Solving problems that don’t exist
North Carolina will soon be nearly free of voter fraud.
In fact, it’s always been nearly free of voter fraud.
Almost seven million North Carolinians cast votes during the 2012 general election.
Of those seven million votes, only 0.00174 percent of them were suspected of being cast fraudulently.
So, Republican legislators in North Carolina leaped into action.
“Enough of this non-existent ‘voter fraud,'” they must’ve declared.
They, along with North Carolina’s Republican governor, Pat McCrory, have written, then signed a brand new voter ID law.
The Tar Heel state is now safe from a problem that didn’t even exist.
But therein lies another problem.
The law is a thinly veiled effort to dissuade minority and young voters (who are increasingly voting Democratic) from expressing their constitutionally protected voting rights.
Where have we seen this kind of thing before. Oh, that’s right, North Carolina, and in many of the southern states that had historically used whatever device they could to prevent some Americans from enjoying one of the fundamental fruits of Democracy.
Republicans across the country, who seem to be so obsessed with the evils of “government overreach,” see absolutely nothing wrong with trying to insert the government, where none is really needed.
Nationwide since 2000, there have only been 10 cases of documented (the kind that would have been prevented by voter ID’s), in-person voter fraud.
Added up, that means there has only been one case of voter fraud for every 15 million votes cast.
So it really doesn’t make much sense for Republicans to enlist government agencies to ensure the “sanctity” of the vote, unless they have a hidden agenda.
It’s something that’s as baffling as those 12 Republican efforts in the U.S. Congress to “defund” that social services group ACORN since 2011, even though the group was disbanded in 2010.
Earlier this year, North Carolina’s Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, claimed, “We call this restoring confidence in elections. There is some voter fraud, but that’s not the primary reason for doing this.”
Obviously Tillis has never heard of that old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
But Tillis and his Republican colleagues seem to think they have a way out of their self-imposed conundrum.
He added, “There are a lot of people who are just concerned with the potential risk of fraud.” (And the new law) “would make nearly three-fourths of the population more comfortable and more confident when they go to the polls.”
Inside that massive lump of political gobble goop, you’ll find the words “potential risk of fraud.”
Potential what?
They’re passing laws that could lead to some people having great difficulty voting based on the “potential risk of fraud?”
That’s like arresting people based on their potential to commit littering.
“Sir, I’m afraid I’m going to have to place you under arrest. I think you have the potential to throw that piece of paper on the ground. You have the right to remain silent…”
That new North Carolina law cuts down the days for early voting from 17 to 10 days. It also does away with same-day registration and voting.
And if a young voter (either 16 or 17 years of age) would like to pre-register for an election that would take past their 18th birthday, that, too, has been disallowed under the new law.
It’s no wonder that several groups have already threatened to mount court challenges to the new law.
North Carolina’s voter ID law, like Pennsylvania’s, has already ignited court challenges, with the threats of even more court challenges to come.
Also like Pennsylvania, North Carolina is among 13 states which have enacted voter ID laws since 2010.
Ironically, earlier this year, the Chairman of the Republican National Convention, Reince Preibus, released an autopsy about what went wrong during the 2012 election.
The report concluded that the party should make a more concerted effort to attract minority voters. I think Republicans call that “minority outreach.”
Republicans down in North Carolina are doing their part.
If “minority outreach” ends with a slap in the face.
Uniontown native Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net