Opinion

Editorial: Expand voting opportunities, don't limit them

Friday, May 7, 2021 -- Legislators should be exploring ways to build on the extraordinary effort and success of the 2020 general election turnout. They should be devoting their energies toward doing even more so every qualified citizen is registered and all those legal voters are easily able to cast ballots and have them properly counted.

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CBC Editorial: Friday, May 7, 2021; Editorial #8666
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company.
North Carolina just experienced the most successful election – in terms of voter participation and administration – ever. So, why are the General Assembly’s leaders obsessed with fixing problems that didn’t occur and not with finding ways to build on what’s worked so well?

This nation was founded 245 years ago under a simple proposition: citizens should pick the people who govern them.

That basic premise doesn’t seem good enough for the legislature’s leaders. They want to be picking the folks they want voting.  They’ve done it by extreme gerrymandering.  Now they want to do it by engineering when people can vote and by placing limits on the kinds of resources that state and local elections officials can draw upon to accommodate voters in casting their ballots.
The latest approach is to curtail when mail-in absentee ballots must be received by local boards of elections. Current state law requires any mail-in ballots to be postmarked on Election Day AND be received by the local board of elections within three days – unless they are sent from those in the military service or overseas. Those ballots must also be postmarked on Election Day but can be received up to when the local board completes it canvass of all votes – generally about week to 10 days after Election Day.  (During the 2020 elections amid the current COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about the abilities of the Postal Service led to the extension for receipt of all mail in ballots – a move approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.)

Now, the folks who run the legislature noticed that 45% of the nearly 1.1 million North Carolinians who voted by mail were Democrats compared to a mere 21% being Republicans. Now they want to command that ALL mail-in ballots must be received ON election day.  The impact would be significant.  They really think they’d be curtailing Democratic votes.  But the reality is that there’s no telling which voters cast ballots when.

What we do know is, if that plan was in effect in the last election, 11,635 mail-in ballots cast on or before Election Day would have been tossed. That’s like dumping every ballot in Anson County or in Yancey County into the trash. Those votes would have been about enough to change the outcome in the statewide races for Supreme Court Chief Justice or Attorney General.

It is an arbitrary and nonsensical (unless the motive is to rig the vote) move. It is not about prevention of voter fraud or other election manipulation antics.  In fact, it very much appears to the contrary.

Does the state Revenue Department or the IRS penalize taxpayers who mail their returns on the tax deadline but are received by the government after that?

There is no reason to set this date other than to deny some voters a chance to cast ballots. Votes aren’t officially counted for several days after Election Day – with the official canvass.  The REAL votes for president aren’t cast until the Electoral College meets on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, as set by federal law.

Coupled with this effort to suppress voter participation is a move to ban state and local election boards from accepting non-governmental grant funds. The backers suggested, without evidence, that the money was used in get-out-the vote efforts.  In fact, state and local boards used the money to accommodate voters only when they GOT to the polls to vote.

The grant funds were critical to provide additional staff at polling places assuring necessary health precautions and social distancing as well as stocking the sites with plenty of protective masks, sanitizers and single-use pens for safe voting.

More North Carolinians voted, even amid the very real health concerns and logistic challenges, than ever. Why, other than seeking unnecessary and inappropriate partisan advantage, are our legislative leaders so focused on making voting more difficult?  Stop.

Legislators should be exploring ways to build on the extraordinary effort and success of the 2020 general election turnout. They should be devoting their energies toward doing even more so every qualified citizen is registered and all those legal voters are easily able to cast ballots and have them properly counted.

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