{"id":491,"date":"2026-06-17T23:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=491"},"modified":"2026-06-17T23:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:05:13","slug":"advocates-say-a-sweeping-elections-bill-moving-through-the-nc-house-undermines-voting-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=491","title":{"rendered":"Advocates say a sweeping elections bill moving through the NC House undermines voting rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Voting rights advocacy groups warned Wednesday that a North Carolina House bill proposing extensive changes to state election laws is \u201charmful\u201d to voting rights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Representatives from <\/span>Common Cause North Carolina, Democracy North Carolina, Forward Justice, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, and North Carolina Black Alliance gathered outside the state Legislative Building at the hour state lawmakers inside were expected to vote on <\/span>House Bill 958<\/span><\/p>\n

Republican lawmakers who authored the bill said Tuesday that it was intended to improve the \u201cintegrity\u201d of the election process. But Kathleen Roblez, senior voting rights counsel at Forward Justice, highlighted a provision of the bill that would prohibit state and local election board members from <\/span>\u201cencouraging or promoting voter turnout in any election.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like saying you own a restaurant, but you cannot go online and say, \u2018Please come eat dinner today.\u2019\u201d Roblez said. \u201cThis is saying a state or county board election member cannot say \u2018Today\u2019s election day, register to vote, voting is good.\u2019 That\u2019s their job. This is a First Amendment violation, plain and simple.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Roblez also expressed concerns that the bill\u2019s proposal to require military and overseas voters to provide documentation showing their most recent North Carolina address along with their registration applications would result in fewer people voting overseas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important now, as always, to remember that if your vote wasn\u2019t so important, they wouldn\u2019t be working so hard to take it away from you,\u201d Roblez said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill would also require overseas and military voters to submit photo identification with their ballots, codifying a state Supreme Court decision in Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin\u2019s unsuccessful attempt to throw out ballots in his 2024 race for a Supreme Court seat.<\/span><\/p>\n

The influence of the Supreme Court decision in Griffin\u2019s case appears in the bill a second time in the bill\u2019s move to make overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina but vote in the state because their parents last lived here ineligible to vote in state or local elections. These voters are referred to as \u201cnever residents\u201d in Griffin\u2019s lawsuit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Other key changes of H958 include:<\/span><\/p>\n