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.

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

A different Republican take on Moral Monday: Rep. Jon Hardister

Rep. Jon Hardister (courtesy photo)

Not all Republicans in the NC General Assembly look down their noses at Moral Monday protesters and resort to calling them names: Take a look at Greensboro's Rep. Jon Hardister.

We interviewed Hardister, a first-term Guilford County representative, for our recent article about Moral Monday demonstrations at the legislature, but didn't have space to run his responses.

While he said he probably doesn't agree with the Moral Mondays protesters, Hardister said he's "glad they're doing it" because "it's good to see people engaged."

"You take them seriously," Hardister said. "When people take the time out of their day to come to the General Assembly to protest you definitely want to take it seriously and listen to what they have to say. Anytime I see protesters I always think about. It challenges you to think about what you’re doing."

Protests force legislators to pause and explain their actions, which is important, he said. Hardister said he ultimately makes his decisions by analyzing issues, talking to people on both sides of the debate and doing research: Like with voter ID — one of the key issues propeling the Moral Monday actions. Hardister said he considered the issue carefully but added that polls showed that most North Carolinians support voter ID, as do many of his constituents.

Hardister, who's only 30 and is the vice president of First Carolina Mortgage, is a strong advocate of charter schools, which comes as no surprise to anyone who followed his election campaign last year; he touted "a platform of supporting school choice and strengthening charter schools." Hardister served on the board of Greensboro Academy, a charter school, before he was elected.

Since taking office he's been the lead sponsor on seven bills, two of which are about charter schools, though his involvement in charter-related legislation doesn't end there. Hardister also supported the creation of a new board to govern charter schools that would still be under the education department, interest-free loans as start-up funds for charters and an act to make public charter schools eligible for permanent registration license plates.

"My philosophy on charter schools is that they are an important part of our public school system," Hardister said, adding that they are meant to supplement and not replace traditional public schools. "The idea is for the funding to follow the student. It’s just a way to provide more opportunity for children and more choice for parents."

Hardister said two bills he sponsored focusing on charters, HB 250 and HB 273, would give them some more flexibility in conducting enrollment, require funds allocated for charter schools to be transferred in a more timely fashion and more clearly articulate charters' ability to borrow money for operational expenses like electricity, running water and maintenance.

Hardister's bills are partially informed  by his contacts — he has stayed in touch with charters in his district and worked closely with two charter school lobbying organizations, he said. He tries to stay in touch with what a broader base of constiuents want too, he said. 

"You have to do your research and follow your instincts," Hardister said. "Education is a sensitive topic and we all agree it's important. We all want what's best but unfortunately we don't always agree on how to get there."

The desire to make things better transcends political parties, he said, which is why it's important to treat everyone — protestors and politicians alike— with respect and assume they are sincerely tying to do what they believe is best. The only times politics is disheartening, Hardister added, is when people dismiss someone by saying they don't truly care.

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. 

Six Winston-Salem council members oppose voter ID legislation

From a statement issued today by Winston-Salem City Council members Vivian Burke, Denise D. Adams, Dan Besse, Molly Leight, Derwin Montgomery and James Taylor Jr.:

We the undersigned urge members of our local legislative delegation to oppose HB 351 and similar efforts to require photo identification as a prerequisite of voting.

There are an estimated 500,000 North Carolina citizens presently registered as active voters in our state who lack a current driver's license or other photo identity car.

These voters are disproportionately people of color, the elderly and low-income citizens. For example, African-Americans are about 22% of all registered voters in North Carolina, but are estimated to be 32% of the registered voters who do not have a current photo ID. The racially discriminatory effect of voter photo ID requirements would be flagrant.

Voters without a current driver's license would face extra expense and time to obtain an alternative ID as required by the terms of HB 351. In effect, the requirement would amount to a "poll tax" with disproportionate impact on the poor, elderly and disabled.

Mayor Allen Joines and council members Robert Clark and Wanda Merschel did not sign the statement.

The Forsyth County Commission voted 4-3 to endorse the bill last month.

Besse writes in an e-mail to members of the Forsyth County delegation to the General Assembly: "It is the tradition of our city council not to debate as official city statements policy resolutions which are not directly related to city business. However, several of us as individuals are concerned that the recent vote by a narrow majority of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in support of HB 351 may have left our legislative delegation with a misimpression that that proposal enjoys broader support among local elected officials.