Republicans’ efforts to rig elections.

They’re at it again. The same big-monied interests who have always feared that they can’t win when everyone gets to vote are fighting to restrict voting rights in the ironic name of “election integrity.” Senate Bill 747 is a legislative jumbo jet full of tricks designed to make it harder for citizens to exercise their right to vote.

According to SB 747:

• What if you mail your absentee ballot a week before election day, only to have it delayed in the mail and arrive the day after election day? Then you’re out of luck; your vote doesn’t count anymore.
• What if you’ve moved since the last time you voted, and now you’ve showed up to vote during the early “one-stop” voting period to update your registration and vote during the same visit—just as voters have been allowed to do for years? Well, now you’re going to be required to cast a “provisional” ballot, and your vote won’t be counted unless you go separately to your county board of elections (during business hours) with the proof of your new address. Forget about the “one-stop” part.
• What if you show up to vote only to learn that you were “accidentally” purged from your county voter roll because your name sounds like someone else who got out of jury duty, or moved away? Then it’s too bad for you, unless you have time to fill out one of those fun “provisional” ballots and show up at the board of elections later to argue your case. After all, “one-stop” voting won’t really be one-stop anymore.

All of these and other changes in SB 747 aren’t intended to fight voter impersonation or double-voting fraud, which is practically non-existent in our state. They’re intended to make it harder to vote using options that are disproportionately used by low-income voters, minority voters, immigrant citizens, and others who tend to vote against the party currently in power in the legislature. In other words, they’re discriminatory partisan voter suppression tools.

“This is yet another insidious attempt by extremist lawmakers to undermine free and fair elections, and sow distrust in our administrative processes,” said Cheryl Carter, Co-Executive Director for Democracy NC. “Instead of building upon the historical momentum of the 2020 presidential election – when voter turnout hit an all-time high – state leaders are hastily ushering North Carolinians back to a time where vulnerable communities, specifically Black voters, faced extreme hardships and political violence at the polls. The era of ‘Jim Crow’ seemingly never vanished in the South; it only twisted itself into this modern version of ‘Election Integrity’ and denial.”

Help protect voting rights in North Carolina—let your state legislators know that they should oppose SB 747!