There: we're fixing it.
This is Part 4 of a 6-part series. Collect the whole set:
1 (10/27),
2 (10/28),
3 (10/29),
4 (10/30),
5 (11/1)
With its radically abbreviated early-voting period now 80% complete, North Carolina's new worst-in-the-nation voter suppression law - transparently intended to discourage minorities, workers, and youth from casting ballots - is now poised to go down in history as Tar Heel Republicans' worst boneheaded move since Jesse Helms' election to the U.S. Senate in 1973.
At the equivalent point in the disastrous 2010 mid-term election's early voting period, 742,000 ballots had been cast, 37% of them by Republicans. But what a difference four years (and a thoroughly disgusted electorate) can make: as of yesterday 879,000 early votes have been cast, just 31% of them by Republicans. Oops.
As I have previously argued in earlier installments of this series, North Carolina must be eternally grateful to its sons and daughters of color for this return to sanity. The charts below graphically drive home this point.
As of yesterday, Democrats have piled on an additional 82,000 votes over their total at this same point four years ago (a 24% improvement). Meanwhile (and not coincidentally) people of color - African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans - have thus far bested their performance over the last mid-term by a combined 94,000 ballots (the sum of the "Black" plus "Other" bars in the lower-right graph). African-Americans alone (who comprise 22% of the state's population) accounted for 71,000 of those (a 49% increase over 2010), while "Other" non-whites (13% of the state's population) contributed an additional 23,000 (a whopping 451% increase). If you believe (as studies indicate) that a substantial majority of non-white voters register Democratic, that means that the Dems' improved numbers this year are primarily due to the contributions of minorities.
When the Moral Mondays movement's father, NC NAACP's President, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, cried out across North Carolina "If we ever needed to vote, we sure do need to now!" people of color heard the call, and responded. Thank you so much, brothers and sisters.
If you haven't voted yet, what are you waiting for? It ain't over till it's over, and NC Republicans are scurrying furiously around the state right now, like roaches with the light on, frantically attempting to muster their laggard troops. Certainly this is a moment for hope, but it is no time for complacency. VOTE!
Let's not let Rev. Barber down now.
"If we ever needed to vote, we sure do need to now!"
This is Part 4 of a 6-part series. Collect the whole set:
1 (10/27),
2 (10/28),
3 (10/29),
4 (10/30),
5 (11/1)