Popular voter ID horse pulling wagon loaded with unpopular baggage
Published September 17, 2013
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, September 17, 2013.
The photo ID requirement for voting gets strong public support, according to a High Point University/News & Record poll released today. Seventy percent of respondents favor the measure enacted this summer by the Republican legislature and Gov. Pat McCrory.
No wonder state Senate leader Phil Berger last week launched a “six-figure media campaign ... highlighting the legislature’s passage of a hugely popular voter ID law,” his campaign website announced.
He’s wisely chosen the voter ID requirement as a fertile issue for him. At the same time, he may hope it overshadows other portions of the 49-page voting overhaul bill. The new law makes changes that the poll finds are much less popular:
l Fifty-five percent disapprove of shortening the early voting period from 17 days to 10 days.
l Fifty-six percent disapprove of eliminating the provision that allows people to register and vote the same day.
l Forty-seven percent disapprove (45 percent approve) of eliminating straight-party voting.
The poll didn’t ask about other controversial changes, such as ending preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds; increasing the number of election observers appointed by each political party and expanding the right of one voter to challenge the status of another; repealing public funding and spending restrictions for statewide judicial campaigns; and repealing requirements to disclose the largest financial donors to third-party groups running political ads for or against candidates.
None of these measures supports the goals of this legislation implied in its title: An act to restore confidence in government.
While most North Carolinians appear to believe that voter ID will help prevent fraud, the overall intent of the omnibus bill has nothing to do with election integrity. How could it if it allows more money to be spent by hidden special-interest groups? Or if it fosters a climate where agents of either political party can challenge people’s right to vote?
While the election changes have drawn intense media coverage and “Moral Monday” protests across the state, the HPU poll found that 69 percent of respondents know only “a little bit” or less about them. When they learn more, they’ll find more reasons to dislike the new provisions. Early voting, preregistration, same-day registration and straight-party voting have been popular options. Democrats are more likely to take advantage of them than are Republicans, which may explain why Republicans moved to curtail them.
Berger and other Republicans want to focus on voter ID but not the other changes they made. They are riding a popular horse that is pulling a wagon loaded with unpopular partisan baggage. The voters will figure it out.
September 17, 2013 at 8:10 am
TP Wohlford says:
The trouble with damned Yankees is that we come down here, and point out to the natives that things that they believe aren't true. Or at least, the doomsday scenarios they have in their mind don't happen elsewhere. This really angers those with the southern accents, doesn't it?
Well, this unredeemable Yankee came from Michigan. Michigan has a voter ID law, and you can only vote on one day.
Michigan has something called "Detroit" to contend with. Michigan has a tragic history of civil rights issues -- Detroit has had several race riots over the years, not the least of which the one where LBJ called the US Airborne to restore order. Like NC, there are also rural Michigan towns with black communities that live in poverty, and yes, native American populations (reservations).
And what happened there with their voting laws? Minority participation increased. Seriously. NONE... and I mean, NONE... of the horrors imagined by the Dems here in NC happened in Michigan. NONE. NONE. ZIPPO, NADA. NONE.
And y'all know what? Georgia has the SAME EXPERIENCE. And they speak southern, and were a Jim Crow state!!
September 17, 2013 at 10:26 am
Norm Kelly says:
The voters will only figure it out if/when they get complete & accurate information from the news source of their choice. Some people, according to polls, have only 1 news source. It seems that most people do not seek out additional sources or additional information. So if that 1 source provides no useful information, the reader/watcher/listener is left with a biased, and possibly false, attitude toward the topic. Take this editorial/blog post for instance. Continue to point out that the number of early voting days has been reduced, but the total number of hours won't be cut. This means that working people will have hours outside of the normal work day to get to the polls to vote early. This COULD actually help poor and minorities better participate in early voting, but that information is left out.
Pre-registering 16 & 17 year olds is not voter suppression. Since they are not eligible to vote, it can't be defined as voter suppression. And if we have no faith or little faith in the voting rolls, why would we believe that these pre-registered youngster don't show up on the valid voters list at the local polling place on election day? If they aren't eligible to vote, they shouldn't be registered and shouldn't show up on the voter list.
Same day registration & voting is illegal. No one is allowed to cast a valid vote if they haven't pre-registered by a certain date on the calendar. Telling a lie to ANYONE that they can cast a ballot without registering will disenfranchise a "low information" voter quicker than being honest with them & telling them that if they didn't register they can't vote. The people who show up at the polls to vote when they haven't registered can only be labeled a "low information" voter.
If the majority of respondents (to this survey?) know only a little bit or less about the topic they are responding to, why do we care what they think? They know not of what they speak, they haven't bothered to get the information, the information was not provided to them by the pollster, but they have an opinion. An uneducated opinion is not very useful. And if the topic mattered to them, they would educate themselves. They obviously can't rely on their current news source to educate themselves. If 69% don't know of what they speak, I'm willing to bet at least that same percentage spends an inordinate amount of their free time watching "reality" tv. Even though I can't watch Fox news, I'm accused of being a brain-washed Fox Newsie. But I still won't watch stupid reality tv! I'm willing to educate myself, but it seems I'm in the minority. We'd all be better off if more people watched Fox News than CNN, MSNBC, or reality crap.
