NC election bill courts a Florida-like voting fiasco
Published July 30, 2013
By Justin Guillory, Progress North Carolina, Printed in News and Observer, July 29, 2013.
Here’s a piece of unsolicited advice for Gov. Pat McCrory. He ought to veto the so-called “Election Reform” bill before it blows up in his face. But he shouldn’t take my word for it. He should ask his colleague, the Republican governor of Florida.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott is well aware of what happens when you cut early voting and make it harder for your own residents to vote. In 2011, Florida’s Republican-dominated state legislature passed and Scott signed a bill that cut early voting from 14 days to eight and eliminated Sunday voting.
The result was a total debacle.
By cutting early voting, Florida Republicans did not decrease demand or enthusiasm for voting. All they did was compress millions of voters into a narrower voting window. With fewer days to vote early and without safeguards to keep the early voting sites open longer, the new law produced longer lines and increased waiting times at the polls.
On the last day of Early Voting in Florida in 2012, lines wrapped around buildings and snaked through parking lots. The lines stretched so long that people needed food, water and lawn chairs to rest while they waited. In some South Florida locations, many had to wait six hours before they could vote.
The last early vote in Palm Beach County was cast at 2:50 a.m., almost eight hours after the polling site closed.
Ultimately, the long lines damaged Florida’s reputation, the integrity of its electoral process and the reputation of Florida’s governor. The fiasco made national headlines, embarrassing the state and Scott. Once again, Florida became the butt of late-night comedians’ jokes for its failure to run an election worthy of a first-world nation.
According to an Ohio State University study, more than 200,000 Floridians saw the long lines on Election Day and gave up, never casting a ballot.
Most people would agree that exercising our constitutional right to vote doesn’t need to be effortless, but it also shouldn’t require bathroom breaks, a day off of work or paying for six hours of child care.
In fact, the blowback was so vehement that Scott changed course and backed an effort to restore early voting in Florida to 14 days. In May, Scott signed that legislation into law, saying, “Our ultimate goal must be to restore Floridians’ confidence in our election system. We need more early voting days.”
Now, North Carolina lawmakers are well aware of the debacle in Florida. During a House Elections Committee hearing in April, a Florida elections official came to Raleigh to testify. When asked about Florida’s experience with reducing early voting, he simply said, “It was a nightmare.”
Despite the warnings, the N.C. General Assembly seems all to eager to repeat Florida’s mistakes. House Bill 589 will cut early voting by a week, end same-day registration, eliminate Sunday voting and implement a tedious voter ID requirement – all of which will increase lines and waiting times at polling sites.
McCrory should see this train wreck coming from a mile away.
While other controversial elements of HB 589 affect limited portions of North Carolina’s population – such as requiring voter ID or eliminating high school voter registration drives – longs lines at the polls affect everyone: Republicans and Democrats.
Early voting is popular. Fifty-six percent of 2012 voters in North Carolina chose to vote early. Seventy-five percent say they’ve used early voting in the past.
By wrecking such a popular program, McCrory will face the same wrath that Scott faced in Florida. Whatever Florida Republicans thought they were gaining by cutting back on early voting ultimately wasn’t worth it.
But for McCrory, the decision is less about naked political calculation and more about what will protect the integrity of our democratic process.
For all the bluster about voter fraud, nothing will damage the integrity of our elections more than for North Carolina to become the next Florida.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/29/3067756/nc-election-bill-courts-a-florida.html#storylink=cpy
July 30, 2013 at 2:46 pm
dj anderson says:
This, to me, is just more 'sky is falling' talk and useless. I'm not a republican, but they won the election and there are consequences for losing. Democrats are going to have to change to win again, but really, the sky is not falling.
First and foremost, early voting and unquestioned absentee ballot are still allowed and happening in NC. You don't need either address or ID to get an absentee ballot, just draw a map to the bridge you live under if need be. People can easily vote if they want to, plan for it, and do something ahead of time instead of the last minute, so really, the sky is not falling.
Check my facts, but Virginia and South Carolina vote without early voting, so counter Florida with that.
NC until recently voted without "going Sunshine State" without early voting, or Sunday voting.
I don't anticipate a problem, but if there is one, it will be from people having learned to wait until the last minute to go to the poll or register as if voting was not important enough to plan for.
All this crying and hand wringing over not having our way anymore is not productive.
Let me go on about other pieces of the falling sky.
Teachers are going to make the same next year as last year, so don't say slashed. Good teachers have nothing to worry about over tenure b/c there are not enough good teachers, but really, the sky is not falling.
More money is budgeted for Education this year than last, tho per pupil spending is down $400, but really, the sky is not falling.
Poor kid in poor performing schools now have a choice to get $4000 to attend a private school of choice. I can't say that's a bad thing for the students, but maybe a loss of power for the local school system with a low scoring school, but really, the sky is not falling.
Almost everyone has ID, and the few who don't can vote absentee, which is free and easy and doesn't require ID, and if they can get to the poll, they can get to the DMV to get the free ID, too, but really, the sky is not falling.
The 500,000 in NC not getting Medicaid extended to them will be next year just as they were this year. Not taking the federal money makes no sense to me, for the Federal government already owes 16 trillion so they can print or borrow more, but really, the sky is not falling.
Yes, NC owes over 2 billion for having extended unemployment benefits, ending of extended unemployment benefits is tough, but they were going to end at the end of they year anyway, so I guess, or hope, folks will get by without the money. My neighbor got a job he didn't want to take. I don't see why the Republicans didn't just let it go on the last 6 months, but they could be right and I could be wrong. We will see. The economy in rural NC is still bad, but even with lesser, shorter benefits, the sky is not falling for most of us. I'm giving to the Salvation Army.
I'm against the death penalty, and repeal of the law might make executions start again, but no time soon, so there's plenty of road blocks left and time to change the capital punishment law, but really, the sky is not falling even there. Death row inmates, keep hope alive.
I don't have a gun, but the increased carry law doesn't worry me. I treat everyone as if they have a gun, and hope they do the same for me. Gun laws Again, for me, the sky isn't falling.
Since I'm against abortion on demand, and despite feeling the law was, like the Racial Justice Act to capital punishment -- a ploy to make it harder -- I can live with the change, and the abortion doctor will make less money and maybe can't work in more than one town per day, but like the one clinic not affected, the other five can upgrade and charge more or make less, but really, the sky is not falling.
Redistricting is pure Karma coming back on Democrats who are reaping what they have long sown. Let's hope the Republicans & Democrats agree to make redistricting after the 2020 census fair to all parties and voters alike. The sky didn't fall all those years the Democrats had their way, and Republicans were elected despite redistricting in the end. Let's hope we aren't out of power for over a century like they were.
The great anxiety starts to fade away when looked at piece by piece and remembering that Democrats are now living what Republicans have lived with for way over a century. If they can do it, we can too, for really, the sky is not falling, just cloudy after the storm.
