A panel of the Superior Court voted 2-1 to restore voting rights to about 55,000 people who have been incarcerated for felonies in a decision that would terminate a state law which bars people from voting if they are still on probation, parole, or serving a suspended sentence.
"Yesterday was the first step in restoring the voice of those silenced," tweeted Forward Justice, a civil rights group based in Durham which joined several other organizations in filing a lawsuit challenging the law.
"Our biggest quarrels in this state have been over what groups of people have a voice at the ballot box to be included in 'We the People,'" Daryl Atkinson, co-director of Forward Justice, said at a press conference Monday. "Today, we enlarged the 'we' in 'We the people.'"
The ACLU called the ruling, which would make North Carolina the only state in the South to automatically restore voting rights to people after they're released from prison, "incredible news."
Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who studies American elections, said the Superior Court panel's ruling bodes well for civil rights in the state even as Republicans are expected to attempt a partisan redistricting process.
GOP lawmakers said Tuesday that they plan to file an appeal before a state deadline for finalizing materials for the 2021 election and that they may attempt to appeal using their own attorney after the Democratic state attorney general, Josh Stein, said he was unable to file an immediate appeal because the ruling has not officially been written yet.
Advocates who sued over the state law said they would immediately begin outreach efforts to people who are formerly incarcerated to make sure they're aware of the ruling, and the state Board of Elections said it would immediately begin updating voter registration materials and information on its website to reflect the panel's ruling.
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Julia Conley.
Julia Conley | Radio Free (2021-08-24T18:00:28+00:00) ‘Incredible’: Court Restores Voting Rights for 55K Former Felons in North Carolina. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/08/24/incredible-court-restores-voting-rights-for-55k-former-felons-in-north-carolina/
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