The War on Voter ID Hurts Minority Communities Most

The Alinskyite attacks on North Carolina Republicans focus on (a) a seemingly-sensible practice of maintaining separate bathrooms and locker rooms by gender, and (b) another seemingly sensible state law requiring voters to provide photo ID.

Debate on the pros and cons of both laws is typically forsaken in favor of various claims of bigotry. In the case of voter ID laws cries of racism are particularly ironic since some of the most prominent cases of alleged voter fraud have victimized majority-minority communities.

Partisan activists are manipulating vulnerable voters, many of whom are often minorities.

Consider Robeson County, North Carolina — a majority-minority, predominantly Democratic jurisdiction in the state’s southeastern corner.

Since Reconstruction, only two Republicans have won elections of any kind in the county: a state legislator in 2010, who lasted one term, and a county commissioner in 2014. Robeson was one of less-than-a-handful of North Carolina counties actually carried by George McGovern in the 1972 presidential campaign.

In 1995, a U.S. House committee actually convened hearings to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the county in the race for the district’s congressional seat.

Lots of Locklears
Some majority-minority districts experience issues with election integrity for unique reasons.

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Robeson County is home to the Lumbee Indian tribe. Six surnames account for about 90 percent of the tribe’s membership. In the Robeson County phone book, you can find about a half dozen pages of listings for people with the surname Locklear.

It’s not unusual, at a Robeson County polling place, to have a significant chunk of the voters who show up on election day with the same first name and surname. Imagine trying to verify the identities of the six Robert Locklears who show up at your precinct to vote without a photo ID requirement.

Hitting Minority Jurisdictions Hardest
In one Native American dominated city council district in Lumberton — Robeson County’s seat of government — they haven’t had a clean, controversy-free election since 2003.

In 2007, the state board of elections threw out election results for the reelection bid of Lumberton City Councilman Leon Maynor, who is a Lumbee Indian. The election — featuring Maynor and two other Lumbee candidates — was found to be rife with fraud, such as vote-buying and abuse of same-day voter registration and same-day registration. The exact type of election abuses the controversial state law the NAACP hates so much was trying to crack down on. A special election was ordered and Maynor prevailed.

The same candidates ran for the same city council seat again in 2011. Voter fraud allegations surfaced again. The state board of elections was called in, and a special election was ordered, again.

Further shenanigans on the ground in Robeson County forced the state elections board to order a probe of all of Robeson County’s 2013 elections. The county’s district attorney also went public with his concerns about shenanigans in 2014’s elections in the Town of Pembroke — a majority Indian community that serves as the home base for the Lumbee Indian tribe.

Coercion, Intimidation and Same-Day Registration
Same-day voter registration has provided ample opportunities for bad actors to commit fraud. Leftists claim it’s convenient for folks who have tight schedules to register and vote on the same day. Same-day registration opponents claim the practice makes it harder to verify the eligibility of the voter and protect the integrity of the election in question.

In poorer, mostly-minority jurisdictions, you’ll find Democrat campaigns investing heavily in rented vehicles. You’ll typically see vans — with various campaign signs in the windows — zooming around town between polling places. It is not far fetched to envision these vans loaded with the elderly, handicapped and/or lesser-educated individuals who have been given a Coke, a hot dog, five dollars and a pre-marked ballot. Partisan activists are manipulating vulnerable voters, many of whom are often minorities.

During one recent election, a Robeson County resident complained to the media that his mentally handicapped daughter, who resides in an assisted living facility, was hauled to the polls by activists and coached on voting.

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There have been multiple reports over a series of elections in Robeson County about poll observers being physically forced out of the polling place at the end of the day by political allies of the well-connected. The doors are locked, and the Democrat machine operatives are left alone inside with the ballot boxes for hours.

The same people who holler about “racist” Republicans trying to disenfranchise black voters are willingly turning a blind eye to very real assaults on the integrity of votes and elections in predominantly minority communities.

In the 1950s and ’60s, black Americans struggled to ensure they had a voice in the policy debates shaping this country. Today, in many poor minority communities, the fruits of that struggle are tainted by the mischief of the Left’s political machine. Achieving liberty and freedom for a whole class of people has been perverted to protecting the status quo and achieving political payoffs for a select few.

Brant Clifton is editor of The Daily Haymaker based out of North Carolina.