Guess what time it is? It's GOP voter suppression time!

[kentonio]

North Carolina Republicans Escalate Attack on Student Voting

Hours after passing the country’s worst voter suppression law, North Carolina Republicans escalated their attempts to prevent students from participating in the political process.

• The GOP-controlled board of elections in Pasquotank County voted to disqualify Montravias King, a senior at historically black Elizabeth City State University, from running for city council, claiming King couldn’t use his student address to establish residency, even though he’s been registered to vote there since 2009. “The head of the county’s Republican Party said he plans to challenge the voter registrations of more students at the historically black university ahead of upcoming elections,” the AP reported.

—The GOP chair of the Forsyth County Board of Elections is moving to shut down an early voting site at historically black Winston-Salem State University because he claims students were offered extra credit in class for voting there. “He offered no proof such irregularities had occurred,” the Raleigh News and Observer noted.

—The GOP-controlled Watauga County Board of Elections in Boone, North Carolina, voted along party lines to close an early voting and general election polling place at Appalachian State University. Instead, the county limited early voting to one site in Boone and created the state’s third-largest voting precinct, with 9,300 voters at a precinct designed for 1,500, with only thirty-five parking places. It’s inaccessible by public transportation and over a mile from campus along a 45 mph road with no sidewalk. “I feel like the people (students) who really care might come all the way out here to vote,” said Ashley Blevins, a junior at Appalachian State, “but I know a lot of people who are like, ‘eh, it’s too far—I don’t think I’m going to walk that far,’ because they don’t really have another way of getting here.”

The attempt to prevent students from voting and running for office where they attend school is likely unconstitutional based on the 1979 Supreme Court case Symm v. United States. Nonetheless, the GOP board of elections in Pasquotank County formally prevented King from running for office today. King can then appeal to the state board of elections, which is also controlled by Republicans. If it refuses to accept his candidacy, he can appeal to the state court of appeals. But time is running short. The election is the second Tuesday in October, and ballots will soon be printed without his name on it. There’s no guarantee the courts will hear the case before the election.

“This is highly unusual,” says Anita Earls of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which is representing King. “I was on the state board of elections for two years and we never had a case where a candidate was disqualified a few weeks before the election.” Earlier this year, Pasquotank County GOP chair Richard Gilbert also purged fifty-six student voters from Elizabeth City State University, all African-American, from the voting rolls, claiming they were not properly register to vote at their campus address. At King’s hearing, Gilbert was accompanied by Susan Myrick of the Civitas Institute, a right-wing group funded almost exclusively by Art Pope, the conservative billionaire who is now Governor Pat McCrory’s budget director.

The shutting down of polling places on college campuses could also draw a legal challenge. “If there’s an intent to stop students from voting, that should be grounds for an equal protections challenge,” says Earls. “Can we get a state or federal court to stop it? That’s an open question.”

It’s also worth remembering that North Carolina’s strict voter ID law does not allow student IDs. “The depth and breadth of the anti-democratic policy is pretty stunning,” says Earls.

None of this would be happening if the Supreme Court hadn’t invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which previously covered forty of 100 counties in North Carolina. As Rick Hasen noted, the extreme voter suppression measures adopted in the state are a clear reason why Congress needs to strengthen the VRA.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175837...tudent-voting#

Aww, it seems like just yesterday that we were being told by our GOP loving posters that the VRA was an anachronistic insult to democracy that had no place in a modern democracy.

I especially look forward to hearing the explanation for this part..

Instead, the county limited early voting to one site in Boone and created the state’s third-largest voting precinct, with 9,300 voters at a precinct designed for 1,500, with only thirty-five parking places. It’s inaccessible by public transportation and over a mile from campus along a 45 mph road with no sidewalk.

[PLATO]

Guess what? Watauga wasn't covered in the VRA. Nice try though.

Seriously though, this is an interesting issue. Appalachian State has a student population that is a significant percentage of the counties population. These transient students have no stability in the community and most will have no future there. On the one hand, it seems reasonable that the established and permanent members of the community would try to protect their way of life. On the other hand, the students clearly have their rights and denial of voting opportunity is clearly a violation of federal law. The community seems to be in a corner here with no reasonable and legal way out. Very interesting indeed.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

They haven't been denied the right to vote. They merely are too lazy to do so. I see no undue hardship imposed upon the slacker youth to vote when the same conditions apply to the vast majority of rural voters across the US who need to drive miles and miles to a polling station to vote.

[Ben Kenobi]

Watauga wasn't covered in the VRA. Nice try though

Yeah, it's not voter suppression when they do it.

[kentonio]

They haven't been denied the right to vote. They merely are too lazy to do so. I see no undue hardship imposed upon the slacker youth to vote when the same conditions apply to the vast majority of rural voters across the US who need to drive miles and miles to a polling station to vote.

You see nothing wrong with deliberately choosing to close voting sites and forcing thousands of students to walk a mile along a road with no sidewalks to a voting station that is wildly overcrowded? You don't think any of that might constitute an attempt to stop people voting?

[Ben Kenobi]

forcing thousands of students to walk a mile

Barefoot, uphill both ways and in the snow?

[kentonio]

along a road with no sidewalks

Dip****

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Nope. Give me an objective standard for undue hardship imposed to vote not some it would be nice if I could roll out of bed at 3:00 pm and stroll down to the polling station because my professor told me i could get extra credit for voting.

[kentonio]

Typical extremist GOP bull****. Put the voting booth for the black folk somewhere they can't reasonably get to, and then sit back and blame them for being lazy. You're disgusting.

[PLATO]

Typical extremist GOP bull****. Put the voting booth for the black folk somewhere they can't reasonably get to, and then sit back and blame them for being lazy. You're disgusting.

What does this have to do with "black folk"?

[Hauldren Collider]

Typical extremist GOP bull****. Put the voting booth for the black folk somewhere they can't reasonably get to, and then sit back and blame them for being lazy. You're disgusting.

@ the idea of appalachia state being "black folk"

[Lorizael]

The right to vote is quite possibly the most important right a citizen has in a democracy. The government should make it as easy as possible for citizens to exercise that right. Anyone who believes that putting restrictions on gun ownership is a violation of our rights should clearly feel the same way here, right?

[Hauldren Collider]

The right to vote is quite possibly the most important right a citizen has in a democracy. The government should make it as easy as possible for citizens to exercise that right. Anyone who believes that putting restrictions on gun ownership is a violation of our rights should clearly feel the same way here, right?

This is retarded and doesn't follow. For one, I don't think anyone here has said that you need unrestricted access to firearms, perhaps that we shouldn't increase our current restrictions, but that's based on a factual question of "will more restrictions be helpful", not an ideological question. It has absolutely no relation to this. Second, no, we shouldn't make it easy as possible to exercise that right. We want to prevent fraud as well.

[PLATO]

@ the idea of appalachia state being "black folk"

I know, right?

Appalachian State University Students

Demographics

The ASU student body consists of roughly 15,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students. Of these, about 55% are female and 45% are male. 10% of students self-identify as an ethnic minority.

88.7% White enrollment with over 15,000 people enrolled.

Incidently, the town of Boone has a population of about 14,000.

Thus the dilemma I earlier talked about.

[Lorizael]

This is retarded and doesn't follow. For one, I don't think anyone here has said that you need unrestricted access to firearms, perhaps that we shouldn't increase our current restrictions, but that's based on a factual question of "will more restrictions be helpful", not an ideological question. It has absolutely no relation to this. Second, no, we shouldn't make it easy as possible to exercise that right. We want to prevent fraud as well.

Explain to me how making it harder to get to a polling station prevents fraud any more than it prevents legitimate voting and I might agree with you.