Dallas Woodhouse: Disagreements aren’t conspiracies

Regarding the Aug. 24 Point of View “Haven’t black voters earned the right for this balderdash to end?” by Dr. Earl C. Johnson: First, I am not the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. I am the executive director of the NCGOP.

Nobody has “tried to hijack and bully local boards of elections to change early voting rules.” We are working in full transparency and full authority of the rules set by law, which were adopted by Democrats. Plans for early voting are just now being adopted. The plans previously adopted were thrown out when Democrats and their allies sued over North Carolina’s common sense voter ID law. While the 4th Circuit has temporarily blocked our voter ID law, the Justice Department agreed to let Texas implement a nearly identical law this year, and Wisconsin is implementing a much stricter version. You can kick and scream, but 4 out of 5 people agree that we should have voter ID to verify people before they cast votes.

Gov. Pat McCrory did nothing to “stack” control of county elections boards. By law, the governor’s party appoints two of the three members of the local boards of elections, and it has been this way for years. The governor does not appoint local boards of elections; the party does. The governor does appoint three of the five members of the State Board of Elections upon our recommendation.

My written correspondence simply asked the local boards of elections to consider our point of view, which we feel best serves the public, candidates and election staff.

Does anybody think that Democrats did not select early voting sites and set hours to advantage their voters over Republicans? We are just attempting to rebalance the scales. We fully support every legal voter being able to cast a ballot, according to clearly defined and fair rules enforced equally. Partisan Republicans and partisan Democrats disagree about Sunday voting, but partisan disagreements are not conspiracies.

The length limit was waived to permit a fuller response to the POV.

This story was originally published August 27, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Dallas Woodhouse: Disagreements aren’t conspiracies."