House Bill (HB) 127 Outlaws Voter Registration Drives
In what appears to be the latest organized assault on voting rights, legislation has been introduced in the NC General Assembly that opponents say would criminalize voter registration drives.
HB 127, “Voter Registration Drive Form”, would prohibit groups from using real voter registration forms in voter registration drives. Ann Webb, policy director for Common Cause NC, criticized the bill, stating, “This will disenfranchise voters. It’s an extreme bill that will prevent community organizations from supporting other community members directly in registering to vote.”
Why Target Voter Registration?
Katelin Kaiser from Democracy NC expressed concerns about the bill’s impact on communities of color and students, noting, “We know from census data from 2022 that black registrants are nearly twice as likely to report registering through community-based registration programs as white voters.”
Such voter registration drives are a staple of the usually nonpartisan civic involvement efforts by groups like the League of Women Voters. While the League of Women Voters may have been a notoriously radical and “subversive” group in the days when women were not allowed to vote, they are today more likely to be considered the model of respected pillars of the community.
Ban voter registration drives? You may as well criminalize waving the stars and stripes on Independence Day. But it’s a real push now from voter suppression groups around the country. Six states have already passed legislation similar to the law being proposed in North Carolina.
It’s time for voters to speak up for the right to offer their fellow citizens an invitation to join the patriotic ranks of the active voter. Let’s remember: voting is ultimately the most effective way to hold public officials accountable for their pro-polluter or pro-environment stands on public laws and policies.
