September 16, 2016

Dozens of North Carolina counties slash early voting weeks before Election Day

https://thinkprogress.org/dozens-of-north-carolina-counties-slash-early-voting-weeks-before-election-day-d0fe1b54da38#.ll3llpjjm
"Lenoir County near North Carolina’s eastern shore is more than 40 percent black, and there are more than double the number of registered Democrats than Republicans. But its Board of Elections is controlled by white Republicans, who recently voted to slash the number of early voting sites from four to one, and only open that location during weekday businesses hours and a couple of hours on Saturday morning. The Republican board members said cutting the number of early voting hours by more than three-quarters would save the county money and allow them to “monitor voter fraud more effectively,” though extensive studies in North Carolina and across the country have found in-person voter fraud to be nearly non-existent. Lenoir County is one of dozens of Republican-controlled counties effectively defying a July court ruling that blocked North Carolina’s plan to cut early voting on the grounds the move intentionally targeted black voters — who depend on early voting — with “surgical precision"."