WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday, September 28, Elias Law Group attorneys representing North Carolina voters and pro-voting organizations asked a federal court to block new restrictions on absentee voting adopted by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
On September 4, the North Carolina State Board of Elections passed new restrictions on absentee voting on a party-line vote and without an opportunity for meaningful public input. The new policy requires counties to reject any absentee ballot returned with an unsealed inner envelope, or not placed inside the inner envelope at all, even when the outer return envelope arrives properly sealed. The policy also eliminates the Board’s longstanding ban on signature verification and directs county officials to verify that the signature on each absentee ballot belongs to the voter. Together, these changes threaten to disenfranchise thousands of lawful North Carolina voters in November.
The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on behalf of the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, Down Home North Carolina, and two North Carolina voters. Elias Law Group filed the original complaint on September 22, and now is asking the court to act on an expedited basis because absentee voting for the November election is already underway, and county boards of elections are now processing absentee ballots.
The motion argues that the new policies on absentee voting violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
“In a series of last-minute changes with no meaningful public input, the North Carolina State Board of Elections created new ways for election officials to discard ballots cast by eligible voters,” said Elias Law Group partner Lali Madduri. “Whether the inner envelope of an absentee ballot is sealed has nothing to do with a voter’s eligibility, and allowing officials to evaluate voters’ signatures with no clear standard will inevitably lead to the arbitrary disenfranchisement of lawful voters. North Carolinians should not lose their right to vote over immaterial technicalities, which is why we are calling on the court to act quickly and block these policies to prevent lawful votes from being thrown out.”
The motion for preliminary injunction is available here.
The complaint is available here.
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