Hillary Clinton criticized Republican lawmakers in North Carolina for their “concerted effort to undermine the right to vote” during a Thursday visit to Johnson C. Smith University, a historically black college in Charlotte.
Calling out Gov. Pat McCrory (R) and the GOP-dominated legislature for trying to pass restrictive voter ID laws and cut early voting, Clinton told the crowd that such measures targeted Democratic-leaning populations like students, African Americans, Latinos and the disabled.
“That’s not just happening in North Carolina,” the Democratic nominee cautioned. “Unfortunately, it’s happening across America.”
In late August, the Supreme Court ordered that a series of stringent voting restrictions in the Tarheel State remain blocked ahead of Election Day. As Clinton told the crowd in Charlotte, the appeals court ruling that blocked the restrictions noted that they targeted “African Americans with almost surgical precision.”
Two North Carolina GOP officials were also caught sending emails to local election boards instructing them to limit early voting hours, which are disproportionately used by black voters.
“What’s the best way to repudiate that kind of underhanded, mean-spirited effort to deprive people of their votes?” Clinton asked. “Get out and vote and make it clear we’re not putting up with that! These laws are a blast from the Jim Crow past and they have no place in 21st century America.”
Clinton said that as president she would work to improve voting access by expanding early voting and enacting universal voter registration so that all U.S. citizens are automatically registered to vote on their 18th birthdays.
Nice work, HRC. Maybe if she hammers on this subject, the NYT might start talking about the “clouds” and “uncertainty” and “new questions” raised by GOP voter disenfranchisement.
Hey, I’d be happy if the Raleigh News Observer started something. The old grey lady don’t go south of the Mason Dixon line.
Instead, the NO focuses on this bullshit. North Carolina deserves McCrory.
EmailGate and the Mystery of the Missing GAMMA
If your potential to be elected depends on depriving people their right to vote, then you are morally repugnant and probably wrong on policy issues as well.
NC and SC seem interchangeable. Many NJ people who moved to NC can’t be too thrilled about this development.
McCrory: Clinton is mad because she needs to show her birth certificate when she goes to the bathroom in NC. Bathrooms are sacred institutions and you need approval from non-trans, anti-LGBT Jesus.