New claims added to NC voting rights lawsuit

The Advancement Project and the NC NAACP have filed two new claims this week on a lawsuit challenging North Carolina's new voting laws, according to a press release. Calling the laws "the country’s most extreme and restrictive voting legislation," the organizations listed three additional claims to the suit. The press release states that lawsuit now: 

·         Challenges the provision of the law that eliminates the pre-registration of 16- and 17-year olds 

·         Makes explicit that the law has a disparate impact on Latinos as well as African Americans 

Click here to read more about the plaintiffs who are suing North Carolina over its voter ID law and other related legislation, including the initial hearing held in Winston-Salem.

Edited: The Advancement Project corrected an initial press release stating that three claims were filed, confirming that only two items were added. A third claim, that the law violates the 24th Amendment prohibiting poll taxes, is not part of the suit as originally stated.

Republicans lag in early voting for Winston-Salem City Council

The first two days of early voting for Winston-Salem City Council have seen Democrats voting in proportionately higher numbers than their Republican and unaffiliated counterparts.

As of Friday, only 393 people had voted in total, with 61.8 percent of them being registered Democrats. In comparison, Democrats make up only 44.2 percent of the registered voters. Conversely, Republicans have made up 24.7 percent of the early voters, compared to their 31.7-percent share of the overall electorate.

The numbers aren't entirely surprising considering that Democrats tend to take advantage of early voting more than Republicans, but it adds to the challenges for Republican candidates trying to break through and win seats on a council that is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Based on voter registration numbers and candidate quality, Republicans have the best chance to pick up a seat in the Northwest Ward, where Lida Hayes Calvert is running on the GOP ticket.

We'll have more detailed coverage of the challenges faced by Republican candidates on Wednesday, along with a voter guide and endorsements.

Early voting is open through Nov. 2 at the Forsyth County Government Center, located at 201 N. Chestnut St. Hours Monday through Friday are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The site is open on Saturday, Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The official election day is Nov. 5.

Breakdown: How new NC voting laws will affect you

The North Carlina General Assembly has passed so much legislation recently that many of our heads are still spinning. Voter ID is among the most publicized changes to state law, but do you have any clue how it will affect you or what the changes actually are?

Here's a quick overview of what the state legislature passed and when those changes will be implemented. Below, we've included a document that runs through the new requirements in more detail. The short story: You probably won't be impacted by new voting laws for the Greensboro or Winston-Salem city council elections this fall.

The only change that begins in 2013, according to Guilford County Elections Board Director Charlie Collicutt, is  pre-registration for people who are 16+. The previous law allowed people who were 16 or 17 to register to vote beforehand and the elections board would hold their registration until they were legally allowed to vote. Pre-registration will end on Sept. 1, though anyone who is signed up before that date will remain in the queue.

The changes will be implemented more fully at the beginning of 2014, including the elimination of same-day registration. Collicutt said 6,000 people in Guilford County used same-day registration in 2012 (which is more than some other elections because there was a presidential race). The 17-day early voting period will be reduced to 10 days, but a late amendment to the bill requires election boards to be open for the same number of early voting hours. Collicutt said the hours requirement wouldn't be difficult to meet, forcing them to either add sites and/or hours to the site over the 10 days. In 2012, 160,000 people voted early in Guilford County, about twice as many as Election Day, Collicutt said.

There's been some confusion about whether the NC General Assembly eliminated Sunday voting, which opponents said would disproportionately disenfranchise black voters. Collicutt said the early voting restrictions don't limit specific days but reduce the overall number of days, as far as he knows.

Voter ID will take full effect in 2016, but in 2014 election boards will ask voters who don't volunteer specific identification to produce one. If a voter doesn't have one, the new law requires board employees to provide them information on what ID will be required in 2014 and have them sign an affidavit that they received the information, Collicutt. To be clear, you will still be able to vote without an ID in 2014, but the board will provide voters without one information on how to obtain proper ID for 2016.

The state legislature also mandated that elections boards use voting machines that produce paper ballots in 2018. Guilford County uses electronic machines, but Collicutt said the board would probably be buying new machines around that time anyway.

"If I had to replace it right now it'd be about $2.5 million up front, plus the recurring cost of paper," Collicutt said, adding that he can't predict the cost of new equipment in 2018.

Read more about North Carolina's new voting laws here:

A guide to NC's new voting laws by YESWeekly

UNCG student given misinformation at early voting

When UNCG student Laura Stanley went to the early voting site at the Weatherspoon Art Museum a few weeks before the election, she wasn’t sure if she needed to bring anything. At age 20, it was her first time voting, though she had registered several months prior.

As she walked up to the polling place wearing an Obama sticker, Stanley said she approached a man holding a Romney sign and asked him what she needed to vote. Without asking her any questions  —like if she was already registered — he told her she would need ID and two pieces of mail such as a bill to prove her residency. He asked her who she was voting for and she answered with “Obama,” and he reiterated that she would need ID and two pieces of mail, Stanley said.

Trusting his advice, Stanley turned around and left, not realizing until Sunday night that the information was entirely false after her mother inquired about whether she had voted and did a little digging.

It is not clear whether the man and the woman he was with outside the Weatherspoon were with the Guilford County Republican Party and the affiliated Victory campaign, but Guilford County GOP chair Al Bouldin said the party has had someone stationed at the Weatherspoon for the majority of early voting. Stanley said she overheard the woman, who wore a “Conservatives for America” hat, talking on the phone about someone coming to take over the next shift.

When asked about the advice Stanley received, Bouldin said it was true if she hadn’t voted before, even if she was already registered. Trying to explain the different requirements for first-time registrants or people in Stanley’s shoes, Bouldin falsely stated what was required each time but said he delegated those responsibilities out and added that Guilford County GOP Vice Chair Mindy Greenwood handled it for the party.

“We don’t teach them to give advice on the voting process or rules or anything like that,” Greenwood said after Bouldin passed her the phone. “They don’t have that level of training. We just tell them to be nice and courteous and to stay where they’re supposed to be and that’s sort of the only training that they get.”

Greenwood said questions about registration are usually referred to her, Bouldin, someone else in party leadership or directly to the board of elections.

“We’re not here to be experts on that,” she said, adding that people like the man Stanley encountered were just supposed to be knowledgeable on the candidates. “We’re not the board of elections so we don’t try to be. We don’t train them to know about voting, and the process and the rules with the board of elections.”

Charlie Collicutt, the deputy director with the Guilford County Board of Elections, said that while early voting registration does have a higher identification threshold, no voters are ever required to provide ID and two pieces of mail. People who are already registered and haven’t voted yet are almost never required to provide identification as Bouldin claimed, Collicutt said, except when a previously provided social security number or driver’s license number doesn’t match.

Out of 360,000 registered voters in the county, 8,000 — or 2 percent — have had to show ID in such a circumstance, he said. Students can register with a student photo ID along with a document from the school showing their name and current address, Collicutt said. While it may be easy to get confused, he said, the Romney supporter provided false information and shouldn’t have answered Stanley’s question in the first place.

“He had no knowledge of her registration status,” Collicutt said. “Even if she was a same day registrant, he’s still wrong. He is not the appropriate person to answer that question. The voters are also wading into dangerous waters when they go and ask advice from people who aren’t associated with the board of elections.”

Collicutt added that he has worked well with Bouldin and that he planned to contact Bouldin regarding the information, saying that the requirements were “complex” and that “there’s so much nuance.”

In the end, Stanley realized the error with some assistance, and said she planned to vote on Election Day. While she unknowingly passed the false information along to a friend, she said he wasn’t deterred because unlike her, he did have a document to prove his address — even though she didn’t need one. 

'I early voted. Did you?'

I cast my ballot in early voting at the Simkins Pavillion in Barber Park in Greensboro this morning.

I was in and out in 28 minutes. The polling site was busy, but the lines didn't stretch out the door. Four registrars with laptop computers asked voters for their names and then to confirm their addresses. After that, we got in another line, and waited for poll workers to direct us to one of 15 electronic voting machines. My poll worker explained how to vote for president separately before exercising the straight-party option for partisan race, and then how to continue down through the ballot to vote in the nonpartisan judicial races. Of course, I did not exercise that option.

An electioneer outside the polling place was handing out campaign cards for District Court Judge incumbent Susan Burch. Later, while waiting in line to vote, I spotted a stack of the cards on a folding table inside the polling place. Another voter covered them up with a clipboard.

A woman who appeared to be the precinct judge asked everybody to turn off their cell phones because they could interfere with the laptop computers. I assume she meant that they could interfere with a wireless connection.

Once when I was voting I accidentally selected a candidate other than the one I wanted. I touched the box for that candidate to uncheck the selection, and then selected the candidate of my choice. The Guilford County Republican Party reports fielding complaints from voters who intended to select John McCain as their choice for president and found out that the box for Barack Obama checked off instead. As Deputy Elections Director Charlie Collicutt suggested, I found that using the tip of my fingernail worked best to get an accurate recording.

ADDENDUM: Oct. 25, 2:40 p.m. — A Guilford County voter who visited an early voting site yesterday afternoon reports the mood as being "serious and purposeful," an absence of partisan statements and no complaints about the wait.