NC GOP Voter Laws Launch Fresh Assault On Voting Rights

It is time, past time, to drop the pretense that the Supreme Court didn’t know what they were doing when they gutted the Voting Rights Act.

U.S. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT XV (15th Amendment)
SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The North Carolina legislature is making news this week for creating a Republican “Dream Slate” of new laws that will change the way voters cast, or don’t cast, their ballots in the future. There are two versions working their way through the state legislature. The Senate’s version — which has been given preliminary approval — is considered “tougher” than the House version, but both are bad.

The general highlights are:

  • A strict voter ID requirement that would prevent many poor people from voting. The Senate version of the bill will accept the fewest types of ID’s which means fewer voters.
  • Eliminates same day voter registration. Which means fewer voters.
  • Eliminates early registration for 16 and 17 year old youths so they will be registered to vote when they turn 18. Which means fewer voters.
  • Eliminates a full week of early voting. Which means fewer voters and longer lines at the polls.
  • INCREASES the maximum amount that can be donated to a campaign to $5,000 and increases that amount every two years.
  • Makes “challenging” voters right to vote easier which means more people will vote on provisional ballots (which won’t get counted.)
  • Allows more poll “observers” which will lead to mistakes and voter intimidation which leads to fewer votes being cast.
  • Allows voters to ONLY vote in their precinct. Which makes it easier to get more provisional ballots into peoples hands and then discarded.
  • Prohibits paid voter registration drives. Which means fewer people out reminding people to vote and getting them properly registered so they can vote.
  • Weakens the disclosure rules for outside funding groups. Why hello Koch Brothers! Thank you for flooding North Carolina with your money!
  • Eliminates three publicly funded election programs. Yes Charles and David we would like you selecting our judges for us.
  • Prevents counties from extending voting hours in the case of long lines. When the polls close they close. So poor people don’t get to vote. People who in the past have waited patiently for hours to vote will now be told to go home. What could go wrong?
  • Makes it more difficult for counties to have satellite programs or special assistance for the elderly and disabled to vote.

If Nina Simone was alive today she’s have to sing “God Damn North Carolina” because they are giving Mississippi a run for their money on evil. And that is what this is. Evil is a tough word to use in a news story. But it is time, past time, to drop the pretense that the Supreme Court didn’t know what they were doing when they gutted the Voting Rights Act. It insults the intelligence of both the justices and the person being lied to when that lie is told. They knew. They understood exactly what would happen, and it is happening. Combined with the tepid to weak response from one of the least effective Attorney Generals this country has ever had (who would have ever thought we would miss Alberto Gonzales — well, the 2005 version of Mr. Gonazles, not the 2013 version?). ?However even the 2013 version of our former AG claims that voter intimidation is wrong. ?Our current Attorney General sat by and did nothing while districts nationwide were gerrymandered to the point where the Republicans won the House while losing the popular vote of the people, for the “peoples house”, by over 1.1 million votes. The time for him to have done his job was before we got to this point. From here on out, it’s a charade.

Malcom X: Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.

As Malcom X once said:

If we don’t cast a ballot, it’s going to end up in a situation where we’re going to have to cast a bullet. It’s either a ballot or a bullet.

I am a fan of Malcolm X. I believe and have said before that Malcolm X was right and the Martin Luther King Jr. was wrong on the issue of non-violence. ?I wish that were not the case. I think non-violence can work when you are negotiating with someone in good faith. We also must admit, however painful it may be, ?that even though 1950 and 60’s America was segregated that it was, in spite of that, fairly well educated and prosperous. But today our negotiations for civil rights take place with a more ignorant populace, on both sides of the debate, and a poorer more desperate people once again on both sides of the debate. I do not call for violence or approve of it but you would have to be blind to not see the kerosene soaked rags being strewn throughout our society. Eventually they will ignite. That is the choice we have. That is why we follow politics. Not to put out the fire but to make the fire unnecessary.

Either we are all free and equal or we are all slaves. There is no middle ground in this fight. As Malcom X also once said:

How can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what’s already yours? You haven’t even made progress, if what’s being given to you, you should have had already. That’s not progress.

Since we are forced to have the same discussion about the same issues we fought for over forty years ago, I suggest you read Malcolm X’s powerful speech “The Ballot Or The Bullet.” It is sad that we are back to this point in our nations history but helpful that we have had giants give us words of wisdom to carry us forward.

The ballot or the bullet. The time to choose is close at hand.

Edited/Published by EAP.