Opinion Roundup: Voter supression

Sunday needed for early voting success (Greenville Daily Reflector) -- As if the battle over gender identity wasn’t enough to place North Carolina under the national microscope — for all the wrong reasons — the state’s ongoing battles over voting access have only made matters worse.

A welcome go-ahead (Greensboro News & Record) -- North Carolina can offer 17 days of early voting and other conveniences meant to increase citizen participation in this fall’s election. That good news was assured by the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal Wednesday to block a lower court’s ruling that overturned voting restrictions enacted in 2013.

Voters are winners in Supreme Court's ruling (Fayetteville Observer) -- The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned back the clock on our elections law and it's going to stay that way, for a while anyway.

Changes for the election cycle (Sanford Herald) -- Election Day is more than two months away, but early voting will begin on Oct. 20. This year there is a hotly contested presidential race on the national level, but political eyes will also be focused on the Tar Heel State as well.

High court decision hands win to voters (Rocky Mount Telegram) -- Voters were the winners last week when a divided U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate North Carolina’s voter ID law.

Voting restrictions won't 'make America great again' (WMOT-FM column) – Donald Trump's overture to African-American voters during a Charlotte appearance seemed geared to the diverse, more progressive "New South" city — has been undermined by a series of clumsy and insulting overtures, and by his, and his party's, support for tactics that could remind many black voters of the old South.

Ugliest, most appalling spectacle in American politics (Washington Post column) -- Every once in a while, the curtains part and we get a glimpse of the ugliest, most shameful spectacle in American politics: the Republican Party’s systematic attempt to disenfranchise African Americans and other minorities with voter-ID laws and other restrictions at the polls. Thanks to documents that surfaced in a lawsuit, we have an even clearer and more egregious example of attempted disenfranchisement, this time in North Carolina.