NC’s top election official called on to investigate partisanship

Press Release from Allied Progress:

Today, in a letter sent to North Carolina State Board of Elections Chairman A. Grant Whitney, Jr., Allied Progress called on the state’s top election officials to root out those motivated by partisanship and/or racial animus in the administration of state elections. The request follows a months-long investigation into North Carolina’s election administration resulting in the publication today of a new report titled, “Something’s Rotten: North Carolina’s Shameful Record of Voter Suppression and the Partisan and Sometimes Racially Charged Motivations of Those Administering Its Elections.”

The report details recent attempts by statewide elected officials, state legislators, and county election boards to make voter registration and voting more difficult in North Carolina through efforts that disproportionately affect minority, senior citizen, disabled, and low-income voters. It also reveals the partisan political motivations behind these efforts and the sometimes racially charged and conspiratorial machinations of local officials entrusted with running impartial and unbiased elections in the Tar Heel State.

“The State Board of Elections must move swiftly to root out partisanship and racial animus in the administration of North Carolina’s elections – both at the county election board-level and in his own office. Regardless of how we vote, we all want elections that are free from political tampering,” said Allied Progress Executive Director Karl Frisch. He continued, “The partisan efforts by some North Carolina politicians to reduce the participation of minority, senior citizen, disabled, and low-income voters in our democratic process should worry us all. This report shows in chilling detail how so many of those responsible for administering North Carolina’s elections are motivated by partisanship and in too many cases, make disturbing racially charged and conspiratorial comments on social media.”

Key Findings: North Carolina’s strict voter ID law was recently struck down – having been called out for its racial and partisan motivations. Gov. Pat McCrory signed the law, H.B. 589, in 2013, yet this past July, a federal appeals court struck it down, writing that its provisions “target African Americans with almost surgical precision,” imposing “cures for problems that did not exist.” The law had required potential voters to present photo ID, eliminated same-day registration, shortened the early voting period, eliminated out-of-precinct voting, and ended the ability for 16- and 17-year-old North Carolinians to pre-register. The stated reason for the legislation was to eliminate voter fraud, which GOP legislators said was widespread in the state, despite multiple studies showing voter fraud was largely nonexistent – including one that showed among 21 million votes cast, only a single instance of voter impersonation was found.