in these communities for many generations.
Copyright 2014 Liberaland
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Pundit456 November 2nd, 2014 at 07:46
The example of so called “voter suppression” is so convoluted that only Alan Colmes would cite it. If you know the rules then North Carolina voters should also know the rules. Anyone who really wants to vote has plenty of time to make the necessary arrangements. If two hours is too long to wait to vote that person obviously did not really want to vote.
The language of the voting tights act gave the supreme court the authority to do what it did. Conversely, it had and has no authority to amend, repeal or invalidate an act of congress but you had no problem when it supposedly invalidated DOMA; which by the way is still the law no matter who wants to pretend that it is not.
http://thepundit456.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/cultivating-racism/
Pundit456 November 2nd, 2014 at 08:46
The example of so called “voter suppression” is so convoluted that only Alan Colmes would cite it. If you know the rules then North Carolina voters should also know the rules. Anyone who really wants to vote has plenty of time to make the necessary arrangements. If two hours is too long to wait to vote that person obviously did not really want to vote.
The language of the voting tights act gave the supreme court the authority to do what it did. Conversely, it had and has no authority to amend, repeal or invalidate an act of congress but you had no problem when it supposedly invalidated DOMA; which by the way is still the law no matter who wants to pretend that it is not.
http://thepundit456.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/cultivating-racism/
mea_mark November 2nd, 2014 at 09:14
Blatant corruption like this left unchecked leads to revolutions. We need throw the republicans out of office nation-wide and fix the way we elect our leaders. America needs election reform, bad.
mea_mark November 2nd, 2014 at 10:14
Blatant corruption like this left unchecked leads to revolutions. We need to throw the republicans out of office nation-wide and fix the way we elect our leaders. America needs election reform, bad.
Candide Thirtythree November 3rd, 2014 at 02:50
I play video games on-line with people from all over the world and we talk while grinding out a level. Before the revolution in Egypt, I asked one of my Egyptian team mates if he had gone vote that day because I saw it was election day.
He said that Mubarak made sure that college students could not vote by making it so difficult. He said first they make everyone vote in their home town NOT where they live while going to college then when that was not enough he made colleges hold exams on that day just in case anyone thought of ditching class and jumping on a train home to go vote.
As a matter of fact most of the things republicans do is the same things that despots and dictators all over the world do to keep down the election process and insure that despots and dictators stay in power.
Candide Thirtythree November 3rd, 2014 at 03:50
I play video games on-line with people from all over the world and we talk while grinding out a level. Before the revolution in Egypt, I asked one of my Egyptian team mates if he had gone vote that day because I saw it was election day.
He said that Mubarak made sure that college students could not vote by making it so difficult. He said first they make everyone vote in their home town NOT where they live while going to college then when that was not enough he made colleges hold exams on that day just in case anyone thought of ditching class and jumping on a train home to go vote.
As a matter of fact most of the things republicans do is the same things that despots and dictators all over the world do to keep down the election process and insure that despots and dictators stay in power.