Judge Slams Voter Suppression Law — ‘Why Does The State Of North Carolina Not Want People To Vote?’

[kpete]

Judge Wynn, the only member of the panel who lives in North Carolina, appeared baffled by this provision. Explaining that he lives very close to a precinct that is not his assigned polling place, he asked the state to justify why his vote should be thrown out if he did not travel to a precinct that is further away from his home. At one point, his questions grew quite pointed — “Why does the state of North Carolina not want people to vote?” Wynn asked. At another point, he described a hypothetical grandmother who has always voted at the same place. Why not “let her just vote in that precinct?” he wondered?


The Rest:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/29/3573080/judge-slams-voter-suppression-law-why-does-the-state-of-north-carolina-not-want-people-to-vote/

[merrily]

1. Because Americans for Prosperity doesn't want them to vote

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/25/4181779/voters-mailed-incorrect-information.html

and state governments are no more impervious to lobbyists than is federal government.

Wiki has registered Democrats significantly outnumbering registered Republicans in North Carolina, again demonstrating the importance to Democrats of GOTV and the importance to Republicans of suppressing votes.

However, I did also find that NC experienced a rightward shift recently and also that more and more voters are registering unaffiliated lately, including young people (who are traditionally assumed to lean more left than right).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina#Demographics

http://www.wral.com/voter-registration-shows-dissatisfaction-with-political-parties/13264170/

http://www.thevoterupdate.com/articles/2012/1_13_12_preregistration.php

That, in itself, does not worry me as the same is true of Massachusetts, which has long been solidly blue as to state legislatures and Presidentials.

http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Departments/Statistically-Significant/2014/Summer/001-Not-exactly-party-time-in-Massachusetts.aspx#.VCljlhZx5Uo

It does seem to veer Republican from time to time at the gubernatorial level, but the state legislative Dem majority is large enough to override vetoes. (Sadly, though, governors make appointment to courts and appointments to fill vacancies and maybe Dem voters don't consider that enough.)

[yeoman6987]

4. The weird thing is that it hurts the Republicans too

I am sure some Republicans will have to go through hoops trying to get a birth certificate to get a state ID card and other things. Just weird. Of course I would have Election Day on a Sunday and requir employees to allow 4 hours off for morning shift and 4 hours off for afternoon shift so that everyone has the chance to vote. One and done. That would alleviate a lot of this nonsense.

[merrily]

5. Not as much. It's a numbers game.

If more voters are registered Democratic, then, odds are, you are keeping more Democrats from voting than Republicans.

Also, getting state ID can be expensive, especially if you were born outside a hospital and never got a driver's license. And they are convinced that more poor people vote Democratic than Republican, at least in purple states.

Finally, a good deal of voter suppression is by neighborhood and they know exactly how each precinct votes.

[apnu]

20. Republicans want less people at the polls.

its the only way they can have any power now. They are very unpopular with youth, minorities, women and GLBT. They only really have older white men. They are dying off and they know it.

The only way they can cling to power is to suppress the polls. The less people vote, the better their chances are. This has an interesting side effect as we can plainly see that lower turnout at the polls allows for more crazies to get on the ballot and win. Hence the teaparty takeover and the hard right swing the party's taken over the past decade or so.

Democracy works best when everybody is involved and everybody is voting. It keeps the nut-bars out.

[canuckledragger]

21. With that being said...

Last edited Tue Sep 30, 2014, 08:50 AM - Edit history (1)

Make sure knowledge of tools like this is spread far and wide:

https://www.iwillvote.com/

[drm604]

29. Be careful of that website.

At the bottom of that page it states that it's affiliated with www.championthevote.com which is connected to an organization called United In Purpose, which is a right-wing nonprofit supported by wealthy conservatives with the stated purpose of registering evangelicals to vote.
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/27/147504999/to-get-out-the-vote-evangelicals-try-data-mining

Dallas, an evangelical Christian, has since become a voter. He now runs United In Purpose, a nonprofit startup company that uses data mining to identify unregistered Christians.

The company persuaded wealthy Silicon Valley conservatives to help fund the creation of a database of as many adults in the U.S. as they can find. So far, UIP has added 180 million.

It may be perfectly safe to use such a site to register, but to be on the safe side you should instead use https://www.iwillvote.com which is paid for by the Democratic National Committee.

[AndyTiedye]

36. Some GOP Voter Registration Drives THROW OUT Democratic Registrations

GOP operatives have been caught throwing out Democratic registrations before, they will certainly do it again.
DO NOT register to vote through any GOP-controlled organization, it is very likely you will not really get registered if you do.

[canuckledragger]

41. Whoops!

Sorry...I didn't see that part!

[barbtries]

53. maybe you could edit out the link

and replace it with a valid one? thanks

[canuckledragger]

58. Sure thing...

...Sorry I took so long.

I work nights and sleep days...and mostly just read DU posts while forgetting I can edit my own!

[billhicks76]

49. Republicans Have Never Liked Democracy

They may not want a King but they have always wanted an elite land owning class to rule and exploit everyone else.

[blm]

8. No, it doesn't hurt Republicans - and THAT is why they pushed for this.

The districts and precincts are drawn to make it as easy as possible for Republicans to vote. The voting machines are distributed appropriately in GOP heavy precincts. Ever see long, long lines in GOP-heavy precincts?

[yeoman6987]

9. Have I ever saw long lines in GOP areas

Well I can't say I went to all 50 states and every district to observe such a thing. Bottom line is vote. No matter the hoops just vote. That is my decision on the matter. Somehow 150 million voted in 2012.

[AlbertCat]

12. Have I ever saw long lines in GOP areas

Was that a hand saw or an electric saw?

[blm]

57. It was a simple question. If there were long lines in GOP areas you WOULD have

heard about them and seen them.

You didn't because those precincts get fully accommodated for their voting needs while urban areas get short-changed.

[packman]

10. Gerrymandering thou name is voter suppression

I would bet those districts that are being effected by this are largely black and poor with little means to travel. A half-hour trip for a poor person with several kids to take care of and a job they must attend is different than a half-hour trip for a person who can hop into a car to take a short jaunt down to the voting precinct.
Hence, the reason Republicans hate the early voting, mail-in , ballots.

[yeoman6987]

18. Gerrymandering works awesome in Maryland

I love it. Keeps Republicans from screwing up the state.

[AndyTiedye]

37. Might Turn into a 2-Hour Trip on 3 Buses

[gratuitous]

15. Proportionally, though

The Republicans are perfectly happy disenfranchising 10 of their own voters if it means 100 opposition voters can't cast a ballot. While that means 110 people who should be able to vote don't or can't vote, the Republicans regard that as a 90 vote pick-up. Repeat that over dozens or hundreds of precincts, and they're likely to win a few races they should have lost. It's unlikely that they will lose a race they should have won.

As for Election Day, what's wrong with Election Weekend? Polls open at midnight Friday, and stay open until midnight Sunday. Give the counters Monday to gather and tabulate votes, then announce the results on Tuesday around 5 p.m. Winners start their victory parties that much sooner, and everyone goes home for a good night's sleep and ready to back to work on Wednesday.

[B Calm]

54. There are more registered democrats than republicans! Republicans know this,

and the less people who bother to vote always help the republicans.

[AlbertCat]

19. NC experienced a rightward shift recently

That's because the RW loonies just got louder.

NC is being punished for voting for Obama in '08 and nearly doing so in '12.


Then in a matter of months this decidedly "purple" state all of a sudden goes deep red????

Things are not as normal and upfront here as would it would seem.

[MFrohike]

44. Short answer

The state Democratic party has had a lot of scandals. The former speaker of the state house is in prison and the former governor pled guilty to a felony. That and record GOP turnout in 2010 gave them the legislature (GOP turnout was +10 over average, Democratic was +6). They proceeded to create the most gerrymandered electoral map in the state's history.*

*I don't know about other states, but in NC, that's pretty amazing. NC has been the gold standard of gerrymandering for a long time now, so when you actually exceed that standard, you're definitely setting records.

[littlemissmartypants]

47. This^ eom

[marions ghost]

60. The Kochs saw vulnerability and hijacked North Carolina

--right, things are definitely not normal in NC. People need to understand that North Carolina
did NOT deserve this!

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/09/29/republican-midterm-tactic-destroying-democracy.html

It should surprise no American that ALEC is anti-democracy since last February its members refused to sign a pledge supporting democracy, likely at the behest of their funders the Koch brothers. Dissatisfied that Republican-led states are doing enough to obstruct democracy, the Koch brothers tasked their other anti-democracy organization, Americans for Prosperity, to take what may be illegal actions to suppress the vote in North Carolina. Residents in the state have already witnessed a barrage of anti-democracy voter suppression tactics thanks to the Koch brothers’ ALEC legislation, but apparently it is not enough for the Kochs who charged AFP with the job of deliberately misinforming North Carolina voters to prevent them from participating in democracy.

North Carolina’s Americans for Prosperity sent out faulty voter registration forms and blatantly false information in what exceeds even the sleaziest dirty election tricks a few weeks before an election. In the mailings, Americans for Prosperity gave out the wrong deadline for registering to vote by cutting the authentic “registration window short by five days.” Included in the mailing was the wrong offices and zip codes for turning in voter registration forms as well as false information about how prospective voters would be notified about their precinct after they register to vote. That is providing they discovered the correct date and address to turn in the voter registration form on time to be able to vote.

The director of Americans for Prosperity, N.C., shrugged off the deliberate misinformation as “non-substantive” and just a “minor administrative error,” but it is not “minor” or “non-substantive” for hundreds-of-thousands of potential voters the Koch brothers’ thugs are attempting to disenfranchise. The AFP director revealed the Koch and Republican mindset is founded on their belief that N.C. voters unlikely to support Republicans are “non-substantive,” likely due to their racial makeup and economic station. That too is another story that is spreading across the former Confederacy where Republicans are actively thwarting the voting rights of working-Americans and people of color.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. Wrong. They don't want "certain" people to vote. n/t

[riqster]

3. This.

[merrily]

6. You think they are happier when a white person votes Democratic than when

a minority votes Democratic?

I bet they'd welcome minority Republicans to the polls.

[packman]

11. "Minority Republicans" -

Now that has got to be the best oxymoron I'll hear today. Just pulling your chain. Of course, there's the occasional minority Republicans , but I really don't think they count on them.

[merrily]

13. Sure, minority Republicans are a minority of Republicans, but

they definitely exist and sometimes matter very much as to the outcome. For example, many Cubans, esp. in Florida, a purple state, and Koreans tend to vote Republican.

But, I was making a point, and it had nothing to do with numbers of minority voters who vote Republican.

[WinkyDink]

24. Well, THE point is moving polling places. Is that focusing on "Koreans" or "Cubans..in Florida"? NO.

[merrily]

28. Moving polling places is not the only form of voter suppression.

And, when I mentioned Koreans and Cubans, I was simply replying to another poster who implied minorities do not vote Republican.


Again, I think Republicans want to suppress Democratic votes, regardless of who is voting Democratic. If you disagree with that, say so. If you don't, then what is your point?

[WinkyDink]

22. Sure, they would; they'd love to find El Dorado, too. *insert eyeroll here*

[merrily]

23. See my reply 13. Thanks.

[WinkyDink]

25. I did. Trying to come up with exceptions isn't even what the perps are doing, so why are you?

[merrily]

27. I don't know what you mean by trying to come up with exceptions.

We are talking about vote suppression. The purpose of vote suppression by Republicans is to suppress Democratic votes. If you think otherwise, you are mistaken.

I don't know what you mean by the perps aren't coming with exceptions, either. The perps don't even admit they try or seek to suppress votes at all, let alone claiming they are suppressing minority votes without trying to come up with exceptions to that claim.

[LiberalArkie]

7. Going way back to the poll tax, the "system" only wants a certain class to vote.

I remember way back that the voting hours made it impossible for normal people to get to the polls before or after work. Now the people who worked downtown or close to the polling place could use their lunch hour to vote and stay hungry all day. Or maybe even stay in line and lose their lunch hour and still not be able to vote because they ran out of time.

I remember trucks coming in loaded down with men from some of the wood yards and factories who were given the money for the poll tax and a piece of paper telling them who to vote for.

It was a lot more open back then than now, but it is still there.

[Bonhomme Richard]

43. It's all about playing the percentages and the percentages in...

a predominantly black district are a non starter for republicans.

[littlemissmartypants]

48. Exactly. eom

[raouldukelives]

14. Because of well funded lobbyists & corporate donors.

Who are well funded because of Wall St investors & servants. Who are people who have made the choice of standing with money over democracy.

[fredamae]

16. This is the answer

to that burning question, perhaps.
In their own words, no less. It's because they can't win any other way if "everybody" votes>

[Stuart G]

17. Please read the enitre article..It looks very postitive.

The three judge panel that will rule on this, may possibly reverse the ruling by the state court. I won'[t say that it probably will, but we have a very good chance. If that happens, what comes next is anyone's guess.

[Octafish]

26. GOP SOP: Operation EAGLE EYE

On the late Chief Justice, a Nixon appointee who rose to the top of the fascist heap in Florida 2000 did:

Just our Bill

By Dennis Roddy
Saturday, December 02, 2000

Lito Pena is sure of his memory. Thirty-six years ago he, then a Democratic Party poll watcher, got into a shoving match with a Republican who had spent the opening hours of the 1964 election doing his damnedest to keep people from voting in south Phoenix.

"He was holding up minority voters because he knew they were going to vote Democratic," said Pena.

The guy called himself Bill. He knew the law and applied it with the precision of a swordsman. He sat at the table at the Bethune School, a polling place brimming with black citizens, and quizzed voters ad nauseam about where they were from, how long they'd lived there -- every question in the book. A passage of the Constitution was read and people who spoke broken English were ordered to interpret it to prove they had the language skills to vote.

By the time Pena arrived at Bethune, he said, the line to vote was four abreast and a block long. People were giving up and going home.

SNIP…

Party leaders told him not to get physical, but this was the second straight election in which Republicans had sent out people to intellectually rough up the voters. The project even had a name: Operation Eagle Eye.

CONTINUED…

http://old.post-gazette.com/columnists/20001202roddy.asp

Thankfully the judiciary still has men and women of integrity, like Judge Wynn.

[Dont call me Shirley]

40. Louis Powell

[Old Codger]

30. Two Things

Can help to alleviate this crap.

1.Vote by mail
2.federal laws if federal offices being decided trump state laws

[Spitfire of ATJ]

31. They are TERRIFIED that black people will realize they are the majority....

This is the only map you need to see to realize why they are in a total panic:



They lay awake at night having nightmares about black people getting even if they come into power..

Some even believe in a bizarro world where fields of cotton are being picked by white people with black overseers on horseback and black Masters sipping drinks on the front porch.

Martin Luther King knew the South was majority black which was the basis for his "Give Us The Ballot" speech.

[Enthusiast]

33. PLUS ONE, a huge bunch!

[Dont call me Shirley]

39. Thanks for the post! It does clarify things!

[littlemissmartypants]

51. Omgawd are you not amazed by this? Fantastic graphic! nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

52. What's amazing is how many call themselves "American"...

These are the same idiots who look up on a hill and see the white cross the local church put up and claim that's where Jesus died.

Yup.

There.

Right THERE.

In Bumfuck, Kentucky.

[marions ghost]

62. Just look at all those people of German descent taking over...

[Enthusiast]

32. This illustrates just how wrong the Robert's Court is in their thinking.

THEY ARE OUT OF FUCKING TOUCH!

[Iliyah]

34. GOPers don't want voting period.

Look at Dr. Carson. Look at the five asshole justices at the US Supreme Court. Look at one (or more) GOPer that want the American Generals to stage a coup. GOPers are doing everything possible for voting NOT TO HAPPEN.

[AllyCat]

35. They'll just find a way to get the judges in the midwest

To give a nice ruling for the republicans.

[Dont call me Shirley]

38. Paul Weyrich...

[blockq

]

[tooeyeten]

42. Is it the entire state?

Or only Republicans?

I keed...

[blkmusclmachine]

45. BREAKING: SCOTUS slams the breaks on Early Voting in Ohio (5-4)

[UTUSN]

46. Thank you, judge nt

[Cha]

50. Yeah, I wonder why the 2% don't want people to vote?.. they want to take over

the world is why.

Thank you for this, kpete. Thanks for Judge Wynn!

[Gothmog]

56. The GOP has a long history of voter suppression

I have some great examples that I use in my training course for poll watchers and election judges. Former CJ Rehnquist got his start in GOP politics as a member of GOP goon squad challenging non-white voters for the sin of voting while not being sufficiently white

[Gothmog]

55. Voting rights will be headed to the SCOTUS

The premise of John Robert's flawed opinion in Shelby county case was that (a) no discrimination exists against voters and (b) Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is adequate to protect voting rights. If Roberts further restricts the remaining remedies under the voting rights act, his racism will be confirmed for history

[Bandit]

59. Funny how no on ever hears about Oregon suppressing votes.

Oregon has one of the highest turn-outs in the nation, and absolutely no problems for either Republicans or Democrats. Why is that? Is it something other states could also do and if so why aren't Democrats pushing for it? Democrats need to start using their brains or forget about America.

[drynberg]

61. Why? Really, just think of this situation in

politics.