At a Friday press conference, “Governor” Pat McCrory announced that he will sign the controversial “voter ID” bill into law, even though he hadn’t even read one of the bill’s crucial components – and showed a pretty weak grasp of state policy on voter registration. By the time the bill finished snaking its way through the General Assembly, it had morphed from a mere voter ID law into an all-purpose vote-suppression campaign, making far-reaching changes to the way North Carolinians may or may not vote, and earning nationwide notice as the country’s most suppressive voting law.
- Flickr (Creative Commons)
McCrory praised the bill to reporters as just the perfect thing to “restore faith in elections.” However, when an AP reporter asked the guv how three specific parts of the bill would help prevent voter fraud, McCrory scrambled for answers. In addition to requiring a government-issued photo-ID card, the bill also ends same-day voter registration, cuts early voting by a week, and abolishes a program that let high school students register to vote in advance of their 18th birthdays.
First of all, said McCrory, same-day registration had “potential for abuse,” and added, “There is plenty of opportunity for voter registration – online, offline, through many methods.” Trouble is, North Carolina has never allowed online voter registration. As Rick Perry famously said, “Oops.” When asked again how ending the provision ending pre-registration by those under 18 would prevent voter fraud, McCrory replied, “I don’t know enough, I’m sorry, I haven’t seen that part of the bill.” As dad used to say, “Well, isn’t that just great?” The governor, someone that normal people might assume knows a whole lot about the ins and outs of governance in his state, holds a press conference to voice support for a highly controversial bill – and he doesn’t even know exactly what’s in it, nor that North Carolina doesn’t offer online registration. Deep sigh.
It was a hell of an eventful week in Raleigh, and McCrory’s disjointed press conference topped it off. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice and voting-rights groups are probably going to file federal lawsuits under provisions of the Voting Rights Act which were unaffected by the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the VRA. That suit will be in addition to suits being prepared to take the Charlotte airport back and restore women’s full reproductive rights. Sailing above the fray, meanwhile, the governor, through his press conference, successfully reaffirmed his current roles in state government as head cheerleader, Top Smiley Suit, and winner of the state Along-for-the-Ride award.
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2013.
Gov. McCrory didn’t have to read the bill. Art Pope told him to sign it, that is all that he needs to know.
The fact that they said that things have changed in the South and protection of minorities is no longer required shows just how insulated from reality the justices are.
One term and done.
Oh how the useful idiots so soon forget: “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it”. Obama doesn’t know anything about anything but he robo signs bills left and right.
Dear Not so reasonable man:
That quote of yours is a right wing distortion of what the Speaker said. The House had passed HR3200, a much better bill than the one that actually became law. Harry Reid and the Senate had passed the bill that eventually became law. Most members of the House didn’t like the Senate bill. The normal procedure is for a committee to reconcile the two bills that are then just passed by both houses. That was not possible, though, because the Republicans who were doing everything in their power to see that NO medical bill passed, had gotten one more Senate seat, so the compromise bill could not be passed. The speaker was telling her followers that the only way to pass ANY law, was therefore to pass the Senate bill as the Senate passed it. She said “let’s just pass it then read it and see how we can fix it”. The fault was clearly that of the Republicans who were blocking the compromise bill.
But you just keep mindlessly repeating the Glenn Beck distortion as if it is fact.
Actually DLP, that is the EXACT quote of Pelosi’s. It will take you about 1 minute to find the clip on the Net. NOT ONE SINGLE DEMOCRAT READ THE BILL BEFORE SIGNING AND OBAMA DIDN’T READ A WORD OF IT. So go get bent.