The North Carolina GOP right now is trying to force a bill through the state legislature that would require all county election boards to be chaired only by Republicans during election years.
While the text of the bill cannot specifically state “all county election boards must be chaired only by Republicans during election years,” they’ve done the next best thing.
“”In the even-numbered year, the chair shall be a member of the political party with the second highest number of registered affiliates,” the bill states.
Statewide elections are only held in even-numbered years. North Carolina actually has 2.7 million registered Democrats, and 2.1 million registered Republicans.
Talking Points Memo notes “a court called such a scheme unconstitutional.”
Despite there being far more registered Democrats than registered Republicans in North Carolina, Republicans have had a veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature. Until now. While they still have the majority in both houses, it is no longer veto-proof.
Former Obama White House attorney Daniel Jacobson noted the GOP’s move on Twitter:
The bill itself is a huge power grab.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 slapped down North Carolina Republican lawmakers for an unconstitutional voter ID law. The Court cited Republican lawmakers’ “discriminatory intent,” and said they targeted African American voters “with almost surgical precision.”
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