STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 11-12-20
122ND ANNIVERSARY OF 1898 COMMEMORATED
[WILMINGTON] On Nov. 10th - one week after the contentious 2020 elections, the port city commemorated the 122nd anniversary of the event that will forever define Wilmington - the 1898 race massacre, the only recorded coup de’tat in American history. It was just after Election Day 122 years ago that armed white supremacists began slaughtering African -Americans throughout the city, chasing out of their homes and businesses, confiscating property. White supremacists then took over Wilmington City government at gunpoint. This past week, a series of events and commemorations took place to note that important date in the community’s history. There are many who wonder, given the current uncertain atmosphere in the nation, whether the 1898 race massacre could happen again, this time with followers of Donald Trump, angry with his losing the election? And if it could be more widespread.
SIX STATEWIDE RACES TO BE CALLED WITH FINAL COUNTS
[RALEIGH] Today was the last day that all 100 North Carolina county boards of elections and to collect mail-in absentee ballots postmarked by or before Nov. 3rd to finalize the totals per race. Per last counts, there were 27, 500 absentee ballots accepted after Election Day, and 23, 091 provisional ballots that have qualified to be counted. The race margins from Nov. 3rd are expected to tighten for several races, especially the tight contest for NC Supreme Court Chief Justice. On Tuesday, Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham formally conceded his race to incumbent Senator Thomas Tillis after those numbers were clarified.
REPUBLICANS DEMANDING TO KNOW NUMBER OF OUTSTANDING ABSENTEE BALLOT REQUESTS
[RALEIGH] The GOP is demanding that the state Board of Election release data on how many people requested an absentee ballot that actually voted in person. County boards of election are slow to respond because they are required by law to monitor the process cautiously. Certifying election results begin Nov. 13th.
-30-
JOYNER SAYS CELEBRATE QUICK,
‘CAUSE MUCH REMAINS TO BE DONE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
A veteran political analyst says while African-Americans have much to celebrate in the electoral defeat of Donald Trump, there is still much to be accomplished.
“After we have concluded our celebrations of the election of [Democrats] Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, African-Americans should pay some serious attention to the political position in which we find ourselves,” says Prof. Irving Joyner of the North Carolina Central University School of Law. “The Biden-Harris election was monumental and offers a promise for legal protections and support at the national level, but we cannot forget that the same people who controlled the US Senate are still in place in Washington and are poised to continue to legislate in the same manner that they did in the past. This reality must be impressed on the minds of everyone.”
Last Saturday, former Vice Pres. Joe Biden clinched the 270 Electoral College threshold, and with it, his tentative claim to be come the 46th president-elect of the United States, defeating Republican incumbent Donald Trump.
The victory made history when Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) became the vice president-elect.
But as Prof. Joyner noted, Democratic victories elsewhere were few and far between. Democrats barely held on to their majority in the US House, and the final count in the US Senate has to wait for two Jan. 5th runoffs.
“In addition, in North Carolina, the same legislative leaders, who sought to suppress the African American vote and to deny us some equities in the provision of governmental benefits, are still in control,” Joyner added, referring to how Republicans maintained their dominance in both houses of the NC General Assembly.
“Of major concern is that this right-wing leadership cadre will be in charge of re-districting of the General Assembly which will likely mean another series of protracted legal battles to protect our voting rights. This means that efforts to expand Medicaid, to improve the quality and availability of education, to increase in the minimum wage, to expand opportunities for low-cost housing and to address other needs which seek to improve the quality of life for African Americans will be ignored or limited.”
“We also lost important judicial positions in the NC Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and missed out on critical opportunities to add African Americans to the Council of State,” Joyner added.
“So, while it is great to celebrate whatever we can,” Joyner continued, “we must have a realistic understanding of the present political “tea-leaves” and develop coordinated strategies to counter the continuing attacks and apathy which will be directed toward the African American community during the coming years.”
-30-
WHAT NC DEMOCRATS DID WRONG,
THE GOP DID RIGHT IN ELECTION 2020
By Cash Michaels
an analysis
If the final numbers hold up after they’re counted and certified on Friday, Pres. Donald Trump should still enjoy a slim but sturdy election victory in North Carolina over now projected President-elect Joe Biden, no doubt due to the numerous campaign visits Trump made to the Tar Heel state as late as the night before Election Day.
Trump and his campaign surrogates flooded North Carolina in the weeks leading up to the big day, and was rewarded with strong voter support in the 75 mostly rural counties, giving him an edge over Biden’s dominance in just 25 mostly urban North Carolina counties, analysis shows.
Ultimately, Trump won 58 counties with between 1,000 and 20,000 votes.What put the icing on the cake for the Republican president and the rest of his down ballot candidates was the GOP turnout-the-vote campaign, where volunteers, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, canvassed neighborhoods, knocking door-to door, asking voters to show at the polls for their candidates.
Fearing COVID-19, Democrats didn’t do that until very late in the campaign. Dems did push, especially in communities of color, mail-in absentee ballots, but African-Americans were unfamiliar with them, and returned many that were not legally complete in terms of required signatures from voters and witnesses, thus spoiling and eliminating them from predominating counts.
When the smoke cleared nationally for Democrat Biden, he benefitted from a strong Black vote (especially from women) and strong support from new voters. Mail-in ballots proved to be a blessing in battleground states like Pennsylvania which put Biden over the top electorally.
But Democrats nationally also lost seats in Congress, and did not take back the Senate as promised (a Jan. 5, 2021 duel runoff in Georgia is expected to decide the Senate majority.
Here in North Carolina, however, Democrats did not take back the General Assembly a hoped for, did poorly in the Council of State and judicial races, are waiting see if they’ve held onto the state Supreme Court chef justice’s seat, and lost the lt. governor’s seat that seemed all but assured.
In addition, Republicans, not Democrats, will once again be in charge of redrawing the voting districts for the next ten years.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from Election 2020 for Democrats. The question is, can they meet the challenge?
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment