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To: North Carolina State Board of Elections

Tell The North Carolina Board of Elections to Support Early Voting

The NC Republican Party has pressured many county officials to continue to suppress Black votes by eliminating early voting sites on campuses and Sunday afternoon voting used in the March 2016 primary. Tell the State Board of Elections to repudiate this move to suppress voting and adopt early voting plans for the November election that make it easy for people to vote.

Why is this important?

Incredible! Republican leaders who complain about “rigged elections” are trying to do exactly that in North Carolina by making it harder for Black people and students to use early voting.
Dallas Woodhouse, Executive Director of the NC Republican Party, sent instructions to Republicans who hold the majority on all 100 county boards of elections to “make party line changes to early voting.”
He specifically told them to close early voting sites on Sunday, remove them from college campuses, and open more in Republican areas, according to emails obtained by the Raleigh News & Observer.

More than half of NC’s voters used early voting in 2008 and 2012; it was used most by Black and young voters. Closing sites and reducing hours will mean longer lines and discourage voters on Election Day.

Fortunately, many Republicans are ignoring Woodhouse and obeying their oath to serve all voters. But in Raleigh, Fayetteville, Wilmington, and many other areas, they are opposing Sunday voting where it was used as recently as the March primary. Black churches organize Sunday “Souls to the Polls” programs which help church members with transportation to the polling place.

The reduced early voting plans of these counties will come before the State Board of Elections later this month. The State Board has the power to restore them and repudiate the deliberate anti-Black, anti-youth strategy of Republican Party leaders.

Sign the petition to ask Mr. Grant Whitney Jr., board chair, and other board members to restore early voting on Sunday afternoons and, on college campuses where those options were eliminated by Republican county election boards. Last month, the federal Court of Appeals overturned a state voting law it said would suppress voting and had discriminatory intent. We will not let local officials ignore the spirit of this momentous ruling by implementing weak and even discriminatory early voting plans for the November election..

Thanks for fighting for voting rights for everyone!

Bob Hall, Democracy North Carolina

North Carolina, United States

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Updates

2016-08-25 04:22:16 -0700

1,000 signatures reached

2016-08-24 16:50:15 -0700

500 signatures reached

2016-08-24 15:10:06 -0700

100 signatures reached

2016-08-24 15:05:38 -0700

50 signatures reached

2016-08-24 15:03:06 -0700

25 signatures reached

2016-08-24 14:51:04 -0700

10 signatures reached