I would love to see a strong democratic field in the primaries, they are all going to attack each other and McRory at the same time, the strongest candidate will prevail. At the end of it they will all fall in line campaigning against McRory and clobber him. See the 2008 presidential election for the playbook.

9/17/2013 1:31:33 PM

He certainly seems to be running and doing the rounds. He's been expressing support for marriage equality and opposition to discrimination.

http://goqnotes.com/25953/cooper-to-gay-rights-group-day-of-equality-is-coming/

Quote :

"GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, largely expected to challenge incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in the 2016 gubernatorial election, spoke to the state’s leading LGBT advocacy group at a fundraising dinner on Saturday evening."

Quote :

"Earlier on Saturday, members of the LGBT Democrats of North Carolina also gathered in Greensboro for their annual statewide convention. The group unanimously passed a resolution praising Cooper’s LGBT equality positions."

11/10/2013 11:38:45 PM

Quote :

""Roy Cooper the politician is echoing Roy Cooper the attorney general in urging Gov. Pat McCrory to veto the elections law bill, which would require photo IDs and shorten early voting, among other provisions."

can someone explain to me why you need an ID to walk into a bar, drive a car, buy alcohol, buy cigarettes, walk into an airport, use a credit card to prove your identity at a store, yet needing an ID to prove you are who you say you are to vote is wrong?

To open a bank account for example, you must have ID:

Quote :

"Open Your Bank Account Step 4: Provide Your Information In order to open an account, you must provide some information to the bank. They do not open bank accounts without certain details about you. This is to protect them and to comply with a variety of regulations. You’ll need to provide simple details like your name and birthday, as well as identification numbers (in the U.S. this is most likely your Social Security Number). You should also be prepared to provide a valid government ID (such as a Driver’s License)."

So this hypothetical individual that does not have an ID card does not drive or own a car, does not have a bank account which means everything he or she buys is in cash, if he or she has a job he's paid in cash because at least the bank I go to won't cash a check unless you can prove you are the person the check is written to, does not travel via airplane or train (and we already established this person can't drive a car, so their only mode of transportation is either hitchhiking, living off friends, or a bus), has never bought items that require ID like alcohol or cigarettes, and probably a few other things I can't think of off the top of my head.

We have a de facto national ID card. It's called a driver's license. And it's used for a lot more things than just driving. If you think having an ID to vote is wrong, why don't you start petitioning to have bars stop checking IDs when people enter and other things in life that require an ID. And yet if places stopped checking twentysomethings for ID when they buy alcohol, the government would throw the book at these places.

[Edited on November 11, 2013 at 7:40 PM. Reason : /]

11/11/2013 7:16:43 PM

There is nothing wrong with having to provide an ID.

But it was fixing a problem that didn't exist solely as an effort to prevent people that vote Democrat from voting. You and anyone pushing this "we're just preventing voter fraud" rhetoric is full of shit.

11/11/2013 7:40:19 PM

^^ No need for hypotheticals. I suggest you look at some of the voter ID issues in Texas last week. The Texas Attorney General and state Senator Wendy Davis both had difficulties voting.

I don't know Greg Abbott or Wendy Davis personally so I can't say for sure, but I feel pretty confident saying both of them have driver's licenses, fly on planes, have bank accounts, write checks, use credit cards, purchase alcohol, etc. Perhaps your de facto national ID isn't so de facto?

11/11/2013 7:42:36 PM

Quote :

"But it was fixing a problem that didn't exist solely as an effort to prevent people that vote Democrat from voting. "

Provide me a typical person in society that is a legal U.S. citizen and is prevented from voting.

This typical person has a bank account and is licensed by their home state to drive a car.

Quote :

"The Texas Attorney General and state Senator Wendy Davis both had difficulties voting"

If a typical person has difficulties voting beyond "I moved districts", are they really fit for public service? That's just a simple intelligence test that a person with an IQ of 60 could pass. Considering almost everyone has to drive to their precinct to vote, if you drive up and say "I don't have my ID", you just admitted to a public employee you broke the law because you operated a motor vehicle on state roads without a license, which you are required to have at all times you drive a motor vehicle.

[Edited on November 11, 2013 at 7:50 PM. Reason : /]

11/11/2013 7:49:56 PM

Both had IDs with them at the polls. It's probably a safe assumption that both have above average intelligence and resources.

11/11/2013 7:57:15 PM

Look, this is just such common sense for me. I hate the government as much as the next guy, but there are so many things we do in daily life that require an ID to begin with that I can't draw the line at voting. In order to function in American society at 18 years old and older considering how digital our country is now, you have to have an ID of some kind to verify your identity. We're going to use IDs to stop underage drinking and smoking but not to verify voters and stop ballot stuffing and voting fraud which has going on since the 1800s? How does that make sense?

[Edited on November 11, 2013 at 8:03 PM. Reason : /]

11/11/2013 8:01:22 PM

Quote :

"They both had IDs with them at the polls. It's probably a safe assumption that both have above average intelligence and resources."

If they both had IDs then their issues have nothing to deal with what I'm talking about and are irrelevant to my posts.

Again:

Quote :

"this hypothetical individual that does not have an ID card does not drive or own a car, does not have a bank account which means everything he or she buys is in cash, if he or she has a job he's paid in cash because at least the bank I go to won't cash a check unless you can prove you are the person the check is written to, does not travel via airplane or train (and we already established this person can't drive a car, so their only mode of transportation is either hitchhiking, living off friends, or a bus), has never bought items that require ID like alcohol or cigarettes, and probably a few other things I can't think of off the top of my head. We have a de facto national ID card. It's called a driver's license. And it's used for a lot more things than just driving. If you think having an ID to vote is wrong, why don't you start petitioning to have bars stop checking IDs when people enter and other things in life that require an ID. And yet if places stopped checking twentysomethings for ID when they buy alcohol, the government would throw the book at these places."

[Edited on November 11, 2013 at 8:07 PM. Reason : .]

11/11/2013 8:02:28 PM

This has to be trolling for a reaction. I hope for his sake that it is just some pre-Thanksgiving humor.

11/11/2013 8:05:52 PM

Your common sense failed at least two people in Texas.

Got a link for the rampant ballot stuffing and voter fraud?

Perhaps you don't feel it's relevant that two people with a de facto national ID (your words) couldn't vote in a state with voter ID laws that you support. I would suggest that it should be relevant to you, particularly if you ever hope to convince others of your position. Probably wouldn't hurt for you to look at the real life impacts of your common sense solution either.

11/11/2013 8:13:38 PM

Quote :

"Your common sense failed at least two people in Texas."

It didn't fail them. They provided IDs and their votes will be counted after their affidavits clear, because their IDs show they are the people they say they are.

Quote :

"Got a link for the rampant ballot stuffing and voter fraud?"

The 1876 Election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. Three states had two sets of election results.

The 1960 Election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

Voting in New York and Chicago in the eras of party machine politics (which for Chicago only ended relatively recently, or at least when the Daleys were in power).

Lyndon B. Johnson when he was a senator had the joking nickname of "Landslide Lyndon" because he was known to find votes to help shore up his winning margin.

If you consider yourself knowledgeable on the history of politics in this country, you know all those.

And to add on, certain people think there was ballot stuffing and voter fraud in Florida in 2000 to give Bush the state over Gore.

Quote :

"Perhaps you don't feel it's relevant that two people with a de facto national ID (your words) couldn't vote in a state with voter ID laws that you support."

http://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/driver/renewal/

Quote :

"If your name changes A person whose name changes from the name stated on a driver license must notify DMV of the change within 60 days after the change occurs and obtain a duplicate driver license stating the new name. You must change your name listed by the Social Security Administration before you change the name on your driver license. You must use your full name and the name on your driver license must match the name used by the Social Security Administration. Name changes can be completed with: A certified marriage certificate issued by a governmental agency; Documented proof from the courts or the Register of Deeds establishing that the name change was officially accomplished; or A divorce decree which includes the name change. "

You're required by the state to have an ID to buy a beer but not to vote: America in the 21st century.

11/11/2013 8:38:07 PM

Quote :

""First of all, we didn't shorten early voting, we compacted the calendar," ~Pat McRory"

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahaha what theeeee fucccccccckkk?!?!?!?!?!?!

If it used to be 17 days and now its 10 you shortened it, people are not that fucking stupid.

11/20/2013 12:23:47 PM

Quote :

"The 1876 Election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. Three states had two sets of election results. The 1960 Election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Voting in New York and Chicago in the eras of party machine politics (which for Chicago only ended relatively recently, or at least when the Daleys were in power). Lyndon B. Johnson when he was a senator had the joking nickname of "Landslide Lyndon" because he was known to find votes to help shore up his winning margin. If you consider yourself knowledgeable on the history of politics in this country, you know all those. And to add on, certain people think there was ballot stuffing and voter fraud in Florida in 2000 to give Bush the state over Gore. "

voter ID is not designed to stop voter fraud, its designed to stop a very specific voter fraud: individual voter fraud. Individual voter fraud is incredibly rare because it is incredibly inefficient. We know that invdividual voter fraud exists because of races that were audited because they were close, and the percentages are insignificant. None of your examples are those of individual voter fraud.

the most likely current cause of voter fraud is absentee ballots, but since those favor Republicans they are not included. If this was really about voter fraud it would include absentee ballots. We also have very real, not conspiracy theory evidence that electronic votes are often not reliable. If this was about accurate voting we should provide more protections in that regard.

tl;dr: if this was really about voter fraud, requiring ID's will not have a statistically significant impact on the percentage of voter fraud.

[Edited on November 20, 2013 at 12:30 PM. Reason : by "designed to" i mean "that's what they say it is fore". actually designed to stop voters. ]

11/20/2013 12:29:55 PM

Quote :

"Now kids, which is more? 17 Days or 10 days????"

11/20/2013 1:06:06 PM

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/09/3519597/willoughby-will-not-seek-re-election.html

Willoughby for Lt Gov???

1/9/2014 8:03:19 PM

I was thinking AG.

1/11/2014 11:02:20 AM

Josh Stein will be AG.

1/11/2014 12:05:28 PM

Quote :

"It’s time to stand up and Take Back North Carolina. Please take a few minutes and watch our video below. It’s been a painful year for the people of North Carolina and for our state's reputation as the Tea Party controlling Raleigh has turned back decades of work that helped cement North Carolina as a leader in the new South. Stand with me and fight back against this blatant assault on North Carolina. Please share this video with your friends and sign up to join our team."

1/30/2014 3:02:52 PM