In seeking a voter purge, NC Republicans are trying to ensure their extreme candidates win | Opinion

Republican politicians across the country are taking steps to disrupt, discourage and disenfranchise voters in the weeks leading up to our consequential presidential election. There are examples of this in numerous states — and once again, here in North Carolina.

First, in Texas. Controversial Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton executed multiple raids in the San Antonio area last week as part of a “ongoing election integrity investigation.” The home of Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old Latina woman and a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens, was forcibly entered at 6 a.m. on Aug. 20 by nine officers who searched it.

Their reason? Martinez had the gall to file a complaint because senior citizens were not receiving their ballots. The officers took her laptop and phone. This effort to intimidate Latino voters in Texas is from the same attorney general who filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 election results. He conveniently never seems to question the validity of his own election victories.

Closer to home, in Georgia the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Party of Georgia and the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign joined in a lawsuit filed Monday against the State Election Board. Georgia law already has in place processes to certify elections, but the state board is attempting to implement new rules just weeks before the election.

The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials said in an Aug. 21 statement that they are gravely concerned that additional changes so close to the election would upend preparation and confuse election staff. These changes would not promote election integrity. In fact, they would make it easier for bad actors to claim irregularities in election results.

That is exactly what former President Donald Trump did in 2020 when it became clear he was losing in Georgia.

In North Carolina, Republican Party leaders are seeking to purge 225,000 voters just weeks before early voting begins. This is part of the national Republican playbook — sow doubt and confusion about the election before it happens and dissuade eligible voters from participating.

It is no surprise that the lawsuit filed by state and national Republican Party leaders against the State Board of Elections comes so late in the game, particularly as recent polls show Vice President Harris tied, or sometimes ahead, in North Carolina. The number of voters Republicans are seeking to in our state purge is triple the margin of the 2020 presidential election in North Carolina.

The same N.C. politicians who try to skew our legislative and congressional maps in their favor are now targeting statewide elections by purging voters before their ballots are cast. The same lawyers who defend their outrageous gerrymanders are the ones behind this latest attempt at disenfranchising North Carolinians.

Instead of playing fair and winning on their ideas, Republicans are once again trying to stack the deck in favor of their extreme candidates before a single vote has been cast.

Make no mistake, Republicans are doing this because they are afraid that their slate of extreme candidates will struggle to win in a free and fair election. Mark Robinson, Dan Bishop and Michele Morrow — just to name a few — are too extreme for our state. Instead of competing on the quality of their candidates and their ideas, Republican attorneys are trying to stack the deck before a single voter can be heard.

It should be noted that Bishop won his seat in Congress in 2019 during a special election. That election was called after the 2018 election was nullified after state officials found evidence of election fraud by Republicans in Bladen County.

The Republicans’ latest voter suppression move in North Carolina is wrong — legally and morally. Voters in our state will have the opportunity to reject Republican extremism at the ballot box.

If anything, maybe GOP attempts to block access to the ballot will motivate even more North Carolinians to make sure their vote is counted this election.