The historic May 6 primaries are over, but that doesn't mean that the voter empowerment work of the NC NAACP is finished.

    If anything, it is just really just beginning.

    The state's oldest and most respected civil rights organization is in the midst of its nonpartisan Voter Registration, Voter Education, and Voter Participation Plan Initiative (VEPREP). The goal, according to NC NAACP President Rev. William Barber, is not only to register at least 25,000 North Carolinians to vote by October, but also educate all North Carolina voters about the important issues facing the state and nation, motivate ex-felons to reclaim their voting rights, and bolster Get Out To Vote (GOTV) efforts across the state - especially in communities with tradition low voter participation.

    The NC NAACP's VEPREP Initiative effort is spearheaded by NC NAACP Political Action Committee Chairman Dr. Jarvis Hall of North Carolina Central University.

    "The NAACP has worked or almost 100 years to encourage and support the right to vote and fought against those who try to stifle this right," Rev. Barber said in a statement.

    "In this critical election year, we must ensure that people who are voting for the first time ever know their rights, and are educated about the process."

    "We are not assuming that North Carolina is immune [to the] Florida-type shenanigans that we saw [in 2000]," Barber continued. "The grassroots community must be organized, coordinated and assertive."

    Other goals of the NC NAACP's VEPREP Initiative include distribution of the NAACP National Voter Guides/Candidates Questionnaires for the November General Election; distribution of the NC NAACP's HK on J Legislative Report Cards and promotion of the HK on J 14-point People's Agenda; developing public service announcements for television, radio and print publications to reach the community about the importance of voter registration, education and participation; engaging local communities and college campuses statewide in VEPREP Initiative efforts.

    There is no doubt that the NC NAACP's election year voter focus is riding a wave in the state. New voter registration has exploded beyond 100,000 in North Carolina since January.

    In last week's primary, which featured perhaps the hottest Democratic presidential primary to come to North Carolina in 20 years with senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, of the 5,811,778 registered voters in the state, 2,118,264 (or 36.45 percent) cast ballots.

    So the interest in the candidates and the issues is there, but the NC NAACP is taking no chances.

    In the lead up to the May 6 primary, Rev. Barber urged voters not to be "distracted" by election year tactics of racial division propagated by either political opponents or media pundits.

    "These tactics were invented by white supremacists in the N.C. Democratic Party in l898 to help them violently overthrow the Black-White fusion government in Wilmington , the largest city in the state at the time," Rev. Barber wrote. "The purpose of these tactics has remained the same for 110 years: to distract us by stirring up old fears so we lose our focus on the common issues we face. It's old wine in old bottles."

    The NC NAACP also filed a formal complaint with the NC Attorney General's Office, the State Board of Elections, and alerted the US Dept. of Justice, regarding alleged voter suppression efforts by a Washington, D.C. nonprofit group known as Women's Voices Women's Vote. The civil rights organization alleged that the women's group was responsible or robocalls to voters in North Carolina that suggested that they were not properly registered to vote in the May 6 primary. Over 182,000 calls were made to North Carolina voters, the NC NAACP complaint alleges. Published reports say the NC Attorney General's Office was already investigating WVWV.

    And the civil rights organization promised possible "direct action" against the NC Republican Party for "running its race-baiting half-truth ad that features Rev. Jeremiah Wright, presidential candidate Barack Obama, and gubernatorial candidates Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore."

    "We must put a stop to this kind of media-driven election distortion that is an obvious attempt to divide the state and the nation," Rev. Barber said. "Through the use of sound-bites taken out of context, the snippet messages play on false fears. These subliminal racial innuendoes are today's equivalent of the divisive tactics of 1898 that led to the destruction of the Black-White fusion government in Wilmington . We will not permit this to happen again. We shall move forward in 2008."