WS Chronicle

BY CASH MICHAELS 

FOR THE CHRONICLE

With any relevant legal challenge now behind them thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court upholding an appellate court’s recent smack down of North Carolina’s voter ID law, the N.C. NAACP remains concerned about how the Republican-led state Board of Elections (BOE) will resolve local BOE split decisions involving the number of sites and hours that will be allotted for the 17-day early voting period beginning Thursday, Oct. 20.

All 100 local BOEs are comprised of two Republicans and one Democrat because, by law, the board majorities must reflect the party of the sitting governor. The state BOE currently has three Republican members and two Democrats.

The state BOE is scheduled to meet today and civil rights advocates, like Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of the N.C. NAACP and leader of the coalition that successfully fought in the courts to overturn the voter suppression law, are concerned that what the Republicans, and particularly Gov. Pat McCrory, couldn’t win in court, they will try to do through the state BOE by devising early voting plans that limit voting sites and hours.

An emailed memo to all local BOEs from N.C. GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse, revealed in published reports weeks ago instructions to the local boards urging them, in light of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling dismantling voter ID, to minimize sites and hours of operation.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Wake and Lenoir counties are just three counties where Republican-led local BOEs have done just that.

Rev. Barber says what many of the local boards did, and what the state Board is likely to do, is “a travesty.”

“We are petitioning the state Board of Elections not to allow the system to be gamed and used in a way that is racist and unjust,” Rev. Barber told MSNBC Saturday. “This is a travesty for our governor and our legislature and local boards of elections in the 21st century to continue to try this level of voter suppression.”

Rev. Barber added that what we’re seeing now from the local BOEs is not just about Gov. McCrory trying to win re-election, though he’s several points behind Democratic challenger Attorney General Roy Cooper, but also a “desperate attempt [by Republicans] to hold onto power … and doing it in a way that undermines people’s right to vote.

“It’s immoral, it’s unconstitutional, and we are fighting it with everything we can,” Rev. Barber said.

Even though in-person early voting begins on Oct. 20 across the state, mail-in absentee-voting in North Carolina began this week.

No reason is needed for a North Carolina resident to request a mail-in absentee ballot from their

local county BOE, or obtain it online from the state BOE at https://www.ncsbe.gov/Portals/0/FilesP/AbsenteeBallotRequestForm.pdf. Just fill it out, use either your N.C. driver’s license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number for identification, and mail it back in to your local BOE by Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016.