NC democracy groups establish “election protection” hotlines

By
October 25, 2022
In Defending Democracy, News

A Wake County early voting site – Photo: Clayton Henkel

With conservative activists and conspiracy theorists poised to engage in an array of voter suppression tactics in this year’s elections, North Carolina democracy groups have established the following points of contact for groups and individuals that run into voting problems.

Democracy North Carolina & Southern Coalition for Social Justice

1-888-OUR-VOTE is a nonpartisan election protection hotline. Callers may ask questions about how to register to vote and cast a ballot in North Carolina or report any voting problems.

Press contact: Joselle Torres at [email protected] at 919-908-7930

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UnLock Our Vote Hotline

Forward Justice

1-877-880-8683 is a hotline for any community member that may have had involvement with the justice system and have questions about their right to vote. You can also email [email protected]

Press contact: Brittany Cheatham [email protected] 984-260-6632

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Disability Election Protection

Disability Rights NC 

1-888-WEVOTE2 provides callers with access to DRNC staff with information to questions about how and where to access the vote. Where there are concerns about disability access, DRNC staff help resolve those to ensure that no one with disabilities is turned away from exercising their right to vote.

Press Contact: Corye Dunn at [email protected] and 919-619-1749

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Latinx Language Election Protection

NALEO

1-888-VE-Y-VOTA is the bilingual national hotline and provides Latino voters nationwide with vital information on every aspect of the electoral process, from registering to vote, to deciding between options to vote early, by mail, or on Election Day, and includes an easy-to-use voter registration tool. The hotline is staffed by live bilingual operators year-round, all trained to assist callers with any voting questions or issues.

Press contact: Maria Gonzalez at [email protected] and 910-308-5564

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Asian American Election Protection

North Carolina Asian Americans Together

919-591-2442 is an election protection hotline that offers language assistance in the five most commonly spoken languages in the state – Hindi, Chinese, Urdu, Korean, and Vietnamese – along with several Southeast and South Asian, and Filipino languages, allowing us to offer over 20 different language options.

Press contact: Jimmy Patel-Nguyen at [email protected] and 919-335-6156

Top Republicans embrace Marjorie Taylor Greene’s violent rhetoric

By
October 21, 2022
In Commentary, Defending Democracy

In a recent campaign video, Marjorie Taylor Greene grabbed a rifle and climbed aboard a waiting helicopter, where she tracked down and shot a fleeing hog. Video screenshot

In a recent campaign video, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican from Georgia, likened Democrats to destructive feral hogs allowed to range free and destroy the American countryside.

But Marjorie had a solution:

As the camera followed her, she grabbed a rifle and climbed aboard a waiting helicopter, where she tracked down and shot a fleeing hog. In the next scene, quite pleased with herself, Greene posed next to her dead prey and invited supporters to enter a free drawing, with the winner accompanying her on her next hog-killing expedition.

In a healthy political climate, members of both parties would unite to condemn such a message. But that is not the climate in which we live. To the contrary, lest anyone have moral qualms about the message of such a video, Greene offered an answer for that too. At a Trump rally in Michigan this month, she told the crowd that “we are all targets now though, for daring to push back against the regime…. I am not going to mince words with you all. Democrats want Republicans dead and they have already started the killings.”

So … kill or be killed.

It would be nice to be able to dismiss that talk as the rantings of a loon, which on one level it is. But the rantings are being delivered by a loon invited to speak at a series of rallies by the former president of the United States, a man who remains the favorite for becoming the GOP presidential nominee in 2024, which implies a high level of support for such sentiments.

And instead of shunning Greene and condemning her remarks, other top Republicans are embracing her, happy to bask in her malevolent glow. Read more

Election fraud rhetoric is a troubling sign for democracy, a Duke political scientist says

By
October 20, 2022
In Defending Democracy, News

Adriane Fresh, Duke University

Candidates repeating the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen and saying they won’t accept election results unless they win “is worrying and has implications for the stability of our democracy,” a Duke University political scientist said this week.

A New York Times investigation found that most Republicans running for Congress, governor, attorney general or secretary of state this year questioned or denied the 2020 presidential election results.

About half of U.S. adults are very confident that votes in the midterm election will be counted accurately, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, but 45% of Republicans have little or no confidence in the accuracy of the vote count.

Democracy is not simply a set of institutions, Duke political scientist Adriane Fresh told reporters this week but also “the shared belief that those institutions are functioning according to their intended rules. Research shows that democracy is fragile absent citizen belief in its legitimacy.”

Election offices have been bombarded with requests for public records from election deniers, WUNC has reported. Fresh said she was not worried that fulfilling those requests has taken officials away from election preparations because laws allow flexibility in how quickly documents must be supplied. But those massive requests may have long-term consequences if election offices don’t have enough people or money to respond, or if the inundation contributes to experienced officials leaving and keeps others from accepting those jobs.

People who talk about election integrity but work to undermine it and back candidates who support undemocratic processes reveal “a concerning apathy for democracy,” Fresh said.

“Overall, when we consider the clear evidence that our democratic institutions function freely and fairly it becomes more clear that many people are using this rhetoric of democratic integrity for partisan or otherwise undemocratic purposes,” she said.

Trump to be subpoenaed by Jan. 6 panel as the ‘central cause’ of Capitol insurrection

By
October 14, 2022
In Defending Democracy, News

Four things to watch for at the upcoming Jan. 6 hearing

By
October 13, 2022
In Defending Democracy, News
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