North Carolina has a long history of voter suppression. Notorious for gerrymandering and constantly in court for reforms to voting laws, it is clear that our state does not value the importance of this country’s greatest freedom.
Most recently, state Republicans have successfully passed a bill that’s been tied up in lawsuits since 2018. The law requires photo identification for any person voting in-person. A separate law also requires photo IDs for any person voting via mail-in ballot.
The three-day grace period typically allotted for mail-in ballots was cut. Ballots received after 7:30 p.m. on Election Day this year will not be counted.
This doesn’t come as a surprise considering the GOP in North Carolina swiftly passed a restrictive voting law following the Shelby v. Holder decision in 2013. The decision ruled Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. 40 out of 100 counties in North Carolina were subject to this section requiring federal approval before making any changes to voting laws.
The bill passed in 2013 shortened the early voting period by a week and ended pre-registration for 16 and 17-year-olds.
It’s been extremely frustrating to watch as time and time again the political process I’m told to revere is tainted with partisan attempts to maintain majorities and cling to power. Nearly every election in my recent memory has been riddled with scandal. In my hometown, District 9, the 2018 congressional election had to be held twice due to a salacious voter fraud incident nullifying the original results.
As controversial as was the indictment of several Republican operatives on charges of illegal ballot tampering, this didn’t pose nearly the same threat that gerrymandering does in our state.
Both parties are guilty of gerrymandering. Following the 1990 census, North Carolina needed to add a 12th congressional district, and the outcome was a predominantly Black district that extended from Charlotte to Durham. Shaw v. Reno in 1993 ruled the district a form of racial gerrymandering.
The 2022 decision in Harper v. Hall resulted in the North Carolina State Supreme Court rejecting congressional maps on the basis that they violated the state constitution. In that year’s election, Republicans gained a majority on the state bench and submitted another gerrymandered map to the State Supreme Court. This time, it was approved.
The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 2023, the court reversed the previous decision, stating, “State courts may not transgress the ordinary bounds of judicial review such that they arrogate to themselves the power vested in state legislatures to regulate federal elections.”
In other words, the North Carolina State Supreme Court in 2022 was acting in excess of their power by enforcing remedial maps to replace the gerrymandered maps submitted by the Republican legislature.
The NAACP filed a suit last December claiming the GOP in North Carolina violated the same federal law Democrats in the state violated over 30 years ago.
The pressure to remain politically engaged while living in a swing state is palpable. I’m acutely aware that my vote is more valuable than one in California or New York, for instance. My hometown is a “battleground for democracy,” yet I can’t be certain we’ve ever had a true democracy. Especially in North Carolina.
I feel petulant admitting this — the right to vote is one my ancestors have fought hard for. It’s a right my family overseas does not have. The painstaking effort that’s been made to protect this freedom is constantly under attack and unfortunately the only solution is being suppressed.
