WS Chronicle

BY CASH MICHAELS 

FOR THE CHRONICLE

If state lawmakers insert themselves into deciding North Carolina’s next governor, or changing the state Supreme Court to nullify Justice-elect Mike Morgan’s victory, there will be mass demonstrations and civil disobedience, promises N.C. NAACP President Rev. Dr. William Barber II.

“We believe either attempting to stack the Supreme Court or deciding the governor’s race in the legislature is, and would be, a major civil rights violation of the right to vote and equal protection under the law,” Barber told hundreds of demonstrators during Monday night’s Moral Monday march and rally at the state Capitol in Raleigh. “We pledge to fight with every legal and moral tool we have, including, if necessary, mass civil disobedience.”

Barber joined the ranks of those concern that the Republican majority in the N.C. General Assembly would appoint two new justices to the state’s High Court in order to offset the 4-3 Democratic majority Morgan’s Election Day victory resulted in. Thus far, GOP legislative leaders claim that they haven’t discussed it with their caucuses.

Barber’s warning comes as the State Board of Elections posted new unofficial number tallies in the gubernatorial race between Republican incumbent Gov. Pat McCrory, and his Democratic challenger, state Attorney. Gen. Roy Cooper. With all but 13 counties reporting in, Cooper leads McCrory by 9, 716 votes of 4.7 million cast, what some observers are saying is an insurmountable lead for the governor to overcome despite his legal action demanding a statewide recount, and specifically a recount of over 90,000 ballots in Durham County, which were tabulated hours after polls closed on Nov. 8 because of mechanical problems.

McCrory wants those Durham ballots recounted by hand, but the Durham Elections Board previously rejected his campaign’s petition. At press time, the state Board of Elections was scheduled Wednesday to decide whether to order the Durham Board to proceed with the recount.

Meanwhile, the conservative Civitas Institute has filed a federal lawsuit, which will be heard in court Friday, seeking to stop any certification of early voting ballots from same-day registrations, claiming that the addresses on those registrations were not confirmed before the ballots were cast.

During his remarks at the Moral Monday demonstration, Barber blasted what he saw was a deliberate manipulation of the election process by Republicans to deny communities of color their voting rights. He said N.C. NAACP lawyers would be in court Friday to challenge the Civitas lawsuit.

Barber also demanded that McCrory stop his attorneys from interfering with the post-election vote canvassing process with their many challenges and, thus far, “bogus allegations” of voter fraud.

“Pledge that after the  canvass and recount, you will not try to get the legislature to take steps to unconstitutionally decide the governor’s race,” Barber added, noting that if the final margin of victory for Roy Cooper is below 10,000 votes, state law allows the Republican-led legislature to decide who the next governor will be.

Barber also warned that he expects the N.C. General Assembly to follow the ruling of the U.S. Fourth Circuit of Appeals to redraw the congressional and legislative voting lines when it reconvenes in January. A federal court on Tuesday ordered North Carolina lawmakers to redraw the state’s legislative districts by March and ruled that a special legislative election must be held in 2017. The decision comes after the federal court ruled this summer that lawmakers had unconstitutionally gerrymandered 28 legislative districts along racial lines, but allowed the already scheduled 2016 legislative elections to proceed under those unconstitutional maps.

Earlier this year, a separate court case found that lawmakers had unconstitutionally gerrymandered the state’s congressional maps in 2011 and ordered them to be re-drawn, necessitating a special June 2016 primary for North Carolina’s congressional races.

“We will be watching to see if the legislature continues to contemptuously thumb its nose at the federal courts,” Barber said. “We will go back into court with the first sign the legislature delays justice again, because justice delayed is justice denied.”