The Republican-dominated North Carolina legislature passed several laws this year designed to reduce election turnout among traditionally Democratic voters. And North Carolinians are fighting back. Among them are students, many of whom have just become or soon will become old enough to vote for the first time.
The state election board is taking up three complaint cases Tuesday afternoon, with students from NCPIRG, Common Cause, Ignite NC, NCSU Student Power Union, Democracy NC and Rock the Vote on hand to make their voices heard. Among them is Jarius Page, a junior at Saint Augustine University: "We have a voice in our community, and it's important that we be heard, because it's our future. I believe that we should have a say."
The cases:
• Montravias King, an Elizabeth City State University student disqualified from seeking a city council seat, is fighting a ruling by the Republican-controlled Pasquotank County Board of Elections. In an August decision, the eastern North Carolina county’s board upheld a challenge by Richard “Pete” Gilbert, the county’s Republican Party chairman, claiming King could not use his on-campus dorm address to establish residency in a county where he had been registered to vote for four years.
Clare Barnett, the attorney from the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice representing King, argues that there is a long-established right of college students to vote in their college communities. Under equal protection principles of the Constitution, Barnett argues, college students cannot be treated differently from other voters.
• The Watauga County Board of Elections in Boone voted to close an early voting and general election polling place at Appalachian State University. The county board, with Republicans in control, limited early voting to one site in Boone. The board also combined three precincts into one, creating the state’s third-largest voting precinct at a site that has only 35 parking spaces to accommodate the 9,300 voters. The site, according to students, is about a mile from campus on a road with no sidewalks
These actions all have the same intent as most of the overall changes in North Carolina's voter laws enacted this year: Shaving a few points off the Democratic turnout. In close races, that's all that is needed. Combined with radical gerrymandering, North Carolina Republicans hope to maintain political control in a state that has been trending Democratic. And they may be able to do that for several years.
But there is a silver lining in the GOP's shenanigans. They are turning off independents and fueling a growing opposition among Democrats. That, together with changing demographics, including an influx of Latinos, means a move toward remaking North Carolina as a purple and ultimately blue state.
Here is a livestream of the meeting.