voter rights

Obama Incites Republicans With New North Carolina Black Voters

By Heidi Przybyla

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The North Carolina waterfront community of Elizabeth City witnessed an early skirmish in a high-stakes political battle over registering new black voters, which may help decide the outcome of the presidential election.

The state House is poised to pass Senate Bill 353 tomorrow, which would revamp the distibution of electoral college votes in NC. Under this new format, a candidate would get one electoral vote for each congressional district he or she carries. The candidate who wins statewide would take the remaining two votes.

Demand the Senate take a stand against voter suppression

Hans von Spakovsky has made a career out of suppressing the vote of minorities, most recently at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Under Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, von Spakovsky led the charge to turn the DOJ into an agency that undermines voting rights instead of protecting them.

Now Bush wants von Spakovsky to be confirmed for a seat on the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the agency in charge of enforcing election finance laws. It's an insult to Blacks, other minorities, and all who are struggling to maintain fair access to our democracy.

North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections is a new coalition of advocacy organizations including: AARP, Center for Voter Education, Common Cause North Carolina, Democracy North Carolina, League of Women Voters, NC Conference of Branches of the NAACP, NC Association of Educators, NC PIRG, NC Council of Churches, and the NC Justice Center. NCVCE aims to advocate for "Voter Owned" elections and public financing of campaigns. Some, but not all of these groups, are also members of the North Carolina Coalition for Lobbying Reform.

In October NCVCE issued a legislative scorecard rating NC General Assembly members on their campaign finance and lobby reform votes in the 2005-2006 legislative session and summarized on a press release

Fourteen members in the N.C. House and eighteen members in the N.C. Senate received a perfect score of 100%. Thirty-nine House members and thirty-two Senate members received scores of 80% or above.

See high and low ratings below the fold............

The 9/11 Commission Report contained a series of recommendations for improving our nation's security. When Democrats tried again this week to have the recommendations instated, Republicans voted to block the bill from coming to the floor. The Democrats' bill included propositions to "add 750 immigration agents, detention officers and U.S. marshals and 25,000 beds for holding illegal aliens."