You can be excused if you turned on a national radio show talking about the state’s new election law and believed it was a local broadcast.
After all, political coverage from coast to coast is on the law — Tuesday, Gov. Pat McCrory spent part of the lunch hour defending the legislation on a nationally-broadcast NPR program, and U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., debated it with state Rep. Tom Murry, R-Wake, on PBS NewsHour.
The law encompasses a number of things — voters will be required to show a government-issued picture ID at the polls, ends same-day registration, cuts early voting to one week, ends pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, increases the number of poll watchers who can challenge ballots and does away with straight ticket voting.
While the number of early voting days was cut, the amount of hours locations have to be open remains the same.
In the 2012 general election, 18,678 people voted early in Lenoir County, and 740 people registered and voted on the same day. Of straight-ticket voters, 63.9 percent were Democrats, compared to 35.4 percent who pulled the Republican lever.
The legislation has an effect on campaign finance. It raises the maximum allowable donation from $4,000 to $5,000, ends requirements for outside groups to reveal their largest donors, allows groups to spend an unlimited amount of money between the May primaries and September and ends their need to disclose their sources or the amount spent.
In addition, lobbyists are prohibited from bundling and passing along contributions.
“While some will try to make this seem to be controversial, the simple reality is that requiring voters to provide a photo ID when they vote is a common sense idea,” McCrory said in a statement. “This new law brings our state in line with a healthy majority of other states throughout the country. This common sense safeguard is commonplace.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters — in partnership with the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and the NAACP all filed suit to prevent the law’s implementation.
“This bill he signed is a solution in search of a problem,” said Jimmy Cochran, president of the Lenoir County Democratic Party. “And, lawsuits have already been filed against the governor. We will fight these repressive, unconstitutional acts to rig and manipulate our elections through voter suppression. I believe these unjust laws will motivate people to get out and vote, actually.
“People are more likely to vote when they feel their right to vote is threatened.”
Michele Nix, chairwoman of the Lenoir County Republican Party, said if picture IDs are required in so many places, why single out polling locations?
“You have to have an ID to appear at the Democratic National Convention, but you don’t want to produce an ID to vote?” Nix asked. “You have to produce an ID to go into any of the federal buildings in Washington, D.C., but they don’t think you need an ID to vote? You have to produce an ID to go pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy, but you don’t have an ID to vote? There’s nothing unconstitutional about it. The Constitution guarantees you the right to vote.”
Members of Congress are asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to intervene. The U.S. Department of Justice is suing over a similar policy in Texas. Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan called the legislation “unacceptable.”
“Protecting the fundamental right of our citizens to vote should be among the federal government’s highest priorities,” Hagan wrote in a letter to Holder. “In response to voting restrictions signed into law yesterday, I strongly encourage the Justice Department to immediately review North Carolina House Bill 589 and take all appropriate steps to protect federal civil rights and the fundamental right to vote.”
Butterfield also penned a letter to Holder, saying, “Their blatant discrimination and systematic disenfranchisement must be stopped.”
In response to Hagan’s criticism of the General Assembly and the law in particular, state Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, sent out a news release calling the legislation “hugely popular” and criticizing Hagan for crafting “budgets that led to historic deficits, out-of-control spending and the highest tax rates in the southeastern United States” while she was in the General Assembly.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.