Something's Rotten: North Carolina's Shameful Record of Voter Suppression and The Partisan and Sometimes Racially Charged Motivations of Those Administering Its Elections

Executive Summary
In July, when a federal appeals court struck down H.B. 589--North Carolinas voter ID law--it
took the unusual step of calling out the states legislature for being motivated by partisanship
and race. In its ruling, the court noted, the new provisions target African Americans with
almost surgical precision, imposing cures for problems that did not exist.1

Rejecting the states claim that the law was designed to combat the threat of voter fraud, the
court pointed to a smoking gun, writing that before enacting that law, the legislature
requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices and that upon receipt of
the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration
in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans.2

North Carolinas push to restrict voting rights was made easier in 2013 when the conservative
U.S. Supreme Court majority ruled that it was unconstitutional for the federal government to
require certain states and jurisdictions to receive preclearance before enacting any changes to
their voting laws. Many say the ruling gutted the centerpiece of the landmark Voting Rights
Act of 1965. This decision was a catalyst, sparking voter suppression efforts in North Carolina
and several other states.

Weeks after the Supreme Courts decision, a host of conservative North Carolina legislators
sponsored H.B. 589, which required potential voters to present photo ID, eliminated same-day
registration, shortened the early voting period, eliminated out-of-precinct voting, and
destroyed the ability for 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register. The stated reason for the
legislation was to eliminate voter fraud, which GOP legislators said was widespread in the state,
despite multiple studies showing voter fraud is largely nonexistent.

The bill was met with opposition by the NAACP, the League of Women Voters of North Carolina,
a variety of local churches, and other civil rights groups, all of which said the effort was
intended to punish minorities and prevent them from voting. The legislation erected barriers,
primarily in African American and Latino communities that used early voting, same-day
registration, and out-of-precinct ballots in large numbers during the 2008 and 2012 elections.

Research has shown that voter suppressions policies, like forcing residents to show
identification before casting a ballot and reducing or eliminating early voting,
disproportionately affects minority voters, as well as senior citizens, the disabled, and lowincome voters.

Various Republican state legislators who sponsored this bill also have made extreme, racially
charged, and offensive comments on social media, ostensibly exposing the motivation behind
their efforts to make voting more difficult for minorities. Their efforts have been supported by
partisan nonprofits groups like the Civitas Institute and the John Locke Foundation.
Additionally, Tea Party- affiliated groups such as the North Carolina chapter of Americans for
SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 1

Prosperity and the Voter Integrity Project have supported these partisan initiatives to suppress
voting, all financially supported by the Koch brothers good friend, Art Pope.

The push for H.B. 589 inspired voter suppression initiatives at all levels of government in North
Carolina. Various county election boards in the state, such as those in Pasquotank, Watauga,
and Forsyth Counties, have eliminated early voting sites on college campuses, with a particular
focus on historically black colleges. As with the state legislature, local election officials claim
such efforts are designed to combat supposed voter fraud, but these same local officials have
also made partisan and racially charged comments on social media.

This report examines recent voter suppression initiatives in North Carolina and sheds light on
the players behind these efforts and the problematic political and at times racially charged
motivations that shape their decisions. Statewide elected officials and several state legislators
notable for voter suppression actions were investigated, as were local election boards in North
Carolinas most populous counties, highlighting those with particularly problematic election
board members. This report provides an overview of current voter suppression issues in North
Carolina as well as the partisan political actors behind them, in order to combat the ongoing
assault on voting rights in the Tar Heel State.

Voter Suppression in North Carolina
2000s: Civil Rights Groups Win Increased Access to the Ballot Box
During the 2000s, civil rights groups in North Carolina pushed for and won measures to
increase voter participation, including the expansion of early voting, same-day registration, and
the counting of out-of-precinct provisional ballots. With increased access to the ballot box,
African American turnout in North Carolina skyrocketed from 41.9 percent in 2000 to 68.5
percent in 2012. The Latino electorate increased as well, growing in both numbers and
political participation.3

In 2008, Barack Obama won North Carolina, marking the first time a Democratic candidate for
president had carried the state since 1976. Not surprisingly, early voting was a significant
factor in Obamas victory, with 55 percent of all voters casting their ballots during the early
voting period at one-stop sites.4 With the first black presidential candidate from either major
party on the ballot, black North Carolinians voted early in record numbers, with more than 70
percent using the early voting periods in 2008 and 2012.5 Black North Carolinians especially
favored the first day of the early voting period. In 2008, while making up 22 percent of the
state's registered voters, black North Carolinians made up 36 percent of those casting ballots
on the first day of early voting.6

2010s: North Carolina Republicans Attack Access to The Ballot Box


Voter fraud is extremely scarce in North Carolina. Studies have repeatedly concluded that
fraud at the ballot boxthe sort that photo identification requirements might reduceis
already vanishingly rare.7 From 2001 through 2012, the State Board of Elections referred to a
district attorneys office 1,032 cases of possible voter fraud, or just 0.0049 percent of the more
than twenty-one million ballots cast in North Carolina. Of those 1,032 cases of possible voter
fraud, only one case involved impersonation of another voterthe type of fraud that a photo
ID is designed to stop.8

Laws requiring voters to present a photo ID in order to vote have a greater impact on African
Americans than other racial groups. The U.S. General Accounting Office, in July 2014, issued a
report showing that African Americans are disproportionally less likely than white people to
have identification with photo, such as a drivers license or state-issued ID card. The study also
found that in Kansas and Tennessee, two states where the GOP had succeeded in enacting
photo ID laws between 2008 and 2012, the turnout among African American voters fell by a
larger percent than turnout among white voters.9

Since 2010, when they won control of both the State House and the State Senate for the first
time in 140 years, North Carolina Republicans have made a concerted effort to impose new
restrictions on access to the ballot box.10 Throughout the state, Republicans have slashed the
early voting period, ended same-day voter registration, and passed initiatives to reduce access
to polling places.

Voter Suppression from the Top Down

Governor Pat McCrory

With Pat McCrorys ascension to the governorship in 2013, and conservatives controlling both
state legislative chambers, Republicans turned to outright voter suppression in North
Carolina.11 On the campaign trail, McCrory often said that a voter ID would be a top priority of
his administration, and Greenvilles Daily Reflector noted that with his election, the only thing
standing in his way would be a clear conscience, knowing that his signature will make
elections less free, less fair.12

H.B. 589 and Its Impact on African American Voters
In August 2013, Governor McCrory signed into law H.B. 589, one of the nation's toughest
voter restriction regulations, targeting voting provisions that were used disproportionately by
black people.13 The legislation required voters to present a photo ID to vote. Tellingly, in 2012,
black North Carolinians constituted 22 percent of the registered voting population, but made
up 34 percent of those who do not appear to have a drivers license or N.C. photo ID. This bill
also reduced the early voting period from seventeen days to ten. Black North Carolinians cast
33 percent of the ballots in the first week of early voting, and overall, 70 percent of black

voters cast their ballot during the early voting period.14 Additionally, black North Carolinians
disproportionately took advantage of the first Sunday of early voting: 43 percent of voters who
cast their ballots that day were black.15

H.B. 589 also eliminated the use of out-of-precinct provisional ballots, when thirty percent of
North Carolinians who cast out-of-precinct ballots on election day were black.16 Gov. McCrorys
bill also ended the preregistration of teenagers before their eighteenth birthday, and abolished
same-day voter registration.17

This bill was the centerpiece of an agenda to make voting more difficult for hundreds of
thousands.18 Unfortunately for those pushing the effort, neutral observers and voting rights
advocates noticed. Independent voting rights groups joined Democrats and libertarians in
suggesting the true goal of the effort was to suppress voter turnout, especially among blacks,
the young, the elderly, and the poor, while newspapers throughout the state were highly
critical of this bill and its intent.19 Even prominent Republican and former secretary of state
Colin Powell spoke out against the bill, saying it would punish minority voters and make it
more difficult for North Carolinians to cast a vote.20 Ashevilles Citizen-Times wrote that the
only sort of voter fraud this measure would stop--the use by a voter of someone else's ID--is
virtually unknown.21 The Charlotte Observer wrote that such voter fraud was all but nonexistent in North Carolina, and called defending the legislation a wasteful boondoggle.22

When the legislature passed the original version of H.B. 589, it only included a voter ID
requirement. But following the Supreme Courts decision to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
Republican leaders rewrote the legislation to include additional voter suppression provisions,
including a more stringent photo ID requirement, the elimination of same-day voter
registration, and the reduction of early voting days from seventeen to ten.23 Veteran GOP
strategist Carter Wrenn admitted that the North Carolina GOP had pushed a reduction in early
voting and voter ID laws because theyre still smart[ing] from 2008, when Democrats had
successfully used the early vote to bring people to the polls who would have voted because
Obama was running.24 All thirteen sponsors of H.B. 589 were Republicans.25 The Daily
Reflector, had warned that the original version of H.B. 589, before it was rewritten to include
even tougher voter suppression provisions, would be disenfranchisement on an epic scale.26

Immediately following Governor McCrory signing H.B. 589 into law, the League of Women
Voters of North Carolina, six historically African-American churches in Merry Hill, Brevard,
Durham, Hickory and Chapel Hill, and other civil rights groups filed suit against the state,
alleging voter suppression.27 The U.S. Department of Justice, in September 2013, announced it
would also be filing suit against North Carolina for the bill, alleging at least four provisions of
House Bill 589 were adopted with the purpose, and will have the result, of denying a minority
group the right to vote.28 The defendants in these lawsuits--the State of North Carolina,
Governor McCrory, and the State Board of Elections--responded that state legislators had the
authority to reform elections law, and claimed the changes were not intended to disenfranchise
minority voters.29 Senate President Phil Berger and then house speaker Thom Tillis released a

statement blasting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for playing politics with the lawsuit and
its baseless claims about North Carolina's election reform law.30

In May 2014, U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder upheld a magistrate judges decision to
order state legislators to turn over all records sought by subpoena.31 More than a dozen
legislators, including Tillis and Berger, had requested that the subpoenas seeking more records
and correspondence from them be stopped based on legislative immunity.32 The News &
Observer hit these Republican lawmakers for hiding from public disclosure behind legislative
immunity claims, and called on them to release the documents created on the public's dime
that influenced the creation of legislation. The News & Observer also correctly predicted that
these documents may show an intent to make it more difficult for Democrat-leaning African
Americans, college students, or elderly residents to vote.33

In 2015, amid the legal challenge from the Justice Department and civil rights groups, the
Republicans voted to soften the voter ID law provision of H.B. 589, to assist people who have a
reasonable impediment to obtaining a photo ID. The GOP defined a reasonable
impediment to getting a photo ID as an illness, lack of transportation to obtain a photo ID, or
a lost or stolen card.34 An email exchange between GOP State Reps. Chuck McGrady and Chris
Whitmire, that became public months after the legislative fix, supported the suggestion that it
was primarily intended to improve the state's chances of defending the law in court.35 Voter
suppression groups, including the Voter Integrity Project and the Civitas Institute, opposed the
softening of the voter ID law. Jay DeLancy, the director of the Voter Integrity Project of North
Carolina, said, Our breath is taken away at the depth of the loophole, while Susan Myrick, the
elections policy analyst for Civitas Institute, said the change guts and demolishes the law.36

In July 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit forcefully struck down North
Carolinas voter identification law, ruling its provisions deliberately target African-Americans
with almost surgical precision in an effort to depress black turnout at the polls.37 Declaring
that they can only conclude that the legislation was written with discriminatory intent, the
Courts ruling also restored voters ability to register on Election Day, to register before
reaching the 18-year-old voting age, and to cast early ballots, and deemed valid the ballots
of those who had mistakenly voted at the wrong polling stations.38

The Court determined that they could not ignore the record evidence that Republican
leaders had enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina
history after receiving data indicating that African Americans would be the voters most
significantly affected.39 While crafting the legislation, the Republican-controlled General
Assembly had requested and received data on voters use of various voting practices by race
that showed African American voters were disproportionately less likely to have an ID, (and)
more likely to cast a provisional ballot and take advantage of pre-registration. Then, with race
data in hand, the legislature amended the bill to exclude many of the alternative photo IDs used
by African Americans and retained only the kinds of IDs that white North Carolinians were
more likely to possess.40 Following the sweeping decision Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore,
and Governor McCrory vowed to appeal the ruling, with McCrory blasting the three

Democratic judges for undermining the integrity of our elections while also maligning our
state.41

Voter Suppression in the North Carolina State Legislature
Former State House Speaker, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis

One of North Carolinas leading voter suppression advocates is U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, who
previously served as State House speaker from 2011 through 2014. As speaker, Tillis oversaw a
State House GOP caucus that stuffed themselves when it came to redistricting, gave
themselves partisan advantage beyond common sense, and then they turned to outright voter
suppression.42 His efforts trickled down to the rest of the state.

In October 2014, The News & Observer wrote that Tillis House GOP set a tone for boards of
elections controlled by their party to join in trying to put as heavy a lid on Democratic turnout
as they could.43 Tillis also worked to suppress the vote prior to accepting the speakers gavel:
co-sponsoring a bill in 2009 to require voters to provide identification before voting.44 One of
the main proponents of H.B. 589, Tillis spoke confidently of it becoming law the very morning
it was introduced.45

In June 2013, Tillis announced his intention to run for the U.S. Senate. At roughly the same
time, his House GOP colleagues were rewriting H.B. 589 to make it even stricter.46 Elon
University Professor Dr. Jason Husser said that Tillis, who as speaker in many ways had the
most influence over this legislation, could benefit the most from it, because it could give
him a couple of points advantage over who turns out on Election Day.47 That same year, during
an interview about the bill, Tillis admitted that actual voter fraud was not the primary
reason of the voter ID legislation; it was about restoring confidence in government.48 He also
said he believed that voter fraud in North Carolina was somewhere between an imagined
problem and a real problem.49 Penda Hair, a lawyer with the civil rights group the
Advancement Project said of the Tillis-supported legislation, I have never seen a single law that
is more anti-voter.50 NAACP President Rev. William J. Barber II said that Tillis, by introducing
H.B. 589 on the 45th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King,
had stooped to a new moral low ground.51

State Representative Bert Jones

In 2011, the Republican-controlled State House passed a bill to reduce the early voting period
from two and a half weeks to a week and a half.52 The bill sponsor, Rep. Bert Jones, claimed his
intent was to save taxpayer money, because reduced voting days would mean local boards of
elections wouldnt have to pay as much for poll workers and early voting sites.53 Critics of Rep.
Jones bill pushed back against the legislation, because it would reduce turnout, particularly
among African Americans.54 Guilford County Elections Director George Gilbert rebuked Jones

claim about saving money as wrong, because the decrease in early voting days might lead
local election board to adjust staffing and the number of early voting locations available
based on the demand for early voting.55

It was not Jones first election-related controversy. In 2010, the director of economic
development of Eden, NC, Mike Dougherty, filed a complaint with the Rockingham County
Board of Elections alleging that Jones campaigners were overly aggressive. Dougherty
claimed that when he walked into his polling place, a Jones campaigner yelled at him, asking if
he was going to vote and after he told her it wasnt any of her business, she appeared to take
a cell phone photograph of his car as he left the YMCA parking lot.56

State Senator Jim Davis

In 2011, Republican Sen. Jim Davis introduced a bill to eliminate same-day registration, reduce
the early voting period by a week, and prohibit early voting on Sundays.57 Democrats in North
Carolina, through the Souls to the Polls effort, had been taking groups of voters to the polls
after church.58 Sunday voting days were even more important to black churches, traditionally
known to transport worshipers to the polls after church.59

State Senator Ralph Hise

Senator Ralph Hise was a co-sponsor of Sen. Davis legislation that sought to eliminate sameday registration, reduce the early voting period by a week, and prohibit early voting on
Sundays.60 Hise admitted the legislation targeted Sunday voting because it was obvious it had
been used by urban areas to increase their influence and acknowledged that he wouldnt
mind eliminating early voting completely.61 The Charlotte Observer wrote that GOP voterestriction bills like this were an attempt to make elections more like those in a time when
only white men who owned land and paid poll taxes could vote.62 In 2013, Hise was one of the
thirteen GOP sponsors of H.B. 589, the now infamous voter suppression bill.63

State Senator Bob Rucho

Senator Bob Rucho, a Republican and a chief advocate of H.B. 589, spoke during a Senate
committee hearing in support of the legislation, claiming that everyone knows of cases of
voter impersonation but they never seem to get recorded or reported.64 Sen. Rucho was a
key figure in drafting H.B. 589 and helped shepherd the voter ID legislation.65

In December 2013, Sen. Rucho tweeted that the Affordable Care Act had done more damage
to the USA than acts committed by Nazis, Soviets, and terrorists combined.66 His comparison
made national news, and even Claude Pope, the state Republican party chair, called on Sen.
Rucho to apologize.67 Instead, Sen. Rucho doubled down by refusing to apologize for the
statement, which he said stood on truth, and was designed to show the severity of the
damage that has been and will be caused by President Obama's health-care law.68
State Senator Phil Berger

State Senate President Phil Berger, a consistent supporter of voter suppression laws, was one of
the major players behind passing H.B. 589, and even bragged about not backing down from the
voter ID fight during his 2014 reelection campaign.69 During the legislative debate over the bill,
Berger falsely claimed the changes made by H.B. 589 would still allow voters to have the same
number of hours for early voting.70 In 2014, voters in more than a third of North Carolinas
one hundred counties had less time to vote, when the GOP-controlled State Board of
Elections allowed thirty-eight counties to reduce early voting hours compared to 2010. These
thirty-eight counties argued that due to H.B. 589 mandating a reduction in the number of early
voting days, opening additional sites or offering longer hours would strain limited resources or
require hiring additional staff.71

State Representative Michael Speciale

State Representative Michael Speciale is an extreme advocate for voter suppression. In fact,
during his first month in the legislature, Speciale said he hoped to pass a voter ID bill with a
photo ID requirement.72 When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the
Voting Rights Act, he boasted that he was confident H.B. 589 would be stronger.73 In June
2015, Speciale even promised a media outlet that he would be introducing a bill to scrap the
exception that Republicans passed to make H.B. 589 more legally palatable in the face of the
impending lawsuit.74

In early 2013, when NAACP President Rev. William J. Barber II urged the legislature to oppose
voter ID legislation, Speciale called Barber and the NAACP racists. In an e-mail, Speciale said
Barbers opposition was tarnishing the NAACPs proud history with racist diatribes and . . .
[a] race baiting attitude.75 In September 2015, Speciale shared a Facebook post calling
President Obama an Islamic son of a b***h.76

Speciale has published several bigoted and radical items on Facebook in 2016. In August, he
posted a photo suggesting that wearing Nazi uniforms to the Democratic National Convention
would allow attendees to go "unnoticed.77 He also promoted conspiracy theories about
Secretary Hillary Clintons health, posting an article from Mad World News, claiming Clinton
was traveling with a mysterious black handler who was always right at her side because he
was treating her for seizures. The article, from a website claiming to be firmly devoted to
bringing you the truth ignored by the liberal mainstream media, asserted this handler was
caught carrying around a Diazepam pen, which is prescribed only to people who have
recurrent seizures.78 In July 2016, Speciale used a meme of Dr. Evil to say that while First Lady
Michelle Obama said she lives in a house built by slaves, they were actually taxpayers, and
mocked the Black Lives Matter movement by posting the caption Italian Lives Matter because
who is gonna make the pizza?79

State Representative Harry Warren

State Representative Harry Warren, a frequent guest at the Rowan County Tea Party Patriot
meetings, was one of the sponsors of H.B. 589, the voter suppression legislation that
supporters said was designed to tackle voter fraud, despite a lack of evidence of that such fraud
was a problem in North Carolina. 80 Warren seems to know quite a bit about fraud. In fact, in
Florida he was charged:

In June 1998 with Knowingly Uttering or Issuing a [$310] Worthless Check, though the
case was dropped when the statute of limitations was reached (St. Johns County Florida
Case #98001705CFMA);
In July 1998 with Worthless Check 3 Party for writing a bad check valued at $2,000
from an American Classic Pools account, though the case was dropped in 2011 (Duval
County Court Case #16-1998-CF-008196-AXXX-MA);
In January 1999 with Worthless Check (Accounts Receivable), though the case was
dropped in 2007 (Duval County Court Case #16-1999-MM-005643-AXXX-MA);
In March 1998 with Obtaining Property in Return for a Worthless Check, though the
case was dropped in 2000 (Duval County Court Case #16-1998-CF-003361-AXXX-MA);
In April 1998 with Worthless Check Obtaining Property Less than $150.00, though
the case was dropped in 2000 (Duval County Court Case #16-1998-MM-021772-AXXMA);
In May 1998 with Obtaining Property in Return for a Worthless Check, though the case
was dropped in 2000 (Duval County Court Case #16-1998-CF-005582-AXXX-MA); and
In June 1998 with Worthless Check 3 Party, though the case was dropped in 2000
(Duval County Court Case #16-1998-MM-033961-AXXX-MA).
In June 1999 with Worthless Check 3 Party for writing a bad check valued at $464,
though the case was dropped in 2011 (Duval County Court Case #16-1999-CF007196AXXXA).

Legislation backed by Warren reduced the early voting period from seventeen days to ten.
Despite this support for cutting early voting, thirteen days before the 2010 election Warren
gushed that turnout from early voting was showing that there is a high interest in these
races.81

State Representative George Cleveland
In 2011, State Representative George Cleveland introduced a bill to erase the requirement
that certain counties print ballot instructions in both English and Spanish. The News &
Observer was critical of this bill because it seem(ed) intended to discourage American citizens
whose first language is Spanish from voting.82

State Representative Tim Moore

State Representative Tim Moore, the current Speaker of the North Carolina House, is a
longtime voter ID advocate.83 In 2011, he sponsored a bill that would have required voters to
show photo ID to vote. Moores legislation was passed in the GOP-controlled House and
Senate, but was vetoed by then governor Bev Perdue, and the House fell short in its attempt
to override the veto.84 Rodney Moore, an African American Representative from Mecklenburg,
called the bill an insult to him and to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. He insisted there
is no substantive problem in North Carolina with voter fraud, and that this was purely an
attempt at voter suppression. Following the passage of the bill in the House, Rodney Moore
spoke out even more forcefully against this voter suppression effort, saying he felt like his rights
have been raped.85

Former Republican Precinct Chair Don Yelton

Don Yelton is the former precinct chair of the Buncombe County Republican Party. In a 2013
House Elections Committee meeting, Yelton told state legislators that changing state election
laws could help Republicans win elections by disenfranchising special voting blocks in the
Democratic Party. Yelton ensured legislators understood what he meant by driving home his
point that this disenfranchisement within itself is the reason for the photo voter ID, period,
end of discussion.86

He went on to make national headlines later in 2013, when he went on The Daily Show to
defend his partys H.B. 589. In the interview, Yelton bragged that the law was going to kick the
Democrats in the butt, and if it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give
them everything, so be it.87 He added that it was racist for black people to use the N-word
and confirmed he posted on Facebook a photo of President Obama sittin' on a stump as a
witch doctor, but it was okay because he was making fun of the white half of Obama, not the
black half.88 In an editorial The News & Observer wrote that Yeltons comments pulled back
the curtain of weak justifications for the law, and there stood Republicans, like the emperor,
without a stitch on.89 Yelton, who was asked to step down after the video aired, said he has
no regrets about his racially charged comments.90

In 2016, Yelton commented on Facebook, Maybe we are dooming ourselves because the
Muslims reproduce too, on an article about how minority births were becoming a majority
of births in the United States.91

North Carolinas Local Election Board Members

On The Front Lines of Voter Suppression
(and Racially Charged Commentary)
The North Carolina State Board of Elections

The North Carolina State Board of Elections, or SBOE, is a five-member body responsible for the
administration of the elections process and campaign finance disclosure in North Carolina.92
The Board members are appointed by the sitting governor after being recommended by the
chair of each state party, although the sitting governor cannot appoint no more than three
members of the same party.93

In April 2013, Governor McCrory announced that he had appointed a new five-member State
Board of Elections, with three Republicans controlling the board.94 Currently, A. Grant
Whitney, James Baker, and Rhonda K. Amoroso serve as the Republican members of the SBOE.
Just a few days after she had been appointed, it was reported that Amoroso was championing
changes to election laws in the stateparticularly the new voter ID legislation.95

Once appointed, McCrorys new SBOE quickly worked to advance the goal of voter suppression.
In 2014, the SBOE released a report claiming of the 4.45 million North Carolinians who voted in
the 2012 election more than thirty-five thousand had the same name and birthdate as
voters registered in another state. The board admitted when they expanded their search to
include social security numbers, that number dropped down to 765. That detail
notwithstanding, Republican officials and voter suppression groups pounced on the report.
Then speaker of the North Carolina House Thom Tillis said this put to rest claims that voter
fraud doesnt exist, while the Civitas Institute said it put a little bit of light on the possibility
that [fraud] is happening.96

That same year, the SBOE approved giving voters in more than a third of North Carolinas 100
counties less time to vote when it allowed thirty-eight counties to reduce early voting hours
compared to 2010. These thirty-eight counties argued that, due to H.B. 589s mandated
reduction in the number of early voting days, opening additional sites or offering longer hours
would strain limited resources or require hiring additional staff.97

Since McCrory first appointed his new board, the SBOE has approved a number of county voting
plans that aimed to suppress minority and Democratic turnout. For example, in February 2016,
the SBOE voted to approve Forsyth County Board of Elections 2016 primary early voting plan
that excludes the campus of Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university. In
denying the students the possibility of being able to early vote on campus, SBOE Chairman
Grant Whitney said he was worried that putting an early voting [sic] at the school might lead
every other college to want early voting.98

Kim Strach was hired by the SBOE board in 2013 as executive director. In August 2015, she
testified on behalf of state officials in the federal voting rights trial that civil rights groups and
the Justice Department had brought against the state and the Republican Party.99 In her
testimony, Strach claimed that her office had received numerous calls from residents
concerned about potential voter fraud, but during the cross-examination admitted she could
not find any evidence of significant fraud in same-day voter registration.100 Strachs husband,
Phil Strach, was one of the attorneys representing North Carolina and McCrory in the H.B.
589 lawsuit.101
One of the SBOEs most important responsibilities is to appoint the members of the county
boards of election throughout North Carolina. Every county board of election in the state has
three members, all of whom are selected by the SBOE, though the majority party can only
control two of the three seats.102

In 2011, county commissioners in Rowan, Davidson, Gaston, and Craven counties requested the
state legislature pass a law to apply the voter ID requirement on a county-by-county basis. In
other words, these local voter suppression advocates requested the state legislature pass
legislation that applies to some counties but not others because bills that apply to local
matters generally can't be vetoed by the governor.103

Much like the North Carolina Republican Party, local GOP-appointed boards of elections
throughout the state have launched initiatives to suppress minority voting.

The Watauga County Board of Elections

The Watauga County Board of Elections has been repeatedly criticized for its dysfunctional
performance and brazen attempts at voter suppression.

Watauga County Board of Elections Chair Bill Aceto

At the center of the dysfunction and voter suppression efforts of the Watauga County Board of
Elections is Republican Bill Aceto, who serves as the boards chairman. In addition to other
controversies faced since being appointed to the board in 2013, Aceto has repeatedly pushed
failed attempts to eliminate a polling place at the Appalachian State University student union,
and advocated for consolidating the three precincts in the countys largest town into a single
voting site. This single polling site that boasted a grand total of twenty-eight parking spots,
would have had to serve almost ten thousand registered voters.

Aceto makes an obscene gesture in a 2010 photo104
2016 Voter Suppression Efforts

Before the 2016 election, the Watauga County Board of Elections failed to agree on an early
voting plan after months of disagreement between board members. The board was unable to
decide between conflicting early voting plans introduced by Democratic member Stella
Anderson, and Republican chair Bill Aceto, whose plan moved Appalachian State Universitys
designated early voting site from their student union to Legends, a nearby BYOB music venue.

The Watauga Democrat reported that the August 2016 board meeting devolved into shouts of
dissatisfaction, outrage, and calls from the crowd for board members to resign as once again
the three-member panel was unable to come to a unanimous decision on a one-stop early
voting plan for the county, with some attendees specifically calling for Acetos resignation.105

Acetos plan was criticized as a Republican tactic to suppress the votes of students, who tend to
vote Democratic. It was opposed by officials at Appalachian State University and local
Democrats, including an affiliated group of citizens called the Watauga County Voting Rights
Task Force. Letters from Aceto and County Attorney Stacy Four Eggers showed that they
believed a single early voting site would be sufficient to serve the entire county in the 2016
presidential election, which the task force denounced as deliberate voter suppression.

The bottom line, stated Pam Williamson, on behalf of the Watauga County Voting Rights Task
Force, is that the majority members of the Watauga County Board of Elections are willing to
throw out every single early voting site for the November presidential elections in Deep Gap,
Western Watauga, Blowing Rock, and Meat Camp just to prevent those who wish to vote at an
ASU student union site from doing so.106

At the September 2016 State Board of Elections hearing on early voting plans, member Joshua
Malcolm gave his impressions of Legends, the music venue Aceto designated as an polling

place, after assessing the site. Noting that he meant no disrespect, Malcolm described
Legends as a rundown former IGA, Hills, Piggly Wiggly that smells like a place where kids go on
Thursday night and do all those things that young kids do. . . . I dont know that that's conducive
to one-stop voting over a ten or in our case now seventeen day period, and no disrespect, Mr.
Aceto, I don't--I don't believe you, sir.

Malcolm was referring to Acetos claim that he had witnessed multiple electioneering
violations at the student union, which Aceto argued made the building unsuitable for a polling
location. I do not believe that there are violations of state law that are occurring, Malcolm
continued. If there are, I've never seen them. If you can give them to me today or two years
ago, I've never seen them, and I don't believe that's truthful.

Theres pictures that are included in those documents I passed to you, Aceto responded.
That are from the North Carolina GOP, Malcolm pointed out.107

SBOE member Maja Kricker also agreed that Legends appeared to be an unsuitable location for
a polling place. When I look at the photographs of these buildings, she said, and the
descriptions, I mean I really have concerns about Legends, the low lighting situation, the
running extension cords all over the floor, the flooding danger, the fact that it has no HVAC.
And as to the problem of things like buffer violations and electioneering, which Aceto had
raised in regard to the student union, I can tell you that in my county we have run into these
kinds of problems, and we did not change sites because of them; we handled it.108

The SBOE ultimately approved Acetos plan to replace the student union with Legends, the
music venue, as the polling placebut only with the approval of Appalachian State University.

ASU Chancellor Sheri Everts issued a statement recommending that the county board use the
student union, and not Legends, as the polling place. She had previously stated that the
Plemmons Student Union is the only location on campus that satisfies our mutual goals of
providing a convenient and safe environment for citizens and volunteers in compliance with
statutory requirements for elections.. The universitys recommendation against Acetos plan
settled the dispute and allowed the student union to be used as the universitys early voting
site in the 2016 election.109

Acetos First Brazen Attempts at Voter Suppression

Acetos attempts to suppress voting in Watauga County in 2016 were not his first efforts. In
August 2013, just months after being appointed to the Board of Elections, Aceto and then
board member Luke Eggers, brother of County Attorney Four Eggers, proposed consolidating
the three precincts in Boone, the countys largest town, into just one precinct. The plan would
have eliminated the polling place located at Appalachian State Universitys student union and
made the Watauga County Agricultural Center the only polling place in Boone, ahead of the
2014 election.


The plan was widely criticized for making it significantly more difficult for students, as well as
other voters, to cast their ballots. For the many ASU students who did not have cars walking to
the agricultural center involved a trek without a sidewalk for part of the route. And for voters
who could drive there, the single town precinct that would serve almost ten thousand
registered voters, boasted a grand total of twenty-eight parking spots.110

Following the introduction of this highly controversial plan, three Watauga County residents
filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections seeking to remove Aceto and Eggers from
the Board of Elections. The complaint alleged official misconduct, participation in intentional
irregularities, unethical actions, and incapacity and incompetency to discharge the duties of
their offices.111

In September 2014, a group of citizens sued the State Board of Elections for upholding the
county boards plan, arguing that it erects unnecessary barriers to voting by and otherwise
discriminates against voters aged 18 to 25.112 The following month, just weeks before the
election, the State Court of Appeals ruled to reinstate the early voting site at Appalachian State
University. The Watauga County Board of Elections agreed to use the student union as ASUs
early voting site.113

An editorial in The News & Observer called the courts ruling a victory and reminded citizens
that Republican attempts to suppress the Democratic vote would cost some people their
votes and all taxpayers their dollars as the state pays growing legal fees trying to justify this
injustice.114

Aceto, along with Luke Eggers, was praised for his voter suppression efforts at the Watauga
County Republicans 2014 convention. These guys are fighting on the front lines, said
Watauga County Republican Chairwoman Anne-Marie Yates.115

The Edgecombe County Board of Elections

The Edgecombe County Board of Elections voted to reduce early voting hours in 2016
compared to the hours offered in 2012. The board also voted to cut Sunday voting in 2016,
after offering it in 2012.116 Both Republican members of the board are highly partisan and have
advocated for voter suppression policies.

Edgecombe County Board of Elections Chair James C. Proctor

James C. Proctor serves as the chair of the Edgecombe County Board of Elections. Proctor has
been heavily involved with the local Republican party, including by serving as the chair of the
Edgecombe County Republican Party for twelve years.117

Proctor has shared a number of partisan posts on social media, as well as advocated for voter
suppression policies. On Facebook Proctor wrote that in 2008, he found out that the barber I
had been going to for ten years supported Obama. The day after the election I cancelled my

next appointment and I never went back. Found a new one who is a Republican, Proctor
wrote. I simply refused to put any more of my money in the hands of someone who I knew
was a democrat. Don't regret that decision at all.118

In 2012, Proctor shared an anti-Obama article on Facebook and asserted, Every voter in the
country should be made to read this before they are allowed to vote. The article, a column
published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, proclaimed The Whopper to End All Whoppers is
President Obama's claim that his tax plan will pay down the country's staggering $16 trillion
national debt, continuing, Obama purrs that he's open to a spending compromise, but we
know that's not the case.119

In addition to suggesting that voters should be made to read conservative diatribes before
they are allowed to vote, Proctor has expressly advocated for voter suppression policies on
social media. Proctor commented on a photo posted by a Facebook page called Obama Makes
Me Puke, which said, How are voter ID laws racist? The real racists are liberals who think only
white people are capable of getting an ID. Proctor wrote, But if we require a valid ID that will
keep the staffers at the group homes and rest homes from taking senile and mentally
handicapped residents in so they can help them vote.120

Edgecombe County Board of Elections Member Janet Lewis

Janet Lewis, who serves on the Edgecombe County Board of Elections, is also a highly partisan
elections official. In addition to serving as a delegate at the North Carolina GOP District 1
convention, Lewis has shared numerous offensive and partisan posts on social media.121

Lewis has shared racially-charged partisan posts on social media. She shared a photo on
Facebook that said, Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Give a man a welfare check, a free
cellphone, food stamps, section 8 housing, a six-pack of beer, a crack pipe, and some Air
Jordons, and hell vote Democrat for the rest of his life. Lewis commented on the photo,
Thats the truth!!!!!122

Lewis liked a photo on Facebook that showed a black man in front of a burning police van,
which said, If looters & rioters get arrested any government assistance theyre receiving
should be cut off immediately! She also liked a photo on Facebook that said, USA Crime
Statistics ~ 2015 . . . Blacks Killed By Police ~~ 1% . . . Blacks Killed By Blacks ~~ 97%.123


Lewis liked a photo on Facebook that showed pictures of George Zimmerman, Trayvon
Martin (who was shot and killed by Zimmerman), and Paula Deenall of whom figured in highprofile controversies that led to important discussions of racism in Americaand said, What if
the medias attention to this is purposefully intended to DISTRACT us from this and lists a
range of right-wing issues such as IRS Biased Targeting and Benghazi Cover-Up.124

Lewis also liked a number of Facebook posts that advocated for voter suppression policies.
She liked a photo on Facebook that pictured a sign that read Must Show ID to Vote and
said, This sign should be up . . . in all 50 states, as well as another that said, Like if you think
a photo ID should be required to vote.125

Lewis also liked photos on Facebook that asserted that illegal immigrants should not be
allowed to vote. One such photo was captioned, Do you agree that illegals should not be
allowed to vote or get welfare! Another showed a picture of masked ISIS members, and read,
Only Americans Should Vote In Our Elections!126

The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections

The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections voted to reduce early voting hours in 2016
compared to the hours offered in 2012. Mecklenburg Countys plan to cut early voting was met
with widespread criticism, with almost all of the overflow crowd at the meeting opposing
the reduction in hours.127 The president of the Charlotte NAACP criticized the plan, stating that,
Trying to take away access to vote is unpatriotic.128

Mecklenburg County Board of Elections Chair Mary Potter Summa

Mary Potter Summa, chair of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections, supported cutting
early voting hours in 2016. Summa is a longtime Republican activist who has defended her cuts
to early voting with unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud.

Im not a fan of early voting, Summa told the crowd gathered at the Board of Elections
meeting where she voted to cut voting hours in Mecklenburg County. She claimed that the
more [early voting] sites we have, the more opportunities exist for violations.129 Summa
claimed in a letter to the editor that campaign and party officials . . . coerced voters at
Mecklenburg precincts into joining them behind the voting screens, although she could not
produce evidence for the alleged voter fraud. The accusation was aptly described as hearsay
by a writer for the Charlotte Observer.130

Summas cuts to early voting negatively affected minority voters in the county. Mark Sigmon,
counsel for the Democratic member of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections, noted at
the September 2016 State Board of Elections hearing on early voting plans that, Early voting is
especially popular in Mecklenburg. In 2012 well over half of the voters used it. Most
importantly for today, its particularly popular among African Americans.131

Summa is a Republican activist who, in 1992, was awarded the annual Homemaker Award by
the Eagle Forum, the right-wing organization founded by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.
The Eagle Forum praised Summa as an outstanding example of a successful lawyer who put
her legal career on hold in order to become a fulltime mother to her children, and noted that
she is known for her active role in the development and writing of the Republican Party
Platforms of 1988 and 1992.132

A former aide to Republican Senators Jesse Helms and John East, Summa was pictured on the
front page of the New York Times because of her role chairing the GOP platform
subcommittee that called for a ban on abortion. In 1996, conservative presidential candidate
Pat Buchanan noted, More than any other delegate on the 1992 Republican platform
committee, Mary Summa was responsible for preserving the pro-life plank.133

The Craven County Board of Elections

The Republican-majority Craven County Board of Elections introduced an early voting plan in
2016 that eliminated Sunday voting, even though they had offered it during the 2012
presidential election.134 At the September 2016 State Board of Elections hearing on early voting
plans, the director of the county board admitted that they did not consider the impact of
cutting Sunday voting on minority voters, even though African American voters
disproportionately took advantage of Sunday voting in 2012.

Meloni Wray, Director of the Craven County Board of Elections, told the SBOE, As far as
Sunday, the majority that did turn out on those two Sundays [in 2012] were African American.
When asked if she thought cutting Sunday voting would have a direct impact on those voters,
Wray responded, Well, the first--well, number one, I dont distinguish what--I do not
personally distinguish, you know, as far as races. I believe everyone is equal in that aspect, but
we did offer four hours. I'm not opposed to Sunday voting. Our board did not get into a
discussion of alternate plans. She continued, I felt for a county our size 548 hours already was
an extremely generous amount of hours being offered, and then we still went above that when
we matched 560 and went above that as well in adding the additional sites. I feel that we are
covered not offering Sunday voting. When asked point-blank if she considered diversity as a
factor when considering cutting Sunday voting, Wray responded, No. I did not look at diversity,
no, sir.

SBOE member Joshua Malcolm said on Craven Countys plan to cut Sunday voting, I cant
support reducing what has clearly been demonstrated to be a significant number of voters,
diversity voters, that have voted in Craven County before. It is not statistically and financially
burdensome upon the taxpayers in Craven to allow Sunday voting. I think it's reasonable, and
it's measured, and its not over the top.135

The Bertie County Board of Elections

The Bertie County Board of Elections approved a plan that slashed early voting hours almost in
half, cutting them from 218.5 in 2012, down to 111 in 2016.136

Bertie County Board of Elections Chair Carol Woodard

Carol Woodard serves as the Republican chair of the Bertie County Board of Elections. She has
posted on social media advocating for increasing restrictions to voting and demonstrated her
partisan motivations for supporting voter suppression policies.

In August 2016, Woodard shared a viral image on Facebook that suggested that Republicans
supported voter ID laws in order to win elections. The photo was captioned, Ever Wonder Why
Republicans Want Voter ID? with the text Obama won in every state that did not require a
Photo ID and lost in every state that did require a Photo ID in order to vote. The photo

included a list of alleged statistics about voter fraud, which suggested that widespread voter
fraud helped reelect President Obama in 2012 --claims that PolitiFact.com ranked as Pants on
Fire after investigation, with at least one of the statistics in the viral image being completely
made up. Despite the inaccuracy of the claims about voter fraud, Woodards post appears to
reveal her partisan motivations for supporting voter suppression policies.137

The Cumberland County Board of Elections

The Cumberland County Board of Elections voted to cut Sunday voting in 2016, after offering it
in 2012. However, the county will offer it in 2016 after the North Carolina Board of Elections
voted to retain Sunday voting, with ten locations offering one day of it in Cumberland
County.138

Cumberland County Board of Elections Member Robert Kevin Hight

The most vocal opponent of the state board of elections decision to reinstate Sunday voting in
2016 was Kevin Hight, a Republican member of the Cumberland County Board of Elections.
Hight suggested that there were partisan motivations behind advocating for Sunday voting
because it had not been offered in every election, despite the fact that the county had offered
it in the previous two presidential elections.139

I just dont care for Sunday voting, Hight told the State Board of Elections at their September
2016 hearing on early voting plans.140 He rais[ed] his voice and pound[ed] the lectern,
asserting, If Sunday voting is the panacea that we've been told it is, then we need to have it
every single election, not just when Democrats want it.141 Hight claimed to not understand
why we have to throw it [Sunday voting] in for political reasons.142

Hights intense opposition to the state boards decision to offer just one day of Sunday voting in
Cumberland County in the 2016 presidential election may be explained by his far-right and
racially charged opinions, demonstrated by his social media use.

Hight has shared and liked numerous right-wing and racially charged posts on social media,
including some that make false claims about voter fraud and advocate for voter suppression
policies. He shared an article on Facebook in 2013 from the Civitas Institute, the conservative
group largely funded by multimillionaire and prolific Republican donor Art Pope. The article
claimed that one case showed how easy it is to commit voter fraud in North Carolina,
despite the fact that widespread voter fraud has been proven to be almost nonexistent in North
Carolina, as well as throughout the country.143 Hight commented on the article, To all my dear
friends who think the North Carolina General Assembly is unfairly picking out college students
to disenfranchise them please read this article. Probably not as interesting as the talking
points being distributed by the Democratic Party but then again facts really [sic] are.144

Hight has liked a series of racially charged posts on Facebook, including some that accuse
black officials of being racists. Hight liked a photo of members of the Congressional Black

Caucus that read, Is it Racist to have a Black Caucus in Congress? Yes = Like, as well as
another that showed President Barack Obama with Reverend Al Sharpton that said, Is Barack
Obama a Racist? Agree = Like.145

He also liked a post that showed side-by-side photos of Paula Deen and Barack Obama
indicating Deen said a bad word 27 years ago and is HATED by the media (in reference to
reports that Deen made racist comments, including using the N-word and saying she wanted to
hire black waiters to dress as slaves for a theme party146); and that Obama is destroying
America and is LOVED by the media.147 Hight also liked a photo on Facebook that showed
a group of black men, one of whom is holding a gun, that read, We need less gun control and
more gang control.148

Hight has also liked several Facebook photos that voiced support for requiring photo ID in
order to vote. One said, Like if you think a photo ID should be required to vote! while another
said There is nothing wrong with having to show an ID to vote LIKE if you AGREE!149

The Duplin County Board of Elections

The Republican-majority Duplin County Board of Elections proposed an early voting plan that
offered fewer hours than legally required by state law. The board has introduced other voter
suppression policies, and has also faced charges of racially motivated discrimination.

Duplin County Board of Elections Chair Derl Walker

Republican Derl Walker first served on the Duplin County Board of Elections in the 1970s. He
served on the Duplin County Commission in the 1990s and returned to the board of elections,
where he currently serves as the chairman.150


Partisan and Inadequate 2016 Early Voting Plan

Walker, with Johnnye Boyette, the other Republican member of the Duplin County Board of
Elections, proposed an early voting plan for the 2016 election that The Duplin Times described
as representing partisan interests. The paper called the competing plan proposed by
Democratic board member Angela Mainor, clearly the most friendly to the convenience of
county voters and much more voter friendly.151

Walkers plan called for the countys early voting site to be open for only ninety hours of early
voting, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. each of the fifteen early voting days. The Duplin Times wrote of
the plan, Never in the history of early voting in the county has such a limited schedule been
employed. That leaves no provisions, except for Saturdays, for most people who work regular
daytime jobs to vote.152

When the State Board of Elections ruled on the competing plans at their September 2016
meeting, the board quickly pointed out that the Republican-majority plan did not meet the
statutory requirements for early voting by offering only ninety hours; it was ten short of the
required one hundred hours. Walker defended his plan to the SBOE by saying, Duplin County is
basically a rural county. Its made up basically of rural people, and they work early and late, and
the biggest group, I would say, thats in the county is farmers and those that help farmers. And
the farmers get started in the morning. They usually do what they need to do, and then when
they get on the combines to start harvesting, they dont generally get off to go and vote. Its
usually in the morning.153

As SBOE member Joshua Malcolm noted while reviewing the two proposed plans, The truth of
the matter is we only have one lawful plan before us right now.154 And that plan was not
Walkers.

Walkers Voter Suppression Efforts Prior to 2016

Walker had implemented voter suppression policies in Duplin County prior to this years efforts.
Before the May 2014 primary election, Walker announced that poll workers would be
preparing voters for the states future voter ID requirements by asking to see their photo IDs
at the polls, even though H.B. 589s voter ID provisions wouldnt go into effect until 2016.
Walker explained that if voters did not have an ID, they sign a statement to the fact that they
dont, and then they are told how they can get one.155 Requiring voters to attest, in writing, to
the fact that they do not have a photo ID before they votebefore any voter ID law was in
effect in North Carolinaappears to be a voter intimidation tactic, even if Walker ordered the
policy under the guise of education.

Walker has made meritless claims about voter fraud even before his current stint on the Board
of Elections. As county commissioner in 1996, Walker called for an investigation of the Duplin
County Board of Elections, whose chairman at that time was a Democrat, accusing the board
of having unlocked ballot boxes and illegally helping voters cast ballots. The State Board of

Elections refused to even hold a hearing on the issue, because there was no evidence of such
malfeasance, aside from unfounded accusations from Walker and his supporters. Walker called
the SBOEs decision the same old garbage.156

Racially Charged Bullying

Walker was at the center of racially charged controversy on the Duplin County Board of
Elections, when he was accused of not considering two qualified employees for the open
position of board director because of their race. Ultimately the longtime employees, both of
whom were African American women, left their jobs at the Board of Elections, likely because of
the hostile environment created and fostered by Walker.

When the Board of Elections looked to hire a director in 2014, Walker voted to start looking at
applicants from outside the board. Democratic board member Angela Mainor advocated for
appointing one of two longtime Board of Elections employees: Interim Director Pat MarableWilliams, with fourteen years of experience, or Interim Deputy Director Chiquitta Lesene, with
ten years of experience. Mainor accused Walker of overlooking the employees, who were both
African American, because of their race. If [Marable-Williams] had been a white male or white
female and if [Lesene] would have been a white male or white female, they would have already
been appointed, Mainor argued.157

Members of the public echoed Mainors concerns about racial discrimination in the boards
hiring process. As far as the public is concerned we see that as a problem, said Rebecca Judge,
a resident attending the meeting, on why the deputy director wasnt appointed to the vacant
position. This is my opinion, and it is the opinion of many people in the community, that had
the deputy director been a white male or a white person period that there would not have
been a question.158

After the search process, Walker and the Republican-majority board instead named Edward
Clifton Hudson, a white man, to be director of the board of elections.159 Hudson worked as a
supervisor at a pickle factory and had no relevant elections experience. Mainor, who nominated
Marable-Williams because of her fourteen years of experience with the Board of Elections,
argued that Hudson, has no experience whatsoever but a shipping person from Mt. Olive
Pickle, and continued, That is the only experience he has.160

In an unusual move, the executive director of the State Board of Elections refused to confirm
Hudson as director of the Duplin County Board of Elections in July 2014, because of the
controversy surrounding his selection. Kim Strach, executive director of the SBOE, sent a letter
to the county board, noting, Unfortunately, the process by which your Board selected its
nominee raises grave concerns that I cannot ignore.161

In September 2014, Interim Deputy Director Chiquitta Lesene resigned from her position at the
Duplin County Board of Elections.162 After the November 2014 election, Walker blamed Interim
Board of Elections Director Pat Marable-Williams, whom he had refused to promote under

dubious circumstances, for allegedly mailing out sixteen absentee ballots with more than one
voting form attached to them.163

How in the world a person who has worked for the county and with the Board for 15 years
allows this to happen is beyond me, Walker railed against Marable-Williams at the public
meeting.164 Walker even seemed to accuse her of deliberately committing a crime, asking,
How many other nursing facilities have received them? He continued, how many individuals
have received duplicate ballots? And willfully, which we cant prove, violating some of the
election laws in dealing with absentee ballots rises to the level of a criminal offense.165

At some point during the meeting, where Walker railed against Marable-Williams, the county
attorney asked Walker to stop because she felt it was getting beyond what was allowed in
public comments. Marable-Williams stated at the meeting, which multiple employees walked
out on, I have done a great job and I am honest, and continued, At this point, my character is
being scarred by someone who obviously has something against me. I just have to put that out
there. A lot of these things could have been asked. He saw problems but I was never asked. I
was just accused at a meeting.166 Marable-Williams later was transferred out of the Board of
Elections to another county department at her request. Despite the SBOE never finding it
necessary to investigate Walkers complaints, he continued to assault Marable-Williams
character after she transferred departments, saying he was concerned about her dealing with
confidential documents.167

The Pasquotank County Board of Elections

Within hours of Governor McCrory signing H.B. 589, the GOP-controlled local election board
in Pasquotank County went to work to take away the electoral rights of students at a local,
historically black university. In August 2015, the Pasquotank County Board of Elections ruled an
on-campus address could not be used to establish local residency and barred a student at
the HBCU Elizabeth City State University from running for city council. That student, Montravias
King, was a senior at Elizabeth City State who had filed to run for a seat on the city council
representing the ward that includes the campus. King had been registered to vote in the
county since coming to the college in 2009, and said he planned to stay after he graduates.
Pete Gilbert, the head of the Pasquotank County GOP, was the individual who had challenged
Kings residency. Following the ruling in Gilberts favor by the board controlled by his party, King
told the Associated Press that he planned to challenge the voter registrations of more students
at the historically black university ahead of upcoming elections, and urged his counterparts
living in college towns across the state to do the same.168

The Guilford County Board of Elections

Don Wendelken is one of the GOP members of the Guilford County Board of Elections. In 2014,
Wendelken, with the other Republican on the board, voted to eliminate voting on Sunday in
Guilford County.169 He has posted a number of offensive images on social media. In July 2015,

Wendelken suggested that Planned Parenthood killed 90,000 black babies last year.170 In
March 2016, he posted a photo of a black family all lying on one mattress with the caption
poor people have been voting Democrat for fifty years and theyre still poor.171 In March
2016, he posted that transgender people were confused, and that people should SAY NO TO
PAYPAL as he did when he closed his account, because PayPal supported allowing transgender
people to use any bathroom they feel like.172

Voter Suppression Groups and Activists in North Carolina
Art Pope - Conservative Funder of Voter Suppression Groups

Art Pope is the main funding source for a number of voter suppression groups throughout
North Carolina that he established, including Americans for ProsperityNorth Carolina, the John
Locke Foundation, and the Civitas Institute. Pope, a multi-millionaire GOP donor, has
contributed more than $55 million via his family foundation to build a robust network of
conservative think tanks and advocacy groups in order to create a state version of what his
friends Charles and David Koch have helped create on a national level.173 Pope, who was the
second-largest institutional funder of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, served as one
of the organizations national directors, and previously served as a board member to its
predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy.174 He founded the North Carolina state chapter of
Americans for Prosperity, which AFP leadership considered a model state.175 The national
Americans for Prosperity is an issue advocacy organization with ties to the Tea Party
movement.176

In 1990, Pope founded the John Locke Foundation, a 501(c)3 foundation that pushes
conservative policy as an answer to the liberal establishment.177 About eighty per cent
[sic] of the John Locke Foundations funding has come from the Pope family foundation.178 In
2005, Art Pope set up the Civitas Institute, a conservative policy and polling 501(c)3 nonprofit group to offer the intellectual underpinning for regulatory and voting changes.179 The
Civitas Institute has a near-total reliance on Pope, getting more than ninety-seven per cent
[sic] of its funding from the Pope family foundation.180 North Carolina Democratic Leader
Martin Nesbitt explained the John Locke and Civitas Foundations put out road maps for how to
change everything, and the legislature pretty much followed the script.181

In North Carolina, Pope has created a singular influence machine that, according to critics,
blurs the lines between tax-deductible philanthropy and corporate-funded partisan
advocacy.182 He is the key Republican contributor in the state, and has been compensated for
his contributions with an appointment to a crucial budget position and the passage of major
planks of his think tanks agenda.

In the 2010 election, accounts linked to Pope spent a total of $2.2 million in North Carolina,
which totaled three-quarters of the spending by independent groups in the state.183 In 2012,
Pope, his family, and his affiliated groups spent over $2 million to help Republicans win

supermajorities in both chambers and [put] a Republican in the executive mansion.184
Following Gov. McCrorys win, he announced he would be appointing major donor Pope as his
head of budget policy, to be in charge of crafting the executive branch's budget proposal,
and work with legislative leaders on tax reform.185 In 2013, the GOP leaders whom Pope
helped elect approved a torrent of conservative measures that resembled ideas touted by his
think tanks, including bills that cut unemployment benefits, blocked the expansion of
Medicaid, restricted access to abortions and ushered in new restrictions on voting.186

Civitas Institute

The Civitas Institute was created in 2005 by Pope as a conservative policy and polling 501(c)3
non-profit group offering an intellectual underpinning on regulatory and voting changes.187
It has a near-total reliance on Pope, getting more than ninety-seven per cent [sic] of its
funding from the Pope family foundation.188

The organization is an integral piece to the voter suppression movement in North Carolina.
Starting in 2008, the organization, along with the John Locke Foundation published more than
50 articles, op-eds and blog posts warning of voter fraud and using the alleged threat to call for
a strict photo ID law, an end to same-day registration, and a shorter early voting period.189
During committee discussion on H.B. 589, Francis De Luca, the president of the Civitas Institute,
testified in favor of the bill, claiming it was necessary for North Carolina to update its ballot
protection.190 In 2015, in the face of a lawsuit from civil rights groups and the Justice
Department, when the GOP walked back some of the radical suppression provisions in H.B. 589,
Civitas Institute analyst Susan Myrick publically blasted the legislatures change, saying it guts
and demolishes the law.191

In 2015, Civitas Institute analyst Susan Myrick, a frequent speaker at Tea Party events, pushed a
report from the group purporting to uncover a left-wing conspiracy as liberal as a pink
Prius.192 The report declared that there was a nefarious underworld of 140 interwoven
liberal groups in North Carolina.193 In 2013, Myrick attended the Pasquotank County Board of
Elections hearing when it ruled an on-campus address at local HBCU Elizabeth City State
University could not be used to establish local residency.194 The Institute for Southern Studies
wrote that at the hearing, Myrick was sitting beside Pete Gilbert, the head of the Pasquotank
County GOP, which raised questions about Civitas and Popes involvement.195 In 2015, Myrick
retweeted an insulting tweet claiming Caitlyn Jenner was experiencing sex change regret and
was considering a de-transition back into a man with the words Psst. He always was Bruce
Jenner.196

Bob Luebke, a Civitas researcher, wrote that the poor in America live better than the picture
most liberals like to paint, because a majority have refrigerators, cable television,
microwaves, and shelter. Luebke added that the medias obsession with pervasive
homelessness also appears to be a myth.197

John Locke Foundation

The John Locke Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization with deep conservative and Tea Party ties
that was founded by Art Pope in 1990.198 About eighty per cent of the groups funding has
come from the Pope family foundation.199 The organizations president, John Hood, said the
foundation was created because the conservatives thought the liberals had the universities,
so they started the the John Locke Foundation as an answer to the liberal establishment.200
During President Obamas first term, the John Locke Foundation sent multiple representatives
to speak at Tea Party rallies and functions throughout the state, including a Surry County Tea
Party Patriots meeting, a Burke County Tea Party meeting, and a Stanley County Tea Party rally
on the steps of the county courthouse.201 Even Hood himself spoke at a Tea Party rally at Wake
Forest, imploring the Tea Party members that they must elect conservatives to stop taxpayers'
money from being used for entitlement programs.202

The foundation is an integral organization within the voter suppression movement. Starting in
2008, the foundation, along with the Civitas Institute, published more than 50 articles, op-eds,
and blog posts warning of voter fraud and using the alleged threat to call for a strict photo ID
law, an end to same-day registration, and a shorter early voting period.203 In 2013, Hood
mounted a vigorous defense of H.B. 589, including an op-ed claiming the voter ID laws were not
racially-targeted poll taxes and do not infringe on the right to vote.204 In 2015, he wrote an
op-ed in the Winston-Salem Journal attacking liberals for getting it wrong on the legislation,
claiming that the voter ID laws had not suppressed the black turnout.205 Hood conveniently
neglected to mention that H.B. 589s voter ID requirement was not enforced in 2014, and was
only set to take effect in 2016.206 Hood also believes that poverty exists largely because of
self-destructive behavior but the extent of true poverty in North Carolina and around the
country is woefully overestimated.207

In March 2012, Tara Servatius, a blogger on the foundations Meck Deck website, posted a
racist and lewd image of President Obama Photoshopped onto an African-American man
wearing high heels and chains with a bucket of fried chicken. The image, hosted on the think
tanks servers, came attached to a story about how President Obama had taken a stance on
North Carolina's proposed marriage amendment to boost his chances of winning North
Carolina in November. Servatius resigned as a result of the racist photo, while Hood
apologized for what he called an extremely inappropriate photo.208

North Carolina Chapter of Americans for Prosperity

Pope founded the North Carolina state chapter of Americans for Prosperity. The national
Americans for Prosperity, founded and funded by David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch, is an
conservative issue advocacy organization with ties to the Tea Party movement.209

The North Carolina chapter was formerly led by Dallas Woodhouse, who rails against tax
increases for the well-off, because in some parts of the country couples earning two hundred

and fifty thousand dollars a year are just middle class.210 In 2013, Woodhouse left AFP-NC to
pursue business opportunities, although he later returned to GOP politics as the executive
director of the North Carolina Republican Party.211 In March 2016, Hasan Harnett, the state
GOP's first African American chairman, accused Woodhouse of cutting off his email and
working around him. Harnett wondered if Woodhouse was putting him through some form of
ritual or hazing for being the first black Chairman of the NCGOP State Party, and asked
Woodhouse, Am I not white enough for you?212

After Woodhouse left Popes Americans for ProsperityNorth Carolina, he led Carolina Rising,
an IRS-denoted social welfare non-profit that spent millions trying to elect Republican Thom
Tillis to the U.S. Senate. Carolina Rising raised 99 percent of its money from one source and
spent 97 percent of that$4.6 millionon TV ads supporting Republican Thom Tillis in his
successful campaign for the U.S. Senate. An IRS-designated social welfare group cannot spend
more than half of its money on political activities. Not only did Carolina Rising spend well over
50 percent of its money on political activities, on their FEC reports the group described their ad
campaign as pro-Thom Tillis, and on election night, after a reporter suggested to Woodhouse,
You spent a whole lot of money to get this man elected, Woodhouse replied, $4.7 million!
[] We did it. In 2015, campaign finance watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
in Washington filed a complaint with the IRS asking for sanctions against Carolina Rising for the
political spending.213

Voter Integrity Project

The Voter Integrity Project was founded in 2011 by Jay DeLancy as an offshoot of True the
Vote, a national effort that challenges voter registration lists that has been criticized by
voting rights advocates for intimidating voters.214 When the national True the Vote
organization became concerned with DeLancys anti-immigrant leanings, DeLancy broke away
from the national organization and founded the Voter Integrity Project.215 The organization has
extensive ties to Tea Party groups.216 In fact, DeLancy has spoken at multiple Tea Party rallies
throughout the state, including in 2013 at the North Carolina Tea Party Coalitions statewide
Defend Liber-Tea Rally in Greensboro, where he urged the attendees to fight for voter ID.217
In 2014, the project teamed up with the Asheville Tea Party to challenge the voter registrations
of 182 North Carolinians, with DeLancy praising the Asheville Tea Party for its miraculous
working.218 Deidre Morrison, the treasurer of the Voter Integrity Project, was a a Tea Party
activist from Youngsville, who was a member of both the Patriot Action Network and Tea
Party Nation national factions.219

In 2012, after the Voter Integrity Project announced it had identified 27,561 dead people still
on the North Carolina voter rolls, the SBOE immediately declared that at least 82 percent of
those voters were still alive.220 In 2014, the Voter Integrity Project asked the SBOE to look into
the voting status of immigrants who came to the United States under a federal program
known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.221 Despite the tens of thousands of voters
the project had challenged in North Carolina, in 2016 director DeLancy admitted that only a

handful had amounted to anything, with an average of just 0.4 indictments per year in their five
years of work.222

The Voter Integrity Project supports requiring voters to show a photo ID, and in 2013, a
number of speakers connected to the project testified at the H.B. 589 hearing that voter fraud
was a more serious problem than authorities think.223 DeLancy claimed that efforts to block
or weaken the voter ID requirements were part of a vast left-wing conspiracy to pad the voter
rolls with non-citizens.224

Judicial Watch

Judicial Watch is a national conservative-leaning organization that uses litigation to make its
political points. In 2013, the group waded into the lawsuit civil rights groups and the Justice
Department brought against North Carolina over H.B. 589, with a motion in conjunction with
Christina Kelley Gallegos-Merrill, a Tea Party-endorsed Republican who lost her bid for
Buncombe County Board of Commissioners by 13 votes.225 Judicial Watch and GallegosMerrill, who had already unsuccessfully petitioned the county and state boards of election,
claimed she had lost in 2012 because of the same-day registration during the early-voting
period combined with the lack of a photo ID requirement. Gallegos-Merrill and Judicial Watch
contended that the transient student population, of motivated, partisan voters from Warren
Wilson College were able to deceive poll workers about which dorm they supposedly lived in,
in order to oppose Gallegos-Merrills candidacy.226 The U.S. District Court for the Middle
District of North Carolina tossed out Gallegos-Merrill and Judicial Watchs motion, ruling that
they had failed to show that their interests will not be adequately represented by the state
defendants.227

Conclusion

Officials at all levels of North Carolinas government have engaged in what amounts to a longterm assault on voting rights. Voter suppression policiesvoter ID requirements, reducing early
voting, and other policies that make voting less accessibledisproportionately affect minority
voters who should be encouraged to turn out and exercise their constitutional rights to vote.

Despite what some North Carolina officials have expressed, voting is a right, not a privilege.
These officials are failing all North Carolina voters when they display partisan and at times
racially charged motivations for their suppression efforts while serving in roles intended to
impartially administer elections and protect voting rights. These policies do not simply make it
more difficult for North Carolinians to vote; they strip constitutional rights from largely minority
voters, all for the purpose of partisan, political gain.
End Notes
1
United States of American v. State of North Carolina, 2016 APP 1468 (2016),
http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/161468.P.pdf.
2
Ibid.
3
Sari Horwitz, Trial to Start in Lawsuit over North Carolinas Voter-ID Law, Washington Post, January 24, 2016,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trial-to-start-over-north-carolinas-voter-idlaw/2016/01/24/fac97d20-c1d1-11e5-9443-7074c3645405_story.html.
4
Wesley Young, Cut to Early Voting Advances, Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, May 12, 2011,
http://www.journalnow.com/archives/cut-to-early-voting-advances/article_2769d24c-ab9e-551f-9c9f-e14322d44fab.html.
5
Maya Rhodan, Lawsuits Take Aim at North Carolinas Voting Law, Time online, August 13, 2013,
http://nation.time.com/2013/08/13/lawsuits-take-aim-at-north-carolinas-voting-law/.
6
Jim Morrill, N. C. House Atcs to Shorten Schedule for Early Voting, Charlotte Observer, May 13, 2011.
7
Michael Wines and Alan Blinder, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down North Carolina Voter ID Requirement, New York Times,
July 29, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/us/federal-appeals-court-strikes-down-north-carolina-voter-idprovision.html.
8
John Frank and Rob Christensen, Democrats Say No Need for Voter ID Law, Under the Dome (blog), (Raleigh, NC) News &
Observer, May 11, 2013, http://blogsarchive.nandoweb.net/?p=183235.
9
Reid Wilson, Report: Voter ID Laws Reduce Turnout More among African American and Younger Voters, Washington Post,
October 9, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/10/09/report-voter-id-laws-reduce-turnoutmore-among-african-american-and-younger-voters/.
10
Chris Kardish, A Hard Right: How North Carolina Turned So Red So Fast, Governing 27, no. 10 (July 2014): 32-39,
http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-north-carolina-southern-progressivism.html.
11
Editorial Board, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, January 30, 2014, GOP legislators should release documents behind voter ID
law.
12
Editorial Board, The Daily Reflector of Greenville (NC) on Voter ID Legislation, in North Carolina Editorial Roundup,
Associated Press, January 15, 2013, http://racing.ap.org/mashpee/content/north-carolina-editorial-roundup.
13
Pete Williams, North Carolina Asks Supreme Court to Block Voter ID Ruling, NBC News, August 16, 2016,
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/north-carolina-asks-supreme-court-block-voter-id-ruling-n631776; and Anne Blythe,
Courts Are Roadblocks to NC Lawmakers' Right Turn, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, August 20, 2016,
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article96889712.html.
14
Opinion: Voting Laws Like N.C.s Hurt, Dont Help Voters, Charlotte (NC) Observer, October 21, 2013,
https://web.archive.org/web/20131026041036/http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/10/21/4405065/voting-laws-like-ncshurt-dont.html#.V-GzypMrLUI.
15
Bob Hall, New Law Makes It Harder to Vote, Star News Online, October 11, 2013,
http://www.starnewsonline.com/opinion/20131011/bob-hall----new-law-makes-it-harder-to-vote.
16
William Wan, Inside the Republican Creation of the North Carolina Voting Bill Dubbed the Monster Law, Washington Post,
September 2, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/inside-the-republican-creation-of-the-northcarolina-voting-bill-dubbed-the-monster-law/2016/09/01/79162398-6adf-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html; and Opinion:
Voting Laws Like N.C.s Hurt, Dont Help Voters, Charlotte (NC) Observer, October 21, 2013,
https://web.archive.org/web/20131026041036/http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/10/21/4405065/voting-laws-like-ncshurt-dont.html#.V-GzypMrLUI.
17
Mark Binker, Q&A: Changes to NC Election Laws, WRAL.com, August 21, 2013, http://www.wral.com/election-changescoming-in-2014-2016/12750290/.
18
John Frank, North Carolina Republicans Complete Breathtaking Changes in State Laws, Seattle (WA) Times, July 28, 2013,
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/north-carolina-republicans-complete-lsquobreathtakingrsquo-changes-in-statelaws/; and Keith Gunnar Bentele and Erin OBrien, Jim Crow 2.0?: Why States Consider and Adopt Restrictive Voter Access
Policies, University of Massachusetts Boston, Sociology Faculty Publication Series, Paper 11, (Pre-published version, December
2013), http://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=sociology_faculty_pubs.
19
Tom Foreman, Jr., NC Governor Signs Sweeping Voter Reforms into Law, U.S. News and World Report online, August 12,
2013, http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2013/08/12/nc-governor-signs-sweeping-voter-reforms-into-law.
20
John Murawski and John Frank, Colin Powell Slams NCs New Voting Law in Speech, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, August
22, 2013, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24754807.html.
21
Editorial Board, Voting Rights, Voting Wrongs, Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times, April 6, 2013.
22
Editorial Board, Feds Right on Voter Suppression Lawsuit, Charlotte (NC) Observer, October 1, 2013,
http://www.ncspin.com/feds-right-on-voter-suppression-lawsuit/.
23
Michael Hewlett, Ex-College Democrats President: N.C. Election Law Intimidated College Students, Winston-Salem (NC)
Journal, July 20, 2015, http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/ex-college-democrats-president-n-c-election-law-intimidatedcollege/article_4ae0659e-2f0b-11e5-8403-a3cc273a1ec7.html.
24
Jim Morrill, Voter ID Laws Take Hold in Other States, Charlotte (NC) Observer, May 23, 2011,
http://thevotingnews.com/voter-id-laws-and-limits-on-early-take-hold-in-many-states-the-charlotte-observer/.
25
Editorial, Voting Rights, Voting Wrongs.
26
Editorial, The Daily Reflector of Greenville (NC) on Voter ID Legislation. Tar Heel View: On voter ID legislation as printed in
the Richmond County Daily Journal, January 16, 2013.
27
Horwitz, Trial to Start; and Abby Blythe, NAACP adds churches, others to NC elections lawsuit, Raleigh (NC) News &
Observer, November 14, 2013.
28
The United States Department of Justice, Justice Department to File Lawsuit Against the State of North Carolina to Stop
Discriminatory Changes to Voting Law, news release, September 30, 2013, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justicedepartment-file-lawsuit-against-state-north-carolina-stop-discriminatory-changes.
29
Michael Hewlett, N.C. Voting Law Opponents File for Preliminary Injunction: State Asks Lawsuits Be Thrown Out, WinstonSalem (NC) Journal, May 20, 2014, http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/n-c-voting-law-opponents-file-for-preliminaryinjunction-state/article_d07e9924-e037-11e3-b193-0017a43b2370.html.
30
Barry Smith, McCrory Calls Federal Election Lawsuit In The Fringes, (Raleigh, NC) Carolina Journal, October 1, 2013,
https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/mccrory-calls-federal-election-lawsuit-in-the-fringes/; and Jon Ostendorff, N.C.
voting rights advocates applaud federal lawsuit, USA Today, October 1, 2013.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/01/nc-voting-rights-advocates-federal-lawsuit/2903177/
31
Gary D. Robertson, Judge Says NC Lawmakers Cant Ignore Subpoenas, Washington (DC) Times, May 15, 2014,
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/15/judge-says-nc-lawmakers-cant-ignore-subpoenas/.
32
Gary D. Robertson, Court Tries to Move NC Election Lawsuits Along, Washington (DC) Times, February 21, 2014,
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/21/nc-election-overhaul-lawsuits-returns-to-court/.
33
Editorial Board, GOP Legislators Should Release Documents Behind Voter ID law, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, January
30, 2014, as printed in the Star News of Wilmington, NC, February 1, 2014.
34
Gary D. Robertson, Changes to NC Voter ID Rankle Some, but Could Preserve Law, Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times, June 28,
2015, http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/2015/06/28/changes-nc-voter-rankle-preserve-law/29425343/.
35
Mark Barrett, McGrady, Whitmire Comments Come Up in Voter ID Trial, Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times, February 4, 2016,
http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/02/04/mcgrady-whitmire-comments-come-up-voter-idtrial/79815952/.
36
Robertson, Changes to NC Voter ID Rankle; and Anne Blythe and Colin Campbell, NC Legislature Votes to Soften Voter ID
Requirement, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, June 18, 2015, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politicsgovernment/article24877873.html.
37
Wines and Blinder, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down.
38
Ibid.; and Sarah Childress, Court: North Carolina Voter ID Law Targeted Black Voters, PBS Frontline, July 29, 2016,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/court-north-carolina-voter-id-law-targeted-black-voters/.
39
40
Childress, Court: North Carolina Voter ID Law Targeted.
41
42
Editorial Board, GOP Legislators Should Release Documents Behind Voter ID Law, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, January
30, 2014.
43
Editorial Board, NC Judge Halts a GOP Effort to Stymie Student Vote, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, October 16, 2014,
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article10098482.html.
44
Thursday at the North Carolina General Assembly, Associated Press, March 6, 2009.
45
GOP Lawmakers File Voter ID Bill, WNCN.com, April 13, 2013.
46
Jim Morrill, 2014 GOP Senate Field Sees Hagans Seat as a Top 2014 Target, Charlotte (NC) Observer, June 2, 2013; and
Wan, Inside the Republican Creation.
47
Patrick Phillippi, Voting And Gun Law Changes On The Fast Track, WFMY News 2, June 30, 2013,
http://archive.digtriad.com/news/article/289604/57/Voting-And-Gun-Law-Changes-On-The-Fast-Track-.
48
Laura Leslie, Tillis: Fraud 'Not the Primary Reason' for Voter ID Push, WRAL.com, March 17, 2013,
http://www.wral.com/tillis-actual-voter-fraud-not-the-primary-reason-for-voter-id-push-/12231514/.
49
Gary D. Robertson, More Debate Expected on Voter ID Bill in NC, Charleston (WV) Gazette-Mail, June 12, 2011,
http://www.wvgazettemail.com/ap/ApWorld/201106120581.
50
Jim Morrill, Lawsuits Expected over Major NC Voting Changes, Charlotte (NC) Observer, August 4, 2013,
https://web.archive.org/web/20130824150425/http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/08/04/4211520/lawsuits-expectedover-major-nc.html.
51
Caroline Curran, Voter Information Verification Act Filed in State House, Port City (Wilmington, NC) Daily, April 5, 2013,
http://portcitydaily.com/2013/04/05/gop-attempts-another-round-at-voter-id-legislation/.
52
Gary D. Robertson, NC Early-Voting Time Reduced in House Proposal, RealClearPolitics.com, May 11, 2011,
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2011/May/11/nc_early_voting_time_reduced_in_house_proposal.html.
53
Mark Binker, House Backs Bill on Early Voting, (Greensboro, NC) News & Record, May 13, 2011.
54
Jim Morrill, N.C. House Acts to Shorten Schedule for Early Voting, Charlotte (NC) Observer, May 13, 2011.
55
Binker, House Backs Bill.
56
J. Brian Ewing, Pushy Campaigning Reported at Polls, (Greensboro, NC) News & Record, October 26, 2010.
57
Editorial Board, Lets Vote, Charlotte (NC) Observer, May 1, 2011.
58
Jim Morrill, GOP Bill Would Trim Early Voting by a Week, Charlotte (NC) Observer, April 27, 2011.
59
60
Editorial, Lets Vote.
61
Morrill, GOP Bill Would Trim Early Voting.
62
Editorial Board, Are Republicans Wary of Large Voter Turnout?, Charlotte (NC) Observer, April 29, 2011.
63
Editorial, Voting Rights, Voting Wrongs.
64
Gary D. Robertson, Group: NC Restrictions Deny Hundreds of Votes, Washington (DC) Times, September 10, 2014,
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/10/group-nc-restrictions-deny-hundreds-of-votes/; and Editorial Board,
Senseless Changes, (Greensboro, NC) News & Record, July 25, 2013,
http://www.greensboro.com/opinion/n_and_r_editorials/senseless-changes/article_7b6e0bcc-f4a1-11e2-9cb40019bb30f31a.html .
65
Michael Gordon, Voting fight: Is it race or is it politics, Charlotte (NC) Observer, October 19, 2013,
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24757594.html; and Gary D. Robertson, Judge Refuses to halt
voter ID requirement in March election, Associated Press, January 16, 2016,
http://www.blueridgenow.com/news/20160116/judge-refuses-to-halt-voter-id-requirement-in-march-election.
66
Erik Spanberg, NC Sen. Bob Rucho Stands by 'Nazis' Remark, Charlotte (NC) Business Journal, December 17, 2013,
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/queen_city_agenda/2013/12/mecklenburg-gop-senator-bob-rucho-stands-bynazis.html.
67
Jim Morrill, Rucho Defends Controversial Tweet, Charlotte (NC) Observer, December 16, 2013.
68
Spanberg, NC Sen. Bob Rucho Stands by 'Nazis' Remark.
69
Gary D. Robertson, NC GOP Re-election Campaigns Highlight Voter ID Law, Charlotte (NC) Observer, September 21, 2014,
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article9194009.html.
70
Travis Fain, NCGA Signs Off on Voting Bill, (Greensboro, NC) News & Record, July 25, 2013.
71
Patrick Gannon, Number of Hours for Early Voting in NC Slips Slightly; Election 2014, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer, April
23, 2014.
72
Gary D. Robertson, Any NC Voter ID Law Will Face Legal, GOP Obstacles, Associated Press State and Local Wire, January 13,
2013.
73
Sue Book, Supreme Court's Voting Rights Decision Likely to Impact Craven, New Bern (NC) Sun-Journal, June 29, 2013,
http://www.newbernsj.com/20130629/supreme-courts-voting-rights-decision-likely-to-impact-craven/306299933.
74
Editorial Board, We Don't Buy Affi-David Lewis Explanation on the Photo ID, Beaufort (Washington, NC) Examiner, June 22,
2015, http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Articles-NEWS-and-COMMENTARY-c-2015-06-22-278524.112112-We-dont-buyAffiDavid-Lewis-explanation-on-the-photo-ID.html.
75
Kristen Hunter, Email from House Representative Calls NAACP Racists, WNCT CBS-9, February 2, 2013.
76
Colin Campbell, NC Legislator Posts Image Calling Obama 'Islamic Son of a Bitch, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer,
September 14, 2015.
77
Michael Speciale Facebook page, status of August 10, 2016 accessed August 10, 2016,
https://www.facebook.com/michael.speciale.nc/posts/10210320913645773.
78
Michael Speciale Facebook page, status of August 8, 2016 (11:05 a.m.), accessed September 22, 2016,
https://www.facebook.com/michael.speciale.nc/posts/10210305042649008; and Amanda Shea, Bad News For Hillary After
What Her Handler Is Caught Hiding In His Hand, Mad World News, August 8, 2016, http://madworldnews.com/hillary-clintonhandler-hand/.
79
Michael Speciale Facebook page, status of July 31, 2016 (9:18 a.m.), accessed September 22, 2016,
https://www.facebook.com/michael.speciale.nc/posts/10210237602323042; and Michael Speciale Facebook page, status of
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80
Harry Warren Facebook page, status as of June 15, 2010 (10:10 p.m.), accessed September 22, 2016,
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17, 2011 (4:22 p.m.), accessed September 22, 2016, https://www.facebook.com/harry.warren.792/posts/2250259492529.
81
Harry Warren Facebook page, status of October 21, 2010 (5:11 a.m.), accessed September 22, 2016,
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82
Editorial, Lets Vote.
83
Gary D. Robertson, NC GOP Lawmakers Determined to Pass Voter ID Bill: Civil Liberties Advocates Wary of Measure,
Charlotte (NC) Post, January 31, 2011,
http://www.thecharlottepost.com/index.php?src=news&submenu=News&srctype=detail&category=News&refno=3325.
84
Karen Welsh, General Assembly Looks for Creative Answer for Voter ID Veto, (Raleigh, NC) Carolina Journal, August 25,
2011, https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/general-assembly-looks-for-creative-answer-for-voter-id-veto/.
85
Laura Leslie, Voter ID Veto Stands, for Now, WRAL.com, July 27, 2011,
http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/blogpost/9912762/ and Gary D. Robertson, NC governor veto to block voter ID
mandate remains, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, July 27, 2011.
86
Anna Douglas, In Voter ID Case, GOP Leader Says 'Daily Show' Source a 'Pain in the ..., (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer,
August 1, 2016, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article93077422.html and Jonathan Drew and
Emery P. Dalesio, Appeals court strikes down NC voter ID law as discriminatory, (Asheville, NC) Citizen Times, July 29, 2016.
87
Jose Delreal, 'Daily Show' Prompts Resignation, Politico, October 24, 2013, http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/ncgop-official-resigns-after-interview-098822.
88
Joe Coscarelli, Don Yelton, GOP Precinct Chair, Delivers Most Baldly Racist Daily Show Interview of All Time, New York
Magazine, October 24, 2013, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/10/don-yelton-racist-daily-show-interview.html.
89
Editorial Board, An NC GOP Leader Embarrasses Himself and His Party on 'The Daily Show, (Raleigh, NC) News & Observer,
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90
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Woolverton, Heated Debate Ends.
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North Carolina State Board of Elections, Hearing on Petitions Regarding One-Stop Early Voting, G.S. 163-227.2(g), 166-172.
154
North Carolina State Board of Elections, Hearing on Petitions Regarding One-Stop Early Voting, G.S. 163-227.2(g), 166-172.
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159
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160
Jacqueline Hough, Elections Board Names New Director, Duplin (NC) Times, July 17, 2014.
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Patrick Gannon, Racial Overtones Fuel Elections Board Controversy in Duplin.
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182
Ibid.
183
Ibid.
184
Sue Sturgis, Special Investigation: How Art Pope Helped Turn Back the Clock on Voting Rights in North Carolina.
185
Pope, Shanahan Find Place in McCrory Cabinet, WRAL.com, December 20, 2012, http://www.wral.com/pope-shanahanfind-place-in-mccrory-cabinet/11902422/.
186
Gold, In N.C., Conservative Donor.
187
Civitas Institute Mission; and Mayer, State for Sale.
188
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189
Sturgis, Special Investigation.
190
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191
Blythe and Campbell, NC Legislature Votes.
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193
Boyle, A Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy.
194
Sturgis, Special Investigation; and Biesecker, NC Elections Boards Move to Curtail.
195
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Something's Rotten: North Carolina's Shameful Record of Voter Suppression and The Partisan and Sometimes Racially Charged Motivations of Those Administering Its Elections

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Something's Rotten: North Carolina's Shameful Record of Voter Suppression and The Partisan and Sometimes Racially Charged Motivations of Those Administering Its Elections

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Executive Summary

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 1

Voter Suppression in North Carolina

2010s: North Carolina Republicans Attack Access to The Ballot Box

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 2

Voter Suppression from the Top Down

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 3

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 4

Voter Suppression in the North Carolina State Legislature

Former State House Speaker, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis

State Representative Bert Jones

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 6

State Senator Jim Davis

State Senator Ralph Hise

State Senator Bob Rucho

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 7

State Senator Phil Berger

State Representative Michael Speciale

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 8

State Representative Harry Warren

State Representative George Cleveland

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 9

State Representative Tim Moore

Former Republican Precinct Chair Don Yelton

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 10

North Carolinas Local Election Board Members

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 11

The Watauga County Board of Elections

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 12

Aceto makes an obscene gesture in a 2010 photo104

2016 Voter Suppression Efforts

The Edgecombe County Board of Elections

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 16

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 17

The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 18

The Craven County Board of Elections

The Bertie County Board of Elections

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 19

The Cumberland County Board of Elections

The Duplin County Board of Elections

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 21

The Pasquotank County Board of Elections

The Guilford County Board of Elections

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 24

Voter Suppression Groups and Activists in North Carolina

Art Pope - Conservative Funder of Voter Suppression Groups

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 26

John Locke Foundation

North Carolina Chapter of Americans for Prosperity

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 27

Voter Integrity Project

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 28

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 29

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 30

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 31

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 32

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 33

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 34

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 35

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 36

SOMETHINGS ROTTEN | ALLIED PROGRESS | 37

Sturgis, Special Investigation.