North Carolina is poised to enact sweeping new restrictions on voting in the state.
House Bill 589, which began as a relatively straightforward bill that would require voters to show picture identification when they vote, was turned by the Senate this week into what some are calling the most restrictive and regressive voting law in the nation.
HB 589 with the changes was passed yesterday by the House and the Senate and has been sent to the governor for his signature.
In addition to requiring a government issued ID card, the bill includes:
- The end of pre-registration for 16 and 17 year olds.
- Elimination of same day voter registration.
- A provision allowing voters to be challenged by any registered voter of the county in which they vote rather than just their precinct.
- A week sliced off early voting.
- Elimination of straight party ticket voting.
- A provision making the state?s presidential primary date a function of the primary date in South Carolina.
- An increase in the maximum campaign contribution to $5,000 (the limit will continue to increase every two years with the Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics).
- A provision weakening disclosure requirements for ?independent expenditure? committees.
- Authorization of vigilante poll observers, lots of them, with expanded range of interference.
- An expansion of the scope of who may examine registration records and challenge voters.
- A repeal of out-of-precinct voting.
- A repeal of the current mandate for high-school registration drives.
- Elimination of flexibility in opening early voting sites at different hours within a county.
- A provision making it more difficult to add satellite polling sites for the elderly or voters with disabilities.
- The repeal of three public financing programs.
The bill passed the House and Senate strictly along party lines ? all Republicans voting for it and all Democrats voting against.
It?s called the ?Voter Information Verification Act.?
It?s presented by its Republican sponsors as ?an act to restore confidence in government by establishing the Voter Information Verification Act to promote the electoral process through education and increased registration of voters and by requiring voters to provide photo identification before voting to protect the right of each registered voter to cast a secure vote with reasonable security measures that confirm voter identity as accurately as possible without restriction, and to further reform the election laws.”
Trouble is there is no proof that voting fraud is widespread or even that it?s any problem at all in North Carolina ? or in most other states that have enacted voter ID laws.
In fact, North Carolinians seemed to like the current voting laws just fine and turn out in good numbers for elections.
The North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research reports that the state has moved from a ranking of 48th in voter turnout in 1988 to 11th in 2012.
In 2012, nearly 7 million ballots were cast in the general and two primary elections. Of those 6,947,317 ballots, the state Board of Elections said 121 alleged cases of voter fraud were referred to the appropriate district attorney’s office.
That means of the nearly 7 million votes cast, voter fraud accounted for 0.00174 percent of the ballots.
Non-partisan voting rights groups and Democrats claim the bill is a blatant attempt by the Republicans to suppress voting by certain groups that tend to vote for Democrats ? namely minorities, the poor, college students, and other younger people.
Democrats and other progressive groups claim that the changes are a blatant effort by Republicans — who have control both chambers of the General Assembly and a Republican governor for the first time since Reconstruction ? to hold onto their power.
Republicans vehemently deny these charges and cling to the need to eliminate voter fraud and to increase participation in elections.
You may believe there is a problem with voter fraud and that showing a government-issued ID to vote is a good thing.
However, how will such provisions such as cutting back on early voting, eliminating pre-registration of 16 and 17 year olds and of voter registration drives as part of high-school civics classes, and eliminating registration and voting on the same day do to increase participation in voting in this state?
It will not do anything to increase the number of folks who participate in what many of us think is our most precious right under the Constitution ? the right to vote.
Estimates are that a little more than 300,000 citizens in North Carolina do not have a photo ID. They tend to be minorities and elderly voters, and some will find it onerous to get a state-issued photo ID ? even though it will be issued free of charge.
But what will be gained by eliminating straight-party voting? Could it be that considerably more African-Americans, who tend to vote Democratic, like straight-party voting?
Opponents of the new restrictive measures also think that Republicans were emboldened by a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this summer. In a case involving the Voting Rights Act, the court ruled 5-4 that certain states, including North Carolina, did have to get Department of Justice approval for certain election law changes.
There is now speculation that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder might challenge North Carolina?s new law ? as he did with restrictive new laws in Texas.
In media reports, Republicans seem supremely confident that the law will survive a challenge, but some who are or have been involved in voting rights cases aren?t so sure.
Meanwhile, Melva Garrison, who has been director of the Dare County Board of Elections since 2000 and worked in the elections office for five years before that, has had her hands full this week. It?s been all she can do to keep up with the rapidly changing election reform bill and figuring out what kind of an impact it will have on her office.
?Early voting is very popular in Dare County,? she said this week. ?I guess it?s really popular everywhere.?
In the November 2012 election, 44 percent of those who voted in Dare County cast their ballots during the early voting period that will now be seven days shorter.
Garrison also says that in her 18 years of experience in Dare County Elections, she has never come across a case of voter fraud. Once or twice, she says, a person was caught voting during the early voting period and on Election Day. In one of the cases, she said, the voter was an elderly person and no fraud was considered to have occurred.
Garrison adds that she hates the ?negative press? that these restrictive voting measures have been getting in the national media.
And she thinks obtaining photo ID will be a hardship for some elderly folks in the county who do not have a driver?s license.
?Over the years, we have worked so hard?.to make it easier for voters,? Garrison adds.
Lawmakers in Raleigh were heading home today, with Republican leaders patting themselves on the back for all the legislation they have passed.
Many of the bills, including the bill containing the regressive voting measures, are on the desk of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.
He has not said if he will veto any of them. But when it comes to the new voting measures, McCrory should research what happened to his fellow Republican governor, Rick Scott of Florida.
In 2011, after Scott was elected, Republicans in Florida passed sweeping new voting restrictions, including cutting way back on early voting.
In November 2012, Florida was a national embarrassment as the media covered voters waiting in long lines there ? some up to six hours or more in the heat — to vote in the Presidential election.
Earlier this year, Scott decided Florida needed ?election reform,? which turned out to be a reform of the reform he has just gotten passed two years before. The reform included such measures as restoring the days for early voting.
What has just happened to voting rights in North Carolina should not be a partisan issue for us.
It should be an embarrassment to all of us ? Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.
We need to be concerned about and revolted by this assault on our right to vote.
