Michelle Obama: Not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you… the claims that a U.S. Senator and constitutional law expert wasn't qualified for the job. The lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism, the outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you'd had a son that he too would be black, yet you were unflappable at every turn, always focused.
On Friday evening, the Republican leaders of North Carolina's state legislature dropped a big, unannounced, 36-page omnibus bill stuffed to the brim with new voting restrictions and elections changes.
This thing is a voter suppression wishlist. Just some of its major provisions:
👉 Total ban on encouraging voter turnout: State and county board members are prohibited from any public statement "encouraging or promoting voter turnout in any election"
👉 Grants the Republican State Auditor total discretion to audit all machines, county offices and personnel involved in any election
👉 Reduces campaign finance transparency: the bill significantly raises the dollar thresholds for required reporting of dark money contributions or media expenditures, waiving reporting for the rest
👉 Requires voters to register with a political party a full year before voting in that party's primary election (up from 90 days)
👉 Total ban on any ranked-choice voting in any primary or general election statewide
👉 Strips some overseas voters of their eligibility to vote in any state elections
👉 Partisan staffing: changes up to 25 professional staff at the State Board of Elections from career civil staff to partisan political appointees
👉 Bans paid petition gathering
This bill just dropped last night and may not be online yet (they like to take their time). We got a full draft of the bill here: https://t.co/CMBAsV4Mtw
Many years ago I told a personal trainer that I couldn’t do a full squat like he asked and he pulled out a IG story of me twerking on my tippy toes in a squat at Sivas from the previous night. I decided then that Atlanta personal trainers would never again get my business. Talmbout “let me show you some real quick”