Election fix may be in, voters won't be shut out

Published October 26, 2023

By Capitol Broadcasting Company

                      Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 -- Capitol Broadcasting Company's editorial cartoonist.

 

The fix is in. Republicans make up 30% of North Carolina’s voters.

But the partisan complexion of those North Carolinians who will populate the chambers of the state’s legislative branches of government will be quite to the contrary.

If legislative leaders prevail with the new election maps they’ve concocted, Republicans will hold:

  • 79% of the state’s 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
  • 62%, a veto-proof majority, of the 50 seats in the N.C. Senate.
  • 60%, a near veto proof majority, of the 120 seats in the N.C. House of Representatives.

Should voters seek to challenge these maps in the state’s courts, the fix is in there too. The high court’s chief justice has declared the courts have no role in legislative acts – particularly concerning election laws. Further, he’s even questioned whether there’s any mandate that elections in North Carolina must be fair. “We have ‘free.’ We don't have ‘fair.’ They (in another state) have ‘free and fair, correct?” Chief Justice Paul Newby stated during a hearing earlier this year concerning voting district maps.

These unrelenting efforts by legislative leaders to pick their voters – rather than the other way around as our nation and state founders intended – might seem to be enough to make folks wallow in frustration and avoid polling places on election day all together.

After all, why vote when the outcome is predetermined.

Well, that’s a big part of the effort, too. Legislative leaders are not stopping at putting the fix in, so voters believe their ballots are meaningless. They’ve also been doing everything they can to make even casting a ballot an ordeal by rolling back mail-in voting, early voting hours and confusing photo identification requirements.

There will be plenty of challenges to the election maps and while the state courts may be party to the Big Fix, federal courts seem to remain independent – as witnessed in decisions relating to hyper-gerrymandering in Alabama.

Further, these times make every voter’s participation even more critical.

First, our nation has fought too hard to build and defend a democracy based on the government’s power and authority emanating DIRECTLY from the people through FREE and FAIR elections.

Second, while legislative leaders are doing ALL THEY CAN to predetermine the outcome of congressional and legislative elections, there are NO GUARANTEES.

EVERY VOTE COUNTS. The outcome of an election isn’t determined until EVERY properly cast ballot is counted.

No one likes a fixed game. North Carolina voters should not allow their voice to be silenced. They all need to march to the polls and throw the cheaters out.

 

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