If Republicans in the NC state legislature were any more transparent, they’d be invisible. The arguments for all the proposed radical changes to voting laws in North Carolina are obvious nonsense, and the worst voter suppression bill in the nation. Maybe they are just skilled liars. Maybe they are just seriously deluded. Or maybe they have been consuming a steady diet of their own BS for so long — fed to them by think tanks, Fox News, talk radio and social media — that they actually believe it.
Wednesday night after the second reading vote on the Voter Information Verification Act (House Bill 589) in the NC state senate, a group of protesters sat in at office of House Speaker Thom Tillis:
Six people were arrested following a brief sit-in Wednesday night in House Speaker Thom Tillis' office.
The group was protesting the Senate's proposed voting restrictions and voter ID law. The bill passed the Senate in a second reading Wednesday.
The protesters walked into Tillis' office shortly before 8 p.m. and said they wanted to meet with the Speaker and ask him to stop HB 589 in the House.
"What I witnessed ... was the operation of an oppressive government," said Bree Newsome, 28, of Raleigh, describing the Senate hearings.
Weeks of growing Moral Monday protests have given the fight a national profile. Gov. Pat McCrory said he wanted to rebrand North Carolina. Mission accomplished.