THE CASH STUFF FOR OCT. 24, 2024

 OVER 1 MILLION CAST

BALLOTS SINCE EARLY

VOTING BEGAN

By Cash Michaels

Looking for evidence that this is one of the hottest presidential elections in history here in North Carolina? Look no further than how many voters thus far have voted in the 2024 general election.

According to the NC State Board of Elections, over one million - 1, 008,123 - early voting ballots have been cast in the first four days since early voting in North Carolina officially got underway on Thursday, Oct. 17th.

That’s nearly 13% of North Carolina’s 7.7 million registered voters.

A record was established on the first day of early voting, with over 350,000 ballots being cast then. That surpasses the previous record in 2020 of 348,599.

There were reports not only of long lines, but long waiting times to vote from across the state. In the triangle, for instance, voters waited up to three hours to cast a ballot. Some actually left, and came back the next day, hoping for a shorter line.

Still, there have been no reports of any significant problems with early voting from anywhere across the state. Even in Western North Carolina, recently hard-hit by Hurricane Helene, no significant problems were reported.

"These are critical elections in our state," Karen Brinson Bell, director of the State Board of Elections, says. "We are a battleground state, and there's a lot of attention to us because of the presidential contest, but we will have a new governor, a new lieutenant governor, a new attorney general. We'll have many members newly elected to our legislature."

For the record, North Carolina officially has more than 7.7 million registered voters. Breaking that down, over 3 million are unaffiliated, 2.4 are Democrats and 2.3 are Republicans. 

Reportedly, Democratic voter turnout was down by 28% on the first day of voting, contrasted with a 22% upswing in Republican voter turnout, as well as a 9% unaffiliated voter jump.

The 22% increase in Republican early voting is significant because in prior elections, GOP voters were encouraged to with until Election Day to go out to the polls. But now, like Democrats had been doing for years prior, Republicans seem to have gotten the message, and are now banking their votes prior to Election Day.

Early voting last 17 days, from Oct. 17 to Saturday, Nov. 2nd. For those who missed the deadline to register to vote, they may same -day register when they early vote. They cannot same-day register on Nov. 5, Election Day.

Voters are urged to contact their local county Board of Elections to find the nearest early voting site near them.

Voter photo identification is required.

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FEDERAL JUDGE, APPOINTED BY 

TRUMP, RULES AGAINST PURGING

225,000 NC VOTERS FROM ROLLS

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

A federal judge in Wilmington last week ruled against a North Carolina GOP and Republican National Committee lawsuit seeking to purge 225,000 North Carolina registered voters from state voter rolls. The judge ruled that there is no reason to believe that either judges, private citizens, or political parties, had any right to throw people off of voter rolls, because state law explicitly gives that power and duty  to state election officials.

Ruling otherwise would “harm” American democracy, the judge added, noting that the claims had already been investigated by the stat board of Elections, which found  no instance of fraud.

However, the ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Myers II - originally appointed by former President Donald Trump - was only a partial victory for the North Carolina State Board of Elections. While Judge Myers agreed that Republicans did not have the right to sue the state Election Board under the governing federal voter registration law, he also agreed to send that portion of the NCGOP suit which made arguments under the North Carolina Constitution back to state court for a ruling there.

The lawsuit, filed in August, by both the RNC and the NC GOP,  originally argued that the state Elections Board violated the Help America Vote Act, a federal law that mandated that prior to December 2023, voters who registered were not required to give either their state driver’s license of social Security number on the forms.

Republicans argued that the NC State Board of Elections allows non-citizens to register and vote, a charge officials with the NCSBE vigorously deny. The GOP sought to either remove 225,000 registered voters from North Carolina’s voting rolls, or at least require that those voters cast provisional ballots.

The State Board of Elections had hoped that the entire matter would be dismissed in federal court, but now will have to indeed make arguments in state court when the time comes.

Attorneys for the Harris campaign celebrated the ruling, saying Republicans were “… concocting stories of voter fraud and casting doubt on the election, with no evidence whatsoever,"

It is not known whether state court will hear the case before the November 5th general election. Early voting has already commenced as of October 17th.

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