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Concerned groups around the United States are pressuring North Carolina to prevent voting discrimination and intimidation amid reports of long early voting lines and the purging of voters from voting lists. Around 100 groups are concerned that traditionally discriminated voters, historically Blacks and people of color, are not being fully protected by the federal Voting Rights Act.
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“Voters have very little protection from local election changes, the misapplication and misunderstanding of new voting restrictions by poll workers, or threats of intimidation from polling place vigilantes,” the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said in a statement Thursday.
The groups “are extremely concerned that there will be widespread voter discrimination” that will mar the Nov. 8 election. They argue that because North Carolina has failed to restore Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in the context of a racist and bigoted election campaign, "a perfect storm for voter intimidation and voter discrimination” has been created.
Section 5 of the Act helps protect the voting rights of traditionally discriminated racial and ethnic groups. North Carolina voters are also concerned about changes to voter identification and registration and changes to polling locations, which have resulted in long lines.
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Organizations are pushing for legal action to protect voters from local election changes, confusion and misapplication of new voting regulations by poll workers and being intimidated by “vigilantes” at polling locations.
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“Voter suppression comes in many forms … It comes in voter ID laws. It comes in trying to take away same day registration. But is also comes in the creation of long lines,” said Penda Hair, a lawyer representing the North Carolina conference of the NAACP.
The NAACP claims that North Carolina has been illegally removing voters, particularly elderly voters from the electoral role.
A controversial 2013 law signed by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory prohibited same-day registration, ended youth pre-registration, eliminated one week of early voting, prevented local counties from extending voting hours in the case of long lines or other circumstances. The law also made the list of acceptable ID smaller and banned certain types of voter registration drives.
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