• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Partnering with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the south to defend and advance their political, social and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing and communications.

  • Home
  • About
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Employment Opportunities
  • News
  • Programs
    • Voting Rights
      • News
      • Featured Cases
      • Resources
    • Justice System Reform
      • News
      • Featured Cases
      • Resources
    • Youth Justice Project
      • News
      • Resources
  • Resources
    • Make a Voting Plan: North Carolina
    • Make a Voting Plan: National
    • #MyVoteMyVoice
    • Early Voting Advocacy 2020
    • Videos
    • Reports
    • Infographics
    • SCSJ-led Projects
  • SCSJ Monthly Digest
  • Contact
  • Donate

Search Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Voter ID – the major impact on women of color

November 4, 2013 by stacy

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice has conducted a review of the 318,644 registered North Carolina voters from the 2012 elections who did not have a valid, DMV issued photo ID that matched the name on their voter registration card [1] and found that, of all registered voters, NC women voters are disproportionately affected by virtually every part of the state’s new “Election Integrity” law.
VoterSuppression_Women_hires_FINALSCSJ has filed suit opposing North Carolina’s Voter ID law, and a separate suit challenging other aspects of NC’s new voter restriction law including limits to early voting, the end of provisional ballots for out-of-precinct voters, and the elimination of same-day voter registration. In both suits, SCSJ argues that the new law disproportionately affects people of color, the elderly, students, and the very poor.  It has now become clear that women are also experiencing new obstacles to exercising their right to vote.
Stories from other states show that strict voter ID measures are already disproportionately affecting women voters. Just last week, Texas Senator Wendy Davis was forced to sign an affidavit because her photo ID was not an exact match to her voter registration card. If North Carolina’s new photo ID requirement goes into effect in 2016, there will be no affidavit option – if a person’s photo ID is not deemed acceptable, that person will simply be turned away from the polls. And the people most likely to have those non-matching documents are women voters. According to a much-cited 2006 study by the Brennan Center for Justice, a third of all women have citizenship documents that do not match their current legal name. This can be the result of marriage or divorce, both of which overwhelmingly result in the possibility of a woman changing her name and a man’s name staying the same. However, due to the broad reach of North Carolina’s new voting restrictions, SCSJ has found that women’s votes are being suppressed by many parts of the new law in addition to the voter ID requirement.
Voter ID
Of North Carolina’s 6,655,302 registered voters at the time of the 2012 General Election, 3,575,713 (53.73%) were women. It stands to reason that, to some extent, women will be impacted more than men because they make up more than half of all NC registered voters. But our findings reveal that women’s excess voting burden far exceeds their slight overrepresentation in registered voters.2012_Voter_Registration
Much like other studies of photo ID, SCSJ found that NC women voters are overrepresented among those who do not have a valid, DMV issued photo ID that matches the name on their voter registration card. Of the 3,575,713 registered women voters in 2012, 202,714 or 5.7% of registered women voters lack the identification necessary to vote. Meanwhile, of the 3,079,589 registered male voters in 2012, 115,930 or 3.8% lack necessary photo ID. Another way of looking at the data is that nearly twice as many registered women voters lack the photo ID as similarly situated men. Of all registered voters lacking photo ID, 63.62% are women.
No_DMV_ID_Match
But voter ID issues for women don’t stop there. Of all registered NC women voters in 2012, 70.48% were white and 29.52% were nonwhite (an aggregate of voters identifying as African American, Indian American, “Other,” Two or more races, or Undesignated). Yet of the 202,714 registered women voters identified in the State Board of Elections’ “No ID” report, 56.48% were white and 43.52% were nonwhite. Women of color are substantially more impacted by photo ID requirements than white women. Particularly troubling is the trend in African-American women, who made up just 23.79% of registered female voters in 2012 but account for 34.22% of registered women voters in the “No ID” report.
No_DMV_ID_Match-Women
Early Voting
New restrictions on one-stop early voting disproportionally affect all women, but particularly women of color.  Women using one-stop early voting show voter suppression trends similar to those found with photo ID. 55.81% of one-stop early voters in the 2012 General Election were women. While African-American women made up 23.79% of total registered voters in 2012, they accounted for 31.69% of one-stop early voters. Interestingly, all non-white women appear to rely more heavily on one-stop early voting. While nonwhite women made up 29.52% of registered women voters in 2012, they made up 36.34% of one-stop early voters.
2012_One-Stop_Voting-Women
Same-Day Registration
Elimination of same-day registration under the new NC voting law will disproportionately affect Asian and African-American women. Overall, women use same-day registration with roughly the same frequency as men. However, Asian women made up only .89% of registered women voters in 2012, yet 2.71% used same-day registration. Similarly, African American women made up 23.79% of registered women voters in 2012, but 34.31% used same-day registration.
 2012_Same_Day_Registration-Women
Impact for NC Women

The League of Women Voters of North Carolina is a named plaintiff in SCSJ’s voting rights lawsuits.  LWV-NC President Jo Nicholas stated that “we are in the lawsuits because it is our mission to protect the voting rights of all North Carolinians. The discovery that women are disproportionately burdened by new voting restrictions increases the League’s commitment to fighting for voting rights for all North Carolinians,” added Nicholas.
Some see the disparate impact on women voters as a major issue. “Voter suppression is a critical reproductive justice issue. Because of the new voter suppression laws, hundreds of thousands of women in North Carolina could be denied the right to express themselves on issues that directly impact their lives and their futures; these issues include the right to decide whether, when and with whom to have children,” added Suzanne Buckley, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina Foundation.
Conclusion
Women are disparately impacted by NC’s new voting laws. And it will probably take some time to determine exactly how much damage has been done to NC women’s ability to vote. One thing is clear: women are already experiencing multiple burdens to their right to vote. At a time when so many essential decisions are being made about North Carolina’s future in general – and Women’s Rights in particular – it is doubly unfair to burden women with so many new voting restrictions.
 


[1] This data set was originally requested by the NC General Assembly while they were debating SB 589, which later became the “NC Voter Integrity Act.” SCSJ uses these numbers because they were circulated by our legislature with work from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Category iconRecent News,  Voting Rights Tag iconearly voting,  League of Women Voters,  NARAL North Carolina,  same day registration,  Voter ID,  voter suppression,  voting rights,  Wendy Davis,  Women Voters

Next Article: Votes Not Counted: Mat's Story
Previous Article: Concerns Over Voter Suppression Continue in NC

Footer

Contact

1415 West Highway 54, Suite 101
Durham, NC 27707
info@southerncoalition.org
office: 919-323-3380
fax: 919-323-3942
Map

Key Links

About
Donate
Most Recent 990
Staff
Board

The Latest

This week’s #ncvoterIDtrial opened with powerful statements and testimony about the discriminatory intent and harmful impact of NC’s 2018 voter ID law. Watch DAY TWO live: m.youtube.com/watch?… #ncpol #holmes pic.twitter.com/njFh…

Yesterday

Today's NC voter ID trial included compelling opening statements and key testimony from voters who will be harmed by the law’s Jim Crow-era requirements. Follow the Holmes v. Moore trial tomorrow beginning at 9:30 AM at: #ncvoterIDtrial and youtube.com/channel/… #holmes #ncpol pic.twitter.com/vyVY…

Yesterday

UP NOW: Plaintiff’s expert Dr. Carol Anderson (l.) who studies Black voter disenfranchisement: “legislators should know the impact of the laws that they’re passing…history shows they know what they’re doing *and* there are unintended consequences.” #ncvoterIDtrial pic.twitter.com/bRJr…

About 2 days ago

Now up in #ncvoterIDtrial: Elizabeth Holmes (c.), the mother of lead plaintiff Jabari Holmes (r.) shares a recent family photo of her son with cerebral palsy. She is now testifying on his behalf about the impact of the voter ID law on her son’s ability to vote. #holmes #ncpol pic.twitter.com/F0G0…

About 2 days ago

ICYMI: This morning @scsj’s Allison Riggs opened the plaintiff’s case against NC’s latest voter ID law: “this case is about intentional racial discrimination." #ncvoterIDtrial #holmes #ncpol pic.twitter.com/5BdN…

About 2 days ago

Follow @scsj
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Copyright © 2021 Southern Coalition for Social Justice · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design