I just received an email from Kevin Rogers of Action NC alerting us to a new bill this week in the North Carolina General Assembly ...
This week in the General Assembly, Senator Tillman filed a bill that not only severely cuts back on early voting hours, but also completely eliminates same-day registration and voting. More than 2.5 million of your fellow North Carolinians voted this way in the 2012 election, and the numbers increase every year. These programs are working well, and they help more people vote.
It is obvious to Kossacks that, like similar legislation in other states, this bill's purpose is to make it harder for Democrats to vote in our elections.
The NC Action email links to a petition at SignOn.org (MoveOn). The text of the petition reads ...
SB 423 moves in the wrong direction for North Carolina by unfairly restricting early voting and same day registration. Leave our voting laws alone and stop trying to take away our right to vote!
The bill is actually misidentified in the petition; it should be SB 428. I wrote to Kevin when I noticed the mistake; and he wrote back to say that a correction has been sent to SignOn.
I added my own personal note when I signed the petition ...
This is just wrong. There is no good reason to restrict early voting and same day registration. This kind of legislation has the appearance of intentionally making it harder for the citizens of our state to vote. And making it harder for the people of this state to vote is simply wrong.
A quick check of the google doesn't find anything yet in the press about this legislation; but a ton of bills have been submitted in the last three days, and the education bill seems to be getting the most attention at the moment. But you can read a copy of the bill
here.
If you are concerned about having early voting significantly cut, and having same day registration ended, then please consider signing the petition as a first step. And as a second step, start letting other people know about this piece of legislation. Public outcries have been slowing some of the other egregious efforts of the current session of the legislature; so a strong stand here may preserve our voting rights. Each of us have our own ways of engaging, whether it be through facebook and twitter or letters to the editor or posts and blogs across the internet. Hopefully, the press will soon pick up on this, especially if we raise our voices loud enough.
Thanks,
David
Thu Mar 28, 2013 at 4:55 AM PT: Following up on the bill number correction; this morning the petition at SignOn has indeed been updated with the correct bill number.