Source: N.C. Newsline
For years, North Carolina voting rights groups, advocates, and voters have fought back against state Republican’s voter suppression efforts. In their latest attempt, Republicans passed a controversial elections law that could prevent many North Carolinians from exercising their right to vote.
The North Carolina Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, Voto Latino, other community groups and individual voters are challenging particular provisions; with one measure that would throw out a voter’s ballot if a single piece of confirmation mail is returned to the elections board as undeliverable before the final vote count.
In addition, elections boards do not have to notify voters of the delivery problem, according to N.C. Newsline.
In the lawsuit, Voto Latino argue that the provision is disproportionately harmful to young voters and voters of color, and makes all same-day registrants vulnerable to U.S. Postal Service mistakes or misaddressed mail.
According to the lawsuit, North Carolina young voters and voters of color are more likely to use same-day registration and more likely to move frequently and live in places with inconsistent mail delivery.
“In the two most recent general elections, tens of thousands of North Carolinians have taken advantage of same-day voter registration to exercise their right to vote,” stated Elias Law Group Partner Aria Branch, in a press release.
“Same-day registration has been disproportionately used by Black, Latinx, and young North Carolinians, groups that have historically been excluded from the electoral process. Senate Bill 747 is an unwarranted and egregious attack on the same-day registration process. The law threatens to disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters across North Carolina without due process, often due to mistakes over which a voter may have no control whatsoever.”
With North Carolina’s primary elections just two months away, the fate of the state’s new same-day registration law remains unknown, as Federal District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder told lawyers for Republicans, the state Board of Elections, Democrats, voting-rights groups, and voters to try to work out a compromise.
According to WRAL, earlier in the month, the parties filed a report saying they had failed to come to an agreement; leaving the decision ultimately in Schroeder’s hands.
You can read the case filing in its entirety here.
