Another federal judge appointed by a Republican president has upheld North Carolina's worst-in-the-nation voter suppression law, and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Deborah Ross is not happy about it. She posts on Facebook:
Our democracy is strongest when everyone has an equal opportunity to participate, and North Carolina shouldn't be in the business of making it more difficult for people to vote. Instead, it's gotten harder to vote in North Carolina, just ask Richard Burr whose ballot might not have been counted after he showed up to the polls without his ID card. I worked across the aisle in the General Assembly to ensure access to the vote for more North Carolinians and I will do the same as your U.S. Senator.
That bit about her opponent, Republican Sen. Richard Burr, refers to when he showed up to vote in the primary this year without his driver's license, pointing out that while he "may have only misplaced his license, there are an estimated 225,000 North Carolinians who don't have a valid driver's license—a disproportionate number of whom are minorities or economically disadvantaged." She makes a good point. Burr was able to vote provisionally and his ballot was accepted. It didn't work quite so well for regular voters.
At least 130 ballots in Forsyth County (one third of all provisional ballots cast) were rejected in the primary because they were missing signatures. This likely due to the lack of designated area for signatures on this year's provisional ballots. Forsyth County Board of Elections' staff director Tim Tsujii states that many voters were not instructed by poll workers to add a signature somewhere on the form.
While African American and Latino voters make 30% of registered voters in Forsyth County, they comprise 61% of the 130 voters whose ballots were rejected because of "no signature."
Forsyth County citizen Creola Clark was one of the many citizens whose provisional ballot was denied. Clark was not given any of the same sort of the assistance for lacking an approved form of ID despite her having cited being "Elderly – NO ID" as her reason for not having an ID.
Burr had no problem voting, and has absolutely no problem with the fact that Creola Clark did not get the same consideration he did, that her ballot was summarily tossed even though she had a valid reason to not be able to present ID. Deborah Ross, however, has a big problem with it. Which is just one reason that we need to get her to the Senate.
Please spend $3 to help Deborah Ross fight for voting rights in the Senate.