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.

PHOTO ESSAY: Taking the Dream Home to Greensboro rally

Hundreds of people gathered at the corner of Elm and Lee streets in Greensboro on Wednesday to commemorate the 1963 March on Washington and to decry new, restrictive voting laws in North Carolina and other initiatives by Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican-controlled legislature in Raleigh.

The "Taking the Dream Home" rally was one of 13 organized across the state in each of the congressional districts by the NC NAACP. Other events took place in Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Charlotte, Elizabeth City, Boone, Greenville, Wilmington, Chapel Hill, Concord, Lincolnton, Sylva, Dunn and Wilmington.

Greensboro police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen said the lieutenant assigned to the event estimated the crowd size at 400 to 500 people, while a captain on the scene said there were 600 to 700 people. A YES! Weekly reader points out that the News & Record reported that 1,800 people attended.

An unidentified man showed up at the protest with a handgun. Danielsen said the man agreed to put the weapon in his vehicle, adding that he was prohibited from carrying it during the protest because the event was held on city property.

Photos by Quentin L. Richardson

 

 

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. 

NAACP asks DOJ to reject Guilford redistricting plan

UPDATE: Allison Riggs, voting rights attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice who is working with the NAACP on the challenge, says the charge of racial packing is based on the 3.0 percent increase in black voting age population in the Davis district.

"Black voters in High Point are concentrated in a number that is higher than Bruce Davis needs to win," she said.

Riggs, who was joined by Barber on a conference call, discounted the notion that maintaining at least 50 percent black voting age population is necessary to avoid retrogression under the Voting Rights Act.

"There are situations of retrogression where you have unavoidable retrogression," she said.

ORIGINAL POST: The North Carolina NAACP is calling on the US Justice Department to reject a redistricting plan for the Guilford County Commission that was imposed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly in July. Guilford County is covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires that any change in voting districts must be approved by the federal government.

The news of the challenge comes in a press release from the Rev. William J. Barber, president of the state NAACP. Greensboro NAACP President Cardes Brown and Guilford County Commissioner Carolyn Coleman said a press conference will be held tomorrow in High Point.

Brown and Coleman took particular exception in an interview this evening to the effect of the GOP plan on two white Democrats on the commission, Kay Cashion and Kirk Perkins.

"[The Republicans have] worked hard to eliminate allies to the black community who have at least been open to compromise and cooperation," Brown said, "and [they are] stacking it with people who are estranged to the community and are attempting to keep it oppressed."

"What they did is they took out of Kirk Perkins' district the 35 percent African American population that would have been important because that gives us influence," Coleman added.

Coleman's district is 5.3 percent below ideal population following the 2010 Census count and would need to pick up an extra precinct to be rebalanced. All of the adjacent districts have either lost population or remained about even except Perkins' district, making it a logical source of population to replenish Coleman's district. A map submitted by Democratic County Commission Chairman Skip Alston overcame both a demographic and a challenge problem by having Coleman's district grow west into Greensboro's Irving Park neighborhood and beyond.

"They're taking away the at-large people, which is where we would have some influence," Coleman said. "They're putting Kay Cashion and Linda Shaw together. That's a more Republican district. I'm not going to comment on who would win or lose. Kirk Perkins' district becomes more conservative. I just don't see where our influence will come from, or where we will be able to exert the influence."

Changes to the three minority-majority districts are subtle and partly caused by demographic realities; all three have lost population over the past decade, and the drop from nine to eight districts means that ideal population has increased. Those two factors combined mean that the three districts must expand geographically.

The Republican plan bleeds black voters — whose registration leans heavily Democratic — out of Perkins' district by transferring six precincts into Coleman's district. Three of them have large black majorities. The district represented by Alston grows west and picks up five racially mixed precincts. The district currently represented by Bruce Davis compensates for a loss of black population in High Point by growing into Greensboro. That is a feature of all proposed plans that meet population-balance requirements, including the one put forward by Alston.

The NAACP press release contains two assertions — one echoed by Brown — that are at odds with reality.

"These new districts pack African-Americans into three districts, limiting minority influence in other districts," the press release reads. Brown said in his comments, "They are stacking and packing minority districts...." The term "packing" suggests that the percentage of black population is being increased.

In considering whether the Republican plan increases the concentration of black population in the three minority-majority districts, I bench-marked black voting age population in the current district plan based on data provided by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. District 1, represented by Davis, has a black voting age population, or BVAP, of 47.7 percent. District 8, represented by Alston, has a BVAP of 62.0 percent. District 9, represented by Coleman, has a BVAP of 63.7 percent.

Based on statistics provided by the NC General Assembly, the new District 1, where Davis is the incumbent, has a BVAP of 50.7 percent. The new District 8, where Alston is the incumbent, has a BVAP of 59.9 percent. The new District 7, where Coleman is the incumbent, has a BVAP of 64.3 percent.

The greatest change, an increase of 3.0 percent, is seen in Davis' district, where the Voting Rights Act requires that black population be at least 50 percent to avoid retrogression. The other increase, in Coleman's district, is insignificant: a bump of 0.6 percent. In Alston's district, BVAP actually decreases by 2.1 percent.

The NAACP press release also states that the Republican plan "bunks white and black incumbents together creating the possibility that there will be no black representation in High Point."

That is not correct. Bruce Davis, a black High Point Democrat, is the only incumbent in the new District 1.

Brown and Coleman could not explain the basis of the assertion in the press release, but Coleman said, "Generally an incumbent finds it easy to win reelection, but if [Davis] leaves that district it is very possible that an African American will not be elected."

NAACP leaders are also criticizing the process by which the Republican redistricting plan was adopted, arguing in the press release that the plan "was enacted with discriminatory intent and will be retrogressive for minority voters. The reduction in representation, coupled with the non-participatory process by which this change in election method occurred, warrants an objection. We call on the US DOJ to reject the submitted plan as the jurisdiction has failed to show that the plan will not be retrogressive to African-American voters."