North Carolina needs to follow the law before the state blocks more people from voting in November, said voting rights advocates.
Yesterday, a coalition of voting rights groups and North Carolina citizens asked a federal judge to intervene. In a request for a preliminary injunction, the coalition cited evidence that the state has ignored its federal duty to register voters at government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Division of Motor Vehicles, resulting in citizens being turned away at the polls in last week’s presidential primary election.
Project Vote and partners originally filed suit against the state in December for failing to provide federally mandated voter registration opportunities at public assistance agencies and motor vehicles agencies, a violation of the National Voter Registration Act.
“We first notified the state of the voter registration problems with DHHS and DMV last summer,” said Allison Riggs, senior counsel at Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “As last week’s primary election shows, however, these problems are still very much present in North Carolina. Given this, we believe that it is imperative to ask the court to intervene and ensure they don’t recur in the June Congressional primary or the November general election.”
The coalition is now asking the court to order the State Board of Elections and the DHHS to send voter registration applications to all potential voters who should have received them after interacting with DHHS and the DMV. The coalition also asks that the SBOE and DMV ensure that the individual plaintiffs who thought they registered to vote at the DMV may indeed vote in the November election.
“Low-income North Carolinians are being prevented from registering and voting through no fault of their own,” said Catherine M. Flanagan, senior election counsel at Project Vote. “DHHS routinely fails to notify clients of their right to register as the law requires, so DHHS is depriving its clients of a right they do not even know they have.”
Learn more about the voting rights coalition’s request for preliminary injunction here.
