Making it plain in NC: Suppress the vote

The legality of North Carolina’s voter ID law – thrown out as discriminatory by a federal appeals court – may have to be decided by the Supreme Court. But comments by two North Carolina GOP officials have seriously undermined the Republican argument that the law should be upheld as a “common sense” effort to prevent voter fraud and reduce the costs of holding elections.

First there was the memo from Dallas Woodhouse, the state GOP’s executive director, urging the GOP majorities on county boards of elections to curb early voting with “party line” rules. Now it has come to light, though he marked it “confidential,” that Garry Terry, chair of the GOP’s 1st Congressional District, told county election board members they “are expected to act within the law and in the best interest of the party.” Terry said, “We will never discourage anyone from voting but none of us have any obligation in any shape, form or fashion to help the Democrats win this election.”

Terry suggested GOP-run boards of elections should limit early voting, including Sunday voting. African-Americans who tend to support Democrats find Sundays popular because they sometimes go vote from churches in “souls to the polls” programs.

The Woodhouse and Terry memos will make it more difficult to argue that the voter ID law was not intended to hold down the votes of African-Americans likely to support Democrats. Suppressing those votes is exactly what Terry and Woodhouse told local boards to do.

This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Making it plain in NC: Suppress the vote."