A number of stories have been appearing in regional press outlets concerning the impact of voting law changes in North Carolina, most prompted by a new analysis released by Democracy North Carolina (linked in the first story below).

A quick rundown of sources with quick annotations.

• The N&O, as it’s fondly referred to in the state, is still pretty much the newspaper of record. This story http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/12/25/4429126/vote-still-out-on-impact-of-states.html by Colin Campbell details some early analyses by Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina  with rejoinders by Susan Myrick of the Civitas Institute.  (Can’t find any printed reports by Myrick.)
• This story http://www.macroinsider.com/politics/data-show-nc-unaffiliated-voting-surged-in-2014-h10907.html highlights another portion of Hall’s report that shows how a surge of unaffiliated voters played an important role in Tillis’s Senate victory over Hagen.
• In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Robert Popper, previously Deputy Chief in the Voting Rights Section from 2008-13 and now Judicial Watch, argues that higher turnout in NC in 2014 belies any claims that voting law changes suppressed the vote. http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-voter-suppression-myth-takes-another-hit-1419811042
• Nate Cohn of the Upshot / NY Times provides another angle on the partisan impact of turnout in NC in 2014.  There was strong turnout among many groups in NC, Cohn argues, but these groups broke for Tillis.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/upshot/why-even-a-good-midterm-turnout-for-democrats-in-north-carolina-fell-short.html

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