Obama Incites Republicans With New North Carolina Black Voters

[cal04]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=atnbqUvhWPWs&refer=home

The North Carolina waterfront community of Elizabeth City witnessed an early skirmish in a high-stakes political battle over registering new black voters, which may help decide the outcome of the presidential election.

Republican voter Richard Gilbert last year challenged the eligibility of several students at historically black Elizabeth City State University to vote in a municipal election. The local elections board dismissed Gilbert's complaint that students are only temporary residents in the town of about 20,000 people.

Similar fights over voter qualifications will be waged this year, particularly in Southern states, as Democrat Barack Obama's drive to register hundreds of thousands of new black voters clashes with Republican suspicions that get-out-the-vote efforts recruit people who aren't eligible to cast ballots.

``If the Democrats are to have any chance at all of carrying this state, it will only be because of a much larger-than-normal and completely united black vote,'' said David Rohde, a political science professor at Duke University in Durham.

(snip)
The Obama team already has several lawyers in North Carolina, Butterfield said.

[Ian_rd]

1. So, perhaps, it appears that the Obama campaign is addressing Republican vote suppression ...

... by trying to saturate the polls with new voters. This is, of course, my own optimistic take on it.