NC Black Alliance Among Groups Suing NC General Assembly

By Cash Michaels –

Federal Lawsuit to Stop Senate Bill That Restricts Youth Voting

The North Carolina Black Alliance has joined forces with Democracy North Carolina and the League of Women Voters of North Carolina (LWVNC), along with several other groups, in filing federal lawsuits to stop implementation of Senate Bill 747 (SB 747) and its “undeliverable mail provision.”

The Democratic National Committee and the NC Democratic Party filed an earlier lawsuit against all the provisions of the 43-page SB 747, arguing that it “…is a direct assault on the “most fundamental” right to vote,” and that “…the changes it adopts would make it much harder for some North Carolinians to register to vote, would allow ballots by same-day registrants to be rejected without any notice to the voter or any right to challenge the rejection, would permit an influx of intimidating and largely unconstrained poll observers into voting places, and would require the discarding of absentee ballots that are returned even a minute after the polls close on election day (no matter how far in advance of the election voters place their ballots in the mail). The US Constitution, the North Carolina Constitution, and multiple federal statutes prohibit these myriad efforts at vote suppression, which will disenfranchise many North Carolinians.”

“The plaintiffs allege that the Undeliverable Mail Provision violates the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment and places an undue burden on the right to vote in violation of the First and 14th Amendments,” according to attorney Marc Elias, representing the DNC and NCDP. “The plaintiffs request that the court declare the provision unconstitutional and prevent its enforcement.”

Democrats hope that a federal judge will issue an injunction against SB 747 and all of its provisions, preventing it from being…