BCGOP chair Henry Mitchell: New NC voting law brings us closer in line with the rest of U.S.

This commentary was written and submitted to Xpress by Henry Mitchell, chair of the Buncombe County Republican Party.

Everyone, please, just relax!  The new North Carolina Voter ID Law simply compares to the election laws already existing in most of the other states.

A Voter Suppression Act. Disenfranchised voters. One of the nation’s most restrictive Voter ID Laws in the country. Controversial. Sweeping. Fiercely contested. An assault on democracy…..

We have heard it from the press. We have heard it from the left. It’s all over the internet, Facebook and Twitter…..

Actually, the TRUTH?  North Carolina’s new Voting and Election Law just brings us closer in line with the rest of the country. Believe it or not—somehow, elections are still occurring in all of these other states.  North Carolina’s voting laws had been among the most liberal in the country.  Now, even with the new changes, NC’s Election Law remains more liberal than those in many states.

No voting problem was required to be reported to the state by county Boards of Elections.Controlled by the governor’s party, many boards never reported any.Statewide voters use other people’s names.Other N.C. voter fraud is easy to find online.

Here’s a re-cap on what the new law actually does and how NC lines up with other states….

*HB 598 brings North Carolina more in line with voting regulations in other states and makes substantive changes to our election laws that many truly believe will restore integrity and instill trust in our voting system.

*VOTER ID: Not required until 2016 and provided free of charge at all DMV offices across the state.Anyone over age 70 may use expired ID’s and licenses.Some states report increased minority participation with voter ID.And NO it’s not controversial…

33 states require Voter ID.  NC is the 34th state to do so.

*STRAIGHT TICKET VOTING: No longer allowed.

14 states allow straight party voting.North Carolina now joins 36 other states that do not allow straight ticket voting.

*EARLY VOTING: The number of days allotted has been reduced, but the number of hours the polls will be open is still the same.

15 states allow NO early voting or no-excuse absentee voting.

32 states allow early voting—ranging from 4 days to election day to 45 days, with an average of 19 days. North Carolina now allows 10 days but requires the same number of hours of early voting that were available in 2012 and 2010 when the early voting period was 17 days.

SAME DAY REGISTRATION: No longer allowed during early voting.

*Only one state allows same day registration during early voting.  NC was the only other state to allow this and has now joined 48 states in not allowing same day registration during early voting.

*11 states allow same day registration on Election Day; North Carolina does not.

PREREGISTRATION: No longer allowed for 16-17 year olds.

*5 states allow 16-17 year olds to preregister to vote.45 states do not, now including North Carolina.

RELAX. Across America people are voting.  Democracy is working just fine. The sun will come up tomorrow in North Carolina and across America.In fact, the sun might be a litter brighter on the next election day— as fair and just elections are now insured for all voters in North Carolina.

Henry D Mitchell
Chairman
Buncombe County Republican Party

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9 thoughts on “BCGOP chair Henry Mitchell: New NC voting law brings us closer in line with the rest of U.S.

  1. bsummers

    “N.C. voter fraud is easy to find online.”

    So are bigfoot sightings, offers of free money, and pills that will make my (ahem) double in size overnight.

    Somebody please point out one site that has verifiable information about specific, proven instances of voter fraud.

    • Dionysis

      It appears no such website, or other source, exists that provides verifiable information about specific, proven instances of voter fraud. Not surprising since there is none. However, this can be found:

      “In 2012, nearly 7 million ballots were cast in the general and two primary elections. Of those 6,947,317 ballots, the state Board of Elections said 121 alleged cases of voter fraud were referred to the appropriate district attorney’s office.

      That means of the nearly 7 million votes cast, voter fraud accounted for 0.00174 percent of the ballots…the majority of those cases are deemed unfounded and never referred to the DA’s office.

      Looking back at the 2010 election cycle — which was not a presidential year — 3.79 million ballots were cast and only 28 cases of voter fraud were turned over to the appropriate DA’s office. So in 2010, voter fraud accounted for 0.000738 percent of ballots cast.

      The state Board of Elections acknowledges that far more cases of voter fraud are reported each voting cycle. But the majority of those cases are deemed unfounded and never referred to the DA’s office.”

      Something approaching the real reason was given by House Speaker Thom Tillis, however, stating:

      “…

      “We call this restoring confidence in elections,” Tillis said. “There is some voter fraud, but that’s not the primary reason for doing this.”

      Tillis added that “there are a lot of people who are just concerned with the potential risk of fraud…”

      Which translated means “there really is no problem with voter fraud, but we are deeply concerned that non-landowners, people of color, the poor and other undesireables exercising their franchise, so gerrymandering and phony excuses to minimize these votes is necessary.”

      http://www.wncn.com/story/22934120/widespread-voter-fraud-not-an-issue-in-nc-data-shows

  2. sharpleycladd

    I’d love to Mr Mitchell’s views on his party’s efforts to disenfranchise college kids.

  3. Dionysis

    “How will we rid ourselves of this American Taliban?”

    I see only one way to be sure; for people to galvanize to insure every person in the state has the necessary identification to exercise their vote, work hard to get these folks to the polls and hopefully, kick these extremist clods to the curb. That approach can be done nation-wide.

  4. don Yelton

    a lot of you would not believe it if you saw it. I have witnessed the State Board of Elections do nothing when they were presented with the facts of a Federal Bus hauling in people from out of state and registering and voting them the same day. Also, a dead person voted and was shown the death certificate. The democrat controlled board did nothing and the worse part was the two Republicans did not say a word.

    Who ever compared the voting records of college students to their voting record in their home county.

    Henry just gave the facts but the facts do not count when a socialist ideology controls your brain. It seems that a majority of the people wanted more control of the election process just like they do not like Obamma care.

    • bsummers

      Once again, Don – all we get is unsubstantiated anecdotes. With all the people on your side desperately trying to come up with verifiable cases of voter fraud for these past few years, as this Voter ID debacle has moved through the NCGA twice now… The fact that all you or anyone in the GOP can produce is rumors and unverified anecdotes, well I think that closes the book.

      The GOP’s own Colin Powell said it right – “There is no voter fraud… How can it be widespread and undetected?”.

      I understand that nobody wants to come right out & say what Voter ID & these other things are really intended for. It’s ugly. But I actually have a little more respect for the rare Republican who admits what this is about: suppressing the turnout of voters who tend to vote against the GOP.

  5. sharpleycladd

    Mr Yelton, it’s true. Ideology is capable of controlling the brain, making one impervious to fact, fairness, and American values. You help us understand this.

  6. UnaffiliatedVoter

    summers, you refuse to read about it at websites where voter fraud is accounted for…it’s there…
    I reported voter fraud in a city election that went uninvestigated a few years ago. SBOE has been democrat controlled forever you DO know, right?

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