Protecting Democracy: Voting Rights & Fair Elections
The biggest problem we face as a state, and a country, is the impending threat to Democracy. Democracy depends on voting rights and integrity. For the last 10 years, Republicans have drawn unconstitutional congressional and legislative districts, curbed voting accessibility, mandated voter photo IDs and restricted the Board of Elections’ authority. All this being done to manipulate and suppress voting rights.
Voters should choose their representatives; representatives should not choose their voters. Since 2018, I have sponsored bills to remove the redistricting process from the legislature and give it to an independent citizen’s commission. The bills were never heard. In 2019, Republican lead legislative redistricting resulted in a court finding in Common Case v. Lewis that NC legislators engaged in racial gerrymandering with “surgical precision.” And in 2021, the NC State Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Hall that maps were drawn using unconstitutional political gerrymandering. In 2023, when Republicans took control of the State Supreme Court, they took the unusual action of rehearing and reversing two important election law cases; one reversing the Harper v. Hall decision, and another reversing the decision in Holmes v. Moore that voter ID laws were passed with racially discriminatory intent.
In 2021 and 2023, I sponsored and filed a Safeguarding Voting Rights bill, which would allow for automatic and same day registration; accessibility of absentee ballots; election day as a paid state holiday and flexibility in early voting hours. Once again, the bill was blocked by Republican leadership and never heard in a committee.
I will fight for election integrity. Dark money in politics is bad for our democracy. I have never accepted campaign money from any corporate PAC. I will work on legislation that limits corporate spending and tackles the effects of the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. I want to ensure every paid political advertisement is clearly identified with the people who pay for it and bundled money is accountable. Legislation should be passed to prohibit lawmakers from financially profiting based on nonpublic, legislative information.
The State Board of Election’s proposed rules over the conduct of poll workers and observers should be implemented to insure there are no instances of voter intimidation. No lawmaker has the legal authority to inspect voting machines. In Durham in 2020, and happening Nationwide now, lawmakers are demanding access. Voters must have confidence in the election process and outcome.