Voter Suppression in NC

OK.  I've been really busy with classes starting this week, but I am doing my best to keep abreast of our state lawmakers' efforts to make voting more difficult for poor, minority, and student voters.  A quick but relevant aside:  High Point University recently announced that next year's graduation speaker will be Colin Powell.  But North Carolina is on Powell's radar for a number of reasons, because on Thursday he spoke out against NC's new voting law, calling it "punishing" to minority voters.  As Powell indicated in his remarks, there's a lot that's messed up about this voting law, but right now I want to focus on the issue of college students voting on campus.

First, I'll start with some of the arguments put forth by those in favor of suppressing student voting on campus.  According to my dear spouse, for example, college is often a transient residence for students, not a permanent home where they plan to establish themselves within the community.  While some students do stick around after graduation and establish residency, many do not. 

Alright, that sounds reasonable.  It's unconstitutional, but superficially, it sounds reasonable. 

But let's also consider the facts about where exactly state Republicans have targeted their student voter suppression efforts:

• Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), a historically black college.  Note that in addition to challenging many student voters' residencies, GOP lawmaker Pete Gilbert has specifically gone after a senior who plans to establish residency after graduation and run for city council. 
• Appalachian State University, a Democratically leaning student body.  Students returned to campus to learn that their on-campus polling place has been eliminated and now 9,300 residents of Boone, NC must vote in one county building that has only 35 parking spots.
• Winston Salem State University, another historically black college, although fortunately the county election board later backed down from what I'm sure they quickly realized was a touchy issue and terrible idea.

Let's also consider where state Republicans HAVE NOT suppressed the student vote (or have even facilitated it):

• Campbell University, with a largely conservative student body, recently had a polling place moved onto campus...into a building named after Art Pope's father (this blows my mind)
• Mid-Atlantic Christian University, with a largely white, conservative student population, is in the same town as ECSU, and yet GOP lawmakers have not challenged the residencies of any of these students.  Just the ECSU ones.

Additional info on the NC student voter suppression issue can be found here.

Do GOP lawmakers really expect us to believe that these unevenly targeted, blatantly discriminatory efforts are supposed to make our voting system more just?!?!   I don't even know what else to say, except that whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or neither, you should agree that this is outrageous.  Seriously.