Democracy North Carolina Blog » Civic Engagement

LOD: Small Biz Opposes CU Decision

Bob Hall — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:40:02 +0000

A trio of small business federations today released a survey showing that two thirds of small business owners across the nation believe the Citizens United decision gives big corporations an unfair advantage over them. The Supreme Court decision from January 2010 allows businesses to spend unlimited amounts from their treasury to tell people how to vote. “America’s entrepreneurs feel corporations have an outsized role and say in politics to the detriment of the small business community,” said John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority. The Supreme Court’s narrow 5-to-4 majority said campaign spending doesn’t win corporations political friends, or intimidate their enemies, because it must be “independent” of the candidate and can not be given directly to the candidate’s campaign. “Small business owners aren’t stupid,” countered Melanie Collins, owner of Melanie’s Home Childcare in Falmouth, Maine. “We know who wins when corporate heavy hitters can spend all the money they want, as secretively as they want, to influence our country’s elections – and it’s not us.” The survey also shows that by a margin of 7-to-1, small business owners think money plays a negative role in politics.

LOD: Election Officials Nix New Maps

Bob Hall — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:26:09 +0000

A press release today from Democracy North Carolina begins: Statements from election officials across the state provide new reasons for concern about the controversial district lines that zigzag through and split up hundreds of precincts to create the new district boundaries for state legislators and North Carolina’s 13 members of Congress. The election professionals are not taking sides on whether or not the new district maps discriminate against African Americans or give one political party an unfair advantage over the other. However, in affidavits filed with the Wake County Superior Court, the officials say the maps will confuse voters and poll workers, make elections harder and more expensive to administer, and even jeopardize the secrecy of the ballot for thousands of voters. The press release has links to the affidavits.

LOD: One Reason for Delay

Bob Hall — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:07:47 +0000

Nonprofit groups, including Democracy North Carolina, are asking a three-judge panel to push back the 2012 election schedule while the judges consider the merits of their challenge to the Republican redistricting plans for General Assembly and Congressional districts in North Carolina. Rather than use the plans in a May primary that could be postponed, it’s better to decide if the plans are as obnoxious and unconstitutional as the nonprofits and a group of Democratic plaintiffs claim. The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed Friday and could be heard as early as this week when the judges convene on another aspect of the case. Our side – the plaintiffs challenging the plans – filed 380 pages of affidavits in support of the motion. Among the many reasons to overturn the plans, several county elections officials say the new plans slice up too many precincts with zigzagging district lines, putting voters in the same neighborhood in multiple varieties of different political districts. That will create confusion among voters and poll workers and elevate the risks of tainted elections that have to be rerun. Our affidavit provides loads of data to make the point, summarized briefly in a letter-to-the-editor about split precincts. One point in our affidavit not in the letter explains the threat to secret ballots from carving a little slice out of a precinct and placing it in a different political district (see paragraphs 35-36).

LOD: Veto Override Votes

Bob Hall — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:30:20 +0000

Gov. Perdue called the General Assembly back to town yesterday to give the legislature its constitutional opportunity to override her veto of the bill killing the Racial Justice Act. The state House couldn’t muster the votes to do that (at least 60% of those voting must approve), but rather than go home as promised in an agreement with Democrats, the Republican leadership then spent hours plotting a series of maneuvers to take up other bills vetoed by Perdue. At nearly 1 AM this morning, the House overrode her veto of a bill to strip the teachers’ association of its right to use the payroll check-off system to collect dues for the NCAE; state employees in SEANC were not targeted for similar action. Two Democrats joined the Republicans in the 69-45 vote, but one or both would not go along with override votes planned for the photo ID bill and a bill to authorize fracking in North Carolina – so the House finally adjourned until February 16. The surprises, broken promises, and outrage are captured in this reporting by Laura Leslie/WRAL and the video of a Democratic press conference around 1:30 AM.

LOD: Justice Vetos SC’s ID Law

Bob Hall — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:09:22 +0000

The US Justice Department refused to approve South Carolina’s strict photo ID requirement for voters, saying the evidence indicated that African Americans registered to vote in the state are 20% more likely not to have one of the required forms of ID than white voters. Federal approval or “pre-clearance” is required for election changes in South Carolina under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which Congress and President Bush renewed in 2006. Forty counties in North Carolina with a history of racial discrimination in elections are also covered by VRA’s pre-clearance provision; that means the harsh photo ID bill passed by Republicans but vetoed by Gov. Perdue would also need federal approval if the GOP ever succeeds in overcoming Perdue’s veto. In response to a public records request from Democracy North Carolina, the State Board of Elections matched its records with DMV records and initially found that about 1 million voters do not have a current driver’s license or state photo ID. After culling out near-matches and people who likely have moved, the number drops to about 460,000 – and African Americans are almost twice as likely as whites not to have the photo ID (12% of black voters lack the ID compared to nearly 7% of white voters). That’s a much greater racial disparity than found in South Carolina, which suggests the NC legislation would also run into trouble on pre-clearance. South Carolina officials say they will challenge the Justice Department’s action, no doubt attacking the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act itself and hoping the uber-biased majority on the current US Supreme Court will comply. The VRA has withstood repeated attack and gained bipartisan support over the years. Last week, a federal judge upheld the VRA’s pre-clearance provisions against a challenge from NC Rep. Stephen LaRoque and others in Kinston, North Carolina. That case could also be headed for the Supreme Court.

LOD: Pope Teach-In Videos

Bob Hall — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:05:25 +0000

The “Art Pope Exposed” teach-in went off without a hitch on Tuesday, except for the traffic jams, video difficulties, and a few Popers in the audience (their camera seemed to work fine). More than 250 people (100 in person, the rest via web streaming) participated in the event that ended with a rump workshop about planning for actions in the Raleigh area, etc. We have the videos of each presentation here – beginning with a dissection of the Pope Empire by Chris Kromm of the Institute for Southern Studies (begins mid-stream), followed by in-depth descriptions by MaryBe McMillan of Pope’s hostility to basic economic fairness and Seth Keel on Pope’s attempt to gut public education in favor of a tiered system based on wealth and privilege. MaryBe ends with a call to action. You can find the petition she talks about here and the flyer here (for copies of the flyer to distribute send an email to info@democracy-nc.org).

LOD: More Against Voter IDs

Bob Hall — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:53:16 +0000

Facing South has a splendid entry today about the continuing drama over imposing harsh photo ID laws on voters. It begins by noting that US Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to deliver a landmark speech today declaring that the federal government will become a more active player by fulfilling its responsibility to protect voting rights. It includes a link to a report from the Republican National Lawyers Association, which oddly enough documents the point it wants to refute: cases of voter fraud are very rare and the cases that a photo ID would prevent are even more rare. There are other valuable links in the Facing South blog. Here’s one more: The ACLU today filed a federal lawsuit against Wisconsin’s new voter ID law as an unconstitutional infringement of citizens’ voting rights. Read the brief profiles of the plaintiffs in the news release and you’ll understand why a strict photo ID law ruins, rather than protects, the integrity of free and fair elections.

LOD: Resolved, For and Against

Bob Hall — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:58:40 +0000

Citizens in Rowan County gave their county commissioners an earful for wasting time with a resolution calling for photo IDs in local elections. The town council in nearby East Spencer echoed the dissent by adopting a resolution that said, the “Voter ID bill would cause more problems with widespread voter disenfranchisement than it could possibly solve.” Yesterday in Kinston, the Lenoir County Commissioners tabled a resolution calling for photo IDs (“I don’t think it’s right to take up our time, discussing and fussing over this issue,” said one board member), but commissioners in Montgomery, Stanly and Union counties have adopted pro-ID resolutions recently. On the other side of the nation, the city council of Los Angeles adopted a resolution calling for federal and state action to amend the US Constitution to clarify that corporations are not “persons” with basic rights such as Free Speech. The jubilation rippled across the nation, but an unusual holiday chorus in New Hampshire offers a different perspective on corporations in this YouTube video.

LOD: Amendment, Voters Not Dollars

Bob Hall — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:21 +0000

You are going to hear more about this throughout the next year: growing consensus among reformers that an amendment is needed to the US Constitution to affirm the rights of real people over inert objects, e.g., corporations. John Bonifaz, a wizard on the subject provides this op-ed column with some of the context. The Occupiers already have identified Citizens United and corporate political spending as enemies of the 99%. Polling also shows broad support . . . but an amendment is obviously a difficult, multi-year campaign. Meanwhile, related to another Democracy NC issue, here’s another story of an elderly citizen, this time a white woman in the North, who is being told to pay up for a birth certificate and court papers in order to vote. The NAACP and Legal Defense Fund issued a report today on the scope and damage of the voter ID mania that spread across the nation this year. The evidence of people being barred from voting may eventually make the US Supreme Court revisit its pro-ID decision in the landmark Indiana case – but the delay and disenfranchisement are inexcusable.

LOD: State AG Slams Local ID Bills

Bob Hall — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:41:18 +0000

As mentioned a few days ago, county commissioners in several counties have adopted resolutions asking for authority from the General Assembly to impose a voter ID requirement in their local elections. Now comes word that the NC Attorney General’s office that such an approach would run into constitutional problems for a number of reasons. NC Policy Watch posted the AG’s letter and some data from Democracy North Carolina. The letter from the AG to Gov. Perdue’s attorney says the constitution only permits the General Assembly to adopt “general” (i.e., statewide) laws regarding the registration of voters for election; local bills are not allowed. Different requirements in different jurisdictions would also violate the equal protection clause of the US and state constitutions. In addition, circumvention of the governor’s veto with a series of local ID bills is prohibited by the NC constitution. It’s hard to know if this advice will slow the Republican/Civitas effort to pass more local resolutions, but it helps blow a hole in the strategy. Democracy NC’s numbers highlight the blinders worn by local and state ID advocates; they don’t see a problem because white men with property (e.g., 26 of 27 commissioners who voted for resolutions) invariably have a photo ID. But go into poor communities and the picture is different. In fact, 15 of the 25 counties with the highest percent of voters lacking a NC photo ID are also among the 25 counties with the highest rate of poverty; and 13 of the 25 counties with the lowest percent of voters lacking a NC photo ID are among the 25 counties with the lowest rate of poverty. These correlations become even stronger when the county’s racial and rural make-up are factored in.

LOD: Political Glossary

Bob Hall — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:50:02 +0000

Wouldn’t it nice to have a glossary of political terms like “push polling” and “front loading”? Well, leave it to the BBC to create one for the United States political landscape. Learn the difference between hard money and soft money, a Super PAC and Super Tuesday, Medicare and Medicaid, blue dogs and red states. . . A host of terms, from “air war” to “wedge issue.”

LOD: Local Distractions

Bob Hall — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:24:14 +0000

The effort to impose a hard-line ID requirement on voters has moved to the county level in North Carolina. In the last few weeks, Republican majorities on four County Commissions have adopted resolutions asking the General Assembly for authority to make voters show a government photo ID in their local elections. All 22 white Republican Commissioners in these four counties – Gaston, Davidson, Craven, and Rowan – voted for the resolutions, while the 3 Democrats opposed them. The racial and partisan divisions in the photo ID debate are hard to miss: A black voter in these counties is twice as likely as a white voter to not have a current NC photo ID, according to an analysis by the State Board of Elections. Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the state photo ID bill (H-351) and another override attempt will likely happen, although probably not in the brief session scheduled after Thanksgiving. But legislators are expected to introduce other bills affecting elections, as well as “local bills” to authorize local governments to impose the ID barrier. Former NC Chief Justice Burley Mitchell says that even if legislators call it a “local bill,” changing voting requirements is a state action, protected by the state constitution, so a “local bill” would trigger a possible veto and lawsuit. There are many reasons to not waste tax money on producing or policing photo IDs or creating barriers that harm certain voters much more than others. A commissioner in Columbus County, where the resolution was tabled, got it right: “I would think that our legislators would have a more pressing matter,” he said. “I think they can be looking at job bills as opposed to voter ID bills.”

LOD: Ways to Disenfranchise

Bob Hall — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:26:16 +0000

Here are stories about two ways to disenfranchise voters: One, gut the Voting Rights Act and enact voter suppression measures that especially handicap a key constituency of your opponent’s political party. Noted constitutional scholar Richard Hasen has this op-ed in the New York Times about what should be done. Two, draw the new district lines after the Census so you concede some seats to your opponents, by packing their supporters in those districts, and you wind up with more seats that are safe for your party. Lots of voters caught in the middle are rendered irrelevant. CNN has a special on gerrymandering that includes a segment about North Carolina, set for broadcast on Sunday.

LOD: Inside Clean Elections

Bob Hall — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:28:51 +0000

What does it mean to have elections about ideas and people instead of big money and mud? Read this great story of the nation’s pioneering Clean Elections program after a decade in action. Candidates for the state legislature in Maine have a real alternative to the private money chase that turns well-meaning lawmakers into professional hucksters. The program has paid off with better legislation for consumers, children, the environment, workers, the uninsured – the 99%. It’s now facing new challenges from the current Supreme Court’s hostility to protect free elections from the tyranny of paid speech – check it out. We face the same threats in North Carolina.

LOD: Election Admin Data

Bob Hall — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:52:20 +0000

The Pew Center on the States has a new on-line service called Election Data Dispatches. It’s billed as a round-up of the best stories, data, research and analysis about what’s involved in administering elections across the 50 states, what works, what needs improvement, etc – from voter registration to ballot design to election costs. Check it out. Check out Pew’s other election-related features from this site, too.