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