newsobserver.com projects - Not done yet - Comments

Re: Not done yet

lefaim — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:00:17 -0400

What are you talking about? This bill would make it harder to cast a vote illegally. And, there are already almost no illegal votes cast in this state.

I am glad that Republicans dont like people voting, but hey, you cant win when 60% of the state votes, I can see why you would be freaked out about the rest of eligible voters actually voting.

More importantly, the Auditor's job is NOT to enforce election law. Nor is it to rewrite election law. He has clearly stepped way beyond what he is allowed by law to do, and he MIGHT have done so at the prompting of a Republican political consultant.

Re: Not done yet

thisisit — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:53:16 -0400

It's funny that Democrat Sen. Doug Berger's (not to be confused with Republican Sen. Phil Berger)support of a bill that allows people to vote after only displaying a phone bill as proof of ID, and only allowing the county boards of elections two days to verify the voter's legitimacy, is not partisan.
Rather than be thankful that the auditor raised concerns, Doug Berger attacked the legitimacy of an unelected employee.
Merritt, a Republican, elected statewide, did the right thing by alerting the ranking Democrat of a potential problem. That was the responsible thing to do.
Sen. Clodfelter, the Democrat in charge, did the right thing. Rather than move forward after being notified that a problem may exist, he scheduled a hearing to determine if progress on the bill should continue. That was the responsible thing to do.
Democrat Sen. Doug Berger injected politics into the issue by alluding to the fact that Merritt's spokesman was a past employee of the state GOP and, somehow, that makes this entire process suspect.
Maybe Doug Berger's past leadership of the Democratic Socialists of America should be called into question.

Re: Not done yet

unctarheel821 — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:30:57 -0400

I knew when I clicked on this post that there'd be a bunch of liberal insanity in the responses. Why is it that the only partisan element that you libs see in this bill is Republican opposition? I see plenty partisanship but it's on the part of Democrats doing anything they can to allow their supporters to cast a ballot, whether those votes are made legally or illegally. Is there anything more partisan than tinkering with election laws so that your party has an advantage? No. And that's what's being done here.

P.S. - I hope you libs enjoyed getting owned.

Re: Not done yet

Thomas_Brock — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:12:54 -0400

Merritt's actions are clearly partisan. There's no other explanation for such ridiculousness.

If there were real concerns, perhaps, Mr. Merritt should've worked with the SBOE to research them, instead of sending in neophytes that know nothing of the voter registration processes.

Re: Not done yet

patanthony — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:59:19 -0400

So is it incompetence, or attempted voter suppression? Or both? Apparently, he should have taken a crash course in election law before he decided to do the bidding of the DOJ.

Re: Not done yet

lefaim — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:49:40 -0400

Les Merritt should be removed for office for all of this. Lying and conspiracy to tamper with the voter rolls for a political purpose are pretty big things.

Not done yet

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:27:11 -0400

State Auditor Les Merritt stressed that a report on voting rolls is still preliminary.

During a meeting with a Senate committee, he said that early findings of invalid driver's licenses and dead voters may have innocent explanations when the report is finished.

"We'll eventually get to a correct, final report," Merritt said, "and that final report, it could very well say there isn't anything here, that everything's fine, we're doing a super job." (Char-O)

He also repeatedly denied that his request to delay a voter-registration bill was motivated by partisan politics. Some Democrats on the committee were not reassured, noting that his spokesman is the former political director for the state Republican Party. (W-SJ)

The bill now heads back to the Senate floor for a vote. Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger was one of the only committee members to vote against it.

"I don't think anyone could say the auditor's questions are illegitimate," he said. (GN-R)