Problems with voting in NC - 218,000 (approx) voters turned away from the polls.

[jillan]

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/15/3760266/north-carolina-voter-id/

Excerpts -

North Carolina’s controversial voter identification law is being used for the first time in Tuesday’s primary, and registered voters are experiencing the consequences of the voter suppression measure.
About 218,000 North Carolinians, roughly five percent of registered voters, do not have an acceptable form of government-issued ID that is now required under state law to cast a ballot.

Early voting offered a glimpse of the problems that will arise on Tuesday — during the past ten days of early voting, many college students were blocked from the polls. North Carolina’s WRAL reported that 864 people across the state had cast provisional early ballots because they did not have acceptable forms of ID, and four of the five counties with the highest concentrations of provisional ballots from voters without ID were in places with college campuses.

Bob Hall, the executive director of Democracy North Carolina, told ThinkProgress that the voter protection hotline is receiving many calls, “disproportionately from young people and students,” who are being told they do not have acceptable ID, so they have to “go through the maze of filling out forms” and provisional ballots. Those ballots run the risk of being challenged and not being counted.

We’re going right back to this message of ‘elections are not for you.’
“Because this is so much affecting young people, we’re teaching them the wrong lesson about democracy and about voting,” Hall said. “We’re really pushing them away from being involved in the political process, and that’s a bad message, but it is the message that’s coming across.”

Under current North Carolina law, people who have registered to vote within 90 days of Election Day can use an out-of-state ID to vote – an important provision for students who may attend school away from their home state. But those who registered more than 90 days before Election Day and do not have a North Carolina ID are being forced to cast provisional ballots.
University of North Carolina sophomore Isatta Feika had to cast a provisional ballot because of her out-of-state ID. She told WRAL she likely won’t vote in North Carolina again after experiencing the hassles involving voting without an ID in North Carolina. “I’m probably just going to register in Georgia and absentee vote there,” she said.

Elderly voters told the Nation’s Ari Berman how the voter ID law imposes similar barriers to voting to what they experienced in the Jim Crow South. Rosanell Eaton, a 94-year-old voter, had to recite the Preamble to Constitution to vote in North Carolina in the 1940s. Last year, she had to make 11 trips to state agencies to comply with the voter ID law.

The state’s voter ID law, part of a sweeping election reform law passed in 2013, is still being challenged in both federal and state court. Also pending in federal court are challenges to new laws that restrict the early voting period, eliminate pre-registration of teenagers before they turn 18 and same-day registration during early voting, and block people from voting outside their assigned precincts.
An appeal to that lawsuit could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court

How the Fuck could this happen?

[marions ghost]

1. All of the gains for NC voters

--the Repiglicons are trying to get rid of.

[jillan]

4. Things like this should have been dealt with before today. I point fingers at the DNC for not

working with the NC Democrats to get the word out.

We used to have GOTV drives headed by the DNC.

This is not only going to hurt Bernie voters, it's going to hurt Hillary voters as well with the older voters.

[marions ghost]

32. They didn't care

the political parties don't seem to be able to do much about vote suppression.

[thereismore]

2. The law is doing what it was designed to do...

[CincyDem]

3. Oh chill out.

They're just practicing for November.



When we wonder why countries like Pakistan and Russia have a higher voter turnout than the US, it's chit like this. Voter suppression as a strategy proves that voter suppression works.

[CalvinballPro]

5. How? I have a couple theories.

First, there's the Democrats in office in these state who either didn't or couldn't use any legislative tactics to prevent these bills from becoming law. Then there are the voters who don't vote or "protest vote" and otherwise do everything in their power to "punish" Democrats by letting Republicans take over nearly everything. Finally, there are the voters themselves, who should be aware of their voting laws and make any and all efforts to obtain the necessary ID so they can vote, regardless of whether or not the law is unjust.

Plenty of blame to spread around. What it all boils down to is complacency.

[jillan]

11. People do not pay attention to politics until it's time to vote. The Dems in that state should have

done everything imaginable to get the word out. It's called leadership or in this case lack of leadership coming from the DNC & it's local chapters.

And those that were aware have been fighting. They are trying to take this to the SCOTUS and their were many protests at the time


It's not complacency. It's voter suppression.

[CalvinballPro]

26. You can't have your vote suppressed unless you were complacent enough to let someone who would

suppress your vote get elected in the first place. See, I tried to be even-handed about this because it's really not a single-source problem. Sorry, no glib "Blame the DNC/local Democrats for not being inspiring enough" line sums this up. If you need someone to "lead" you to your vote, you're doing it wrong.

Everyone involved is at fault, including the voters. Heck, especially the voters. "They don't pay attention until the election" is ALSO an indictment of the voters and how seriously (or not) they take their right to vote.

[jillan]

31. Did ya miss this part? ->

Rosanell Eaton, a 94-year-old voter, had to recite the Preamble to Constitution to vote in North Carolina in the 1940s. Last year, she had to make 11 trips to state agencies to comply with the voter ID law.

Ya - let's just blame people like Rosanell - who is one of the lucky ones, who actually had someone take her back and forth 11 times.

[marions ghost]

33. Absolutely it is vote suppression that is "legal"

---no other civilized country puts up with this level of corruption.

[global1]

6. So Are The People That Did Get A Chance To Vote In NC Today Sporting....

purple thumbs?

[marions ghost]

34. good point

[TM99]

7. Too bad the fucking Clintons

are illegally campaigning at polling stations instead of using those resources and energy to actually fight this on the ground.

But hey, they benefit from right wing bullshit all the time.

[Cheese Sandwich]

9. Why would Hillary challenge illegal voter suppression when she is benefiting from it?

That wouldn't be her style

[TM99]

23. Exactly!

Live by the dirty tricks, benefit by the dirty tricks.

[Punkingal]

8. Outrageous! That is a huge number.

This is supposed to be America....OMG.

[ibegurpard]

10. helps hillary

Therefore good...

[jillan]

12. Nevermind - see below....

[retrowire]

14. ibegurpard is being sarcastic i believe.

Check their rec history. They don't like Hillary.

[jillan]

15. Phew. I was worried.

[retrowire]

16. No worries! Politics is FUN!

lololol We're all worked up pretty good eh?

Looking forward to the numbers tonight?

[retrowire]

13. Thanks McCrory.

Asshole.

[Jim__]

17. "About 218,000 North Carolinians ... do not have an acceptable form of government-issued ID ..."

From the article:

About 218,000 North Carolinians, roughly five percent of registered voters, do not have an acceptable form of government-issued ID that is now required under state law to cast a ballot.

It's a serious problem that voting is being suppressed. But the thread title (headline?) appears to be misleading. My reading is that 218,000 is the total number of NC voters that do not have the proper form of ID. I see that 864 people have cast provisional ballots; I don't see an estimate of how many have actually been turned away. Did I miss that?

If we get a Democratic president, and a decent appointment to the Supreme Court, these voter suppression laws may well be overturned. We need to work for a Democratic President and Senate. I don't think we can get a Democratic House before 2020 and, hopefully, the overturning of gerrymandered voting districts.

[nc4bo]

22. The young man I saw today was NOT offered a provisional ballot. nt

[jillan]

24. But how could this happen is the real question. Yes the voter id laws were changed, and I blame the

Repug elected officials in NC BUT I blame the Democrats for not getting the word out in their state.

Early voting offered a glimpse of the problems that will arise on Tuesday — during the past ten days of early voting, many college students were blocked from the polls. North Carolina’s WRAL reported that 864 people across the state had cast provisional early ballots because they did not have acceptable forms of ID, and four of the five counties with the highest concentrations of provisional ballots from voters without ID were in places with college campuses.

[Jim__]

28. The problem with voter ID laws is some people don't have any easy way to obtain the ID.

People who don't have the proper ID may well be aware of the problem; they just may not have many options. The point of the law is to make it hard for people to vote, especially poor people.

[marions ghost]

35. They got the word out as best they could

--it should NEVER have been allowed.

Standard voting procedures FOR ALL.

[nc4bo]

18. Witnessed this today...

Here's my experience at the polls in Bunnlevel this afternoon: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1496010

One was a soldier and his wife, the other was a young man. After 30 some minutes and lots of disgusted people waiting in a growing line, military couple got to vote while the young man could not. Can't help but wonder how many times that scenario occurred today......I see at least 218,000 times! Disgusting.

Way ta go.

[jillan]

20. Pathetic! I cannot believe the word did not get out ahead of time.

[nc4bo]

25. Just like people warning this country's going into the shitter and no one pays attention or cares

UNTIL it effects THEM personally.

It's like an example of wth is wrong with this country, know what I mean?!

[Uncle Joe]

19. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, jillan.

[PowerToThePeople]

21. Oligharchy.

That is how this happens.

[Onlooker]

27. Well, it was designed to disenfranchise

The law was designed to disenfranchise blacks and students, and it is apparently working. That said, it's probably better for Bernie than for Hillary, since it seems likely that more blacks were turned away than students, assuming there are a lot more blacks than students in NC.

[H2O Man]

29. That's disturbing.

Voter suppression is a cowardly attack upon democracy.

[LisaM]

30. Efforts are being made (and 218,000 voters weren't actually "turned away" at the polls)

When the Voting Rights Act was overturned, a lot of states enacted this sort of obstructive legislation, particularly with respect to ID issues. It sucks, and the Supreme Court made an absolutely wrong decision. Making it difficult or impossible for 218,000 voters to exercise their right seems criminal to me.

But it's incorrect to say that no one is doing anything. There is a lot of effort being made. Eric Holder worked hard on this and I expect Loretta Lynch to follow his lead on this. I've been following along with interest, both the work being done on the obstruction and other behind-the-scenes work being done on voter district gerrymandering, including in Florida and Ohio.

There are a lot of good people on the case. It's just a very difficult situation, with a lot of moving targets. The real villain here, IMO?The Republican Governors' conferences, where I think they collude to make all these fights multi-pronged so that the resources needed to fight back are divided.

Here's some examples of the fight:



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/us/arguments-over-north-carolina-voter-id-law-begin-in-federal-court.html?_r=0


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-01/north-carolina-voting-restrictions-blocked-by-u-s-court


http://apps.americanbar.org/ababoards/blog/blogpost.cfm?catid=14913&threadid=31532