• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. felons' voting rights>

Judges void N.C. law making felons pay fines and fees before voting

Sara Swann
https://twitter.com/saramswann?lang=en
September 08, 2020
North Carolina voters

Under the judges' ruling, thousands of North Carolinians with felony records are now eligible to register to vote for the 2020 election.

Logan Cyrus/Getty Images

Some North Carolinians with felony records will have their voting rights restored in time for the election.

A panel of three state judges has temporarily blocked part of a state law that prevents former felons from registering if they have outstanding fines or fees. Unless there's a successful appeal of Friday's 2-1 ruling, it opens the door for thousands to vote in one of this year's most important states — where the contest for 15 electoral votes is a tossup and so is a Senate race that will help determine partisan control of Congress.

North Carolina is one of 20 states where felons can vote after their prison time, probation and parole are complete. Civil rights advocates argue that requiring former felons to also pay fines or fees before being allowed back in the voting booth is the equivalent of an unconstitutional poll tax.


The lawsuit filed by the Community Success Initiative, a voting rights advocacy group, sought to extend the franchise to 60,000 North Carolina felons out on probation or parole. While the judges did not agree to that much, two of them said requiring fines or fees to be paid off appears to violate the state Constitution.

"Our Constitution is clear: no property qualification shall affect the right to vote," the majority wrote.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Without this temporary block on part of the state's law, the judges ruled that some would have suffered "substantial and irreparable" harm due to disenfranchisement.

It's unclear how many people will be eligible to vote this fall under the judges' limited ruling, but it nonetheless represents "a major victory for the thousands of North Carolinians who have been denied access to the ballot due to an inability to pay financial obligations," said Dennis Gaddy, executive director of Community Success Initiative.

But state GOP Chairman Michael Whatley called the ruling outrageous and said it was "yet another example of why we need to elect conservative judges who will apply the law rather than rewrite the laws they don't like."

North Carolina started mailing out absentee ballots on Friday. The deadline to register for the general election is Oct. 9.

The other main challenge to such a requirement, imposed by the GOP-run Florida Legislature last year after a referendum was approved to restore voting rights to more than a million felons in the nation's biggest purple state, is before a federal appeals court.

From Your Site Articles
  • Expansion of felon voting rights advances in New Jersey - The ... ›
  • Virginia Gov. Northam restores voting rights to felons - The Fulcrum ›
  • Expansion of felons' voting rights fails in Washington state - The ... ›
  • Felon voting rights effort moves ahead in Iowa - The Fulcrum ›
  • Appeals court blocks ruling allowing Florida felons to vote - The ... ›
  • Movement to restore felons' voting rights keeps growing, and in ... ›
  • Pressure rising on Iowa gov. to restore felon voting rights - The ... ›
  • We need to do more to restore felons' voting rights - The Fulcrum ›
  • Give the same power to all felons who have done their time - The Fulcrum ›
  • Give the same power to all felons who have done their time - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Voting rights for convicted felons - Ballotpedia ›
  • State Felon Voting Laws - Felon Voting - ProCon.org ›
  • Felony Disenfranchisement Laws (Map) | American Civil Liberties ... ›
  • Felon Voting Rights ›
  • Can Felons Vote? It Depends on the State - The New York Times ›
  • Lawsuit seeks to restore voting rights to North Carolinians with ... ›
  • NC felons will get some voting rights back for 2020: Lawsuit ... ›
felons' voting rights

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Podcast: Deepening democracy in the states

Our Staff
27 January

Ask Joe: Fostering social activism

Joe Weston
27 January

With an eye on 2024, some states consider new protections for election workers

Barbara Rodriguez, The 19th
27 January

The crook and the fumbler

Lawrence Goldstone
26 January

Pragmatism is the way forward

Dave Anderson
26 January

Podcast: How the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack impacted politics

Our Staff
26 January
Videos

Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Our Staff

Video: Meet the citizen activists championing primary reform

Our Staff

Video: Veterans for Political Innovation - Who we are

Our Staff

Video: Want to fight polarization? Take a vacation!

Our Staff

Video: Kevin McCarthy is Speaker, but he's got a tough job ahead

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday End of Year

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Deepening democracy in the states

Our Staff
27 January

Podcast: How the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack impacted politics

Our Staff
26 January

Podcast: Why we misunderstand independent voters

Our Staff
25 January

Podcast: What does the House Speaker election say about the Republican Party?

Our Staff
24 January
Recommended
Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Video: We need more bipartisan commitment to democracy: Pennsylvania governor

Podcast: Deepening democracy in the states

Podcast: Deepening democracy in the states

Podcasts
Ask Joe: Fostering social activism

Ask Joe: Fostering social activism

Pop Culture
With an eye on 2024, some states consider new protections for election workers

With an eye on 2024, some states consider new protections for election workers

Elections
The crook and the fumbler

The crook and the fumbler

Elections
Pragmatism is the way forward

Pragmatism is the way forward

Big Picture