NC Robo-Call Investigation Broadens - NAACP Files Complaint

As I said last Tuesday, "Stop messing with my primary!" and "All I know is that this better not be connected to the Clinton campaign." That was a desperate wish for it to be some right-wing scheme to suppress votes. You just don't want to deal with an internal problem of this nature.

I posted the above statements before it was revealed by Facing South's investigation that the source of the misleading and illegal robo-calls in NC was the progressive DC non-profit Women's Voices Women Vote. It's still not clear what on earth really went on, but WVWV has been on a swift offensive to dispel any suggestion that there was purposeful deception.

Be that as it may, the NC attorney general is investigating, and over the weekend, Sue Sturgis of Facing South reported that the NC NAACP filed a complaint against WVWV.

The North Carolina NAACP has filed a formal complaint of possible voter suppression against Women's Voices Women Vote, the D.C. nonprofit that as we revealed earlier this week was behind the deceptive and illegal robo-calls made to state residents. The N.C. NAACP hand-delivered its complaint today to state Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett. It's also alerted the U.S. Department of Justice that it's collecting more information from its national network and is contemplating filing a formal complaint with that agency.

N.C. NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (center in photo) announced the filing of the complaint at a press conference held this afternoon outside the N.C. Department of Justice. He was joined by his group's attorney, Al McSurely (left), and Bob Hall (right) of Democracy North Carolina. The state Attorney General's office is already investigating Women's Voices, but the N.C. NAACP and Democracy North Carolina want to be parties to that investigation.

"When you mess with the right to vote, you're messing with everything that is fundamental in our democracy," Barber said.