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VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 18 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA -SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
N.C. Republican Party chairman Harnett dumped
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - The North Carolina Republican Party’s first
black state chairman was removed from his post April 30, the climax
of months of conflict with other party leaders who recently censured
him for exceeding his authority and trying to crash a GOP website.
‘More than two-thirds of roughly 280 members attending the par
ty’s Executive Committee required to throw out Hasan Harnett voted
to do so at the private, trial-like meeting in Raleigh that lasted sev
eral hours, according to meeting participants. Committee members
earlier April 30 found Harnett responsible for violating the OOP’s
organizational rules and committing acts of “gross inefficiency.”
Federal ruling on N.
Carolina voting laws
bolsters voter ID
HASAN HARNETT
The committee later April 30 was considering a replacement
for Harnett, who was elected last June with the backing of activists
aligned with the tea party. The state’s top elected leaders, including
Gov. Pat McCrory, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim
Moore, wanted Harnett’s rival to win.
Harnett was out of the country April 30 on a previously-an
nounced business trip, according to ally Daniel Rufty, chairman of
the party’s 12th Congressional District. Jim Womack, a Lee County
party official made Harnett’s case before the committee. Womaek
confirmed Harnett’s removal but said he wasn’t authorized to com
ment more. Before the meeting, about 15 Harnett supporters demon
strated outside the building where it was meeting. “NC GOP Elites
GO HOME!” read one placard.
Executive Committee members petitioned successfully for the
emergency meeting after the party’s smaller board of directors cen
sured Harnett on March 20, limiting his powers and denying access
to the party email.
Specifically, the Central Committee accused Harnett of unilater
ally trying to lower registration fees to attend next weekend’s state
GOP convention without permission, criticizing other party leaders
publicly and trying to interfere with the party’s computer system.
Harnett’s critics have affidavits suggesting he tried to get a computer
professional to crash the convention website and create an alternative
site to collect convention proceeds.
Harnett said allegations against him are untrue or simply the result
of differing views of party rules. A written rebuttal of the charges
against him handed out to meeting participants by his “defense team”
call the computer-related accusations “innocent activities performed
by the chairman with absolutely no malice or impropriety toward the
NC GOP or our convention delegates.”
An angry and frustrated Harnett emphasized his race and place in
state party history when he was locked out of his party email account
in early March - before the Central Committee’s censure of him - as
part of what was called a server security sweep.
“I mean seriously, is this some form of ritual or hazing you would
put the first black chairman of the NCGOP state party through?” he
wrote in early March to the party’s executive director and treasurer.
“Or is it because I am not white enough for you?”
Harnett in recent weeks called for a truce with the 50-member
Central Committee and proposed terms of reconciliation, including
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - Civil rights
and elections attorneys said
April 26 they will appeal a fed
eral court ruling upholding North
Carolina’s 2013 major rewrite of
its voting laws, a decision that
marks at least a temporary victo
ry for another state that requires
photo identification to vote.
This week’s ruling came after
two trials since July and 20,000
pages of court-filed documents.
It rejected arguments by the state
NAACP, the U.S. Justice Depart
ment, churches and individuals
that the election changes ap
proved by the GOP-led General
Assembly disproportionately
harmed minority voters.
Critics had sued, alleging that
North Carolina’s revised voting
law was passed to discriminate
against poor and minority vot
ers in violation of the Constitu
tion and U.S. Voting Rights Act.
While North Carolina has “sig
nificant, shameful past discrimi
nation” that extended to voting,
the plaintiffs didn’t show the law
made it harder for minority vot
ers to cast ballots compared to
other groups, the judge ruled.
“North Carolina has pro
vided legitimate state interests
for its voter ID requirement and
electoral system,” U.S. District
Judge Thomas Schroeder wrote
in Monday’s decision, siding
with the state’s Republican-led
legislature.
It marked a legal win for one
of the 30 states that currently
have some kind of voter ID rule
now in force. Nineteen have a
photo ID mandate, according to
the ruling.
“We’ve advocated all along
that the commonsense voter ID
and election integrity reforms
that we passed in the General As
sembly were constitutional,” said
Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett.
He helped guide the 2013 law
through the legislature and said it
bolsters the integrity of the vot
ing system.
Lawyers for the state NAACP,
the League of Women Voters of
North Carolina and others filed
notices April 26 of plans to ap
peal the 485-page ruling to the
4th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals. Some of the attorneys said
Schroeder wrongly determined
the provisions didn’t worsen
the state’s historical bias against
black voters.
“We believe the judge’s de ¬
Starting with this year’s March
15 primary, North Carolina re
quired those voting in person to
show one of six qualifying IDs
such as a driver’s license, a pass-
port or military identification.
North Carolina’s Division of
Motor Vehicles provides free
identification cards for those
who need them to vote, although
past trial testimony described
obstacles in obtaining that ID.
Legislators subsequently passed
changes last summer so that
those with a “reasonable impedi
ment” to obtaining an ID - like
disabilities, transportation prob
lems or work schedules - could
still vote if they signed a form
and provide other identifying in
formation.
Schroeder wrote the state’s
voter ID requirement now serves
“legitimate state interests ...
without imposing a material bur
den on any group of voters.”
Schroeder also upheld parts
of the 2013 law that reduced
the number of early-voting days
from 17 to 10, eliminated same-
day registration during the ear
ly-voting period and barred the
counting of Election Day ballots
cast in the wrong precinct. He fo
cused on numbers showing black
voters had higher registration
and turnout rates in 2014, when
many of the changes were being
implemented, compared to the
last midterm election in 2010.
“The 2014 data merely con
firm what the remaining data sug
gest: that minorities enjoy equal
and constitutionally-compliant
opportunity to participate in the
electoral process,” he wrote.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys said
focusing on the 2014 election to
determine the effect of the law
doesn’t take into account other
factors. They said an expensive
U.S. Senate campaign and voter
mobilization efforts by oppo
nents of the 2013 law helped
boost minority turnout.
Federal courts previously al
lowed same-day registration and
out-of-precinct voting for the
2014 general election while the
trial court heard the case. Schro
eder allowed such options to
continue only through the June 7
congressional primary.
Appeals court
orders expedited
review in voter
President Barack Obama talks with Jahana Hayes, 2016 Na
tional Teacher of the Year, and Lynadia Whiting, a student of
Hayes, in the Blue Room of the White House prior to an event to
honor Hayes and Teacher of the Year finalists, May 3. (Official
White House Photo by Pete Souza)
White House: Obama not offended
by comedian’s language
cision is wrong,” said the Rev.
William Barber, state NAACP
apologies. But several of Harnett’s predecessors last week publicly president. He called the ruling
expressed support for Harnett’s removal, writing that he had “demon
strated time and time again that he is not capable ofbeing chairman.”
Saturday’s meeting brings negative publicity and vibes for divid
ed state Republicans seeking to retain their hold upon North Carolina
government in November. Redistricting lawsuits, a tough gubernato
rial re-election bid for Pat McCrory and national negative fallout on a
new law restricting bathroom use by transgender people and state and
local anti-discrimination rules protecting gays and lesbians already
are adding to the OOP’s troubles.
Harnett’s defense team wrote “the harm done to our party and our
candidates this election cycle will be catastrophic” if Harnett was
removed unjustly.
“almost 500 pages of rational
ization for the intentional race-
based voter suppression law that
everybody knows was written
to suppress African American
votes.”
Voter ID laws in states such
as Indiana, Wisconsin and Geor
gia have been upheld in court.
But pending litigation in North
Carolina and Texas could decide
whether similar requirements
could be struck down based on
CIAA will stay in North Carolina despite HB2
claims they violate the U.S. Vot
ing Rights Act, a voting law ex-
CHARLOTTE (AP) - The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Asso
ciation says it won’t move its headquarters, its basketball tournament
or other conference championships from North Carolina, despite the
state’s controversial new LGBT law.
pert said.
The 2011 Texas photo ID
requirement is expected to be
heard by the full Sth Circuit next
month.
The CIAA said in a statement April 28 that it will instead partner
with the NCAA to educate its members on lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender issues as it does on other issues, like graduation rates and
concussion management.
The Charlotte Observer reports (http://bit.ly/lNZnZ9s) that the
CIAA, the oldest African-American sports conference in the U.S.,
has hosted its annual basketball tournament in Charlotte since 2006
and announced it was moving its headquarters to Charlotte from Vir
ginia in 2015.
“This is really the second gen
eration of voter ID challenges,”
said Rick Hasen, a professor at
the University of California-
Irvine School of Law. “If North
Carolina ultimately succeeds ... I
expect to see other Republican
leaning jurisdictions to pass sim
ilar laws.”
ID case
RALEIGH (AP) - A federal
appeals court wants to exam
ine swiftly a trial judge’s rul
ing this week upholding North
Carolina’s voting law changes,
which include a photo identifi
cation mandate to cast a ballot
in person.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals in Richmond, Vir
ginia, ordered April 28 ah ex
pedited review of April 25th
decision by U.S. District Judge
Thomas Schroeder. He deter
mined voter ID, scaled-back
early voting and other changes
didn’t discriminate against mi
nority voters.
The state NAACP, League
of Women Voters of North
Carolina and others challeng
ing the law in 2013 filed appeal
notices April 25.
The order sets deadlines for
May and June for appeal briefs.
Any 4th Circuit ruling also
could be appealed. The plain
tiffs want a resolution in the
case so any required changes
are made before the November
election.
BY Kevin Freking
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
White House said May 2 that
President Barack Obama wasn’t
offended by comedian Larry
Wilmore’s use of a racial slur at
Saturday night’s White House
Correspondents’ Association
dinner.
Wilmore concluded his re
marks noting progress on race
and how much it meant to him
that a black man was president.
He concluded: “Yo Barry, you
did it, my n-—. You did it.”
White House spokesman
Josh Earnest said he talked with
Obama, and Obama appreci
ated the spirit of racial progress
Wilmore was trying to convey.
Earnest said the White House
didn’t see Wilmore’s speech
beforehand. Earnest also said
he’s confident Wilmore used the
word by design and was seeking
to be provocative.
But Earnest said any fair read
ing makes clear that Wilmore’s
sentiments of racial progress
“came from a genuine place.”
Wilmore, on his Comedy
Central show May 2, noted:
“Like the president himself, the
reaction was mixed,” a joking
reference to Obama’s black fa
ther and white mother.
“I completely understand
why people would be upset
about that,” Wilmore said on
“The Nightly Show.” “It’s a very
charged word -1 get it.”
He said one critic, former
CNN host Piers Morgan, had
misquoted him by saying Wilm
ore used the word ending in “er.”
Instead, Wilmore pointed out he
used it ending in “a,” which he
said was a term of endearment
some black people use between
each other to take back the pow
er of the word to denigrate.
AP Television Writer David
Bauder in New York contributed
to this report.
107-year-old woman who danced
with Obama gets new ID card
WASHINGTON (AP) - A 107-year-old woman who gained Inter
net fame for her impromptu dance with President Barack Obama has
received a temporary photo identification card after her lack of a birth
certificate stymied her earlier efforts to get one.
Virginia McLaurin could not obtain a replacement for a photo ID
that was stolen years ago because she lacks a birth certificate, The
Washington Post reported on April 23. McLaurin, who is black and
was born in segregated South Carolina in 1909, told the Post she was
birthed by a midwife and her birth date was written in a Bible.
On April 26, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser present
ed McLaurin with a new temporary card and announced regulations
giving city residents 70 and older more options to obtain identifica
tion. New federal regulations have made it harder to get the ID re
quired to board airplanes.
Without the new ID, McLaurin couldn’t fly to New York or Los
Angeles for interviews about her videotaped meeting with Obama
that went viral online.