Editorials: Shorter early voting costlier? Just say no! | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper

If all other reasons for pulling the plug on a bill that would shrink the early voting period fail to persuade N.C. lawmakers, this one should do the trick. The bill, which would deprive voters of the flexibility to cast ballots during an extended early voting period before Election Day, would increase the cost of elections.

You read that right – increase the cost.

That’s what Gary Bartlett, executive director of the state elections board, said in a memo last week. Mecklenburg County Elections Director Michael Dickerson made similar comments. He said 45,000 county voters voted in the first week of early voting here in Mecklenburg County in 2008. If there is a shorter voting period in 2012, he might ask his board to open 30 voting sites, 10 more than in 2008, to avoid longer lines.

Editorials: Jim Buchanan: Raleigh does voters no favors trying to curb early voting | The Asheville Citizen-Times

It’s been a busy couple of weeks on the election front — specifically, the voting front — down in Raleigh and at other points on the compass.

The NC House, in a 60-58 vote, OK’d a bill to shorten the early voting period in the state. Bad, no good, horrible call, in my view. It’s pitched as a cost-saving move, but it just looks like a formula for creating bottlenecks, aggravation and frustrated voters. A similar measure in the NC Senate goes further, ending Sunday voting and registration of new voters at the polls.

North Carolina: Election Bills give 2012 edge to GOP in North Carolina | NewsObserver.com

North Carolina had the closest governor’s race in the country in 2008, and only Missouri had a closer presidential contest. Both went the Democrats’ way, in large part because of the unprecedented effort in the state by the campaign of presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Obama campaign had a paid staff of 400 with 47 storefront offices.

The effort included a major push to sign up voters early and get them to the polls – particularly African-Americans and college students of all colors. But the Republican legislature is intent on throwing a wrench into the Democratic machine to make sure there is no repeat next year.

North Carolina: Shorter early voting costlier | The Charlotte Observer

A bill that would shorten North Carolina’s early voting period would create longer lines at the polls and increase the cost of elections, the executive director of the state elections board said Wednesday.

Gary Bartlett’s comments came in a memo shortly after the House narrowly passed the measure that would reduce the current 21/2-week early voting period by a week, even while opening polls for a second Saturday before the election. The Republican-backed bill passed 60-58, largely along party lines.

North Carolina: State Senate eyes NC voter ID bill – $3.1 million estimate | Burlington Times News

A Senate panel on Tuesday took a look at a bill that would require North Carolina voters to show a photo ID when they go to the polls to cast their ballots.

“I think it does ensure integrity in our elections process,” Sen. Debbie Clary, R-Cleveland, told a Senate Judiciary Committee. “It ensures that you are who you say you are when you come to vote.” Clary said the bill mirrors a Georgia voter ID law. … Clary said she did not have complete information on how much it would cost the state to implement such a program. She said preliminary cost estimates were around $3.1 million.

North Carolina: Bid to cut North Carolina early-voting has political tinge | Connecticut Post

Politically tinged legislation to cut North Carolina’s early voting period by a week hinges on Democratic worries they’ll lose voters and Republican insistence the shorter time is more efficient. The state House is scheduled to vote on the measure Monday. A tentative vote last week passed by a close margin, meaning a veto by Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue could block the measure.

More than 2.4 million voters — 55 percent of the electorate — cast ballots at one-stop sites in the 2008 general election marked by Barack Obama’s presidential victory. The first Democrat to receive North Carolina’s electoral votes in 32 years was powered in large part by a 300,000-vote advantage over Republican John McCain during early voting.

North Carolina: Special Elections and Military Voting Bills passed in North Carolina House | Sun Journal

Bills requiring local special elections to be held on general election days and bringing military voting guidelines in line with national standards passed the House Monday night.

The special election date bill, sponsored by Harry Warren, requires special elections – such as bond referendums – to be held when voters would also be going to the polls on general election dates. The military absentee bill, sponsored by Rep. Grier Martin, D-Wake, would align North Carolina’s law with national standards. It would set standards for electronic transmission of ballots.

North Carolina: North Carolina House panel moves to cut early voting | WRAL.com

On a party-line vote, the House Elections committee voted today to shorten the early voting period from 18 days to 11 days. Early or “one-stop” voting has become increasingly popular over the past few years. A recent study by Catawba College professor Dr. Michael Bitzer found that 60% of the ballots cast in NC’s 2008 general election were cast before Election Day, up from 30% in 2004.

Bitzer also found Democrats were more likely to use early voting than Republicans. The NC Free Enterprise Foundation has a nice writeup here. “We’re not trying to do away with early voting in any way,” H658 sponsor Bert Jones, U-Rockingham, told the committee. “The question is, how many election days should we have in North Carolina?”

North Carolina: Cut to early voting advances in North Carolina House | JournalNow.com

North Carolina residents would have one week less to cast ballots before state and local elections in legislation narrowly approved by a House committee on Wednesday. Supporters said the proposal would save money, but opponents argue it would discourage citizens — particularly Democrats — from voting.The House Elections Committee voted 16-14 to delay the start of early voting from the third Thursday before an election to the second Thursday, curbing what’s been a popular method for casting ballots begun with the 2000 elections.

Rep. Bert Jones, the only unaffiliated member of the legislature and a primary bill sponsor, said the bill would save nearly $2,000 per one-stop voting site statewide and save more money for candidates who now must campaign to get people to the polls for up to 18 days. The bill would reduce that maximum to 11 days. He presented a chart showing relatively light turnout during the first current week of early voting since the 2008 primary.

North Carolina: North Carolina Lawyers Challenge Section 5 of Voting Rights Act in D.C. Circuit | The BLT

Lawyers for a group of North Carolina residents who favor nonpartisan municipal elections in their city urged a federal appeals court in Washington today to strike down the federal law the U.S. Justice Department enforced to block a referendum to change the city’s electoral scheme.

The city of Kinston, N.C., sought permission from the Justice Department to amend the city’s electoral system to a nonpartisan ballot. In August 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said the “elimination of party affiliation on the ballot will likely reduce the ability of blacks to elect candidates of their choice.” Kinston is more than 60% black.

Editorials: Chris Telesca: Budget puts N.C.’s elections at risk | NewsObserver.com

North Carolina currently ranks high in election integrity, but it wasn’t always so. Prior to 2000, we had no uniform standards for voting systems and election administration. Our 100 counties used 18 different types of voting machines, some nearly 40 years old. Four suppliers of the machines were no longer in business, maintenance was limited, vendor support was sparse and security was a joke.

Training for poll workers and election staff was disjointed and incomplete. All counties did their own thing with ballot printing, and few complied with federal laws and standards. So, in 2004, we had a Florida-style meltdown, with the loss of nearly 5,000 votes in Carteret County, machines crashing, votes missing or counted twice by accident, etc. These were largely systemic problems that came from not having or complying with standards for election integrity.

North Carolina: North Carolina Senate bill seeks to cripple one-stop early voting | The Wilmington Journal

A Republican-sponsored NC Senate bill, SB 657, has been introduced that, if enacted, would severely cripple the state’s One Stop Early Voting/Same-day Voter Registration law that helped President Barack Obama win North Carolina in 2008. Indeed, the bill would eliminate same-day registration, an important tool of voter empowerment for communities of color, proponents say.

The goal, critics say, is to make the 2012 presidential election harder for Obama and the Democrats to win. Coupled with GOP control of redistricting, and the party’s legislative push for voter ID which critics like the NC NAACP charge is an attempt at voter suppression of black and Hispanic voters, attorney Irving Joyner, chair of the NCNAACP’s Legal Redress Committee, says SB 657 must be opposed.

North Carolina: GOP proposal would cut a week from early voting | CharlotteObserver.com

Heading into a presidential election in which North Carolina could be pivotal, a new Republican-backed bill would curtail early voting in the state and bar new voters from registering at the polls. The Senate bill introduced last week would shrink the early-voting period by at least a week, end it on Sundays and stop so-called “same-day registration.”

“We were just trying to minimize the time early voting polls were open … so the expense is not so great for local election boards,” Sen. Jim Davis, a Macon County Republican who sponsored the bill, said Monday. “Everybody who wants to vote still can vote.” It’s unclear how much support the bill has, even among Republicans. The bill is still in a Senate committee and has a long way to go before it could become law.

North Carolina: Is that ID on the up and up? | News-Record.com

There was a lively discussion on our letters blog today about the proposed Voter ID bill. Supporters of the measure simply can’t understand why anyone would see a problem with requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls.

Joyce McCloy of the N.C. Coalition for Verified Voting didn’t weigh in there, but she forwarded some email correspondence she’s had with legislators. One question she asked was what mechanism the bill creates for election officials to verify whether the ID presented is legitimate. After all, the fake ID industry is thriving.

North Carolina: Photo requirement scrapped in North Carolina voter ID bill | ncnn.com

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North Carolina Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett)

Republican state lawmakers say they have removed the photo requirement from a bill that would make voters show ID in order to cast a ballot. The latest draft eliminates language that would require a photo ID. Instead, individuals would now be allowed to use a county-issued voter registration card or documents such as a utility bill or bank statement. Bill co-sponsor Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, said lawmakers have made great progress in working with all of the interested parties. “

We’ve tried to address those concerns to make sure that we can increase the amount of progress voters have in the elections process while at the same time making sure that everyone entitled to vote gets to vote.”

North Carolina: Proposed North Carolina Voter ID bill could be too costly | KTVD-TV

Legislative staff has come up with a non-partisan fiscal note on voter identification. On the high end, it shows the cost to the state could be two-and-a-half million dollars. But critics say that’s way under what other states have reported and isn’t close to what the actual cost may be. The fiscal note offers a range of what requiring voters to show identification at the polls could cost. On the low end the cost is almost $850,000, and on the high end, the cost is almost $2.5 million.

There are a lot of unknowns such as what it would cost counties. “What’s shocking about this estimate, it’s full of lines like ‘could not be determined,’ ‘could not be estimated,’ ‘was not included in this estimate,'” said Chris Kromm, Institute for Southern Studies.