Don't need to do no stinking reading.
No close observer expected Republican Gov. Pat McCrory
not to sign the Republican-dominated legislature's smörgåsbord of voter suppression provisions. After all, he's willing to sign just about any
retrogressive bill they plunk down on his desk. But the guy can't even be bothered to read what he praises and says he intends to sign:
An Associated Press reporter asked the Republican governor how three particular provisions of the bill would help prevent voter fraud — ending same-day voter registration, trimming the period for early voting by a week and eliminating a program that encourages high school students to register to vote in advance of their 18th birthdays. [...]
McCrory said the system had potential for abuse.
"There is plenty of opportunity for voter registration — online, offline, through many methods," McCrory said. "I thought that was a fair system before and I think it is a fair system now."
Just one problem. Voters have never been allowed to register to vote online in North Carolina. They can only download a form to print out.
In 2007, North Carolina made the system fairer by allowing same-day registration for people signing up to cast a ballot during early voting. Unlike nine other states and the District of Columbia, however, it did not allow same-day registration on election day itself. Now, there will be no same-day registration at all.
Asked about the provision that ends pre-registration by those under 18, MrCrory said, "I don't know enough, I'm sorry, I haven't seen that part of the bill."
He's "sorry" all right, but not in the way he meant.
The law includes a variety of other provisions, too, including a strict photo I.D. requirement that voter advocates say could keep hundreds of thousands of mostly minority North Carolinians from voting.
Just a few weeks ago, before the extremist five on the Supreme Court decided in Shelby County (Alabama) v. Holder to crush a key enforcement provision of the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina would have had to run its new voter law past the U.S. Department of Justice to have it pre-cleared before implementation. Attorney General Eric Holder has stated that he will use other provisions of the VRA to block voter law changes in Texas and other jurisdictions previously covered by the pre-clearance provision. But that process is likely to be far more cumbersome and problematic.