WITH NO SUNDAY
VOTING, WHEN
CAN CHURCHES BRING
SOULS TO THE POLLS?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Now that
the Republican-led NC Board of Elections
has decided not to force the New Hanover County Board of Elections to
reinstitute Sunday voting when early voting commences on Oct. 20th,
will area black churches develop plans to transport their congregations to the
early voting sites during other days?
There was Sunday “Souls to the Polls voting
for the March primary earlier this year, as numerous black churches participated
without a problem. Deborah Dicks Maxwell, president of the New Hanover County
NAACP, is not pleased it won’t happen again this fall.
‘The loss of Sunday voting was a
blow,” Ms. Maxwell told The Journal
in a statement Sunday evening. “It is bankers hours that personally
discriminates against me and my work schedule. [The NAACP] will respond by
encouraging voters [to vote] during the time given. We will also request all
houses of faith and individuals to offer transportation to the polls. Churches
with midday Bible study will be encouraged to go to the polls at that time.”
“
I was informed that because we did not have Sunday voting in 2012 we were not
considered this time. Someone died for our right to vote and we will exercise it,”
Ms. Maxwell continued.
What is clear is that not allowing
Sunday voting for the fall general election is in direct contradiction to the
spirit of the July 29th U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling
(later upheld by the US Supreme Court) when it struck down parts of the 2013
Voter ID law, passed by the Republican-led legislature and signed by Gov. Pat
McCrory.
In that
historic ruling, the Appellate Court wrote:
“African-Americans disproportionately used
the first seven days of early voting. After receipt of this racial data, the
General Assembly amended [the voter I law] to eliminate the first week of early
voting, shortening the total early voting period from seventeen to ten days. As
a result, the law also eliminated one of two “souls to the polls” Sundays in
which African-American churches provided transportation to voters.”
The appellate court ruled that
the General Assembly did so with discriminatory “intent” and targeted
African-Americans with “surgical precision.”
It was last
month the GOP-led New Hanover County BOE
voted not reinstitute Sunday voting for the coming general election early
voting period. Like all local BOEs, Republicans are in the majority 2-1. The
NHC BOE’s sole Democrat, Tom Pollard,
advocated for Sunday voting, saying that he felt the board should “maximize”
voting opportunities for all county residents, but he was not heeded.
To be fair,
a Democratic majority NHC BOE had also disallowed Sunday voting for the 2012
presidential election.
So as it
stands now, absent a legal challenge, One Stop Early Voting /Same Day
Registration in New Hanover county will begin Thursday, Oct. 20th
and end Saturday, Nov. 5at the Government Center, 230 Government Center Drive,
Suite 34, with no Sunday voting.
Voters can
also obtain applications for mail-in absentee voting online, along with sample
ballots. Absentee voting has already begun in North Carolina. Please go to http://elections.nhcgov.com/voting-registration/absentee-voting/
for more
Information.
“We
have over 40 faith ambassadors who will ensure that their respective
congregations go out and vote,” Pres. Deborah Maxwell of the NHC NAACP vows. “The
community will adjust their voting time to the new schedule because “This is
Our Time, This Is Our Vote.”
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR
9-15-16
CLINTON BLASTS VOTER
ID WHILE IN CHARLOTTE
[CHARLOTTE]
Charging that Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican-led NC General Assembly has
tried to “restrict people’s right to vote,” Democratic presidential nominee
Hillary Clinton told those gathered at Johnson C. Smith University Sept. 8th
that North Carolina’s 2013 Voter ID law was a blast from the Jim Crow past” and
had no place in the 21st century. On July 29th, the US
Fourth Circuit of Appeals ruled the Voter ID law as unconstitutional, later to
be reaffirmed by the US Supreme Court. With voter ID out of the way, some
observers say North Carolina is prime for Hillary Clinton to win in November.
CONSERVATIVE GROUP
SPONSORS GET-OUT-THE VOTE BUS TOUR
[WINSTON-SALEM]
A conservative lobbying group brought
its nationwide bus tour to North Carolina Sunday and Monday, visiting Baptist
churches across the state, urging evangelicals to vote in November. The Family
Research Council Action bus tour visited stops in western North Carolina. The
group, which is supporting Republican Donald Trump this election, is planning
100 stops in all throughout the state. North Carolina is currently tied between
Trump and Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
TEACHER SHOT DURING ROBBERY ATTEMPT
[CHARLOTTE] Police are looking for the assailant for shot
a local elementary school teacher in an attempted robbery Friday night. Police
say Ruijuan Guo, a Mandarin
instructor at Kensington Elementary School in Waxhaw, Union County, was taken
to Carolinas Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Police are asking
any witnesses to come forward as they investigate.
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