“Mecklenburg Early Voting Plan Could Be A Gift For GOP”

Michael Bitzer:

On the day that the state of North Carolina asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision regarding the state’svoting law changes, especially voter identification and early voting, Mecklenburg County’s Board of Elections, on a 2-1 partisan vote, voted to cut 238 hours from early voting….

Based on this data, those in Mecklenburg County who used early, in-person absentee voting more than the county average were registered Democrats, old voters, and black voters. Two of those three groups—registered Democrats and black voters (who were 34 percent of the total county votes cast)—are reliably Democratic voters, while older voters (who were 13 percent of the total Mecklenburg votes cast) were 2-1 Republican voters.

Since the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections vote wasn’t unanimous, it’s up to the state Board of Elections to officially set the early-voting hours. Assuming the state board keeps the early voting hours in place, the 238-hour reduction will likely disproportionately affect different groups of voters. And it looks like it will impact more Democratic voters than Republicans.

And perhaps that’s what the majority GOP Mecklenburg County Board of Elections wanted for the state’s second largest county of voters.

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