NC lawmakers return with open agenda – WRAL

RALEIGH, N.C. — State lawmakers will return to Raleigh Nov. 27 for a lame-duck session expected to deal with voter ID and Hurricane Florence relief. Democrats are concerned about what other proposals could emerge in the waning days of the Republicans’ veto-proof majority.

Republican leaders have said they intend to pass legislation enacting the photo identification requirement to cast a ballot that voters approved last week as a constitutional amendment. They’ll have to decide which forms of ID will be accepted, from driver’s licenses to student, military or tribal IDs, and whether the law will allow for exceptions for voters who can’t obtain an accepted form of identification.

They’re also expected to consider additional legislation dealing with Hurricane Florence recovery. Although they voted in October to approve nearly $800 million over a period of years, much of that money still has to be specifically appropriated for needs identified by state and local agencies. Lawmakers will hear reports this week on the latest damage estimates. (Read more)

Former Gov. Pat McCrory falsely says many college students are committing voter fraud – News & Observer

The Gate Keeper’s response: Funny how Pat said in his particular election that Voter ID was a problem but then when he was found to be lying he changed his tune. When one wants to make such a claim one ought to get their facts straight about the law. Hell he should have talked to the board of elections and asked how the students could vote. If Pat had won re-election it would not have been an issue. Another myth to justify the need for Voter ID.

RALEIGH

While recounts were happening in Florida for the governor’s office and a seat in the U.S. Senate, a former North Carolina governor who lost his own seat in a recount offered some advice to Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott.

Former N.C. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory said Scott should watch the vote tallies coming in from areas with large college student populations.

“In my particular election we had a lot of college students, who were out-of-state college students, vote,” McCrory said. “And they could do it because there was no voter ID which would’ve showed New Jersey license plates, Pennsylvania license plates, you name it. …. And I couldn’t do a thing about it.”

McCrory later continued: “The question is where do they actually live? … If they voted in North Carolina and yet their car is registered elsewhere, they have a driver’s license from elsewhere, they’re breaking the law. And there is no way we can prove it.” (Read more)

NC Republicans reveal their voter ID proposal – News & Observer

RALEIGH

Boards of elections would provide registration cards with photos, and students at North Carolina’s public universities would be able to use their school IDs to vote under a draft voter ID bill that Republican legislators released Tuesday.

Voters decided this month to add a voter ID requirement to the state constitution. The legislature is returning next week to pass a law to implement the constitutional change.

The draft bill includes other photo IDs, such as driver’s licenses, tribal IDs, military and veteran ID cards, and state ID cards the state DMV provides to non-drivers.

An elections oversight committee is meeting Monday to discuss the proposal. An email from a spokesman for Senate leader Phil Berger described the proposal by Rep. David Lewis of Harnett County and Sen. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County as a “starting point,” and said changes are likely. (Read more)

Appeals court rejects NC’s request to postpone voter ID decision

RALEIGH, N.C.

An appeals court has quickly decided it won’t delay enforcement of its ruling striking down North Carolina’s photo identification requirement and other election restrictions, including reducing early in-person voting by seven days.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the stay Thursday, one day after state leaders’ attorneys requested that last week’s ruling be set aside as they prepare to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case. (News & Observer)

Voter ID trial ends; decision is now up to federal judge – Winston-Salem Journal

The Watch Dog response: This is why I am a Life Fully Paid Member of the NAACP.

In closing arguments Monday, North Carolina’s photo ID requirement was described by attorneys for the North Carolina NAACP as a racially discriminatory law that places unconstitutional burdens on blacks and Hispanics.

Attorneys representing Gov. Pat McCrory and state elections officials called the change in the law a mere inconvenience, saying it would affect a small group of people.

Penda Hair, an attorney for the N.C. NAACP, said evidence presented during the trial clearly shows that the photo ID requirement would make it harder for blacks and Hispanics to cast ballots in this year’s election. It’s undisputed, she said, that blacks disproportionately lack the kinds of photo IDs that they would need to show when they come to the polls. (Source: Read more)

Voter ID trial ends; decision is now up to federal judge – Winston-Salem Journal

The Watch Dog response: This is why I am a Life Fully Paid Member of the NAACP.

In closing arguments Monday, North Carolina’s photo ID requirement was described by attorneys for the North Carolina NAACP as a racially discriminatory law that places unconstitutional burdens on blacks and Hispanics.

Attorneys representing Gov. Pat McCrory and state elections officials called the change in the law a mere inconvenience, saying it would affect a small group of people.

Penda Hair, an attorney for the N.C. NAACP, said evidence presented during the trial clearly shows that the photo ID requirement would make it harder for blacks and Hispanics to cast ballots in this year’s election. It’s undisputed, she said, that blacks disproportionately lack the kinds of photo IDs that they would need to show when they come to the polls. (Source: Read more)

Ned Barnett: State’s new Voter ID rule narrows the right to vote – Winston Salem Journal

The most confounding and misleading part of the new voter ID requirement is the “common sense” defense.

Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger said in a TV ad that requiring a photo ID to vote “prevents fraud and protects the integrity of our elections — it’s common sense.” Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed the requirement into law saying it was part of “common sense reforms.” At a federal trial in Winston-Salem where the requirement is being challenged, it’s being defended as a commonly used and sensible protection.

Proponents of the requirement, which takes effect with the March 15 primary, say a photo ID is needed to cash a check, board an airplane or even to purchase some cold medications, so certainly it should be required for something as important as voting. (Source: Read more)

Post-Trial Statements | North Carolina Voter Suppression Trial

The Watch Dog response: This is why I am a Life Fully Paid Member of the NAACP. Don’t tell me you are about what is good for black folk and all folk if you ain’t a part of the solution. You see some of you just celebrated Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Holiday and now beginning today you are going to celebrate Black History Month. The fight goes beyond January and February. So when you say I am acting like I am ignant, well I am because I get ignant around folk who are not about what is good and just for all people. Trust me I know who you are.

***NEW VIDEO: Post-Trial Statements | North Carolina Voter Suppression Trial

February 1st, 2016 – Joined by Plaintiffs, Attorneys and members of the Forward …Together Moral Movement, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II makes a statement following the close of arguments for the Voter ID portion of the North Carolina Voting Rights Trial.
Click On Photo To Watch Video

Trial to start over North Carolina’s voter ID law – The Washington Post

The Political Agitator’s response: Anyone black, brown, white and other that believe in doing what is right and fair know that the Voter ID Law is far from either. The issue is some ignant racist white folk just happen to have the power, they used their white privilege to attempt to afford even good white folk who know it ain’t right to be able to benefit from such. Hell no all white folk don’t like it! But one thing about it, as Rev. William Keys preached today, I Believe God! I believe one one day the Voter ID will be made right and fair.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Rosanell Eaton still remembers the day 70 years ago when she traveled two hours with her mother in a mule-drawn wagon to register to vote at the county courthouse. Before she could, she was forced to take a literacy test.

“What are you here for, little lady?” Eaton recalls a man at the courthouse asked her. When she told him, he instructed her, “don’t miss a word and speak the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America.”

“Without missing a word, I did it,” she said. (Source: Read more)

9 HBCU Students Just Made the Voter-ID War Hot Again – The Root

The voter-ID war just opened up a huge new front. This time in Tennessee. A group of nine students from HBCUs Fisk and Tennessee State have filed a federal lawsuit against the Volunteer State’s heavily contested and controversial voter-ID law.

The suit was filed by the Nashville Student Organizing Committee, a coalition of student activists established in February 2014. The plaintiffs were all disallowed from voting in 2014 because they carried student IDs as identification. NSOC retained the Washington, D.C.-based Fair Elections Legal Network, which then partnered with the local Nashville-based firm Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison as part of a legal project to restore student voting rights in the state. (Source: Read more)

“The Worst Form of Voter Suppression We’ve Seen Since Jim Crow!”

My FB colleagues seem to get a little squeamish when I, rural NC Born Ken Humphrey speak of ‘resurfaced racism’…..Folks I live amongst my rural suthin’ colleages’…they will vote to bring the US down before they will support anything this black Democratic President proposes. I went to college, graduated in the former capital of the conferacy, Richmond, Va…..Racism is alive and well just outside of town – anywhere in Dixie. Ken Humphrey

Click on photo to watch video

Registration issues won’t be solved by ID law – Rocky Mount Telegram

The Political Agitator response: Well stated but as usual those who think the Republicans figured something out is going to twist the truth. Great article!

A report issued last week by the N.C. State Board of Elections underscored glaring problems with voter registration in North Carolina and elsewhere. But it’s difficult to see how producing a photo ID at the polls will eliminate what might have occurred in the 2012 elections.

Executive Director Kim Strach, who compiled the report, urged caution even as she presented her findings.

A cross-check of voting rolls in 28 states uncovered 765 registered voters in North Carolina who shared the same name, same date of birth and same last four Social Security number digits of voters who were registered in another state. Strach’s investigation determined that those 765 people voted in both states. (Source: Read more)

Voter Fraud?

The problem is there has not been Voter Fraud and they have admitted that so we all know that that is not the reason why they voted to do it. I am talking about why they said they were doing it versus a reason to do it. Obviously some folks think they are assuring fairness hell assure other things that are happening daily rather than once or twice a year at the most.

Talking about spending trillions of dollars on non-sense the good ole boys have always done that from the local level all the way to the national level. “Our” current President inherited the majority of the debt that we see because of how he had to deal with the Republicans but they don’t want to talk about that but want to make it seems as if he had no option. I was just informed 2 days ago again although I already knew the story about the debt when my Congressman held a meeting in Rocky Mount NC. Pictures/Video Rocky Mount NC – Congressman G.K. Butterfield Gives Update On President Obama And NC Politics OIC Rocky Mount NC Tuesday March 26, 2013 6:00 PM

Why in the hell don’t they assure that they stop the ignance when it comes to blocking everything that the President does and good Democrats. I know damn well everything he does is not a bad thing in everyone’s eyes but just because he is a Black man some  are willing to take the country to hell while trying to mislead folks that it is “Our” President when it is clear that it is racist Republicans. Not all Republicans but I repeat the racist ones and some ignant racist Democrats but I must admit they have some ignant Black folks brainwashed also.

The racist Republicans turned down the Medicaid expansion in NC that would not cost them anything for several years and then afterwards the Federal Government would pay 95%. Nope voted against it because it is a part of “Obamacare.”

The government has spent trillions of dollars on non-sense all of my life long before “Our” current President so what is the problem? We have a Black President that is the problem.

But there will be a wake up call and I don’t think it will be long because when it hit home the right homes it will be those same guys whom thought that all of this b.s. sounded good but when it affect them they will not be able to handle it and they are going to turn on them. I just want to be able to say I told you so.

Today is the new form of slavery however some white folks don’t even recognize that they will be slaves but maybe they don’t know or they don’t care as long as it appears that it looks like the Black man is the problem.

Read more:

Voter ID

Voter Photo ID – Mistaken Identity vs Voter Fraud

Somebody said to me today it is funny how when the Po Po come get ready to lock somebody up that they do not ask for a Photo Id. Now that is funny but interesting.

After thinking about this I wonder what is the ratio of someone getting arrested due to a case of mistaken identity versus voter fraud?

Read more:

Voter Fraud

Dead Voters – Fraudulent Claims – Desperation to Disenfranchise Voters in NC

Response: “Know that being ignant is not always a bad thing, however it is a bad thing when you don’t do anything about it especially when you are trying to discredit others. Know what you are talking about when you open your mouth so you will not make a damn fool out of yourself.” Curmilus Dancy II Tuesday April 3, 2012

Veronica Degraffenreid, elections liason for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, talks with Rachel Maddow about the burden on the election boards in her state to address the frivolous cliams of dead voters on the rolls by a tea party group called the Voter Integrity Project.

To date, neither the state nor any of the county boards have found any instances of anyone voting who should not have. (More)

Read more:

Voter ID