Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
April 7
Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer on probe of Robeson County election mischief:
Something went wrong with elections for Pembroke town offices last year. The N.C. Board of Elections found at least 30 improper ballots were cast and ordered a new election in March. Results were substantially different.
District Attorney Johnson Britt began looking into a range of allegations, including people voting in places they didn’t live, sometimes by using improper identification. Those voters may have broken the law after being threatened.
Investigators realized the problems didn’t take place in a vacuum. Tips began coming in from around Robeson County. So the probe has been broadened.
Voting fraud damages democracy. Catch the cheaters and hold them accountable. Voting fraud is a felony. Additional felonies may be committed if the activity involves threats to others or the creation of phony documents.
Maybe last year’s incidents were unprecedented and isolated. Or maybe such mischief had been going on all along.
The district attorney’s office needs to determine the scope of fraud and take action. While the investigation must be thorough, it needs to be timely, too, to produce answers before the general election and prevent additional cheating.
It’s also important that the parties responsible are dealt with, so voter confidence isn’t further undermined.
The findings in this case will likely be instructive for elections officials throughout the state. A recent report found evidence that votes have been improperly cast by people who also voted in another state or who used the names of dead people. The Robeson situation points to an entirely different set of tactics for cheating.
The larger debate in North Carolina asks whether voting fraud is widespread and orchestrated, or isolated and plotted by individuals. The Robeson case shows a pattern suggesting some degree of organization, but it could just be on a local or county level.
The evidence may demonstrate how those trying to rig elections elsewhere in North Carolina operate. That would help elections officials in other counties spot warning signs when someone is trying to exploit weaknesses in the system.
Measures like voter ID, provided the ID’s are easily accessible, will help diminish opportunities for cheating.
Showing that tips about misconduct are seriously investigated will also be important statewide. Vigorous prosecution of those who try to subvert elections will be the strongest deterrent.
Online:
https://www.fayobserver.com
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April 5
News & Record, Greensboro, N.C., on the health care overhaul:
President Barack Obama’s boast probably was premature. “The debate about repealing this law is over,” he said. “The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.”
For more than 7 million Americans who signed up, the ACA is now something they’re counting on for medical coverage. That does not mean the political debate is over. Far from it.
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina entered the conversation earlier this year when he and fellow Republicans Orrin Hatch of Utah and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma introduced what they call the Patient CARE Act. Their goal is to, first, repeal Obamacare and, second, to enact their alternative.
Their plan promises popular features: It makes sure patients with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. It does away with lifetime limits. It lets young adults stay on their parents’ plans until age 26. It offers government assistance so coverage is more affordable for people with modest incomes. All borrowed from Obamacare.
In other respects, it’s vastly different. It doesn’t require Americans to purchase medical insurance but instead relies on incentives in the form of tax credits and also protection from being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions - but only if they sign up during specified open enrollment periods. That means, if they don’t sign up, those with pre-existing conditions might never get coverage.
People who qualify for a tax credit but don’t sign up would be subject to “default enrollment.” They would be placed in a plan unless they opted out.
Patients with costly medical conditions would be covered through state-run high-risk pools, assisted by “targeted federal funding” to avoid passing a share of those costs directly to other individuals. At the same time, expanded Medicaid coverage - which North Carolina declined to implement - would be rescinded. Patients eligible for Medicaid could choose to enroll in private plans with tax credits.
Consumers could obtain less-expensive policies because insurance companies would not be required to offer as much coverage as the ACA requires. Younger people would save even more because older consumers could be charged up to five times as much for their coverage, as opposed to three times as much under the ACA.
So, where was this plan in 2009 when the Senate was crafting the health care legislation? Maybe a better Affordable Care Act would have emerged from Congress with bipartisan backing and a commitment by leaders from both parties to make it work for the benefit of the American people. Instead, Republicans have spent years calling for repeal without offering viable ideas to provide health care security to millions of Americans.
Still, it may not too late for both parties to work together to mend the ACA’s flaws. Such efforts should begin with a pledge not to dump Americans from the coverage they’ve selected and might like.
Online:
https://www.news-record.com
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April 4
The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C., on taking on hunger:
Food is one of the great driving forces in our lives and has been since man came into being. Whether your ancestors were hunters or gatherers, knowing where the next meal was coming from has rightly had a high place in our priorities, and with good reason.
After all, our very lives depend on sustenance we get from food. It’s our fuel.
And for those lacking it, the results can be bleak.
Data show that children who are in families that experience food shortages have two to four times the health problems as their counterparts.
Hungry children are more likely to miss school. A mother’s lack of access to food during pregnancy can lead to a range of issues, including low birth weight and a higher rate of infant mortality. Anemia is common, which can lead to behavioral or learning struggles.
The problem, of course, is not confined to children. Parents going without food to stretch meals as far as possible lose productivity on the job. The elderly who are malnourished can see faster onset of degenerative diseases, and chronic hunger can exacerbate already existing conditions.
People concerned about making a difference with hunger locally and globally laced up their sneakers on Sunday and began the 4.8-mile walk in the Durham CROP Hunger Walk. …
Congregations from across Durham have galvanized members to raise funds and participate in the walk, which after 39 years can certainly be counted as a Bull City tradition.
Whether you have raised $20 from your own pocket or $2,000 from friends and neighbors, that money means someone will have a little more food and a little more security.
Online:
https://www.heraldsun.com
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