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So North Carolina is a state a lot like other states in that it has elections. Elections are usually a pretty simple thing, you get more votes, you win. The only real exception to that rule is of course the electoral college, which Alexander Hamilton geniusly thought of to keep America from ever electing someone who has "[t]alents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity" and is excessively beholden to foreign interests and only focussed on being president for personal gain. Good loving job Hamilton, here have a rap musical. There's another exception, though. In some states, a state legislature can actually override an election if they feel it was 'contested' and therefore illegitimate. Obviously the writers of such laws wrote these clauses in the event that we find one of the candidates was plying entire factories of people with alcohol in exchange for a vote. But this year, in the state of North Carolina, Pat 'Crybaby' McCrory has decided he'd like to contest it another way. Election Night So, the people of North Carolina voted on election day for a governor and the democrat Roy Cooper appeared to be ahead of the incumbent Pat 'Queers Are in the Bathroom!' McCrory by the end of the night by about 5,000 votes. It was still too close to call however and absentee / provisional ballots could change the outcome. In the two weeks since the election, all of the additional counts have moved Roy Cooper closer to an obvious win. While the AP and other news agencies may not have called it yet, Cooper now has a 7,500 vote lead, which is likely insurmountable unless a recount shows some really crazy miscounts. Still, that's a close election in a race where 4.7 million votes were cast and unless Cooper wins by more than 10,000 when all the remaining votes are counted, a recount is likely. However, since the counting has been going on for two weeks already, a recount has a very low chance of changing the outcome. The Aftermath At this point, it's understandable McCrory doesn't concede. If it's close, a recount makes sense and let's have that be the final arbiter of who won. Cooper has, of course, claimed victory as is his wont, and normally an election loser will simply just say "Let's wait until all the votes are in." or something equally non-commital. Governor McCrory, however, has been a little more blatant about how much of a sore loser he is: https://twitter.com/PatMcCroryNC/status/796336542792949760 Well that's not bad. Respect the process. Cool. https://twitter.com/PatMcCroryNC/status/798673150611361792 Huh, that seems a little more unhinged... From the article on the governor's own website, this is their evidence of voter fraud: quote:The protest, filed by Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor McCrae Dowless and corroborated by a forensic handwriting expert, notes “shocking evidence resulting from a blatant scheme to try to impact the voting results of an entire county and perhaps even sway statewide and federal elections,” including the gubernatorial race. So someone running for County Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor hired a handwriting analyst to say that a bunch of write-in votes had similar handwriting, and Governor McCrory has latched onto this as evidence of systemic voter fraud. Now, of course, handwriting experts are a dime a dozen and handwriting analysis is pretty much bullshit, but whatever. Let's keep going: https://twitter.com/Team_McCrory/status/799029788350566405 https://twitter.com/PatMcCroryNC/status/799376379854864384 This is the meat of the aftermath, Pat McCrory has filed official protests in about half the counties in the state (the blackest ones of course) basically claiming that since one handwriting analyst hired by someone who lost a soil and water conservation election claims there may be some fraud with write-ins, that it affects every county where there are absentee ballots and essentially every absentee ballot must be challenged. The Aftermath of the aftermath The protests were made at the county level and most of the complaints alleged there was a massive democrat-led project to doctor black voters' absentee ballots. There's no real evidence and most county boards (which are overwhelmingly republican) rejected his claims. So, McCrory appealed to the republican-controlled state board of elections and they, too, said "no fuk u": http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article116060918.html. They did agree to go over guidelines for the county level to make sure all contested ballots are dealt with the same way. The Denouement So that settles it. Pat McCrory has very likely lost and, knowing he will likely lose on a recount, has decided to poison the well of his successor, ginning up controversy amongst the republicans of North Carolina to suggest that Governor Cooper was behind an evil plan to switch black votes to vote for him instead of McCrory. That certainly sucks for Cooper but once he gets into office and governs well.... wait, that's not the end? The loving Crazy poo poo So, as referenced earlier, there is a law in the state of North Carolina that goes like this: quote:A contested election for any elective office established by Article III of the Constitution shall be determined by joint ballot of both houses of the General Assembly under Article VI, Section 5 of the Constitution in accordance with the provisions of this section. So by simple majority vote, the house and senate of North Carolina can say "The election is contested." (Now's a good time to read up again on gerrymandering in North Carolina, suffice to say that even though republicans tend to get around 50% of the vote in state house elections, they control 62% of the chamber). What happens next is, as far as I can tell, unprecedented in North Carolina history, but the president pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House then get together and each appoint a special commission comprised of 3 members of 1 party and 2 members of the other. These two commissions then recommend to their respective chambers whether the election was fair or not. Basically, the commission can simply decide "No, the votes in this county don't count so gently caress you and we recommend the house of representatives / Senate vote to make Pat McCrory the winner of the election." Reporters have been saying that inside sources close to the governor say this is the plan. The fomenting of "voter fraud!!!!" allegations is not so much to make Cooper seem illegitimate, but as to give some cronies on the House of Representatives an out: a way to recommend that the house and senate vote to override the voters and keep Pat as governor. The loving Crazier poo poo So, why would they do something so blatantly undemocratic? Well, obviously they don't want to give up power, but there was one other reason. This election right here: https://ballotpedia.org/North_Carolina_Supreme_Court_elections,_2016 It's a judicial election between Bob Edmunds and Michael Morgan. Bob Edmunds, the incumbent, was absolutely loving demolished by Michael Morgan despite spending nearly a quarter of a million dollars to Morgan's 20k or so. If you know anything about judicial elections, you know that means Edmunds was insanely unpopular. This means that the state supreme court is now 4-3 in favour of more democratic judges. So the house could just override that one too, right? Not likely, Edmunds got destroyed. If voter fraud gave Morgan the win, it was voter fraud on the level of ancient Mayan spirits inhabiting the bodies of over 300,000 North Carolinians and having them vote for Morgan. And if that happened, who would want to override Mayan spirits? They'll gently caress you up. However, the ultimate plan in keeping McCrory in office is to pack the court. According to the Charlotte Observer, republicans already have a plan: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article114048698.html quote:The North Carolina Constitution states that the Supreme Court shall consist of a chief justice and six associate justices, but the General Assembly may increase the number of associate justices to eight. If two seats were added, the governor would appoint the justices who fill the seats until the next election. To remain in the seats, those justices then would have to stand for election, and that would not be until 2018. Of course, Republicans deny this, but if they're willing to go far enough to override the election by claiming fraud, packing the court would be the next blatantly obvious step. We talk a lot about how the US is turning into a Banana Republic, but this would turn North Carolina into the fuckin Donkey Kong Banana Hoard.  If you want to stay up to date on this, http://www.newsobserver.com - The Charlotte News & Observer has been covering this fairly well, probably the best source. edit: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/ - Awesome site https://twitter.com/PatMcCroryNC - Governor McCrory's twitter https://twitter.com/RoyCooperNC - Challenger Roy Cooper's twitter pathetic little tramp has issued a correction as of 21:09 on Nov 22, 2016 |
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Nov 21, 2016 20:03
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I can't think of any state where it's happened. The funny thing is most state constitutions outline very specifically things like "The court shall consist of X amount of justices" while the Supreme Court of the United States doesn't actually have anything giving it an official number ( in 1789, they passed a law saying it should consist of 6 justices and that didn't really hold up).
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Nov 21, 2016 20:31
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Phone posted:Speaking of our dipshit founding fathers, how's this laboratory of democracy holding up? As a Kentuckian, tough luck getting to the bottom first. We have a basically untouchable dictator for governor and the Trump landslide here (That Clinton coal comment killed things), gave republicans insanely unchecked power. Kentucky used to be one of the hidden gems of education, but we're going to get Brownbacked in record time now.
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Nov 21, 2016 21:39
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Adding this site to the OP, holy poo poo good site: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/
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Nov 22, 2016 21:09
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Just a quick update here: http://www.wcnc.com/news/politics/elections/9700-votes-separate-ag-cooper-and-gov-mccrory/357349456 quote:The State Board of Elections Monday night ordered counties to proceed to canvass and dismiss the election protests filed by Governor Pat McCrory's campaign. All of McCrory's protests are now out. Tomorrow, the state board will decide whether or not they will do a recount of Durham County. If they weren't willing to give any of his protests any air, it's likely that's not happening either. State GOP still pushing the lie that dead people and felons voted: quote:After tonight's State Board of Elections decision, it is clear that most aspects of the 2016 election are ready to be concluded. We thank election officials across the state for their dedication to our system, and for their best efforts to ensure an accurate count of the votes. During the past month, we have seen the incredible strength of our voting system in North Carolina, as well as some serious shortcomings that must be addressed. These deficiencies encompass out-of-precinct voting, involves vote tallies of known felons and dead people, as well as allowing same-day registrants to vote without address verification. It is clear that we need serious bipartisan solutions to address these issues, which will still linger long after the current results are certified. But the SBOE coming down hard against McCrory appears to be on purpose; by not giving him any leeway, I think they're hoping to keep him from being able to petition the GA to call the election 'contested'. At this point, if McCheese were to say the election was contested, the only evidence they would have would be "We felt like it was." Cooper would take that to SCOTUS and basically have to win, or else elections would cease to have any meaning whatsoever.
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Nov 30, 2016 00:16
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Not out of the woods yet, they did vote to recount a certain group of Durham County votes: https://twitter.com/ABC11_WTVD/status/804119576367636480 Likely will not change anything, but there is now at least a paper thin veneer of "contested" to go with if they decide to just hijack the GA. (the board was 3-2 republican as if you needed to ask, but apparently the recount will not be by hand, meaning the final tally will be 99.9% identical) pathetic little tramp has issued a correction as of 01:35 on Dec 1, 2016 |
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Dec 1, 2016 01:32
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This was their big argument by the way: https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/804118801394630656
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Dec 1, 2016 01:37
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Now all he has to do is not pack the court on the way out, and North Carolina will have a chance to succeed.
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Dec 5, 2016 18:31
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With this victory let's all stand for the National Anthem of North Carolina https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QrDOGcZDow
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Dec 5, 2016 18:42
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A nice long tweetthread about the Moral Monday movement and the good it did in NC: https://twitter.com/ppppolls/status/805862394497040384
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Dec 5, 2016 20:56
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owDAWG posted:Our states districts are the most gerrymandered in the nation. Lets put it this way the republican party drew a district specifically to encompass black people and minorities. NC has been forced to redraw their districts by March and, once approved, hold new elections in 2017. So there's a real chance, next year, for North Carolina to be saved. Go get involved and put the state back in control of democrats.
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Dec 7, 2016 22:48
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 NC GOP releases a statement saying they won't pack the court without saying they won't pack the court.
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Dec 13, 2016 21:18
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https://twitter.com/AP/status/809850721407475712
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Dec 16, 2016 21:04
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In a classic example of "Jesus Christ Democrats" apparently there are democrats upset that Cooper is going to repeal the hideous HB2. Why? Because he's only repealing it and not writing a countervailing law that explicitly states that transgender people must be allowed to go the washroom of their choice.
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Dec 19, 2016 17:56
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Mons Hubris posted:Cooper's not the governor yet tho?????? It doesn't matter, he didn't fix things exactly the right way, ugh both parties are just the same, next time I'm voting republican.
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Dec 19, 2016 18:29
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Yeah, there's nothing stopping Charlotte from just repassing their law, so I would imagine they'll do so pretty soon considering the republicans hosed them over as per usual. Can a city secede from a state? Just make Charlotte part of some deep red state and make it blue.
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Dec 21, 2016 23:44
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Story made it to AP. https://twitter.com/AP/status/817139426790883331 and I just thought of something. We've long said the democrats' presidential saviour will likely come from the South. Cooper's got fight, gumption, and he's from the Andy Griffith state.
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Jan 5, 2017 23:45
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https://twitter.com/BeauMinnick/status/817467401860157442 You can do this NC!
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Jan 6, 2017 21:33
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Yeah honestly the next time dems get a Bill Clinton (southern, old-school Christian, laser beam economics), you'll see the tide shift back nationwide, but that's not permanent. Nothing ever is.
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Jan 6, 2017 22:32
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You guys have never heard of "focus on the economy like a laser beam"? I'm not that old, Jeezus. Anyway, Trump's Supreme Court will cancel North Carolina's 2017 "Your last election was invalid" election, and the districts will probably never be redrawn now. https://twitter.com/NCDemParty/status/818930818630483969?conversation_id=818930818630483969
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Jan 10, 2017 22:25
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