Ed Block: GOP still trying to suppress voting

Regarding the Aug. 18 news article “ ‘Party line changes’ urged to limit early voting hours”: The Republican Party’s latest effort to suppress the vote in North Carolina by way of an email to county election boards from its executive director Dallas Woodhouse is outrageous.

The Republican excuse of protection from “voter fraud” is nothing but a hoax to keep minorities, students, the elderly and the poor from the polls.

In reality, what Woodhouse thinks he’s trying to protect are the Republican candidates on the ballot. What Woodhouse fails to understand is that voting is a constitutional right, not a privilege.

Encouraging Boards of Election to minimize early voting hours and days and limit early voting locations is an attempt to manipulate the voting process to achieve perceived partisan goals.

The “Republican point of view,” as Woodhouse described it, is unfortunately to reduce turnout as much as possible. He is requesting Republican BOEs to adopt tactics which he thinks will limit Democratic voter turnout. This is shameful.

All North Carolinians should be encouraged to vote and given every opportunity to do so. Sometimes I wonder whether the Republican Party in North Carolina really understands that we actually live in a democracy.

This story was originally published August 20, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Ed Block: GOP still trying to suppress voting."