EE_
13th August 2013, 02:41 AM
This sure has the Libs panties in a bunch (or boxers if lesbians)
Sounds like less votes for Hillary to be Presbian in 2016?
North Carolina: voter ID becomes law
Republican governor signs bill that requires photo evidence at polling booths, which critics say targets Democrat supporters
Associated Press in Charlotte
theguardian.com, Monday 12 August 2013 22.19 EDT
North Carolina's governor has quietly signed a measure into law that overhauls the state's election laws to require government-issued photo IDs at the polls and shorten early voting, moves that drew stinging criticism and threats of legal action from a leading civil rights organisation and other groups.
The American Civil Liberties Union joined two other groups in announcing they were filing a lawsuit against key parts of the package, hours after Republican Governor Pat McCrory issued a statement that he had signed it without a ceremony and without journalists present.
Republicans lawmakers who backed the measure said it was meant to prevent voter fraud, which they allege is both rampant and undetected in North Carolina. Independent voting rights groups joined Democrats and libertarians in suggesting the true goal was to suppress voter turnout, especially among traditional Democratic constituencies such as black people, the young, the elderly and the poor.
"It is a trampling on the blood, sweat and tears of the martyrs black and white who fought for voting rights in this country," said the Reverend William Barber, president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, a leading civil rights group. "It puts McCrory on the wrong side of history."
North Carolina, a state with a past history of centrist politics, has drawn national attention since the Republican-led legislature that took power in 2010 pushed through the election law changes in the final days of the 2013 session.
On Monday the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the North Carolina election law amounted to "the greatest hits of voter suppression". She addressed voting rights during a speech to a meeting of a national lawyers' group, the American Bar Association, in San Francisco.
Passage of the North Carolina measure followed the US supreme court's 5-4 decision in June to effectively halt the enforcement provisions of the landmark Voting Rights Act, enacted to outlaw racial discrimination against voters. North Carolina was among the states, mostly in the south, that were subjected to special federal enforcement, with requirements to get approval in advance before they could make even minor changes to voting laws.
That high court ruling cleared the way for North Carolina's new Republican leadership to enact voting law changes without prior federal approval.
Barber called the Republican-backed measure one of the worst attempts in the nation at voting reform and said the NAACP considered the package an all-out attack on existing laws long seen as a model of voter participation.
The package would take effect in 2016. It requires voters to present government-issued photo IDs at the polls and shortens early voting by a week, from 17 days to 10. It also ends same-day registration and a high school civics program that registers tens of thousands of students to vote each year in advance of their 18th birthday.
Critics said disclosure requirements intended to make clear who is underwriting campaign ads also would be weakened and noted that political parties would be enabled to take in unlimited corporate donations. The cap on individual campaign donations also would rise from $4,000 to $5,000.
Other states with Republican-controlled legislatures have enacted similar voter identification requirements. Supporters say the measures are intended to restrict voter fraud. Opponents say they are calculated to suppress turnout by reliable Democratic constituencies who are less likely to have government-issued photo IDs.
McCrory, who announced the signing in a statement, appeared in a 95-second message on YouTube giving his reasons and focusing solely on the voter identification component. The first-term governor cited laws that require people to present photo IDs to board airplanes, cash a cheque or apply for government benefits. "Our right to vote deserves similar protection," McCrory said in the video.
He accused opponents of the measure of "using scare tactics" and engaging "in divisive politics".
The Democratic attorney general Roy Cooper was among those who had urged a veto. "This bill was much more than just voter ID," Cooper said. "There were dozens of reasons to veto this bad elections bill with its restrictions on voting, more corporate campaign money and reduced public disclosure being just a few."
The US attorney general, Eric Holder, had said in July that the US justice department would challenge a new voter identification law in Texas and suggested it was closely watching developments in North Carolina and other states.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/13/north-carolina-voter-id-law
Sounds like less votes for Hillary to be Presbian in 2016?
North Carolina: voter ID becomes law
Republican governor signs bill that requires photo evidence at polling booths, which critics say targets Democrat supporters
Associated Press in Charlotte
theguardian.com, Monday 12 August 2013 22.19 EDT
North Carolina's governor has quietly signed a measure into law that overhauls the state's election laws to require government-issued photo IDs at the polls and shorten early voting, moves that drew stinging criticism and threats of legal action from a leading civil rights organisation and other groups.
The American Civil Liberties Union joined two other groups in announcing they were filing a lawsuit against key parts of the package, hours after Republican Governor Pat McCrory issued a statement that he had signed it without a ceremony and without journalists present.
Republicans lawmakers who backed the measure said it was meant to prevent voter fraud, which they allege is both rampant and undetected in North Carolina. Independent voting rights groups joined Democrats and libertarians in suggesting the true goal was to suppress voter turnout, especially among traditional Democratic constituencies such as black people, the young, the elderly and the poor.
"It is a trampling on the blood, sweat and tears of the martyrs black and white who fought for voting rights in this country," said the Reverend William Barber, president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, a leading civil rights group. "It puts McCrory on the wrong side of history."
North Carolina, a state with a past history of centrist politics, has drawn national attention since the Republican-led legislature that took power in 2010 pushed through the election law changes in the final days of the 2013 session.
On Monday the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the North Carolina election law amounted to "the greatest hits of voter suppression". She addressed voting rights during a speech to a meeting of a national lawyers' group, the American Bar Association, in San Francisco.
Passage of the North Carolina measure followed the US supreme court's 5-4 decision in June to effectively halt the enforcement provisions of the landmark Voting Rights Act, enacted to outlaw racial discrimination against voters. North Carolina was among the states, mostly in the south, that were subjected to special federal enforcement, with requirements to get approval in advance before they could make even minor changes to voting laws.
That high court ruling cleared the way for North Carolina's new Republican leadership to enact voting law changes without prior federal approval.
Barber called the Republican-backed measure one of the worst attempts in the nation at voting reform and said the NAACP considered the package an all-out attack on existing laws long seen as a model of voter participation.
The package would take effect in 2016. It requires voters to present government-issued photo IDs at the polls and shortens early voting by a week, from 17 days to 10. It also ends same-day registration and a high school civics program that registers tens of thousands of students to vote each year in advance of their 18th birthday.
Critics said disclosure requirements intended to make clear who is underwriting campaign ads also would be weakened and noted that political parties would be enabled to take in unlimited corporate donations. The cap on individual campaign donations also would rise from $4,000 to $5,000.
Other states with Republican-controlled legislatures have enacted similar voter identification requirements. Supporters say the measures are intended to restrict voter fraud. Opponents say they are calculated to suppress turnout by reliable Democratic constituencies who are less likely to have government-issued photo IDs.
McCrory, who announced the signing in a statement, appeared in a 95-second message on YouTube giving his reasons and focusing solely on the voter identification component. The first-term governor cited laws that require people to present photo IDs to board airplanes, cash a cheque or apply for government benefits. "Our right to vote deserves similar protection," McCrory said in the video.
He accused opponents of the measure of "using scare tactics" and engaging "in divisive politics".
The Democratic attorney general Roy Cooper was among those who had urged a veto. "This bill was much more than just voter ID," Cooper said. "There were dozens of reasons to veto this bad elections bill with its restrictions on voting, more corporate campaign money and reduced public disclosure being just a few."
The US attorney general, Eric Holder, had said in July that the US justice department would challenge a new voter identification law in Texas and suggested it was closely watching developments in North Carolina and other states.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/13/north-carolina-voter-id-law