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.
-30-
By Cash Michaels
LESS THAN
TWO MONTHS – Oh Almighty GOD is good! Did you hear me? I mean, He can’t make
our calendar, and the countdown to Election Day come any faster or sooner. So
we’ll be deep into the presidential debates, the campaign commercials will be
coming hard and fast and thick, and CNN, MSNBC and Fox News channels will fill
themselves with even more nonsense about this nonsensical presidential
election.
I don’t
know about you, but I can’t wait for it to all end, though I want the ending be
one most of us can live with. No sense trading in four years of horror for just
two months of outrage.
But what I
find amazing is that as a proud member of the news business, I’m normally able
to consume a fair amount of political TV talk shows, campaign commercials and campaign BS without so much as a whimper.
This year, however, I find myself drowning to the point that I’ve removed
myself rom any daily watching or scorekeeping.
I just
can’t take anymore of the lying surrogates whose sole job is to show up on
somebody’s cable talk show and call
desert sand wet, waterfalls dry, and twist truth inside out knowing darn well
what they’re pushing is full of bull barn by-product. I’m sick of it, sick of
dishonest debate and the twisting of facts to the point where w don’t know
what’s true anymore. Sure I’m all for freedom of speech, but I’m even more for
exposing bald-faced liars for what they are.
I get that
these surrogates have to feed their families like everybody else, but look at
what they have to say in order to get that check.
That’s
clearly a job I couldn’t do. I believe in truth too much to lie my face off
like these surrogates are.
So, it
should not surprise you that I’ve been spending more time watching old TV shows
instead of inflating my already too high blood pressure watching these lying
losers. I’m so glad I had the wisdom years ago to purchase box sets of some of
my favorite shows, like “The West Wing.” Boy, if only we had a President like
Josiah Barlett, someone with principles and a devotion to make the country work
for everyone. Watching hours of a make believe White House beats hours of
watching evidence of a train wreck coming our way every day.
I’m not
waiting for November 8th, however. I’ve printed out my absentee
ballot, I’m carefully filling it out and sending it back long for the general
election. I want to vote now, have my say now, do my part for the cause now.
Standing by
while all of this noise continues to poison the atmosphere is not an option….not
for me!
Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the
National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also
honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the
recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in
Sept. 2011.
Until
next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in
your life. Bye, bye.
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