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December 27, 2016

Report: North Carolina No Longer a "Fully Functioning Democracy"
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In North Carolina, a new report finds the state's democratic
institutions are so flawed, the state should no longer be considered a
functioning democracy. The report by the Electoral Integrity Project
points to extreme gerrymandering, voter suppression of communities of
color and the stripping of power of incoming Democratic Governor Roy
Cooper's power by Republicans. Writing in the Raleigh News & Observer,
lead researcher Andrew Reynolds gives North Carolina an electoral
integrity score of 58 out of 100 points-similar to the scores of Cuba,
Sierra Leone and Indonesia. Speaking on Democracy Now!, the head of
North Carolina's chapter of the NAACP, Rev. William Barber, says
Republicans are fighting to prevent black and brown voters from claiming
power.

Rev. William Barber: "I believe all of the pushback we're seeing-the
voter suppression, the redistricting-is because the extremists see the
possibility of a third Reconstruction. They know that if we register 30
percent of the African-American voter, unregistered voters, in the
South, and if we add to that whites and progressive whites and Latinos,
you will have changed the South."



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