STATE NAACP “REQUESTS”
GOP LAWMAKERS NOT
PASS NEW VOTING LAWS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The state NAACP has asked Republican legislative leaders not to pass Senate Bill 747 - “Election Law Changes” - a bill the civil rights organization says would hurt African American voters.
In a letter dated June 21st, 2023 from NAACP North Carolina State Conference President Deborah Dicks Maxwell and Attorney Irv Joyner, Legal Redress Chairman of the NAACP North Carolina, to NC House Speaker Tim Moore, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, members of the Senate Committee on Redistricting and Elections, and members of the House Committee on Elections and Campaign Finance Reform, Maxwell and Joyner expressed “great concern about the discriminatory impact that Senate Bill 747 would have on Black and brown voters across the state of North Carolina.”
“However…” the NAACP-NC letter continued, “…what is most concerning is the cumulative impact that this deluge of changes to election law will have on those seeking to cast a ballot in 2023 and beyond, particularly Black and brown voters. This bill will make it harder for voters to cast a regular ballot and to have that ballot counted, and will also expose voters to new avenues through which they may be harassed or intimidated while doing so.”
The letter goes on to further outline the key areas of concern the NAACP -NC has with SB 747, namely that “it will disproportionately impact voters of color;” that the proposed changes to vote by mail “are unnecessary and discriminatory;” that the measure “will lead to an increase in voter intimidation;” and that the bill “guts the right of North Carolinians to utilize same-day registration.”
“In conclusion, the provisions described above in the current version of SB 747 will have a widespread disenfranchising effect, as North Carolinians seeking to exercise their sacred Constitutional right will be faced with a myriad of new barriers, some of which will unfortunately be insurmountable. These barriers will disproportionately impact Black voters and voters of color in this state. NAACP North Carolina respectfully requests that the House and the Senate vote no on this omnibus election bill and reject further efforts to abridge or deny the equal right to vote in North Carolina,” the letter maintained.
At press time Monday, June 26th, the state Senate had already passed SB 747, along with a companion measure SB 749 - “No Partisan Advantage in Elections” bill, which would change the number of partisan seats on the State Board of Elections to eight, making them equal (four Republican, four Democrat). Critics say in cases of a tie vote over election controversies, a gridlock would occur and remain unresolved.
The governor would have no appointment power.
Local election boards would only consist of four members - two Republicans and two Democrats - with the same gridlock scenario playing out.
Republican leaders were slapping themselves on the back after passage of the two election changes bills.
“These two bills take bold steps to make certain that North Carolina’s elections are free from political interference and devoid of any mischief,’ said Sen, Paul Newton (R - Cabarrus), chairman of the Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee.
Democrats blasted SB 747 and SB 749, alleging that both bills were designed to fool voters.
“Republican leadership in the General Assembly has once again introduced legislation to claw powers away from the governor and into their own hands,” House Democratic Leader Robert Reives said. “S.B. 749 would, by design, lead to gridlock on elections boards and empower Republican-led courts to settle disputes.”
NC Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said, “When the voters elected Governor Cooper twice, they did so with the expectation and desire that he would be making appointments to the Board of Elections — but we know the NCGOP’s playbook is to just change the rules instead of trying to win fair and square on the strength of their ideas.”
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SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK
WITHOUT AN ENERGIZED
BLACK VOTE FOR 2024
NC DEMOCRATS LOSE
By Cash Michaels
An analysis
Recently a political analysis was put forth suggesting that the candidacy of Black Republican Mark Robinson for North Carolina governor in 2024opened the door for Democrats to run a seasoned, well-qualified Black gubernatorial candidate as well who could go toe-to-toe with the controversial conservative and culture war provocateur.
Unlike the NCGOP, the North Carolina Democratic Party has a deep bench of qualified, talented, and experienced African American state office holders who could give Robinson a run for his money if given the solid backing and strong party support needed.
The problem, some political analysts say, is that the Democrats currently have just one candidate vying to go up against Robinson - state Attorney General Josh Stein - who deliberately announced his bid early back in January to ward off any other possible Democratic contenders.
If Stein doesn’t have a primary, he will inevitably go up against Robinson (currently favored to win his three-way GOP primary) without any real measure of being able to energize the critical base of the NC Democratic Party - Black voters - beforehand.
And without an energized Black voting base for 2024, Democrats can already start shoveling dirt on their chances of beating Robinson, or winning any other offices back from Republicans. The results of the 2022 midterm elections confirm that.
Indeed much of the 2022 midterm election turnout breakdown is coming into full focus now, and while it is clear that striking down of Roe v Wade by the US Supreme Court a year ago propelled angry Democrats to the polls in several states across the country in 2022, it did little to impact voting in North Carolina.
Not only did North Carolina not get a Democratic election bump in 2022, but there is documented evidence that Black voters actually stayed home, causing an overall Democratic election collapse.
Even though the number of eligible Black voters in the United States increased to 32.7 million by the 2022 elections according to the Pew Research Center, the New York Times released data in December 2022 that showed African American turnout was down in North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin and Louisiana, among other states.
Furthermore, the gap between Black and White voters in North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana, was the largest since the 2006 midterm elections. And all three states had Black candidates running for major offices, which observers first believed would help boost Black turnouts.
They didn’t, and Democrats lost.
The Brookings Institute compared the 2022 midterm turnout with the previous 2018 midterm turnout rates, and while it determined that 2022 nationally was almost as high as 2018 when Democrats were able to take back the U.S. House, “…the groups with the highest Democratic voting margins—in particular, young people, Black Americans, women, and white female college graduates—did not show greater turnout increases than other groups, and often displayed lower turnout rates than in the 2018 midterms.”
The Brookings analysis continued, “When looking at racial turnout levels within age groups, distinct declines are seen for Black and Latino or Hispanic 18- to 29-year-olds, as well as for Black 30- to 44-year-olds and 45- to 64-year-olds .”
Last December, CNN reported that there are some Democratic officials who are taking the 2022 drop in Black voter turnout seriously - saying “this is how we lose in 2024” - and are pushing to do something about it before the upcoming presidential and gubernatorial election year.
“Plans are already underway to expand for 2024 what was a $30 million Black voter outreach effort in the midterms at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, funding dedicated staff and targeted advertising, according to data provided by staff,” reported CNN.
But at the grassroots level, the reasons for African Americans not voting are very basic, others say.
“It’s antipathy,” Mondale Robinson, mayor of Enfield told CNN. “Black men hate the way the Democratic Party and politics overall plays out.” State Sen. Natalie Murdock (D - Durham) added that Black Democrats haven’t seen the change they've expected, so why bother.
Just before the 2022 midterm elections, a poll by POLITICO-Morning Consult showed that"... just 25 percent of Black registered voters described themselves as “extremely enthusiastic” about voting in this election, compared to about 37 percent of white voters and 35 percent of Hispanic voters."
There are some analysts, like Thomas Mills of the weekly political newsletter Politics NC, who question whether a strong Black Democrat could successfully defeat Mark Robinson, saying that the key to defeating Robinson in 2024 will be the female vote, energized by the new abortion restrictions the GOP-led NC General Assembly recently passed into law.
Mills is not alone in thinking that the restriction of abortion rights will be an effective weapon against Republicans overall. But would abortion restrictions energize Black urban and rural males to vote?
Not likely.
The model for a successful Black Democratic statewide candidacy to learn from, national Democrats are saying, is the senatorial campaign of Rev. Raphael Warnock in Georgia.
Rev. Warnock was able to defeat a white Republican incumbent U.S. senator backed by then Pres. Donald Trump in a special election in January 2021, and then come back after a year to defeat former pro football great Herschel Walker, again backed by Trump, to retain his senatorial seat in 2022.
How did Rev. Warnock make history becoming the first Black Democrat to win a U.S. senatorial seat from Georgia? According to CNN, “His campaign heavily invested in direct voter outreach, among African-Americans, from an intense, in-person effort to knock on doors and connect with voters through conversations, to a closing ad which featured videos of voters reacting to clips of GOP nominee Herschel Walker speaking, ending with a gray haired Black man calling the comments “embarrassing,” in addition to building a broad coalition statewide.
Warnock also branded himself as a leader who delivers.
A seasoned, qualified Black NC Democrat can take a page from Rev. Warnock’s playbook, and document for all voters, but especially African American voters, how he or she has delivered through legislation.
The Warnock example, which could energize Black voters, is such a glaring one for NC Democrats, especially in his race against popular football legend Herschel Walker.
The opportunity is there for NC Democrats.
The question is, will they take it?
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