11,310 Ballots Cast Out (NC Supreme Court Decision)

[Jane Eyre]

This is outrageous. Five Republicans on the North Carolina Supreme Court decided late yesterday to disenfranchise thousands of voters who voted in the right county but were in the wrong precinct. This affects at least one statewide race, as well as many local races which were certified months ago with the winning candidates already serving in office.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/politics/10825990.htm

11,310 Ballots Cast Out
Court rules voting outside home precinct is illegal; races in limbo

MARK JOHNSON

Raleigh Bureau


RALEIGH - The N.C. Supreme Court ruled Friday that provisional ballots cast by voters outside their home precinct are illegal, throwing out 11,310 ballots and potentially overturning a statewide vote and local races across the state.

The decision leaves the race for state schools superintendent in limbo and raises questions about the Mecklenburg County commissioners' election.

<snip>

N.C. Court Ruling

WHAT HAPPENED? N.C. Supreme Court threw out 11,310 ballots cast outside the voters' home precincts.

WHAT'S NEXT? Case goes back to Wake County court, then counties count the improper ballots and delete them from November vote totals.

WHAT'S AT STAKE? Election of state superintendent of public instruction remains unsettled and questions raised about several local races statewide

[GetTheRightVote]

1. Thank you for the posting, missed it in the Observer, I'm in Char NC,

It is really a big deal down here so I am sorry to see it happening, one more mark up for the bad election system we have and the repubs pulling the strings again.

:kick:

[dsc]

2. Un believeable

Both the News and Observer and my local paper were all over Cobb for refusing to conceed but made not one noise about this obscenity. People were told it was OK to vote outside of precinct. Heck, I did as an early voter (our only site was at the BOE in Wilson Co.)

[Jane Eyre]

3. Charlotte Observer had it on Page 1

The decision came out so late yesterday that it may have missed getting picked up in some papers, though it would seem that the N&O should have run it.

I'm wondering if this could end up in the federal courts. There is a direct correlation between this case and Ohio's provisional ballot ruling last October. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a ruling by a lower court which had allowed a vote cast within the county but outside the precinct to be counted. The Democrats did not appeal that case any further. But there may be other issues involved here. For one thing, many local elections have already been certified. How does one decertify an election when the person has already been serving on the County Commission for several months? Do you then go back and redo all the votes on the commission?

Then there is the issue of all the people who were notified under HAVA as to whether or not their provisional vote was counted. The BOE will have to go back and tell them OOPS, your vote didn't count after all. Now some of these races were very, very close, perhaps even close enough that errors on the part of the BOE in properly entering voter registration information could affect the outcome of some races. If the BOE screwed up your voter registration information, should your vote be thrown out because they failed to record you in the correct precinct?

[rodeodance]

4. Whow-could WA state be next?? (they counted lost ballots).

[nashville_brook]

5. whoa! i wondered when this would start happening.

nice timing with "freedom" marching into iraq. wish some of that freedom would stroll around the US every now and then.

[w4rma]

6. Federalist Bushbot Judges. This ruling is *meant* to disenfranchise.

They are picking and choosing groups of votes to throw out on technicalities in order to overturn elections and get their minions in power.

[bdot]

7. Why didn't the people vote at the right place?

I know my election card here in NC tells me where I am to vote. I did early elections and for that there was a list of places you could vote at.
So, why were these people voting at the wrong places?

[aquart]

9. Probably NOT by accident.

Just a guess.

[AndyTiedye]

10. Election Workers Send Them to the Wrong Line

Sometimes there are several precincts in the same building.
You can be in the right building, in the right room, but at
the wrong table. It's easy when you get sent to the wrong line.

[loudsue]

11. I'm in N.C., also, bdot. Our early votes did not count under this ruling

evidently, because they weren't counted at our home precincts. I don't know about you, but all of us in my county voted early at the Courthouse -- that was the only place they were taking early ballots.

This whole election....in almost every state that I know of... is TOTALLY f****d up!! And this State supreme court ruling is legalizing disenfranchisement across the board in order to get their buddies into office.

It just SUCKS!!!

:kick::kick::kick:

[Jane Eyre]

12. Lots of reasons

Here are some of them:

The Board of Elections screwed up their voter registration and had them incorrectly listed in another precinct.

The person moved recently and did not realize that their precinct had changed.

The precinct boundaries had changed and the voter had not received adequate notification.

The voter may have been a new voter or an elderly voter who was easily confused. And yes, for all you rightwingers, these people absolutely do have the right to vote as much as confused rightwingers do.

The voter may have found themselves at the wrong precinct for any of these or other reasons and, having waited several hours in line at the wrong precinct, found that there was no time to get to the right precinct before the polls closed.

And by the way, if you did early elections, then you voted out-of-precinct. Poor people tend not to have readily available transportation to travel across the county to the early voting locations, so more of them vote on Election Day close to home. We are providing state-of-the-art equipment which allows voters with the means to get themselves to an early voting location to vote out-of-precinct, but we throw out those out-of-precinct votes when they are cast on Election Day.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. Ideological judges.

:scared:

[BeFree]

13. Give them credit

The Restealers never give up. They will twist any law, scam anybody they need too, and subvert any process they can, in order to see that they win. Meanwhile we Dems just roll over and take it.

From the link...Witness the pandora's box opening:
The state lawyers also emphasized that Fletcher's arguments would invalidate the more than 1 million early votes that were cast by voters outside their precincts. The Supreme Court ignored that issue, saying that early and absentee ballots were not at issue.

In other words, even though, according to the latest twist, these early voters voted out of precinct, thereby illegaly voting, it's ok because they ignore that fact.

Question: Isn't there a federal law saying that the president is elected only on the first Tuesday? That should make all early voting illegal, eh?

[hector459]

14. The voting francisement is even better in Iraq.

As long as they were legitimate citizens they could vote anywhere. If Iraqis living in the US could vote for an election in Iraq this NC stuff makes no sense.

[hector459]

15. Unless people take to the streets, no one will pay attention.

The US is not a good example of "democracy" or voting rights.