SCSJ: “We vehemently oppose these latest legislative efforts to attack the freedom to vote and vow to continue pushing back from the committee room to the courtroom.”
DURHAM, N.C. (5.6.2021) — North Carolina lawmakers are advancing three bills that would slash mail-in voting deadlines, expand the power of partisan poll watchers, and bar elections boards from accepting grant funding.
Jeff Loperfido, Senior Counsel Voting Rights, Southern Coalition for Social Justice responded to the bills, calling them an “attack on the freedom to vote.”
“Like new voting restrictions signed into law in Florida this morning, North Carolina is currently fast-tracking a slate of anti-voter legislation that could lead to thousands of votes tossed, more chaos at the polls, and the elimination of invaluable election funding that has been used to keep voters safer during the pandemic,” said Loperfido. “We vehemently oppose these latest legislative efforts to attack the freedom to vote and vow to continue pushing back from the committee room to the courtroom.”
Southern Coalition for Social Justice is currently representing plaintiff-voters in a lawsuit that concluded last month against the state’s 2018 voter ID law. In 2020, the N.C. Court of Appeals blocked the law, citing the likelihood that it was passed with discriminatory intent and preventing the voting restriction from taking effect in the state’s 2020 election. A ruling is expected next month.
For media inquiries: Michelle Rash
mrash@rlfcommunications.com
336-553-1733 (office)
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The Southern Coalition for Social Justice, founded in 2007, partners 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. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Twitter and Facebook.