Are NC voting changes common sense?

by Rob Christensen, News and Observer, October 11, 2014.

The buzz words used by Republicans in describing their efforts to make it harder for their constituents to vote are “commonsense reform.”

Those were the words used again last week by Gov. Pat McCrory and by House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate leader Phil Berger in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to let the GOP-backed election law changes go into effect for the November election. Opponents had hoped to block the laws from going into effect, while waiting on the federal courts to rule on their constitutionality next year.

Common sense, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

First, some background is in order.

North Carolina historically has had one of the worst voter participation rates in the country. It was ranked 47th in the country in 1991. Many people thought this was an embarrassment. People harrumphed, articles opined and meetings were convened.

And something was done about it. The Democratic-controlled legislature passed a series of laws making it easier to vote. (Democrats also thought that broader voter participation would benefit them more than Republicans.)

Moving up to 11th

By 2000, North Carolina ranked 34th in the country in voter participation. The presidential campaign efforts of Barack Obama further enlarged voting participation, particularly by signing up under-registered populations, such as African-Americans and college students. So voter participation increased to 21st in the nation by 2008 and to 11th in the country by 2012.

This may have been a triumph for democracy, but Republicans were shocked when Obama carried the state in 2008 – something they thought was impossible.

As U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina Republican, famously put it: “I’ll beat (Olympic champion) Michael Phelps in swimming before Obama wins North Carolina.”

So when the Republicans took power in Raleigh, they moved to restrict voting – reversing the trend of expanding voting opportunities.

The stated rationale was to improve the integrity of the voting process and reduce the possibility of fraud. But this was a political fig leaf. Virtually no significant voter fraud has been uncovered in North Carolina.

Nor is there is the slightest reason to believe it has been covered up.

The same elections officials and state and federal prosecutors that investigated and brought to trial five Democrats – a governor, U.S. senator, House speaker, congressman and agriculture commissioner – found no major voter fraud. Only a conspiracy theorist would believe authorities would prosecute high-level officials, but look the other way on voter fraud.

Moreover, since the Republicans took over the election machinery more than a year ago, they have not prosecuted any significant voter fraud.

Change for political gain

But the voter changes were never about voter fraud; they were about changing the election rules for the political gain of one party.

The GOP legislature voted to discontinue same-day voter registration and out-of-precinct voting. They also voted to require government-approved photo identification cards, reduce the voting period by a week (although not the number of hours), allow challenges outside a person’s precinct, and end a program to encourage high school students to register to vote if they will turn 18 by election day. The governor signed the bill into law.

In addition to the new law, several local election boards – now controlled by Republicans – have moved voting sites to less convenient locations for college students. Collectively, the measures make it harder for college students and young people to vote.

This is a reversal of generations of civic activity by Democrats and Republicans to encourage young people to become involved in politics. And it’s being done for short-term political gain. To heck with the kids.

This is a cynical move worthy of Frank Underwood, the fictional congressman in “House of Cards,” the Netflix TV series about Washington.

I suspect we will begin seeing a march of voter participation backward from our 11th in the nation ranking.

This will likely be trumpeted as a triumph of “commonsense reform.”

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/11/4225108/christensen-are-ncs-voting-changes.html?sp=/99/102/