NCGOP Declares Provisional Government

Well, not yet anyway. But why not drop the pretense of redistricting and elections and just cut to the chase?

Yesterday in Raleigh, state Senate lawmakers advanced another bill aimed at making voting harder for North Carolinians who actually make it into the voting booth after clearing the other hurdles the GOP-led legislature has proposed. Reporter Laura Leslie put it succinctly [emphasis mine]:

The state Senate voted on straight party lines tonight to forbid NC voters from doing the same thing.

Senate Bill 411 would repeal the law that allows voters entering the ballot box to choose to vote for all the candidates in one party or the other. About 40% of voters in NC use this option.

Those mischievous scamps, what will they think of next? That's SB411, also described as the "Elect Pat McCrory" bill.

Since taking over the North Carolina state legislature, the NCGOP has voted to...

1. Shorten the early voting period by a week [HB 658 -- passed the House]
2. Require registered voters to show a photo ID before voting [HB 351 -- passed out of committee in the House, on the House calendar for action today]
3. Eliminate a voter's choice to vote a straight ticket [SB 411 -- passed the Senate]

There's more besides, as lawmakers rush through bills ahead of a key procedural deadline. Passage of a bill through either house by Thursday means they can be considered again next year.

So the NCGOP still has a couple of days to prove to the RPW (Republican Party of Wisconsin) that they're not pikers. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

In letters obtained by No Quarter, local Republican Party officials are encouraging their GOP colleagues to collect enough signatures to get a fake Democratic candidate on the ballot in each of two upcoming recall elections.

[...]

"We need to make sure Democrat challengers face primaries to allow our Republicans time to mount a campaign," Dan Feyen, chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Party, wrote in the letter to "fellow conservatives" on Friday.

"A Democratic primary," Feyen continued, "will push the general election back by one month, so that Senator Hopper can have more time to organize a campaign against his liberal challenger."

That's $5 to the pizza fund, Feyen, for saying "Democratic" instead of Democrat.

(Cross-posted from Scrutiny Hooligans.)