Photo: North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory -
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II sent out an email Sunday afternoon from Forward Together/Moral Mondays/NC NAACP.
BREAKING NEWS
NC Board of Elections data reveals voter registration irregularities under Gov. McCrory's Administration that could have suppressed thousands of votes.
The Daily Kos (DocDawg) broke the story last Thursday with the below article. You can read the full story by clicking here.
Exclusive to Daily Kos
A data-mining analysis of information publicly available from the North Carolina State Board of Elections has uncovered apparently systematic irregularities in voter registration efforts which are required of the state by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA; the so-called 'Motor Voter Act'). These irregularities, potentially disenfranchising tens of thousands of poverty-level North Carolina citizens, have all occurred during the Republican administration of North Carolina's current governor, Pat McCrory (R).
Under McCrory (who took office in January of 2013), North Carolina has become the tip of the GOP's spear in efforts to suppress voting by demographic groups which typically do not lean Republican (blacks, Latinos, youth, and the economically disadvantaged). McCrory's efforts culminated in 2013 with his signing into law of the nation's single most draconian voter suppression bill, The Voter Information Verification Act (VIVA; detailed in this diary). Legal challenges to VIVA have been filed by numerous organizations including the North Carolina NAACP, the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, and the U.S. Dept. of Justice. Oral arguments in NC-NAACP v. McCrory will begin in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, in Winston-Salem, on July 6th. But while many of those suits argue, in part, that VIVA may have been intended to suppress minority voting, evidence of such malicious intent has been hard to come by.
Until now…
It would be historic to see this North Carolina Republican
dictatorship crumble and fall. Currently, Republicans own the majority in the North Carolina House, Senate, Supreme Court, and Governor's Office. This could be a game-changer for the Koch brothers, Art Pope, and the many Republicans who won during the 2014 Midterm Elections, especially in states that have a preponderancy for racism and voter suppression.
Rev. Dr. Barber is the founding leader of Moral Mondays, a grassroots citizens protest, which began in 2013, in response to the actions (and alleged corruption) by elected NC lawmakers.
An emergency press conference was called for Monday, May 11, 2015 at 10:00 AM ET. The re-broadcast of this morning's press conference can be seen in the video below or HERE.
UPDATE: Monday, May 11, 2015, 4:45PM - Here is this afternoon's email from Dr. Barber:
This Morning We Called On Governor McCrory to Explain
the Substantial Drop in Voter Registrations at Public Assistance Agencies
Earlier today, we delivered a public records request to the Department of Administration, seeking to know why voter registrations submitted from public assistance agencies have dropped substantially over the last 28 months. We asked that the Governor respond publicly to our request by Wednesday, May 13. We also announced that, if necessary, we would ask the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene to ensure North Carolina's compliance with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act.
Last Thursday, the Daily Kos that showed a substantial drop in voter registrations submitted from public assistance agencies since the beginning of 2013. According to the State Board of Elections, in 2012, 41,162 registration applications were submitted from pubic assistance agencies. In 2013, this number dropped to 18,758 and in 2014, it dropped even further to 13,340.
Below is a complete list of what is being asked of Governor McCrory:
All communications dated between January 4, 2013 and today, to and from the Governor's office and Dr. Wos’ offices from any national organizations, including American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans for Prosperity, Heritage Foundation, and other national and regional organizations, including Civitas Action, Civitas Institute, and John Locke Foundation, which have been involved in promoting policies that result in the suppression of minority voting rights.
All memoranda, emails, and meeting minutes between the headquarters of NC DHHS and county public assistance (“PA”) offices (in both directions) related to voter registration, the NVRA (National Voter Registration Act), or HAVA (Help America Vote Act), dated between Jan. 4, 2013 and today. This is a continuing request.
All memoranda, emails, and meeting minutes between county PA office managers and their staff and between PA office managers and their staff and third-party contractors of NC DHHS (in both directions) related to voter registration, the NVRA, or HAVA dated between Jan. 4, 2013 and today.
All requests from county PA offices or third party contractors of NC DHHS, in paper and electronic form, to DHHS regional and central headquarters for new supplies of the forms used to register PA applicants to vote and to apprise them of their voting rights, from 2010 until today.
At the DHHS Website link http://www.ncdhhs.gov/... Dr. Wos has posted under Food & Nutrition Services case data the "Number of Applications Taken By Month" all the way up to April 2015. This would indicate it is relatively easy for her staff to keep this data up to date. This does not seem to be the case, however, for similar data for the number of "County Food and Nutrition Services Denials" which indicates the most recent available data is for the 4th quarter of 2012. Please provide us with the data for these “Food and Nutrition Services” denials through the present.
Please provide us with all information requested by the attached notice letter to Gov. McCrory, dated May 8, 2015.
Here is the formal letter to Governor McCrory.
UPDATE: Daily Kos writer, DocDawg, who wrote the breaking story last Thursday, has promised a new story with more specifics after attending Rev. Barber's Monday press conference. Stay tuned, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, around 9:00 AM, ET.
This is not a new fight, nor will it even begin to end until the Conservative Supreme Court Justices start putting people over corporations/corruption. Meanwhile, the battle will continue, with many thanks to people like Dr. Rev. Barber, the Moral Monday/Forward Together protestors, NC NAACP, Kossack DocDawg and other writers/diarists, and sites like Daily Kos, who let the public know - what mainstream media often 'forgets' to mention.
To join the Daily Kos community, visit here. You can also catch Daily Kos stories on Facebook and Twitter.
To stay informed with the Forward Together - Not One Step Back!/Moral Monday's movement, send a request to receive Rev. Dr. William Barber's emails: ForwardTogether@NCNAACP.org
Website: NCNAACP.org
YouTubeChannel: Forward Together Moral Movement
Facebook: William J. Barber, II
Facebook: Forward Together Moral Movement