“There’s no such thing as an ‘off-year’ election!” -Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II.
This one’s for all the marbles here in North Carolina.
Among races of national significance, NC Democrats have solid candidates running in 9 of the state’s 10 currently Republican-held U.S. House of Representatives districts, including that of Rep. Mark Meadows (R; House Freedom Caucus leader; sandwich shop owner; Trump Tower cabana boy). And on the local front, NC Democrats are thought to have a decent shot at breaking Republicans’ veto-proof supermajority in the General Assembly, thus empowering Democratic Governor Roy Cooper to, you know, actually govern occasionally.
A hoped-for blue wave in November is a real possibility here in the battleground Tar Heel State. Consequently, GOP state legislators have been flailing like crazed monkeys on amphetamine highs, working hard to rig the November election rather than to earn a victory the old fashioned way.
Among their many gambits, one oldie but goody will come to a head on August 5th. How it shakes out might largely determine the shape, if not the finer details, of November’s election. Here we’re talking about the biennial GOP ritual of rigging the state’s Early Voting plan.