What is it about my vote that the NCGA doesn’t like? Most of you already know me at least by my activity on BlueNC. My name is Brian. I am a new transfer student at UNC-Pembroke. I am majoring in Political Science and the first few days of classes have started to open up my mind and make me think about that one question, what is it about my vote that the NCGA doesn’t like? That is a rhetorical question. I know what it is. I do not vote the way the “majority” wants me to vote, I am a member of a demographic that historically doesn’t vote the way the “majority” wants me to.

Being a college student, I have been paying real close attention to the way our government and especially the “majority” treats college student here in NC. Montravious King was a case that really pissed me off. Here is an upstanding college student that had already contributed more to Elizabeth City State than the majority of the legislators in Raleigh. King registered to run for office, only to have the local Republican Party sue to take his name off the ballot on the basis that he is a college student and somehow is not qualified to make laws that effect the community he had been a part of for 3 years at that point.

Now we all know how that turned out. It turns out that our rights as college students to not only vote where we go to school, but to run for office where we go to school is a constitutionally guaranteed right. A fact that is backed up by NC and US Supreme Court rulings.

This is sadly not the only way that the NCGA and the NCGOP has tried to disenfranchise college students at the ballot box. Over the last few years, the NCGOP and the NCGA have eliminated on campus polling places in many college towns across the Cardinal State.

The one that really sticks in my craw however, is the voter ID requirements. Full disclosure: I am lucky enough to have a NC Drivers License. I have had one since I was 16 and got my permit. Showing the ID would not be a problem for me. Except it is. I cannot in good conscience, flash my DL at the poll workers and act like everything is ok, knowing that there are thousands perhaps millions of US Citizens and NC residents that do not have a valid photo ID and do not have easy access to a valid photo ID.

I can no longer sit back and be a member of the silent majority. I can no longer watch the bedrock of my status as a US and NC citizen be eroded by the river of deceit, misinformation, and pure, contempt shown towards myself and other people who vote like me.

I am ready to stand up and fight for my rights. I am ready to do whatever is politically necessary to remove Governor McCrony from his position. I am willing to do whatever I can do, to retake the NCGA and relegate the NCGOP to the position they so rightfully deserve: Obscurity

I hope and pray that the voter ID law is overturned before it goes into effect in 2016. If it is still around, I will only show the poll workers my UNCP ID. If that is not good enough for them, I will consider filing a federal lawsuit against the NCGOP, and any poll worker who attempts to disenfranchise my vote.

This is about more than just one vote, this is about whether or not I let my constitutionally guaranteed freedoms be taken away from me bit by bit. Little by little, our freedoms are disappearing, if we sit back and do nothing, one day we will go to the Smithsonian and find an empty case where the constitution of the United States once sat proud and strong. I for one, will not let that happen.

All it takes is one voice.

I am a College Student at UNC-Pembroke. I am mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore.
Will you join with me and let this refrain echo throughout the halls of the NCGA?
Will you help this message spread from the sandy coast of our beautiful state, to the mountain peaks?
Will you let all who are listening know that someone is standing up for their rights?
Join me if you believe that all it takes is one voice.