Lawsuits Filed Against Restrictive New North Carolina Voting I.D. Laws; Interview with Dale Ho
COSTELLO: Two lawsuits have already been filed and another one is expected today over North Carolina's new voter I.D. law. The law, signed by Republican Governor Pat McCrory, is one of the most restrictive in the nation. In addition to requiring a valid photo I.D. at the polls, it also cuts the early voting period from 17 to 10 days, abolishes same-day voter registration, ends straight-party voting, and eliminates a program that allows 16 and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote if they would be 18 years old on election day. Governor McCrory says the new law, which takes effect in 2016, is a safeguard against voter fraud.</s>GOV. PAT MCCRORY, (R), NORTH CAROLINA: You need a photo I.D. to board an airplane, to cash a check, or even apply for most government benefits. In fact, just recently both Democrats and Republicans joined together to require a valid government-issued photo I.D. to buy Sudafed at your local corner drugstore. Our right to vote deserves the similar protection.</s>COSTELLO: Joining me now, Dale Ho with the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. Welcome.</s>DALE HO, DIRECTOR, ACLU'S VOTING RIGHTS PROJECT: Hi, thanks for having me on.</s>COSTELLO: Thanks for being with us. You heard what the mayor said, it sounds reasonable, but you call this law disaster, why?</s>HO: Well, with respect to the voter I.D. component, there were over 100,000 voters in North Carolina in 2012, registered voters, who voted in previous elections who don't have a government-issued photo I.D. A lot of these people are older people, a lot of them are young people who don't drive, but it goes well beyond voter I.D. The governor and the North Carolina legislature have hacked off a week of the early voting period in North Carolina. It's an absolute disaster. There are 2.5 million voters in North Carolina who use the early voting period in 2012. That's more than half of the electorate. For a lot of people who don't have flexible schedules to wait in line on election day, the choice is either early voting or not voting at all. And for the rest of us, we know what happens when a state eliminates a week of early voting. Florida did exactly that before the 2012 election --</s>COSTELLO: We have some pictures of that actually. It was a nightmare, right? The North Carolina governor says we're going to extend hours at polling places so people shouldn't have the same problem. Here's Florida's. That was really bad. People waited in line for hours and hours and hours to vote. And the same thing happened, I think, in Ohio, at some polling places at least. Again, the governor of North Carolina says, hey, we're extending the hours at these polling places so there shouldn't be this polling problem.</s>HO: Florida actually had the same option; counties in Florida had the same option of extending their polling place hours during the early voting period and it still resulted in massive congestion at the polls. The problem is when you eliminate a whole week of the early voting period, it doesn't matter if you tack on a few extra hours here and there on the remaining days, when you lose an entire week of early voting, that's going to affect a lot of people. That's what we had in Florida, people casting their ballots after the president had given his acceptance speech. That's not how our democracy is supposed to work. We should be making it easier for people to vote, not harder.</s>COSTELLO: And a final question because I think this is the most important point of all, does North Carolina have a voter fraud problem?</s>HO: Absolutely not. There is no evidence of a problem of voter fraud in North Carolina, certainly not a problem of in-person voter impersonation, which a voter I.D. law is supposed to prevent, and voter fraud has nothing to do with the early voting period, or the same-day registration option that North Carolina voters are now going to lose. It's an absolute mess and going to effect African American voters the worst; 70 percent of African American voters in 2012 used the early voting period.</s>COSTELLO: I just want to add on because there are many people who are skeptical of the American Civil Liberties Union, so according to North Carolina State's Board of Elections, it's referred only two cases of alleged voter impersonation fraud since 2004 to prosecutors. Only two cases out of 4.5 million votes cast. So take that, digest it, figure it out, Dale Ho with the ACLU, thanks for joining us this morning.</s>HO: Thanks so much for having me on.</s>COSTELLO: Coming up next in the NEWSROOM, searching for why. Why did a family friend kidnap a California teenager and take her to Idaho? And what do we look for to keep this from happening again?