NC House Republicans push new assault on fair elections with last-minute bill

NC Newsline

In recent years, North Carolina Republican lawmakers have perfected the practice of rigging elections through partisan gerrymandering.

The situation has gotten so bad that they don’t even pretend anymore. They not only openly rig districts to disenfranchise voters who don’t vote Republican, they openly admit and brag about it.

And now, in a bill rammed through a House committee last week in record time, they’re bringing the same approach to election laws and the people who administer them.

Under a bill unveiled last week right before lawmakers commenced a summer break, the staff of the state Board of Elections – a group that’s always been scrupulously nonpartisan – would be transformed so that more than a third of existing staff positions would be converted to political appointees selected only by Republicans.

The bill includes other objectionable provisions too, including one that, –I’m not making this up– prevents local election boards from encouraging people to vote.

The bottom line: Election rigging through gerrymandering in our state is already scandalous. The new proposal is simply a travesty.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.