# data[].attributes.body
I understand where these protesters are coming from and applaud their desire to fight for their freedom, but I do believe that they blindly follow a man who is so liberally leading them and seems to blame only the Republicans. This is wrong. It's important that they stick to the true issue and the fact of the matter is, Voter ID is beneficial in every way! The only issue that I gripe with is the fact that you have to pay and if you don't pay then the process takes such a long time! This most definitely is ridiculous, to say the least. Our forefathers fought for our freedom so that we could keep it and we shouldn't have to pay for it again! If we can find a way to budget Entitlement Programs and fund other countries, then surely this country can figure out a way to pay for everyone's card. We are already in trillions of debt, what's stopping us now?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Voter ID's is an awesome idea! However, we have already bought our freedom, and we shouldn't have to pay for it again.

# data[].attributes.body
Reading this information may change your mind on the whole "discriminatory idea" that these protesters are shouting...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This post is being kept up-to-date. It was first published on July 23, 2012.
Voter ID laws are a contentious issue in the 2016 presidential election cycle. Many of the statutes will have their first test at the polls this year. Supporters say the laws - which 36 states have now enacted in some form - are needed to combat voter fraud, while critics see them as a tactic to disenfranchise voters.

We've taken a step back to look at the facts behind the laws and break down the issues at the heart of the debate.
So what are these laws?
They are measures intended to ensure that a registered voter is who he says he is and not an impersonator trying to cast a ballot in someone else's name. The laws, most of which have been passed or strengthened in the last five years, require that registered voters show ID before they're allowed to vote. Exactly what they need to show varies. Some states require a government-issued photo, while in others a current utility bill or bank statement is sufficient.
As a registered voter, I thought I always had to supply some form of ID during an election.
Not quite. Per federal law, first-time voters who registered by mail must present a photo ID or copy of a current bill or bank statement. Some states generally advise voters bring some form of photo ID. But prior to the 2006 election, no state ever required a voter to produce a government-issued photo ID as a condition to voting. Indiana in 2006 became the first state to enact a strict photo ID law, a law that was upheld two years later by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Why are these voter ID laws so strongly opposed?
Voting law opponents contend these laws disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups that tend to vote Democratic. Obtaining photo ID can be costly and burdensome. While many states with strict laws offer a free state ID for people without any other way to vote, these IDs require documents like a birth certificate that can cost up to $25 in some places. According to a study from NYU's Brennan Center, 11 percent of voting-age citizens lack necessary photo ID while many people in rural areas have trouble accessing ID offices.

A lawsuit filed against Alabama in early December 2015 cites the example of a high schooler who can't vote because she lacks a driver's license. According to the suit, she needs to get a state issued voter ID at the DMV, but the one nearest to her is only open one day per month and there's no public transportation to another DMV 40 miles away roundtrip.

During closing arguments in a 2012 case over Texas's voter ID law, a lawyer for the state brushed aside geographical obstacles as the "reality to life of choosing to live in that part of Texas."

Former Attorney General Eric Holder and others have compared the laws to a poll tax, in which Southern states during the Jim Crow era imposed voting fees, which discouraged blacks, and even some poor whites - until the passage of grandfather clauses - from voting.

Given the sometimes costly steps required to obtain needed documents today, legal scholars argue that photo ID laws create a new "financial barrier to the ballot box."
Just how well-founded are fears of voter fraud?
There have been only a small number of fraud cases resulting in a conviction. A New York Times analysis from 2007 identified 120 cases filed by the Justice Department over five years. These cases, many of which stemmed from mistakenly filled registration forms or misunderstanding over voter eligibility, resulted in 86 convictions.

There are "very few documented cases," said UC-Irvine professor and election law specialist Rick Hasen. "When you do see election fraud, it invariably involves election officials taking steps to change election results or it involves absentee ballots which voter ID laws can't prevent," he said.

An analysis by News21, a national investigative reporting project, identified 10 voter impersonation cases out of 2,068 alleged election fraud cases since 2000 - or one out of every 15 million prospective voters.

One of the most vocal supporters of strict voter ID laws, then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (now the state's governor), told the Houston Chronicle in July 2012 that his office has prosecuted about 50 cases of voter fraud in recent years. "I know for a fact that voter fraud is real, that it must be stopped, and that voter id is one way to prevent cheating at the ballot box and ensure integrity in the electoral system," he told the paper. Abbott's office did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment.
How many voters might be turned away or dissuaded by the laws, and could they really affect the election?
It's not clear.

According to the Brennan Center, about 11 percent of U.S. citizens, or roughly 21 million citizens, don't have government-issued photo ID. This figure doesn't represent all voters likely to vote, just those eligible to vote.

A 2012 analysis by Reuters and research firm Ipsos of data culled from 20,000 voter interviews found that those lacking proper ID were less likely to vote anyway, "regardless of state law changes."

Among those who said they were "certain to vote," only 1 percent said they did not have proper ID while another 1 percent said they were uncertain whether they had the proper ID. The analysis also found that those who lack valid photo ID tended to be young people, those without college educations, Hispanics and the poor.

Much of the academic literature finds that voter ID laws have an outsize effect on minorities: A working paper from researchers at the University of California, San Diego found that states with a strict photo ID law saw a significant decrease in turnout among minority and immigrant voters and an increase in the participation gap between white and nonwhite voters.

Exact state figures on how many people lack acceptable IDs can be hard to nail down. Before Pennsylvania's voter ID law was struck down, a 2012 analysis of state records by the Philadelphia Inquirer found that nearly 760,000 registered voters , or 9.2 percent of the state's 8.2 million voter base, don't own state-issued ID cards. State officials, on the other hand, placed the number between 80,000 and 90,000.

In a 2012 trial over Wisconsin's voter ID law, the plaintiff estimated that about 300,000 voters didn't have ID and attempted to analyze the demographic breakdown. An expert for thedefense put the number between 100,000 and 300,000 and called the demographics an "open question."

As for the potential effect on the election, one analysis by Nate Silver at the New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog estimates they could decrease voter turnout anywhere between 0.8 and 2.4 percent. It doesn't sound like a very wide margin, but it all depends on the electoral landscape.

"We don't know exactly how much these news laws will affect turnout or skew turnout in favor of Republicans," said Hasen, author of The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown. "But there's no question that in a very close election, they could be enough to make a difference in the outcome."
When did voter ID laws get passed - and which states have the strictest ones?
The first such law was passed as early as 2003, but momentum has picked up in recent years. In 2011 alone, legislators in 34 states introduced bills requiring voters show photo ID - 14 of those states already had existing voter ID laws, but lawmakers sought to toughen statutes, mainly to require proof of photo identification.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has a helpful breakdown of states' voter ID laws and how they vary.

Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Virginia, Wisconsin and Texas have the toughest versions. These states won't allow voters to cast a regular ballot without first showing valid photo ID. Other states with photo ID laws offer some more flexibility by providing voters with several alternatives.
What happens if a voter can't show valid photo ID in these states?
These voters are entitled to a provisional ballot. To ensure their votes count, however, they must produce the mandatory ID within a certain time frame and affirm in person or writing they are the same individual who filled out a temporary ballot on Election Day. The time limits vary: They range anywhere from up to three days after the election (Georgia) to noon the Monday after the election (Indiana).

Are there any exceptions to the photo ID requirement?

Yes: Indigency or religious objections to being photographed. In Indiana, voters will be given a provisional ballot and must sign an affidavit for their exemption by a certain date. Texas grants an exception to voters who don't have an ID because of a recent natural disaster. For a more specific breakdown of all exceptions, see this list.
Voter ID laws were a big story in 2012. Why are we still talking about them?
A few reasons. While a majority of the voter ID laws were passed before the 2012 election, not all of them went into effect immediately. Wisconsin's voter ID law, passed in 2011, was only in effect for a low-turnout primary in a few municipalities before getting tied up in court and will have its first major test in 2016. States such as Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina passed voter ID laws after 2012 that haven't yet been tested in a high-turnout presidential election (Virginia and Texas' 2013 laws were in effect for the states' 2014 midterm elections, but North Carolina's voter ID law hasn't yet been in effect for a federal election).

This election cycle is also the first presidential election without Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act in effect. In 2013, it was struck down in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision, Shelby County v. Holder. States previously required to get preclearance from the Justice Department to change voting laws under a formula laid out in Section 4(b) no longer have to. This means there's a whole spate of new voting laws in effect. Texas, for example, was initially blocked from implementing its voter ID law until it received preclearance. But the day of the Shelby ruling, the state announced that the law would take effect.

It also means that it's harder to challenge laws. The Justice Department can still challenge laws for discriminatory voting practices under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. But the plaintiff carries the burden of proof under Section 2 challenges, making them harder to win.

"This is the first presidential election in more than 50 years of the Voting Rights Act that the department's ability to enforce the act has been so severely cut back," Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, told The Washington Post the week before Super Tuesday.

Legal challenges to the laws - from groups like the NAACP, League of Women Voters, and Democratic lawyers - are still winding their way through the legal system. In many states, these cases aren't the first time the laws have been challenged.
What are the current challenges to the laws?
Some voter ID laws have been blocked by the courts. A Pennsylvania judge struck down the state's voter ID law in 2014, and the then-governor declined to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

Marc Elias, a Democratic lawyer who also serves as general counsel for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, brought suit against voter ID laws in Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio and North Carolina (Elias isn't acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign). In Virginia, Elias is arguing that the law is an undue burden on poor and minority voters who are unlikely to have an ID and are more likely to vote Democrat.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund sued Alabama over its voter ID law in early December, alleging it discriminated against African Americans. A judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction on Feb. 18, but hasn't yet ruled on the suit.

Texas' voter ID law is in a legal tangle: in August 2015, a federal appeals panel found that the law discriminated against minorities, but it disagreed with the lower court's finding that the law was the equivalent of a poll tax and intentionally discriminatory. The appellate court sent the law back to the lower court for review. In March 2016, the federal appeals court decided to hear a challenge to the law en banc - the whole court, not just the panel, will hear the case. Meanwhile, the law remains in effect.
Are there other voter ID laws in effect that ask for but don't necessarily require photo ID?
Yes. In these so-called "non-strict photo ID states" - Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Idaho, South Dakota and Hawaii - individuals are requested to show photo ID but can still vote if they don't have one. Instead, they may be asked to sign affidavits affirming their identity or provide a signature that will be compared with those in registration records.
Why has there been such a recent surge in voter ID legislation around the country?
This report by NYU's Brennan Center for Justice cites primarily big Republican gains in the 2010 midterms which turned voter ID laws into a "major legislative priority." Aside from Rhode Island, all voter ID legislation has been introduced by Republican-majority legislatures.

News21 also has this report on the close affiliation between the bills' sponsors and the conservative nonprofit group, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Republican figures have championed such laws. In a now-infamous remark, Mike Turzai, majority leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, praised the state's legislative accomplishments - including passing a voter ID law - at a 2012 Republican State Committee meeting.

"Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done," he said.

A spokesman for Turzai, Steve Miskin, told ProPublica that Turzai was "mischaracterized" by the press. "For the first time in many years, you're going to have a relatively level playing field in the presidential elections" as the result of these new laws," Miskin said.

Clarification Sept. 25, 2012: This post has been clarified to reflect details about who was discouraged from voting under a poll tax.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Voter ID Laws - ProPublica

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This post is being kept up-to-date. It was first published on July 23, 2012. Voter ID laws are a contentious issue in the 2016 presidential election cycle. Many of the statutes will have their first test at the polls this year.

# data[].attributes.body
Reasons why you SHOULD vote on the Voter ID Law

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Buy Domains - protectmyvote.com is for sale!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Buy a domain and see how a premium domain can be the best investment. Your business starts here. Buy a domain today.

# data[].attributes.body
Maybe the Democrats' goal is to not separate church and state but rather unite them for the cause of emotional arousal in the people. This could be very wrong and very deceptive.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On a recent Sunday afternoon, the Reverend William Barber II reclined uncomfortably in a chair in his office, sipping bottled water as he recovered from two hours of strenuous preaching. When he was in his early 20s, Barber was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful arthritic condition affecting the spine. Still wearing his long black robes, the 50-year-old minister recounted how, as he'd proclaimed in a rolling baritone from the pulpit that morning, "a crippled preacher has found his legs."

It began a few days before Easter 2013, recalled Barber, pastor at the Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). "On Maundy Thursday, they chose to crucify voting rights," he said.

"They" are North Carolina Republicans, who in November 2012 took control of the state Legislature and the governor's mansion for the first time in more than a century. Among their top priorities-along with blocking Medicaid expansion and cutting unemployment benefits and higher-education spending-was pushing through a raft of changes to election laws, including reducing the number of early voting days, ending same-day voter registration, and requiring ID at the polls. "That's when a group of us said, 'Wait a minute, this has just gone too far,'" Barber said.

Barber "believed we needed to kind of burst this bubble of 'There's nothing we can do for two years until the next election.'"

On the last Monday of April 2013, Barber led a modest group of clergy and activists into the state legislative building in Raleigh. They sang "We Shall Overcome," quoted the Bible, and blocked the doors to the Senate chambers. Barber leaned on his cane as capitol police led him away in handcuffs.

That might have been the end of just another symbolic protest, but then something happened: The following Monday, more than 100 protesters showed up at the capitol. Over the next few months, the weekly crowds at the "Moral Mondays" protests grew to include hundreds, and then thousands, not just in Raleigh but also in towns around the state. The largest gathering, in February, drew tens of thousands of people. More than 900 protesters have been arrested for civil disobedience over the past year. Copycat movements have started in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama in response to GOP legislation regarding Medicaid and gun control.

With Moral Mondays, Barber has channeled the pent-up frustration of North Carolinians who were shocked by how quickly their state had been transformed into a laboratory for conservative policies. "He believed we needed to kind of burst this bubble of 'There's nothing we can do for two years until the next election,'" explains Al McSurely, a longtime NAACP organizer. But what may be most notable about Barber's new brand of civil rights activism is how he's taken a partisan fight and presented it as an issue that transcends party or race-creating a more sustained pushback against Republican overreach than anywhere else in the country.

Barber's activism is rooted in his family's history. In the 1960s, his parents moved back to eastern North Carolina from Indianapolis to help desegregate the local schools. His father, also a preacher, taught science at a formerly all-white high school. His mother became the school's first black office manager. Students called her "nigger" before they finally learned to call her "Mother Barber."

Barber fears that Republican lawmakers' efforts to expand private-school vouchers will resegregate the very schools his parents worked to integrate. As NAACP president, he helped pass legislation establishing same-day voter registration and expanding death penalty appeals-bills that Republicans repealed in the last legislative session.

In 1993, a flare-up of his condition left him hospitalized, and he spent the next dozen years relying on a walker to get around. Exercise, faith, and "a little miracle and medicine" fueled his recovery-along with a good health plan. "I never want to have health insurance and see other members of the human family denied," he says. "It's immoral." He shakes his head at lawmakers who receive generous benefits only to try to deny their constituents access to Obamacare or expanded Medicaid. "The logic doesn't compute."

"This is no mere hyperventilation or partisan pouting. This is a fight for the future and soul of our state."

Barber says his emphasis on morality is inspired by his predecessors in the civil rights movement. "They first had to win the moral high ground, and they had to capture the attention and consciousness of the nation," he explains. "When those two things came together, it gave space for people like Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was a segregationist, to step out of his normal pattern of politics into a new way." Barber says that Moral Mondays' broad appeal is reflected in state Republicans' sagging popularity: A February poll found that just 36 percent of North Carolina voters approved of Gov. Pat McCrory's job performance; 28 percent approved of the General Assembly's.

With North Carolina Democrats still in disarray following their drubbing in 2012, some progressives are looking to Barber to lead them out of the wilderness. "It's our job to take this energy and turn it into reality at the polls," says Democratic Party chairman Randy Voller.

But to Barber, the movement's success is not tied to the ballot box. Rather, it's in moments like the cold Saturday morning in February when tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of the capital. Black, white, gay, and straight, they came from churches and synagogues wearing rainbow flags for marriage equality, pink caps for Planned Parenthood, and stickers reading "North Carolina: First in Teacher Flight." When it was Barber's turn to speak, the crowd fell silent.

"Make no mistake-this is no mere hyperventilation or partisan pouting," he intoned, his voice rising and breaking. "This is a fight for the future and soul of our state. It doesn't matter what the critics call us...They can deride us, they can try to deflect from the issue. And we understand that, because they can't debate us on the issue. They can't make their case on moral and constitutional grounds."
This article has been updated.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How a Southern preacher took morality back from the GOP

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On a recent Sunday afternoon, the Reverend William Barber II reclined uncomfortably in a chair in his office, sipping bottled water as he recovered from two hours of strenuous preaching. When he was in his early 20s, Barber was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful arthritic condition affecting the spine.

# data[].attributes.body
Voter ID Laws, or just another way to point a finger at Republicans? Maybe this is all just a political set-up for some bitter liberalists?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
- North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Claude Pope said Friday that the so-called "Moral Monday" movement is "radical left-wing" activism and accused state NAACP president William Barber of seeking to "eviscerate" state Republican leaders.

Pope held a news conference in advance of a planned Saturday march, an annual event known as "Historic Thousands on Jones Street." After much national media coverage of last year's Moral Monday protests, the turnout for this year's event is expected to be large.

Pope denounced the Moral Monday marches as an "overtly partisan, left-wing political movement" and called Barber "a radical left-wing activist" with a "fringe liberal agenda."

"Make no mistake, tomorrow's event is a political rally," Pope said, "and the national left-wing groups like MoveOn.org and Planned Parenthood have been recruiting liberal activists from across the country to attend the rally.

"They support Rev. Barber's radical left-wing agenda to fully implement 'Obamacare,' raise taxes and take us back to the days of double-digit unemployment," he added.

The NAACP has called on Republican leaders to accept federal funds for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and to rescind deep budget cuts to education and social services. Republicans say the latter would require a tax increase, which they argue would slow the state's economic recovery.

"Barber's use of inflammatory, divisive and offensive rhetoric has no place in the public arena of ideas," Pope said. "We need to have a respectful, political discourse here in North Carolina."

"If Democrats want to have a seat at the table, they need to learn to tone down the inflammatory discourse," he said.

He also used the occasion to slam U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, whose seat has been nationally targeted in this fall's elections, as well as Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is expected to run for governor in 2016.

"Kay Hagan and Roy Cooper - do you support Rev. Barber's Moral Monday political rallies?" he asked.

Pope also said Barber is taking aim at the wrong party.

"William Barber has every right to protest, but he's protesting the wrong side. The real beef is not with Republicans but with the Democrats themselves who were so corrupt, so inept and spent the state so deeply into debt that they lost their 140-year majority," Pope said. "Don't get mad at Republicans because your Democratic friends screwed up."

The annual marches began years ago, when the Democrats held power in both the legislature and the governor's mansion, and Barber was a vocal critic of decisions made by leaders at that time as well.

The GOP chairman also accused legislative Democrats of being unwilling to work with the Republican majority, quoting a 2012 white paper crafted by Blueprint NC, a liberal organizing group, that recommended Democrats attempt to "eviscerate" Republican leaders.

Blueprint NC is not part of the state Democratic Party, and its recommendations were not endorsed or supported by any elected Democrats or party leaders, but Republicans have long insisted that it represents the Democrats' official position.

Pope called Barber the "de facto head of the Democratic party" and accused him of trying to execute the Blueprint strategy.

"Through [the state Democratic Party's] endorsement of William Barber, they are basically endorsing that strategy," he said. "That's not a great way to begin a bipartisan working relationship."

When WRAL News pointed out that House Speaker Thom Tillis had been heard encouraging his caucus members to "gut punch" House Democrats in floor debate in 2011, Pope downplayed the comment as intended only for a private meeting "between Republicans."

When it was pointed out that the Blueprint memo was similarly intended to be confidential, Pope responded, "People's passions run high, as we've seen in a lot of political discourse. What we're saying today is that discourse needs to return to a normal political discourse."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NCGOP slams NAACP's Barber, Moral Monday movement :: WRAL.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Claude Pope said Friday that the so-called "Moral Monday" movement is "radical left-wing" activism and accused state NAACP president William Barber of seeking to "eviscerate" state Republican leaders. Pope held a news conference in advance of a planned Saturday march, an annual event known as "Historic Thousands on Jones Street."

# data[].attributes.body
"Republicans have repeatedly stated that the voter ID bill would prevent voter fraud, but Democrats argue that the issue of fraud is vastly overblown. According to News21, a national investigative reporting project of the more than 18 million ballots cast in presidential and congressional elections in North Carolina between 2000 and 2011, only 22 cases of fraud have surfaced."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Opponents of a voter ID bill that passed the North Carolina House on Wednesday are not backing down, vowing to continue to fight what they say is a discriminatory practice.

The measure, which passed the House in a 81-36 vote, would require voters to show a state-issued ID in order to vote. It would also make student IDs from public colleges a legal form of identification, but not student IDs from private institutions, and it would tax the parents of college students who register to vote in the state where they are attending school. The changes would go into effect in 2016 if the bill becomes law.

College students quietly protested the bill in the Statehouse Wednesday as the vote took place. They wore black tape over their mouths bearing phrases like "Justice" and "My voice is being silenced."

"You're saying if you go to a public institution your vote is more powerful than someone who goes to a private institution? It's not right. It's inequality," Tyler Swanson, a sophomore at North Carolina A&T State University and one of the students who participated in the protest, told The Huffington Post.

The bill must pass the Republican-controlled Senate and be signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R), who supports it, before it can become law. College students are just one group of North Carolinians who would be affected if that happens.

The bill includes plenty of provisions that would disproportionately affect minorities and low-income voters, critics say. Other bills being considered would repeal same-day registration in North Carolina, shorten early voting by one week and put an end to voting on Sundays.

North Carolina NAACP President Rev. William Barber, who has been vocal in his opposition to the measure and is set to announce several civil disobedience events to protest it, compared the voter ID bill to a poll tax and said it would disenfranchise minorities.

"To pass a modern-day poll tax disguised as voter photo ID is to engage in interposition and nullification, blocking freedom and constitutional rights and progress," Barber told The Huffington Post. He described the state House and Senate leaders and the governor as "George Wallaces of the 21st century."

Advancement Project Co-Director Penda Hair, whose organization submitted testimony to the North Carolina legislature opposing the measure, described the bill as "unconstitutional" and discriminatory "against people of color."

In reviewing litigation in other states, Hair said, the Advancement Project found that even if IDs are supposed to be free for those who cannot afford them, as is the case with this bill, many people still had trouble obtaining them.

Republicans have repeatedly stated that the voter ID bill would prevent voter fraud, but Democrats argue that the issue of fraud is vastly overblown. According to News21, a national investigative reporting project of the more than 18 million ballots cast in presidential and congressional elections in North Carolina between 2000 and 2011, only 22 cases of fraud have surfaced.

BEFORE YOU GO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Opponents Call Voter ID Bill A 'Modern-Day Poll Tax'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Opponents of a voter ID bill that passed the North Carolina House on Wednesday are not backing down, vowing to continue to fight what they say is a discriminatory practice. The measure, which passed the House in a 81-36 vote, would require voters to show a state-issued ID in order to vote.

# data[].attributes.body
These are people coming together under one nation to fight for their rights. This is more than voting, this is stopping discrimination and the evil it spreads.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
North Carolina was one of the first states in America to raise its voice against the immoral behavior of their state legislature. The Forward Together Movement began in May and with each passing week, North Carolinians have become fully aware of the Republican-controlled legislature's actions in Raleigh. July 29th was the final scheduled Moral Monday, but Forward Together Movement leader Rev. Dr. William Barber says the fight is far from over.

Rather, the actions are traveling from Raleigh to multiple Congressional districts and counties in North Carolina. The "Mountain Moral Monday" action in Asheville on August 5 drew more than 10,000 people. Raleigh was just the beginning and North Carolinians are now aware and activated across the state.

The first Moral Monday was a rather small affair compared to what it turned into. It began with Rev. Barber, head of the North Carolina NAACP, and a handful of other conscientious clergymen who said enough is enough. That first week bolstered the people of North Carolina and in the weeks that followed, more and more people stepped up to be arrested, or "bear witness" for justice. After 13 weeks of protest, over 1,000 have been arrested, making it the largest act of civil disobedience in America next to the Occupy movement.

On July 8 (my youngest son's 6th birthday) I was arrested alongside my father, Harvey Smith. It was the first time for both of us and neither of us would have made a different decision. The following week, July 15, the rest of my family followed suit with my mother, Jane Smith (58), my husband, Anthony Glover (37), my sister-in-law, Alisa Denbow (35), and my nephews, Dennis and Dustin Bailey (16 and 17), who all stepped up to be arrested for the cause.

My 14-year-old son, William Glover, wanted to be arrested for justice but was too young. He understand what many people his age do not: that this fight, or a new one, will likely take place in his adult years, and this makes him steadfast in his commitment to do whatever he can to help further the movement.

Each Moral Monday mobilized around a single issue. One week was for labor issues, another for women's rights, another for voting rights, and so on. The beautiful thing was that no matter what the theme, people came out in droves. This is the meaning of intersectionality -- just because an issue may not affect us on a personal level, we're still willing to speak up and fight for the fairness and freedom of others.

On the 15th, when we were focused on women's rights, a fair amount of men were arrested (even though women had the majority.) During the voting rights Moral Monday, many people who would not be affected by the new laws showed up in solidarity as well. I am a white woman with an ID so the only thing that affected me about these laws was the fact that they would end early and Sunday voting. None of us cared. Once you mess with one citizen's rights you mess with everyone's rights.

This is a movement like North Carolina has never seen. We came together in one large sea of people; black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Arab. We were poor and we were rich. We were Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Humanist, Agnostic and Atheist. We were old and young. We were working as one for a common goal, which is what the GOP legislature is scared of. We couldn't accomplish anything as long as we were divided.

The sad thing is that many people still don't get it. We still hear the term "Moron Monday" floating around. We still see people who really do not understand the issues and instead of becoming educated, chose to dismiss us as tree hugging, jobless, lazy hippies who are simply looking for free handouts. This is no surprise and I don't allow it to bother me. The Occupy Movement faced the same challenges, and we should expect to hear it in the future. All we can really do is continue to educate people on the real issues.

Overall, Moral Monday 13 ended on an extremely positive note. Reverend Barber would not have had it any other way. It was an uplifting experience even for those of in in the huge group who are religiously unaffiliated. In the end Moral Monday brought us all together and we have the NAACP and all of the community groups organizing together to thank for that. It may prove to pave the way for North Carolinians to take back their government from those enacting immoral policies.
Testimony from Moral Monday Arrestees Chuck Fager
Mr. Fager is the arrestee that stands out the most to me because of his long history of fighting for civil and social rights. He contacted me to offer an interview:

"I was arrested on July 22. I had a sign noting that I was arrested in Selma Alabama in 1965, with Dr. King's campaign there which resulted in the Voting Rights Act. I chose to court arrest on July 22 because of the focus on vote suppression, which is undoing Dr. King's achievement and dishonoring the sacrifice of so many who struggled and suffered for voting rights."
Tom High
Mr. High was arrested on May 30th. He was led to do so for many reasons. "The first is a belief in democracy, based on logic and reason," High said.

"For the past 40 years of my life (I am now 60) I have watched, with varying but increasing degrees of attention and dismay, as the main institutions which hold the key to the functioning of our democracy have either been battered or outright broken."
Dennis Bailey
Mr. Bailey is the youngest Moral Monday protester to get arrested (as far as I know) at the age of 16. When asked why he was willing to go to jail at such a young age, he replied, "I know everything that has been done by the legislature has hurt every person in my family. I wanted people to see that just because I am young that I don't understand what the issues are. I get it and may have to fight for it myself when I get older."

There are so many more stories to be told, and they will be. As the movement's rallying cry goes:

"FORWARD TOGETHER, NOT. ONE. STEP. BACK!"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
13 Weeks, 1,000 Arrests and the Moral Monday Movement Sweeping North Carolina

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
North Carolina was one of the first states in America to raise its voice against the immoral behavior of their state legislature. The Forward Together Movement began in May and with each passing week, North Carolinians have become fully aware of the Republican-controlled legislature's actions in Raleigh.

# data[].attributes.body
This article discusses the violence and lack of respect these protesters hold for their elders... and where civil disobedience may at times be necessary, we have people disrupting stores! Should these kind of people really have a say on how voting works? Convicts shouldn't have a say.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
About 500 protesters shouted slogans at riot police in St. Louis overnight into Monday morning near the climax of four days of street rallies and sit-ins over the police shootings of two black 18-year-olds.

Protesters began coming to St. Louis late last week for a " Weekend of Resistance," drawing attention to the cases of the slain teenagers and calling for accountability. Groups present reiterated calls for reform in how police departments across the country treat black Americans.

Nearly two months after a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown - setting off heavy protests in the majority-black St. Louis suburb - a white off-duty St. Louis officer last week shot and killed teenager Vonderrit Myers Jr. Police said the youth had opened fire.

At the center of Sunday's Weekend of Resistance activities was a "Mass Meeting" at St. Louis University's Chaifetz Arena. The meeting involved residents, protesters, activists and clergy, and featured a debate over approaches to handling the public outrage that followed Brown's shooting death.

The night ended with younger voices in the group calling to do whatever it took to be heard, and asking attendees to take part in civil disobedience actions after the event concluded.

Protesters and activists planned a final day of protests and acts of civil disobedience on Monday.

"You make my heart easier," Myers's father told the crowd that later gathered in the St. Louis University campus and held a four-minute silence.

Some in the night march Sunday chanted "Indict, convict, put the killer cops in jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell."

Officers in riot gear beat their batons on the ground Monday morning in unison as they faced off against the marchers, before letting them walk peacefully on.

Hundreds of activists have traveled from across the United States to join the four days of protests organized by umbrella organization Ferguson October. Organizers said the event would culminate in mass rallies on "Moral Monday."

"I came here to go to jail," activist, author and academic Cornel West told hundreds of people who turned out at an arena in St. Louis on Sunday evening. West told Al Jazeera he planned to be arrested Monday, echoing the comments he made to the crowd.

Police arrested 17 protesters staging a sit-in at the entrance to a convenience store early Sunday in Shaw, where Myers was killed last Wednesday. Authorities also used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters over the weekend.

The two Missouri shootings have focused global attention on the state of race relations in the U.S. and have evoked memories of other racially-charged cases, including the fatal shooting of black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012.

A grand jury is considering whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson, 28, who shot Brown.

*
Meanwhile, Chris McGreal reports for The Guardian on a rowdy gathering Sunday at which younger black protesters railed at the ineffectiveness of an older generation's peaceful tactics:
Frustration and anger among young black Americans at an older generation's apparent failure to adequately respond to the killing of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson upended a key event at a weekend of mass protest on Sunday.

The showdown exposed a generational divide over how best to confront police racism, brutality and use of excessive force as organisers of the "weekend of resistance," which has drawn activists from across the US, plan to stage mass civil disobedience across St. Louis on Monday.

While older civil rights leaders hark back to the more peaceful methods of half a century ago, some younger people question their effectiveness today and are pressing for more confrontational tactics.

The fuse was lit when hundreds of people who came to hear the intellectual and activist Cornel West speak were subjected to speeches by a succession of preachers from the major religions offering essentially the same message about loving one's fellow man and standing up against injustice.

The meeting was billed as being "in the tradition of the civil rights movement" but the tone was in part governed by the venue for the meeting, St. Louis University, a Catholic institution.

Some in the audience grew restless and then angered at the series of reverends, imams and rabbis until a small group of activists demanded to speak. They were supported by chants of "let them be heard" and "this is what democracy looks like", a rallying cry at protests over Brown's shooting.

Tef Poe, a St. Louis rapper and activist for Hands Up United, a campaign group seeking racial justice in Ferguson, took the microphone and noted that the Christian, Jewish and Muslim preachers on the stage were not the people on the street trying to protect people from the police.

"The people who want to break down racism from a philosophical level, y'all didn't show up," he said to loud cheers.

At that point, the planned programme fell apart and the focus shifted. Some younger black speakers demanded to know whether the people on the stage had a plan of action.

"All those speeches before, you've heard them all before. That's not going to change, right?" said one. "I was hoping for a plan from our elders and I was disappointed," said another.

A young man used more graphic language. "I've been out there since motherfucking August 9," he told the various preachers. "If you don't turn up at the protest get the fuck out of here."

By then some had already left the stage, although it was not clear if it was because they were unhappy at the turn of events or to make space.

In the midst of this, a lone white man in the audience caused uproar when he shouted that African Americans should not underestimate white people's "gift to you." The man had to be escorted from the arena.

West did not disappoint the audience, telling listeners that an older generation of African Americans had failed them.

"The older generation has been too well adjusted to injustice to listen to the younger generation. The older generation has been too obsessed with being successful rather than being faithful to a cause that was zeroing in on the plight of the poor and working people," he said. "Thank God the awakening is setting in. And any time the awakening sets in it gets a little messy."

A little later he drew loud cheers as he sharpened his argument. "What our young people are also upset about is that they understand that too many of our black middle class brothers and sisters have been 'reniggerised'. All you've got to do is give big positions, give them some status, give them a little money, but walking around they're still intimidated, they don't want to tell the truth about the situation."

One of the earlier speakers, Reverend Traci Blackmon, touched on a similar theme.

"We have been fooled all these years into thinking that when a few get through the doors all is well. Our generation has been guilty of confusing access with ownership," she said.

Not all the earlier speakers were unwelcome. Hedy Epstein, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor who was part of the kindertransport to Britain, told how she arrived in the U.S. in 1948 and was taken aback by racial segregation where she was living in the south. Epstein was arrested in August after joining a protest over Brown's killing and is awaiting trial for "failure to disperse".

But the meeting appeared to mark a watershed as protest organizers prepared for what is billed as a day of civil disobedience on Monday, modelled on "Moral Monday" demonstrations launched over political policies in North Carolina, by training volunteers in passive resistance and what to do if they are arrested.

Churches ran a "faith in action mobilizing training" session on Sunday afternoon that included the occupation of a police station. At other sessions, volunteers were instructed in blocking traffic and sit down resistance.

Organizers of the "Weekend of Resistance" have kept their plans for Monday to themselves but say they will alert activists to actions at short notice by text message, Twitter and other social media.

At the end of the mass meeting, one of the young people who had taken over the stage called on people to join a protest vigil at the site where St Louis police last week shot another 18 year-old black man, Vonderrit Myers. The police said Myers shot at an officer who attempted to stop him for a "pedestrian check". His family say he was unarmed.

As the protesters gathered and debated how confrontational to be with the police, Myers's father appeared and told them: "Whatever it is y'all want to do, I'm fine with it," Demonstrators began blocking roads in the area.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, dozens of activists attempted to occupy a convenience store in support of Myers. The police arrested 17 people for unlawful assembly.
Originally published by Al Jazeera America

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weekend of Resistance Becomes Moral Monday As St. Louis Protests Surge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
About 500 protesters shouted slogans at riot police in St. Louis overnight into Monday morning near the climax of four days of street rallies and sit-ins over the police shootings of two black 18-year-olds. Protesters began coming to St.

# data[].attributes.body
This article focuses on the mistaken credibility of McCory and the impact he has on voting by cutting down the days but somehow keeping the same hours for early voting.

# data[].attributes.body
"Rather than the politics of big money, we seek policies anchored in the moral and constitutional authority of our best traditions. Pope Francis recently said, 'Money has to serve, not rule,' and money cannot be allowed to 'deny the right of control to the states, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good.'"

# data[].attributes.body
Protesters are being arrested on the account of protesting outside the Legislative Building, but protesting is our right! And government funded facilities should be protested on, this is what our tax dollars are going to so shouldn't we have a say?!