On the first day of early voting this year, North Carolinians faced unprecedented lines at the polls thanks to Republicans' new voter suppression laws. Gov. McCrory's attorney, Butch Bowers, thinks it might be an NAACP conspiracy.
The state of North Carolina (in the person of its Republican governor, Pat McCrory) and NC's branch of the NAACP are lately locked in a high-stakes court case over the Tar Heel State's
worst-in-the-nation 2013 voter suppression law. In the latest development in this seesawing suit, Gov. McCrory's private attorney has fallen from arguing the merits to publicly slinging mud at the leader of the state's chapter of the NAACP, the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II. Details below the fold.
S.L. 2013-381, the Voter Information Verification Act, or 'VIVA,' cuts early voting days by nearly half (according to the Justice Department, 70% of African-Americans voted early in 2012, compared to 51% of whites). It outlaws same-day voter registration (black voters are 35% more likely than whites to register using same-day registration). It invalidates provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct on election day (black voters are twice as likely to cast out-of-precinct provisional ballots as white voters). It ends pre-registration of 16 and 17 year-olds, as well as previously mandated annual high school voter registration drives. Less noticed, but perhaps equally impactful, it ends the long-standing provision of a 'straight party ticket' choice on NC ballots (widely expected to slow down the voting process and lengthen lines at the polls). It imposes a strict voter ID requirement beginning in 2016, in what opponents have said is the absence of any evidence that voting fraud occurs in the state.
S.L. 2013-381 was rushed through the supermajority Republican state Senate and House following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder overturning Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. The father of NC's Moral Mondays movement, Rev. William Barber, has called the law "the greatest attack on voting rights since Jim Crow."
NC attorney general Roy Cooper (D) strongly opposed the bill prior to its passage. When a suit challenging the new law was brought by the NC NAACP, the U.S. Dept. of Justice, and the ACLU, McCrory, fearful that Cooper might not defend it with sufficient vigor, hired out-of-state private attorney Butch Bowers to defend him in the case. Bowers - previously Special Counsel for Voting Matters at the Justice Department under George W. Bush - enjoyed perhaps his first 15 minutes of fame in 2009 as South Carolina governor Mark Sanford's attorney, when the SC legislature threatened to impeach the Appalachian Trail-wandering philanderer. Bowers later crowed about his 'victory' in the affair:
In August of 2009, the political winds were not looking good for Gov. Sanford of South Carolina. Impeachment was a fait accompli [sic]. It was in the bag. By December of 2009, we’d demonstrated to them that the governor’s failings were failings of the flesh, a personal and human weakness to which no human is completely immune, and that to attempt to topple a governor on that record would be unprecedented and subject the state to ridicule. Ultimately, they blinked.
In a recent
editorial, the Raleigh News & Observer criticized Bowers' engagement by the governor, at a cost to taxpayers now exceeding $300,000 (and rising), saying:
What a misadventure this has been, and an expensive one to boot. Voter ID was sold as a measure to prevent voter fraud. But voter fraud in North Carolina has been virtually nonexistent. Other changes were nothing more than an attempt to suppress Democratic votes. So now Republicans, those tax-cutting, public education-cutting guardians of the public purse, are opening it wide to pay legal fees to defend their mistakes.
Whether to keep those billable hours rolling in, or just at the bidding of his client, Butch Bowers has just hit a new low in skulduggery (and just in time for the November election), tarring Moral Mondays' Rev. Barber with unsubstantiated innuendos suggesting that Barber and the NC NAACP are conspiring to break the voting law currently established in VIVA, and to mislead minority voters. This move comes in the form of
a letter Bowers sent to the attorneys for the plaintiffs in
North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP et al. v. Patrick Lloyd McCrory on October 16th, ominously pronouncing:
It has come to our attention that during the N.C. State Conference of the NAACP's 71st Annual State Convention Rev. Dr. William Barber made several statements regarding ongoing litigation regarding S.L. 2013-381, including the recent court rulings regarding the plaintiffs' motions for a preliminary injunction in this litigation. Some of these comments are included in videos that have been posted online. These videos appear to be edited.
It is also our understanding that during the Freedom Fund Annual Awards Banquet held on Saturday evening, October 11, Rev. Barber urged those in attendance to take unregistered voters to vote during the Early Voting period and to engage in get-out-the-vote activities that included transporting registered voters to vote in precincts in which they are not assigned to vote on Election Day, or words to that effect. The stated purpose of these activities, as I understand it, was to gather evidence for and thereby enhance plaintiffs' prospects of success in the litigation involving S.L. 2013-381. If such activities were to occur, they would not only appear to unfairly prejudice defendents in the pending litigation but would also be disruptive to the election process and could result in voter confusion or disenfranchisement. We also question whether any such plan or conduct violates North Carolina election laws.
Due to the potentially serious consequences of these statements, please confirm whether Rev. Barber or anyone else, in fact, made statements to this effect to attendees at the N.C. NAACP's convention. In addition, please also let us know whether the N.C. NAACP has plans to direct unregistered voters to Early Voting sites or intends to transport registered voters to precincts where they are not assigned on Election Day.
Additionally, we respectfully ask that the N.C. NAACP preserve all original and edited video and audio recordings of any proceedings at its 71st Annual State Convention in its possession, custody, or control, including but not limited to any video or audio recording of any comments made by Rev. Barber or others during the Freedom Fund Annual Awards Banquet held on Saturday, October 11. We further request that the N.C. NAACP preserve all documents, records and records (electronic or hard copy) related to its get-out-the-vote activities during this election cycle (including any plans to take unregistered voters to early voting or election day voters to incorrect precincts) as well as all documents and records (electronic or hard copy) regarding outreach to voters regarding provisions of Session Law 2013-381 during this election cycle.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Bowers' letter has recently found its way into the hands of the right-wing 'truthers' at Judicial Watch, who titled
their blog post regarding it,
NAACP Speaker’s Alleged Remarks: Let’s Create Confusion During the Nov. 2014 Election By Deliberately Misleading Voters. And from there, of course, salacious variations on the story are now beginning to burn their way like a grass fire across the teabagger blogosphere - with still no evidence yet offered to support the allegations.
Asked to comment for this diary, North Carolina Central University professor of law and chair of the NC NAACP's legal team, Irving Joiner, responded: "Based upon my investigation, Rev. Barber DID NOT make the comments attributed to him about taking people to the wrong precinct." Referring to the fact that North Carolina election law permits a voter to cast his early ballot at any early voting polling place in his county of residence, Joiner continued, "The fact is that during Early Voting, all voters will vote at a precinct that is different from the one which they will be assigned to vote at on election day. Bowers and his cohorts should have been aware of that fact or were deliberately attempting to trick the media into falsely reporting Rev. Barber's comments."
As of publication time, Butch Bowers did not respond to multiple emailed requests for comment.
The good news - if there can ever be said to be good news when legal proceedings devolve into something resembling character assassination - is that Rev. Barber and the NAACP must be doing something right to attract such a low blow from their opponents, if this is the best that Gov. McCrory's hired gun can think to come up with at this point in his case.
Driven by the teaching of the founder of his faith that "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me," Rev. Barber built a new "fusion politics" strategy for 21st Century civil rights activism, simultaneously championing the human rights of LGBTs, ethnic minorities, workers and unions, the unemployed, the disadvantaged, the sick, the disenfranchised, women and children, teachers and students, and more. From its birthplace in North Carolina, the Moral Mondays movement embodying this strategy has now spread across more than a dozen other states, north and south. Recognizing his achievements, Netroots Nation honored Rev. Barber as the keynote speaker at its annual meeting in Detroit this year.
If, like me, you feel moved to support one of the progressive movement's latter-day prophets in his own hour of persecution, help us make Gov. McCrory and Butch Bowers sorry that they ever thought to take this low road: join the NAACP and VOTE.
Tell 'em Butch sent you.