A few items for political junkies in honor of election day:
The North Carolina GOP published a press release today celebrating what they apparently consider good news for Republicans, including:
African American Early Voting is down 8.5% from this time in 2012.
Caucasian voters early voting is up 22.5% from this time in 2012.
As a share of Early Voters, African Americans are down 6.0%, (2012: 28.9%, 2016: 22.9%) and Caucasians are up 4.2%, (2012: 65.8%, 2016: 70.0%).
This should be eye-opening for people who question whether Republican-authored changes to the state’s election rules were racially motivated, as a federal appeals court concluded in late July.
In North Carolina, county election boards are appointed by the state government, and hence all are currently under two-to-one Republican control. When the legislature’s pretty blatant attempts to suppress turnout were overturned by the court, GOP leaders advised the election boards on ways to get around the ruling and still make it harder for minorities to vote. This press release celebrates their success. For more, see this piece from Talking Points Memo and this one from Salon.
On Friday Donald Trump, not known for being a fan of protesters at his rallies, accused Barack Obama of “really screaming” at a protester in Fayetteville NC, “and frankly it was a disgrace.” What really happened was pretty much the opposite, as you can see in this video. Obama called to his supporters, who were booing the man, to “hold up” and “sit down and be quiet for a second.”
Now, listen up! I’m serious, listen up. You’ve got an older gentleman who is supporting his candidate. He’s not doing nothing – you don’t have to worry about him. This is what I mean about folks not being focused.
First of all, we – hold up! Hold up! First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech. So, second of all, it looks like maybe he might have served in our military, and we’ve got to respect that. Third of all, he was elderly, and we’ve got to respect our elders. And fourth of all, don’t boo – vote! Don’t boo – vote!
Finally, here’s the AP’s weekend summary of falsehoods spewed by candidates in this election. No one disputes that both sides do it, but one side does it way more than the other. (See this previous post for more on that.)
Updated 2016 November 21 to add a little additional information and try to improve my usual clumsy wording.
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