North Carolina True the Vote
True the Vote’s new North Carolina state director is Donna Yowell. For the last three years, Yowell, of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, has been a Tea Party stalwart out to defeat the president. She joined the Tea Party almost right away in 2009, becoming a member of groups like the Haywood County, NC 9-12 Project and Triangle Conservatives Unite.[23] She also became a member of four different national Tea Party factions: FreedomWorks, the Patriot Action Network, Tea Party Nation, and Tea Party Patriots.[24]
After the 2010 midterm elections, she formed the Tea Party spin-off group, Feet to the Fire. Through this group she bashed on teachers unions in Wisconsin, supported nativist legislation, promoted the anti-environmental conspiracy theory around “Agenda 21,” and tried to “to insure a conservative platform for NCGOP.” The Heritage Foundation’s political arm, Heritage Action, awarded her group with “Activist of the Month” status in 2011.[25]
For Yowell, the fight is personal and it’s partisan. “It is time to wake up. Get out and work for your conservative views. Voting is NOT enough. BE a block captain in your precinct.- NOVEMBER IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. WE HAVE TO TAKE BACK CONGRESS or SOCIALISM WILL BE IN FULL FORCE.” [caps in original][26]
Yowell, who holds an official position in the Wake County Republican Party as House District 37 Vice Chair, has made it clear it’s all about getting rid of President Obama. “Why are we allowing this person [President Obama] to destroy this wonderful country with his selfishness and his lies? His type of change is killing our country. He needs to be stopped and only our votes can stop him. Do not forget about his tactics when it’s election time. Vote Obama out of the Presidency in 2012. ‘2012: THE END OF AN ERROR,'” she wrote.[27]
Already active in far-right circles and familiar with voter suppression efforts, Yowell stepped in to become the True the Vote state director after DeLancy spun off and created the Voter Integrity Project NC.
It may not be that million person army that Engelbrecht once envisioned, but Yowell and True the Vote have built up a small battalion of volunteers in North Carolina. As of September 30, True the Vote had 286 volunteers in sixty different North Carolina counties.[28] The largest concentrations of voter suppression volunteers are in Wake (71), Guilford (22), Mecklenburg (19), Forsyth (17), Durham (15), and Henderson (11) counties.
| TABLE: North Carolina True the Vote Volunteers by County | |||||
|
County |
Volunteers |
County |
Volunteers |
County |
Volunteers |
|
Wake |
71 |
Onslow |
3 |
Carteret |
1 |
|
Guilford |
22 |
Wilkes |
3 |
Caswell |
1 |
|
Mecklenburg |
19 |
Wilson |
3 |
Cleveland |
1 |
|
Forsyth |
17 |
Alamance |
2 |
Davie |
1 |
|
Durham |
15 |
Avery |
2 |
Edgecombe |
1 |
|
Henderson |
11 |
Chatham |
2 |
Franklin |
1 |
|
Brunswick |
9 |
Davidson |
2 |
Gaston |
1 |
|
Buncombe |
9 |
Lee |
2 |
Halifax |
1 |
|
Cabarrus |
6 |
Lenoir |
2 |
Haywood |
1 |
|
Cumberland |
6 |
Lincoln |
2 |
Jackson |
1 |
|
Moore |
6 |
Nash |
2 |
Macon |
1 |
|
New hanover |
6 |
Pasquotank |
2 |
Madison |
1 |
|
Orange |
4 |
Polk |
2 |
Pender |
1 |
|
Wayne |
4 |
Randolph |
2 |
Richmond |
1 |
|
Yancey |
4 |
Rowan |
2 |
Sampson |
1 |
|
Catawba |
3 |
Union |
2 |
Stokes |
1 |
|
Dare |
3 |
Alleghany |
1 |
Surry |
1 |
|
Granville |
3 |
Beaufort |
1 |
Washington |
1 |
|
Iredell |
3 |
Burke |
1 |
Yadkin |
1 |
|
Johnston |
3 |
Caldwell |
1 |
||
|
Mitchell |
3 |
Camden |
1 |
||
MAP 1 – True the Vote Volunteers
<> As indicated in Map 2, True the Vote has been able to attract the highest levels of volunteers in areas of the state with the highest levels of African American population. Of the twenty-five counties with the highest level of African American population in the state, True the Vote has volunteers in twenty-four of them. By contrast, of the ten counties with the two lowest levels of African American population (0-167 and 167-810), True the Vote has only one volunteer in two different counties.
Map 2 – True the Vote Volunteers and the African American Population
True the Vote also has recruits in nine of the ten North Carolina counties with the highest Hispanic or Latino ancestry population. By contrast, True the Vote only has recruits in 4 of the twenty-five least Latino populated counties.
Map 3 – True the Vote NC Volunteers and the Latino Population
Of the 286 True the Vote volunteers in North Carolina, IREHR has identified thirty percent of them that are members of at least one of the national Tea Party factions. For instance, Linda Harper of Goldsboro, North Carolina, is a member of FreedomWorks, Patriot Action Network, Tea Party Nation, and Tea Party Patriots. She’s also President of Citizens for Constitutional Liberties, AKA the Wayne County Tea Party. Many of the volunteers are also members of one or more of the different local Tea Party groups in the state. For instance, Debbie Arceneaux of Mill Spring, an activist with 9.12 Project Polk Co NC as well as being involved with the Haywood County 9-12 project and Triangle Conservatives Unite!, in addition to being a member of FreedomWorks, Patriot Action Network, Tea Party Nation, and Tea Party Patriots.[29] And volunteer Laurie McBroom, of Indian Trail, NC openly supported nativist Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpiao – “hang in there Joe, you are an American HERO!”
An IREHR examination of Wake County GOP Poll Observers, Runners and Greeters, also found at least eighteen different True the Vote activists had already signed up for poll duty as of October 1, 2012.[30] As such, it is incumbent upon voting rights advocates, those who have pushed open the door to greater voting rights, to take notice of those Tea Partiers and others who seek to close the door to voting rights.
