RNC cries 'partisan voter suppression' in push for Democratic tactic GOP once criticized

North Carolina Republicans — and the Republican National Committee (RNC) — alleged in a letter earlier this week that one Democratic county is participating in voter suppression by not providing enough early voting sites, Politico reports.

"This is unacceptable partisan voter suppression by the Democrat board members," RNC Chair Michael Whatley said in a statement, according to the report. "We demand immediate action and expanded voting access for Western North Carolina voters who need it most.”

In August, CBS 17 reported, "For the second time in a matter of days, state and national Republicans sued the NC State Board of Elections, seeking to have more than 225,000 people removed from the voter rolls."

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The following month, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced that "the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and an impacted North Carolina voter requested to intervene in" the same case "to protect nearly a quarter of a million voters" from the state Republicans' "politically charged attempt to disenfranchise voters is a clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act which strictly limits systematic voter registration removals this close to an election."

Now, after Hurricane Helene damaged significant parts of the Tar Heel State last month, Politico reports the swing state's Republicans are seeking "to expand early voting access in rural parts of a blue county where they contend turnout has been affected by" the disaster.

"In Buncombe County, early voting patterns 'demonstrate the urgent need for four additional early voting locations,'" NC Election Integrity Counsel Philip R. Thomas wrote in the letter on behalf of the RNC.

Furthermore, the reports notes, "Thomas urged the county’s Democrat-controlled election board to 'immediately' call an 'emergency meeting' to add more early voting sites and hours, citing 'clusters of low voter participation and significant gaps in coverage' in more rural parts of the county outside metro Asheville."

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Politico reports the Buncombe County "election board approved a modified early voting plan earlier this month, establishing early voting hours across 10 locations from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day from Oct. 17 through Nov. 1."

Politico's report is available here.