One of the longstanding arguments against voter ID laws has been that there is no history of significant elections fraud. But advocates of North Carolina’s new elections law have been making their way across the state to county elections boards to try to make the case that fraud has existed but has been inadequately investigated. Such allegations have been lodged in Pembroke, a Robeson County town, where the state Board of Elections recently found so many “irregularities” in the November municipal elections that a new vote was ordered and a probe called for by the local district attorney. There also is an effort underway by the Republican-led board in Forsyth County to push out the elections director, an endeavor being fought by the director and one board member. A ruling from the state elections director could come any day.
The claims and questions come as county elections boards are adjusting to sweeping leadership changes made in 2012 after Republicans won control of the governor’s office after two decades of Democratic rule.
The assertions also come as lawsuits in federal and state court challenge the constitutionality of new voting measures pushed through in 2012 by Republicans dominating both chambers of the General Assembly and governor’s office in North Carolina for the first time in more than a century.
Full Article: North Carolina’s Controversial Voting Laws Attract Protests, Support.