Carolina Journal’s Barry Smith reports today on disturbing information about a possible plan to disrupt voting in North Carolina.
As early voting opens for the 2014 general election, an attorney representing the state in the lawsuit fighting state election law reforms is seeking further information regarding statements made earlier this month by the Rev. William Barber at the state NAACP convention.
The statements, according to a memo by Butch Bowers, indicate that Barber urged those attending the convention to take people who have not registered to vote to early voting sites and transport registered voters to their wrong precincts on election day. Both practices — same-day registration at early voting locations and out-of-precinct voting — were prohibited by the General Assembly’s 2013 election law.
Snip. And then:
Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, who helped author the state’s new voting laws, said he had heard reports of Barber’s comments. “If indeed, any group is more concerned with causing havoc to the election process than simply getting people registered to vote, I think that is extremely disingenuous and extremely inappropriate,” Lewis said.
Lewis said those moves, along with the late-breaking court orders, could create confusion at election time.
“I believe that is intended often to create confusion and uncertainty,” Lewis said. “It’s like my mom and dad always said, if you spend your time on how to do things right, you’d have a lot more success than if you tried to beat the system.”
The Bowers memo said that the comments were made Oct. 11 during the state NAACP’s convention in Fayetteville.
If true, this effort is reprehensible. Any effort to create problems is a disservice to every voter and minimizes the hard-fought and valiant efforts of those who, decades ago, fought very serious and very real discrimination at the ballot box. Sad.