N.C. NAACP sues three counties alleging voter suppression
BY CASH MICHAELS
The N.C. NAACP is
suing three counties in fed
eral court, alleging that
they are illegally can
celling voter registrations
because of alleged changes
in addresses, in violation of
the federal National Voters
Registration Act (NVRA).
With less than a week
before the Nov. 8 general
election, and with early
voting ending on Nov. 5,
voting rights advocates are
calling the alleged practice
yet another attempt at
black voter suppression.
The civil rights organi
zation filed both a lawsuit
and an application for a
temporary restraining in
the US. District Court for
the Middle District for
North Carolina against the
state Board of Elections on
Monday. At press time, a
hearing was scheduled for
federal court in Winston
Salem on Wednesday.
According to the appli
cation for a restraining
order put forth by the N.C.
NAACP's attorneys, the
NVRA "protects
Americans' fundamental
right to vote by ... requir
ing that states meet certain
requirements before can
celling a voter's registra
tion on the basis of a
change in residence.
Specifically, states must
either (1) receive written
confirmation from the
voter that he or she has
moved to a different resi
dence outside the county,
or (2) send a prescribed
notice to which the voter
fails to respond, and then
wait for two federal elec
tion cycles in which the
voter does not vote. Only
after written confirmation,
or notice, no response, and
the two-cycle waiting peri
od, may a state proceed
with removal from the
voter registration rolls."
The application contin
ued, "The NVRA also pro
tects access to the franchise
by prohibiting any system
atic program to remove
voters from the rolls within
90 days of a federal elec
tion."
The N.C. NAACP
alleges that the Boards of
Elections (BOEs) in Moore
County, Beaufoit County
and Cumberland County
"have cancelled thousands
of voters' registrations on
the basis of an alleged
change in residence. Those
purges of voter rolls result
ed from proceedings that
were triggered by chal
lenges filed by private indi
viduals, based on a single
mailing returned as unde
liverable. In most cases,
these cancellations of reg
istrations were supported
by no other evidence - and
none were supported by
written confirmation from
the voters of any alleged
change in residence or
compliant with the
NVRA's notice and wait
ing-period provisions. In
many cases, the North
Carolinians purged from
voting rolls through these
proceedings still reside at
the addresses where they
are registered, or have
moved within the same
county and remain eligible
to vote there. Nonetheless,
single items of returned
mail have resulted in can
cellation of their registra
tions," the complaint
states.
And it has been deter
mined that the majority of
voters being removed from
the county election rolls
are African-Americans. At
least 4,500 voters have
been purged, 3,900 of them
in Cumberland County
alone.
The state Board of
Elections counters that
those local boards are fol
lowing state statutes that
authorize private citizens
to challenge voter registra
tions on the basis of
returned mailings. The
state BOE confirms that
"thousands of voters have
been challenged in the past
three months on the basis
of returned mail."
The N.C. NAACP is
not only asking for a tem
porary restraining order to
immediately stop the local
BOEs from purging black
voters before the Nov. 8
General Election, but also a
permanent injunction to
restore the voting registra
tions of all of those purged.
N.C.
from page AT
going to spend a tremen
dous amount of time."
Meanwhile both
Trump, and his vice presi
dential running mate,
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence,
have made multiple visits
to North Carolina over the
past two weeks alone, and
with good reason. The
Republican Party is strong
in North Carolina, and
throughout presidential
electoral history, it has
been reliably conservative
in electing the top of the
ticket by wide margins
from Richard Nixon in
1968 to George W. Bush in
2004, the only detour being
in 1976 when peanut
farmer and Georgia Gov.
Jimmy Carter, a Democrat,
temporarily broke the
North Carolina mold.
Barack Obama's
14,777- vote squeaker over
John McCain in 2008 cre
ated Shockwaves, showing
that a progressive
Democrat could win in the
South again with the' right
coalition of African
Americans, young people
and women. In 2012,
President Obama lost
North Carolina to
Republican Mitt Romney
by just 100,000 votes
statewide, though he won
re-election overall. While
the black vote turned in
strong numbers, a dip in
Obama's white voter sup
port created the North
Carolina deficit.
But observers noticed
subtle changes to the state's
voting population, even
though the Republicans
were in command of the
governorship and the state
legislature. North
Carolina's urban centers of
Charlotte, Greensboro and
Raleigh were growing with
more moderate and pro
gressive out-of-state resi
dents, while the state's
mostly rural enclaves were
shrinking in population.
Democratic strategists saw
the population shift as
something they could
exploit, while Republicans
surmised that rural and
small town voters, who
tend to be older and more
conservative, in eastern
North Carolina particular
ly, were dependable
enough to stay in the fold.
Thus, we've seen the
Trump campaign focus on
areas like Kinston,
Wilmington and
Greenville, while Hillary
Clinton has focused on
cities like Charlotte,
Raleigh and Winston
Salem to draw college stu
dents, African-Americans,
and of course, women.
Each campaign vying to
cultivate where it thinks
North Carolina strength is.
The result - polls in the
last several months that
have shifted back and forth
between Trump and
Clinton, illustrating a phe
nomenon analysts believe
is still happening. North
Carolina is becoming more
of a mid-Adantic state like
Maryland, and less of a
Southern state like South
Carolina. Thus the tension
that many analysts suggest
makes North Carolina a
must-watch state on elec
tion night.
"North Carolina could
be the state where the pres
idential contest has the
biggest effect on down-bal
lot elections, influencing
key races from U.S. Senate
to governor and other criti
cal races that could dramat
ically change the political
direction of the state,"
states the online magazine
Facing South. "What
makes North Carolina
unique in 2016 is the num
ber of close races where
coattails from the presiden
tial election could tip the
balance. For example,
North Carolina is the only
state in which races for
president, U.S. Senate and
governor are all rated
"toss-ups" by the Cook
Political Report"
Add to that the fact that
so far. North Carolina's
early voting numbers since
Oct. 20 show Democrats
turning out in larger num
bers than Republicans, but
Republicans expected to
dominate on Nov. 8, and
it's anybody's guess who
will win the state. The lat
est Elon University poll
issued Tuesday shows the
race too close to call
between Clinton and
Trump in North Carolina at
42 percent each. If there is
one bit of encouraging
news for Democrat
Clinton, however, it's that
according to the polls, her
support among African
Americans is solid, with
100 percent saying that she
has their vote over Trump.
Blacks are 2 of every
10 voters in North
Carolina, while whites are
7 of every 10, according to
the most recent U.S.
Census figures.
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