Disdain for democracy and voters

Republicans are trying to steal a court seat by disenfranchising voters and undermine the will of the voters by stripping power from the people they elected.

Everybody should be watching North Carolina right now. The GOP in North Carolina is openly displaying their disdain for democracy and voters. They are trying to steal one election outright by disenfranchising voters and they are trying to change what voters chose when they elected Democrats to helm Council of State seats. It’s a disgraceful consequences of extreme gerrymandering by a party that’s become cynical and autocratic.

Republicans are actively trying to cancel the votes of people who cast ballots to give them a win in the Supreme Court race that sitting Justice Allison Riggs won. They’ve challenged 60,000 votes, questioning the legitimacy of voters. Voters whose registration is being questioned are pissed, as they should be. Unfortunately, they can’t do much about it because Republicans value power more than people or democracy.

Republicans in North Carolina have been assaulting the democratic process since they took control of the legislature in 2010. They’ve gerrymandered themselves into control of the legislature, often with veto-proof majorities, eliminating the checks on power that the Founding Fathers envisioned. Ever since they ensconced themselves in safe districts, they’ve been trying to shape the electorate to give Republican candidates the advantage in statewide races, too.

We need to remember that Republicans used the prospect of voter fraud as a pretext for making voting more difficult. We also need to remember that they suddenly saw voter fraud when the state voted for a Black man for President of the United States. There’s not much record of Republicans complaining about voter fraud before that election. They knew they could gaslight enough of their white base to start rigging elections by cracking down on imaginary fraud. In reality, they are the perpetrators of the most egregious voter fraud in state history and few of their proposed changes would have prevented it.

Their main strategy is to disenfranchise voters who fit the profile of Democrats. For a while, the courts rejected their efforts, but the U.S. Supreme Court has essentially said that elections are the purview of the state courts. Unfortunately for voters, the North Carolina Appellate Courts seem to have become an arm of the GOP legislature, sacrificing their independence and undermining their credibility.

So far, the Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin has lost one recount and is demanding another hand recount, a process that’s occurring right now. The attempt to disenfranchise the voters is a separate process altogether. I don’t have a problem with demanding recounts, but the attempt to disenfranchise voters further reduces confidence in elections. I suspect that’s an outcome Republicans welcome. It’s easier erode democracy if people don’t trust it.

The state and county boards of elections are responsible for overseeing Griffin’s challenge to the voters. It’s no coincidence that Republicans have passed a bill to take control of the State Board of Elections away from a Democratic governor and give it to a Republican auditor. It’s also easier to steal elections if anti-democratic partisans control the election machinery.

Ironically, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger justified moving the SBOE to the state auditor by saying that the Supreme Court election was “another episode of count until someone you want to win, wins.” The statement was a less-than-veiled accusation that Riggs, who took the lead when provisional and absentee ballots were counted, was winning nefariously. He’s had little to say about Griffin trying to cancel ballots until he wins.

The bill that strips power from the governor to oversee the State Board of Elections also erodes the power of the attorney general, lieutenant governor, and superintendent of public instruction. It’s a sweeping power grab that insults voters who chose Josh Stein, Jeff Jackson, Rachel Hunt, Elaine Marshall, and Mo Green to carry out the duties of the offices as they were before the election. Now, Republicans are trying to change rules right before the new government takes power. Unfortunately, gerrymandering prevents the Republicans in legislature from being held accountable.

Republicans in North Carolina aren’t interested in governing. They want to rule the state. They’ve rigged the system through gerrymandering to ensure they have little accountability for their actions. They are now trying to reduce the ability of the executive branch to provide any check on their power. Unfortunately, they seem to have a willing Supreme Court that is embarrassingly compliant. They want to maintain their court majority by stealing a court seat by disenfranchising voters.