North Carolina has been the epicenter of voter suppression efforts during the 2016 campaign, and the North Carolina Republican Party is now celebrating the stats showing those efforts worked. The party sent a press release to reporters on Sunday trumpeting the fact that fewer black voters cast early ballots this year than they did in 2012. "African American Early Voting is down 8.5% from this time in 2012," the release read. "As a share of Early Voters, African Americans are down 6.0%." The statement also cheered the rise in white voters as compared with 2012. "The once dynamic Obama Coalition [is] crumbling and tired," said Robin Hayes, the North Carolina GOP chairman, adding that the party's "motivated statewide volunteers and extensive ground game" are the reason for the good news. There's probably another reason: The decline in early voting among black voters is likely a result of years long efforts by North Carolina's Republican officials and political operatives to impose voting