North Carolina Voters Condemn Voter Discrimination during North Carolina’s Primary
DURHAM, N.C. – This afternoon, North Carolina voters and voting rights advocates hosted a press call to discuss the voting discrimination that occurred during last week’s primary, and to release a series of videos featuring North Carolina voters who were denied the right to vote by H.B 589 in 2014.
Since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013 and freed North Carolina from federal oversight, the state has been a leader in pushing through laws intended to disenfranchise minority voters.
Speakers on the call discussed the documented voting discrimination that occurred during last week’s primary vote, current litigation about the state’s voting laws, and the state’s recent history of voting discrimination.
The Leadership Conference also released this series of new testimonial videos today, featuring five North Carolina voters who have experienced voting discrimination.
Click here to listen to an MP3 recording of the call.
Below are quotes from the call.
Allison Riggs, staff attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice
“Ever since we lost the VRA, every day in North Carolina has been a struggle to ensure that all eligible voters are guaranteed their constitutional right to vote. We have been challenging these voter suppression efforts in federal and state court for the last three years, and have come across countless people who have been disenfranchised. Voters, especially people of color, face hurdles and challenges every day down here. We need the extra protection of the VRA.”
Linda Blue, whose mother was denied the right to vote in this year’s primary election
“We had a terrible experience trying to help my mother vote. She has been voting practically all her life – we know she is registered to vote, and she is in the system, but they gave her a hard time. My mother is 82 years-old. She remembers the times when she had to get to the back of the line to let the white people go first. This is really a slap in the face for her.”
Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina
“We’ve deployed over 700 voter protectors across the state to take incident reports and refer people to the hotline we created. Over the period from early voting to Election Day that hotline got over 1,000 calls. The complexity of the new voter ID laws and the variety of exceptions has turned our election system into a bureaucratic nightmare. You’d think constitutional lawmakers would find that repulsive, but unless these laws changed we know we’ll be seeing more of these kinds of problems and more voters being disenfranchised.”
Rev. Moses Colbert, a N.C. voter denied the right to vote due to repeal of same-day registration in 2014. Click here to watch a video of Rev. Colbert’s testimony.
“In 2014 I was denied the right to vote because I had moved from a different county and as a result I was told I wasn’t registered. I am only in the third generation out from slavery in my family. I know the importance of having the right to vote because of where I come from.”
Penda Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project and attorney for the NC NAACP
“During this year’s primary in North Carolina, we saw the exact type of electoral chaos that happens when politicians manipulate the voting system for their own gain. It is our conclusion that the voter suppression tactics included in North Carolina’s voting law, H.B. 589, contributed to long lines and rampant confusion. …Unless Congress passes the Voting Rights Advancement Act, we will continue to have to address the issues on a case-by-case basis that the Department of Justice used to be able to prevent proactively under Section 5.”
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