For fair voting
Published September 1, 2017
Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, August 30, 2017.
When Republican Gov. Pat McCrory was in power, the legislature controlled by his party had no problem with existing law that allows the governor to largely control election boards. But after he lost re-election, GOP legislators passed a law reversing that. That law subverts the will of the voters who chose a new governor, as we hope the state Supreme Court, which heard arguments in the matter Monday, will realize.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s lawyers told the seven-member court that the legislature violated the constitution’s separation of powers requirement by passing a law to reshape the state elections board in ways that entrench Republican advantage, Emery P. Dalesio of The Associated Press reported. The AP reported that the law “converts the State Board of Elections and all 100 county elections boards from having a majority of Democrats on panels with odd numbers of members to having boards with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. The law also prevents the state’s top elections executive, a Republican, from being removed from her job for years. It also directs a Republican to be the chairman of the new state elections board with broader scope in even-numbered years, when national and statewide contests generate the most voter interest.”
If the law is upheld, Republican appointees could hold sway in changes in policy, from pursuing campaign finance investigations to selecting sites for a county’s early voting centers or deciding whether to expand polling hours or the number of Saturdays on which people could cast ballots.
Republicans claim the even number promotes bipartisanship. But an evenly-split committee is also more likely to experience gridlock, which doesn’t benefit anyone.
Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina told the Journal’s editorial board Monday: “Most important, this case is not simply about the powers of the executive versus legislative branches. Fundamentally, it’s about the power of the people to have their votes count, to vote in or out an administration. Put another way: Can a political party with a temporary majority in the legislature enact laws to permanently ‘entrench’ their control over the elections system, despite what the voters say?”
We hope the court will realize that’s not right.
http://www.journalnow.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-for-fair-voting/article_e7cdf53f-9ab7-5641-b16e-196b300b2e81.html
