A parade of witnesses came to testify against North Carolina’s new voting reforms – but a look at their backgrounds shows they all have ties to the radical liberal network of groups known as Blueprint NC and/or have strong ties to the Democratic Party.
U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder heard testimony for a preliminary injunction brought by the liberal groups suing the state over the recently passed election reform bill known as HB 589 or VIVA – the Voter Identification Verification Act. Schroeder denied the motion seeking to hold the November vote under old election rules, saying the groups failed to show they would suffer “irreparable harm.”
“In the absence of the clear showing for preliminary relief required by the law, it is inappropriate for a federal court to enjoin a state law passed by duly-elected representatives,” he wrote.
Along with the written declarations, Schroeder had listened to hours of witness testimony — all called by the plaintiffs. The plaintiff’s choice of witnesses was significant. The majority of non-expert witnesses proved to be hyper-political partisans who either had a long history of involvement in partisan politics with the Democratic Party and/or deep association with any number of liberal activist groups all tied to Blueprint NC. While the plaintiffs, with the help of the witness testimony, tried to show that the defendants had violated Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) by passing HB 589, their lineup did little to help their case.
Section 2 of the VRA “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the groups identified in Section 4(f)(2).” The witnesses did little more than expose the true motives of the progressive Democrats who are suing the state: defending a set of laws that protected and assisted the Democratic Party in every election.
The plaintiffs (the NC NAACP*, the League of Women Voters of NC* and Eric Holder’s U.S. Justice Department) were seeking to enjoin three provisions of the legislation for the 2014 General Election this November. They want to block the shortened early voting period, the elimination of same-day registration (SDR) and the elimination of out-of-precinct voting on Election Day.
The overriding theme from the witnesses, both in their testimony during the hearing and their written declarations was that the provisions that the plaintiffs were seeking enjoinment would hurt their organizations’ efforts in voter registration and enabling turnout, known as Get-Out-the-Vote, or GOTV.
It would seem that Butch Bowers, counsel representing Gov. Pat McCrory, made the state’s case in his opening statement when he said;
“The key point here is that the changes brought about by HB 589 are not discriminatory as evidenced by not conjecture, not speculation, not expert analyses, but by real-life actual data that occurred just two months ago. When you compare the African-American turnout from the 2014 primary to the 2010 primary, which was the last off-year election, you see an increase of – you see an increase in both the turnout of African American voters and also the total share of the electorate. By any measure, there is no discriminatory effect brought about by HB589.”
The plaintiffs did not offer even one witness who would be disenfranchised due to provisions in HB 589. The witnesses who did testify talked about hypothetical voters who may be disenfranchised or had been disenfranchised in the past – 60, 80 or more years ago. What the witnesses did say over and over was that they (personally and professionally) would be inconvenienced. The provisions they were seeking to enjoin would make it harder to execute the highly partisan voter registration and GOTV efforts that their groups coordinated in order to elect progressive Democrats across the state.
Click here for a list of the plaintiff’s fact witnesses (and their political associations) who either testified at the preliminary injunction hearing or provided written declarations submitted to the court.
*The left-wing Blueprint North Carolina “eviscerate network” distributed a memo in February 2013 outlining a “collective statewide strategy” to attack Republicans and conservatives in North Carolina. The memo called for “[c]rippling their leaders (McCrory, Tillis, Berger etc.).” and using tactics to “eviscerate the leadership and weaken their ability to govern.” The network is made up of more than 60 groups, including the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and A. Phillip Randolph Institute. Click here for a list of groups in the Blueprint NC network.
This post was updated on Aug. 12 in the wake of Judge Schroeder’s ruling.
Paranoid nonsense from the most paranoid outfit in NC. You really, really, need to improve the quality of articles here. Why not simply put their pictures up on your little website and attempt to intimidate them like you done with the Moral Monday protesters?
And while I’m at it, that’s one impressive, paranoid enemies list you’ve put together! Way to go, Civitas! More comical and irrelevant by the day.
YoYo you need to go go over to Democracy North Carolina.You fit right in with those non partisans.What a joke.
Larry,
Many thanks for your contribution. What is Faux News telling you to think this week?
YoYo,
Faux is telling me they have more people watching than all the rest of cable news combined.Small wonder when only you and Lonnie are watching Al Sharpton on MSNBC.
Larry,
I truly, deeply, feel sorry for you.
YoYo
I used to fell sorry for people like you.But now I think you should just get a job.
Larry,
I have a job, I contribute. You are the one living off government welfare.
YoYo
What kind of work?Can’t tell us your real name,so I guess you can’t tell us where you work.Do you sell pots and pans to the Rev.?
Larrie,
What I work as, and where I work, is none of your business. One thing’s for sure, I’ve achieved a heck of a lot more than the likes of you.
YoYoBoy,
If you have achieved anything at all you should be proud to tell us.I guess your silence speaks volumes.
Larrie,
You really are nothing more than an ignorant fool. We have already established you’re a non contributing, welfare sucking, POS. People like me pay for you to get your ongoing government welfare checks.
You’re a prize idiot, and an asset to this organization. Please, keep up the good work. The more you comment, the more stupid you look, and the more stupid you make Civitas look.
YoYo Boy,
You are the one barking boy.i have nothing to do with Civitas so how can I make them look bad.You on the other hand make yourself look like a childish fool.No wonder you don’t want people to know who you are.Anybody that reads our back and forth knows I was a business owner and supplied a lot of people good jobs and have been a big tax payer.All we know about you on the other hand is you can bark very well and get very nasty with your lies.This is the way of a coward that hides who he is.
Larry,
What was that? Can’t hear you for the barking dog.
You really are incapable of independent thought, aren’t you?
You may want to take a look at this:
http://www.bpdworld.org/the-community/146-reflection-
YoYo,
That’s the problem,you only listen to left wing garbage.Use a little common sense.I can understand why you are a member of BPWorld.Classic case of Bipolar.Sorry you have that problem.I thought independent thought was when you listen to both sides of things and make a decision based on the facts.I have never met anyone like you or Lonnie that would watch Fox.That’s called closed minded.
Classic! You don’t even know the irony of it.
What a dim-wit.
YoYo Boy
The irony of what,Dufus?
Information for low information voters.
ABC News executive producer Ian Cameron is married to Susan Rice,
Obama’s national Security Adviser.
CBS President David Rhodes is brother of Ben Rhodes,Obama’s Deputy Nat.Security Adviser.
ABC News correspondent,is married to Jay Carney,former WhiteHouse Press Sec.
ABC News reporter Matthew Jaffe is married to Katie Hogan,Obama’s Deputy Press Sec.
ABC President Ben Sherwood is brother of Obama’s special Adviser,Elizabeth Sherwood.
CNN President,Virigina Moseley,is married to Hillary Clinton’s former Deputy Sec.,Tom Nides.
Now I’am sure there is no bias in these news rooms.Now you know why these TV stations never run a story critical of a Democrat.