Hagan Asks US Attorney General To Examine NC's Voter ID Law

[struggle4progress]

5:15 pm
Wed August 28, 2013
By Frank Stasio, Laura Lee and Gurnal Scott

U.S. Senator Kay Hagan says she's asked the nation's Attorney General to look into the state's new Voter ID law. The North Carolina Democrat says she wanted Eric Holder to examine the legislation signed this month by Republican Governor Pat McCrory. Hagan says the law enacts restrictions that could suppress voter turnout among minorities, as well as younger and older voters. Supporters say it's intended to prevent fraud at the polls. Hagan told WUNC's Frank Stasio those instances barely exist.

"The North Carolina Board of Elections has found that voter impersonation that would be prevented by the photo ID has occurred two times in the last ten years," Hagan says. "Two times in the last ten years. And I really think that voter fraud in that perspective is just a red herring" ...

http://wunc.org/post/hagan-asks-us-attorney-general-examine-ncs-voter-id-law

[marions ghost]

1. Thanks Kay

It is time for the Atty General to do this. Otherwise all the nice rhetoric of yesterday is just hollow.

[Gothmog]

2. NC voter id does not take effect until 2016

I just read that the voter id requirements for North Carolina do not take effect until 2016. This fact explains why the DOJ is suing in Texas first. There are elections occurring right now using the voter id/voter suppression law.

[struggle4progress]

3. NC's so-called "Voter ID law" is a large bill, mostly involving voter-suppression tactics other than

ID requirements

It reduces early voting opportunities, for example. It eliminates pre-registration; it eliminates same-day registration during one-stop early voting

Some of it will be employed in conjunction with other effects of the gerrymander and R control of local elections boards. For example, a majority of NC voters, who voted D or R in the 2012 elections, voted for D congressional candidates, but the gerrymander produced a 9R-4D split in the congressional delegation. The local elections boards have taken actions to reinforce this: in Watauga county, three precincts were combined into one, with a single polling location outside town, serving 9300 voters (well-beyond the recommended maximum of 1500) and only about 35 parking places. And the so-called "Voter ID" law contains provisions that will enable Rs to slow voting to a crawl in selected precincts

There are real concerns about the effects on the 2014 election

[Gothmog]

5. Agreed but the DOJ has a better case right now in Texas

The Texas voter is law is being enforced right now in an election in South Texas. There are statewide elections on constitutional amendments and a City of Houston mayor's race in November. The DOJ has the benefit of some good language from the DC circuit on the Texas voter id law and needed to move right now on that law. I have no doubt that the North Carolina law will be challenged by the DOJ but right now the Texas law is already stealing the vote from voters.

The provisions of the North Carolina law other than the voter id provisions require proof of intentional discrimination by the GOP which is hard to do. In Texas, we have an idiot Attorney General who has admitted that the purpose of the Texas redistricting and the Texas voter id law was to punish Democrats. These statements go a long way to proving intentional discrimination.

[freshwest]

4. Agreed, first things first. And the NAACP suit has to work its way through the courts. It's coming.