CNN Op-Ed: Governor Cooper: Our State is on the Front Lines of Voting Rights Battle | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    RALEIGH: As legislative Republicans in North Carolina continue their all-out assault on the right to vote, Governor Roy Cooper wrote an opinion piece for CNN condemning these dangerous bills and urging people to make their voices heard.

    CNN: North Carolina governor: Our state is on the front lines of voting rights battle

    Governor Roy Cooper, September 5, 2023

    As the country grapples with former President Donald Trump being indicted over election interference, the nationwide Republican war on democracy is raging fiercely in North Carolina. Right-wing Republicans in our state are responding with an attack on free elections. Using the "big lie" of election fraud as cover, Republicans in North Carolina - ironically a state that Trump won - are moving to limit access to the ballot box and sow chaos in our election certification process.

    These sinister efforts aren't new, and we've stopped many of them before in the state. But now, emboldened by the former president's lies, Republicans here are back at it. Only this time, they're armed with a legislative supermajority and a court system stacked with ultra-partisan Republican judges. North Carolinians and people across the country must take heed.

    One of the GOP's most pernicious bills is a blatant attempt to entrench its power further by targeting young and nonwhite voters who tend to vote more often for Democrats. I recently vetoed this bill. However, Republicans have pledged to use their veto-proof legislative supermajority to override my veto.


    Another bill that was introduced in June is perhaps even more dangerous because of its deceptive packaging. It would change the structure of the state and county boards of elections in a backdoor attempt to limit early voting and consolidate the Legislature's quest for the power to decide contested elections. The scheme would establish an even split of Democrats and Republicans on these boards, which sounds innocuous but hides serious harm.

    The dangers of these bills reach far beyond the borders of our state. And if past is prologue, it's not long before Republicans in other states launch similar attacks. For years, on matters from anti-LGBTQ legislation to technologically diabolical gerrymandering, we've seen legislatures around the country moving to copy right-wing legislation out of North Carolina.

    In this case that means finding ways to exploit our election laws on both ends -making it harder to vote and easier to create turmoil in the election certification process. For all the right-wing fearmongering about near nonexistent election fraud, the truth is that they're the ones using the long arm of the law to rig elections and threaten our democracy. We can't let them get away with it.


    Contact: Sam Chan

    Phone: (919) 814-2100  •      Email: govpress@nc.gov

poll#201

Considering what real news is available for all to witness, and in great specificity, should one pursue what is true outside of the channeled realm of the corrupt corporate /legacy media, and: Is Institutionalized Corruption real, and is it a hindrance to sustaining our Constitutional Republic now, and for future generations of American citizens?

  Yes

  No

  Not sure

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