The sequence of this WNCN article is all wrong, it buries the causal chain of North Carolina Republicans’ failures to cross the Ts and dot the Is on their “election integrity theater.” You can’t properly appreciate it if you don’t know the underlying processes for implementation.

First and foremost, state law requires that any new rule being added to election procedure can be objected to and a recording of just 10 formally lodged citizen objections means that a rule need then be codified legislatively. The Republican-controlled State Board of Elections last month put out 15 such new rules, including a particularly draconian one regarding the approval of voter ID waivers.

Any voter who cannot furnish a photo ID need fill out and sign one of the forms to explain why they could not do so, all such forms are self-effecting in that submitting one with a ballot validates the vote unless the county board of elections – every single one in the state 3-2 Republican majority-controlled – unanimously gives it the thumbs down. One of the new rules was to make it a simple majority, effectively giving Republicans a veto over however many ID-less votes count or not.

Pretty clever, except that they fucked up and forgot to kill the whole objection thing, neutering that and another six of the 15 total new rules. The Republican super-majority state legislature could just sit down and hammer the rules into law but there’s one wrinkle: They won’t be back in session again until November 16th. Oh and 5pm Friday’s the deadline to lodge objections to the other rules, so maybe don’t bet the farm against the rest of them getting knocked down.