GOP National Voter Suppression (Interstate Crosscheck, ID, Poll Closures, Voter Patrols)

[NZA]

apparently you think neither side of the political aisle is dealing with black issues properly

well if thats the way you feel maybe you should start splitting your vote

im doing my part by voting green party

 

[88m3]

Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politics Reporter @ThinkProgress. I cover elections, voting rights, and more. Contact me: aollstein@thinkprogress.org
8 hrs ago
North Carolina slashed their early voting hours and now this is what the lines look like
The state could decide both the presidential election and control of the Senate.

Voters line up Thursday, Oct. 20 at Chavis Community Center in Raleigh, N.C. Voters waited in line for more than an hour. CREDIT: AP Photo/Gerry Broome

Early voting kicked off on Thursday in the key swing state of North Carolina, and voters turned out to the polls in droves. Across the state, but especially in the urban centers of Charlotte, Raleigh, Fayetteville, and Winston-Salem, voters waited for hours to cast a ballot.

The heated races for president, governor, and senator are certainly driving the high turnout, but cuts to early voting sites and the elimination of straight-ticket voting may be exacerbating the long wait times.



After North Carolina’s attempt to eliminate an entire week of early voting was struck down by a federal court in July, many Republican-controlled county election boards tried to take matters into their own hands. Dozens of counties voted to slash the number of early voting locations — especially targeting areas of high Democratic voter turnout like college campuses and African-American neighborhoods. Many, but not all, of these cuts wereblocked by the state Board of Elections.

This year, 17 North Carolina counties will provide fewer total early voting hours than in 2012, and three counties that offered early voting on a Sunday in 2012 got rid of that option. Many counties are offering no evening hours, making access difficult for people who work one or more jobs.

One of the areas with the longest lines this week — Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County — offered 22 locations for the first day of early voting in 2012. This year, they offered only 10. Voters reported waiting for more than three hoursto cast a ballot.

North Carolina state and county officials pursued these cuts despite the overwhelming popularity of early voting. More than half of all the votes cast in the 2012 election were cast early and in person, and black voters in particular favor early and in-person voting. A federal court found that before trying to eliminate the entire first week of early voting, the state requested data showing “African Americans disproportionately used the first seven days.”

The court struck down the vast majority of North Carolina’s election changes, calling them an attempt to suppress voters of color “with surgical precision.” But one piece allowed to stand was the elimination of straight-ticket voting — the option for a voter to check a single box in order to vote for a party’s candidates up and down the ballot.

A study by the non-profit voting rights group Democracy North Carolina found that 2.5 million voters used straight-ticket voting in 2012. Since it takes much longer to vote for each candidate individually, the organization fears this could slow down the already long wait times at the polls.

https://thinkprogress.org/north-car...-see-hours-long-lines-fcffa0151748#.ptajc1kam

 

[Pull Up the Roots]

It's happening.

GOP out to limit crucial North Carolina early voting period

On Monday, Gov. Pat McCrory asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put the ID requirement and the early voting cuts back into effect. The state did not challenge the restoration of same-day registration or out-of-precinct voting. If the high court declines to intervene, as looks likely, Republicans have a backup plan: Pressuring local election boards to make early voting as inconvenient as possible.

Related: North Carolina Asks Supreme Court to Block Voter ID Ruling

Early voting has become extremely popular in recent elections in North Carolina, and it's disproportionately favored by African-Americans. In 2008, over 60 percent of black voters cast their ballots early, compared to 44 percent of white voters, according to one expert analysis. In 2012, those figures rose to 64 percent and 49 percent respectively.

The first Republican effort to limit early voting came in 2013, when North Carolina Republicans passed a multi-pronged voting law that imposed an ID requirement, eliminated same-day voter registration, and cut the early voting period from 17 days to 10, among other provisions. That law was overturned by a federal appeals court last month, which found that Republicans passed the measure after receiving data showing that blacks vote early, and lack ID, at higher rates than whites.

People are too busy paying attention to James O'keefe's bullshyt videos to see the attempts to marginalize the black vote.

 

[Jhoon]

These rules are orchestrated by legislators elected in off elections.

Let's see what happens in two years.

 

[levitate]

#SplitTheVote brehs...and find yourself #UnableToVote brehs

 

[Foxmulder]

The party that's actually trying to rig elections is the one complaining about rigged elections.

 

[THE MACHINE]

The party that's actually trying to rig elections is the one complaining about rigged elections.

Got the country looking the other way while the man behind the curtain holds on to the emerald city

 

[newworldafro]

I've ragged on DNC voter and election fraud.

Guess what as someone that is born and raised in NC....and actually voted at that precinct in the picture at Chavis Park.....I'm disgusted by these stunts by Republicans. I do think people should have IDs though.

I don't like seeing the masses being played...cause then the whole system begins to look super shady.

 

[88m3]

I've ragged on DNC voter and election fraud.

Guess what as someone that is born and raised in NC....and actually voted at that precinct in the picture at Chavis Park.....I'm disgusted by these stunts by Republicans. I do think people should have IDs though.

I don't like seeing the masses being played...cause then the whole system begins to look super shady.

you're such a contrarian fool

 

[newworldafro]

you're such a contrarian fool

I'm not contrarian. I'm just not a zombie. I can think logically and assess issues without loking through the filter of some partisan bullshiit.

 

[ezrathegreat]

The shyt would be funny if it weren't so said, Republicans are screaming about Democrats rigging the election while they are LITERALLY rigging the election. All my North Carolina brehs, stay strong, make sure you vote no matter what bs these people try.

 

[Llcoolbay]

8 years of a black president and (cacs) people have lost their minds

 

[TTT]

They enacted those laws weeks after the voting rights ruling in the Supreme Court. What astounds me about how brazen the GOP is about suppressing the vote is the way the supporters of these ID laws play dumb. Even when some of the officials explicitly state that these laws are just designed to target Democrats you hear someone say "well you need ID for this and that" when the Republicans in the case of North Carolina were explicitly gathering data about the type of ID used by AAs and targeted those in their laws. The other guy in PA actually linked Romney's performance to voter ID laws. They up the requirements to get an ID or in the case of Wisconsin been caught giving out wrong information deliberately. These laws are a solution looking for a problem.

 

[hashmander]

the sad part is that the lines won't be this long when it's time to vote against the local scum that enact these laws. i honestly would prefer north carolina had 40% voter turnout and trump won the state if it meant 65% voter turnout in 2018 or 50% in the 2017 local elections.

 

[Tate]

Remember last week when liberals raised 13k for the same exact ppl