EDITORIAL: Let's change Give us direct election of the president

Oct. 10, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- If you have been one to give The New York Times the benefit of the doubt when Republicans and other conservatives have accused that newspaper of slanting or distorting news in favor of Democrats and Barack Obama, a supposed news story just published should erase any thought that objectivity is running that news department.

On Thursday, the Times published a story under the headline "States' actions to block voters appear illegal." It included North Carolina in a list of important swing states in this year's presidential election that the newspaper said have been taking actions to prevent voters from registering "in ways that appear to violate federal law," according to a review by the newspaper.

The Times listed North Carolina among four states that "seem to be improperly using Social Security data to verify registration applications for new voters." The Times' proof of that allegation? ... The Social Security Administration has received nearly 400,000 cross-checks of voter registration applications in North Carolina in attempts to establish and verify applicants' identities.

To the Times' way of thinking, that's a lot of cross-checking, and those inquiries must indicate the state is trying to impede new voters, many of whom are registering because they support Obama. But consider this, North Carolina is on pace to add about 850,000 voters to the registration books -- many of whom have Social Security numbers as their only acceptable form of identification. The Times appears to be trying to concoct a controversy and set the stage for voting fraud allegations if its favorite candidate, Obama, loses in North Carolina or any of the other states. Any of those losses possibly could cost Obama the election.

N.C. elections officials and Bob Hall, executive director of the nonpartisan group Democracy North Carolina, criticized the story Thursday and expressed confidence in the state's voter registration procedures. We, too, have confidence that folks aren't being blocked from registering -- in fact, we've said before that it probably is too easy to get registered to vote in North Carolina.

And a closing thought: Why would these new, predominantly Democrat, voters find trouble registering when the State Board of Elections and all county boards of election in this state are controlled by Democrats?

Newstex ID: KRTB-0090-28655477