Tag Archives: WRAL

When Lawmakers Listen

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Earlier I posted an article about my trip to Raleigh to support the shrimp fishermen. There were a lot of people there. There was no vote taken yesterday, so many people showed up again on Wednesday. The vote on Wednesday killed the bill (at least for this legislative session).

On Wednesday, WRAL reported:

The North Carolina Senate passed a bill to ban shrimp trawling in inland waters, but after fierce opposition from the shrimp industry and some lawmakers, it won’t advance in the House.

A Senate-passed bill to ban shrimp trawling in North Carolina’s inland waters won’t advance in the House this session, lawmakers confirmed to WRAL on Tuesday afternoon.

About 100 shrimpers and others opposed to the ban cheered in the state legislative building as House Republicans emerged from a caucus meeting and announced that they wouldn’t push forward with the bill.

…Hundreds of protesters showed up Tuesday to express their anger over the proposed ban. Dozens stuck around Wednesday. Hanig estimated that there were 800 people Tuesday and another 300 on Wednesday.

“We’ve heard their voices,” Kidwell said.

Legislators are supposed to hear the voices of their constituents!

The article notes:

A study that state lawmakers commissioned in 2022 to conduct an analysis of the status of the state’s fisheries and develop policy recommendations will be submitted to the body Monday, said Jeff Warren, the executive director of the NC Collaboratory.

The June 30 date is in the law.

The report doesn’t take a regulatory stance on shrimp trawling, Warren said. It does considers 13 species, including their health and the extent of the habitat they require. The species: bay scallop, blue crab, eastern oyster, estuarine striped bass, hard clam, kingfishes, red drum, river herring, sheepshead, shrimp, southern flounder, spotted seatrout and striped mullet.

It is an interesting that some legislators were anxious to get this ban put into effect before they had the information contained in their study.

Protecting Election Integrity

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On Friday, The Daily Caller reported that North Carolina has removed 747,000 names from their voter rolls within the past 20 months.

The article reports:

Most people removed from North Carolina’s voter rolls were deemed ineligible to vote after moving from one county in the state to another while failing to register their new address, according to The Hill. Others taken off voter rolls did not participate in the 2016 and 2020 federal elections.

NCSBE revealed other reasons voters were removed, including death, felony convictions, out-of-state moves and personal requests, according to the outlet.

…State officials identified nine potential non-citizens — which some believe is an undercount — as registered to vote in North Carolina, WRAL reported. However, an NCSBE spokesperson said Thursday that investigations are underway as it is currently unknown whether the nine are illegal immigrants.

North Carolina is among seven battleground states thought to sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by 0.6% in North Carolina as of Thursday, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

President Trump won North Carolina in 2020; however, the victory margin in the governor’s race (won by Democrat Governor Cooper) was only about 250,000. Illegal votes could easily make a difference in state races. I don’t necessarily see North Carolina voting for Kamala Harris despite what the polls say.

Election integrity is an issue. We need all states to clean up their voter roles and to make sure that mail-in voting is protected from fraud.

Still Trying To Honor The Votes Of North Carolinians

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Voters in North Carolina have voted twice to require a photo id during elections. Both times the courts have told the voters ‘no.’  On July 9 WRAL posted an article detailing the latest effort by the North Carolina legislature to honor the wishes of the voters.

The article reports:

Legislative Republicans called on the courts Thursday to lift an injunction and require voter to present photo identification at the polls this November, saying a bill they passed earlier this year should satisfy the last arguments against the rule.

“It is past time for activist courts to stop blocking another commonsense elections policy that is required by North Carolina’s constitution and a strong majority of other states,” House Speaker Tim Moore said in a statement.

There are two lawsuits seeking – so far, successfully – to block the state’s voter ID requirement: one state and one federal. Republican lawmakers filed a motion in the state case Thursday, asking judges to drop their injunction against the state’s voter ID law.

They argued that a provision included in House Bill 1169 earlier this year should satisfy the court.

That bill dealt with a number of election issues, most of them geared toward tweaking election procedures to account for the coronavirus pandemic. It passed with broad bipartisan support.

It also included language adding a new category of IDs to the ones poll workers would accept: public assistance IDs.

That Republican lawmakers hadn’t included those IDs in the bill they passed in late 2018 laying out voter ID rules was part of the court’s rationale in blocking implementation this year.

“With the enactment of H.B. 1169, the General Assembly has adopted nearly every ‘ameliorative’ amendment proposed … and it also has addressed the key shortcoming identified by the Court of Appeals,” Moore’s office said in its release.

This is the exact step some Democratic lawmakers said they feared when they backed off support for House Bill 1169 earlier this year: That the snippet of voter ID language would be used in court.

“That was the poison pill when they put that in,” Rep.

Marcia Morey , D-Durham, said Thursday.

Stay tuned. After a while, you begin to wonder why some people are fighting so hard against voter id.