North Carolina's legislature last week past a voter suppression bill so draconian it would make Rick Perry blush. Okay, I take that back. I doubt there's anything that could make that man blush. If the bill becomes law, strict voter ID measures would be implemented which would preclude students and public employees from using their IDs. This would affect more than 300,000 registered voters who lack the necessary forms of ID, of which 34 percent are African American and 55 percent are Democrat.
It gets worse. The bill reduces by one week the number of early voting days and eliminates same-day voter registration, which allowed 96,000 North Carolinians to vote in 2012. The intent here is both obvious and unmistakable. The groups most affected by these voting changes are minorities, students and the elderly; groups that historically tend to vote Democrat in elections.
By reducing early voting days and eliminating same-day registration, North Carolina Republicans are attempting to suppress voter turnout, especially in presidential elections, which tend to favor a largely more Democratic turnout. The state had been trending purple over the last couple of elections. This is a desperate attempt to pull it back into the red column and, if they succeed, the GOP will be able to wrap up the state's electoral votes for at least the 2016 general election, if not longer.
What they could not achieve at the ballot box, Republicans are now attempting to do via government fiat. And thanks to the pinheads on the Supreme Court, they may well get away with it. Looks like Charlie Daniels was right. The South IS gonna do it again.
Links: http://billmoyers.com/2013/07/30/north-carolina-passes-the-countrys-worst-voter-suppression-law/
http://www.thenation.com/blog/175345/north-carolina-republicans-push-harsh-new-voter-id-law#
http://www.nccppr.org/drupal/content/blog/2013/07/24/4280/last-minute-changes-to-voter-id-bill-would-undermine-nc-voter-turnout-g
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