They’re incorrigible. Nauseating. Impudent.
Still smarting from a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a lower court ruling that threw out a restrictive voter ID law, some North Carolina Republicans are proving themselves eager to continue efforts to suppress the votes of Democrats, in particular the votes of African Americans. They are doing this—in 23 of the state’s 100 counties—by cutting back early voting hours and locations for the November election. A number have also eliminated voting on the Sunday before the election, a time when black voters have traditionally turned out in large numbers.
The state election board will decide today whether those county decisions will stand.
The moves come in the wake of email memos from two leading North Carolina GOP officials urging Republicans on county election boards to take a nakedly partisan approach in setting how many hours and sites will be available. Unless the state election board overrules the county schedules, fresh lawsuits are a strong possibility.
One of the memos, sent in mid-August, came from Dallas Woodhouse, the state party’s executive director. He wrote:
“Our Republican Board members should feel empowered to make legal changes to early voting plans, that are supported by Republicans,” Woodhouse wrote in his email to board members. “Republicans can and should make party line changes to early voting.”
Another official, NC GOP 1st Congressional District Chairman Garry Terry, told county election board members that they “are expected to act within the law and in the best interest of the party,” adding:
“We will never discourage anyone from voting but none of us have any obligation in any shape, form or fashion to do anything to help the Democrats win this election. [...] Left unchecked, they would have early voting sites at every large gathering place for Democrats.”
Because a Republican sits in the governor’s mansion, all the state’s three-member county election boards have a GOP majority, as does the state election board. In setting aside the voter ID law, the Court made clear North Carolina must have as many early voting days as it did in 2012, which was 17. But it left determination of how many hours and when up to the election officials. Which kept the door open for the cutbacks.
The state election board will determine the voting schedule in the 33 counties where that schedule was set by a split decision, usually along party lines. In 70 counties, unanimous boards chose to add early voting hours.
An example of what the state board faces is the situation in Lenoir County. Unless overturned, early voting there will only take place during weekday business hours at a single site. Which means voters will have available less than 25 percent of the 443 early voting hours Lenoir had in 2012. The county board’s two Republicans said the cutback decision will allow officials to “monitor voter fraud more effectively.” More than one study has shown that the amount of voter fraud in the United States is less than minuscule.
The Democrat on the Lenoir County board, Courtney Patterson, sent a letter to the state board, noting that a Republican on the county board had told him he hoped Patterson would not be offended by his decision to follow the NC GOP’s agenda in setting hours. Audacious scarcely describes the raw one-sidedness of the Republican’s don’t-be-upset-by-my-candor plea.
Patterson has his own proposal: 828 hours of early voting at six sites, including one open on Sundays.
“Because we have so many working-class voters in our county, it is critical that we offer some evening and weekend hours to enable those voters to participate in early voting,” he wrote to the state board.
A key role of every member of every board overseeing elections in every county in the country ought to be to encourage as many voters as possible to turn out at the polls, not to make it more difficult for them. And especially not to make it more difficult for the purposes of partisan gain.
Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina, an organization that opposed the voter ID law and has pushed for more early voting hours, said last month: “Fortunately, many [county] Republican board members have more respect for their oath ... to serve all voters than they are beholden to Dallas Woodhouse.”
We’ll see if that assessment applies when the North Carolina state board makes its decision.