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Advocates Call for Emergency Action Against Increasing Trend of Voter Intimidation

On March 9, Democracy North Carolina, alongside a slate of pro-democracy organizations, submitted a letter to the State Board of Elections regarding a disturbing set of incidents which have taken place recently relating to voting in North Carolina.

On February 16, voting rights advocates received reports of unidentified individuals going door-to-door in Brunswick County seeking to verify that elderly voters, specifically Black voters, who cast a ballot in 2020 were in fact “alive.” Importantly, this group did not identify themselves nor affirmatively state that they were unaffiliated with the state or county board of elections – leaving it unclear to those who answered the door whether this was an official investigation.

Advocates Call for Emergency Action Against Voter Intimidation

Read the full letter sent to the SBOE on March, 9, 2022.

Know Your Rights: Voter Intimidation Handout

Learn more about your rights as a voter and how to accurately report harassment.

Democracy NC is seriously concerned voter intimidation incidents could possibility grow in
frequency and intensity absent additional action by state and county election officials.

We call on the NC State Board of Elections (NCSBE) to swiftly take the following measures to protect North Carolina voters from intimidation in 2022:

Create new resources to help North Carolinians identify and report incidents of voter intimidation.

  • There is little information available for North Carolinians who are the victims of voter
    harassment and intimidation. The NCSBE voter intimidation webpage
    offers no information to help voters identify harassment and intimidation. There is also
    no information available to help voters who are the victims of intimidation outside of a
    voting site. We ask you to immediately update the voter intimidation webpage to include this information.
  • We also request that you create a statewide, unified system for reporting voter intimidation incidents so that North Carolinians and county boards of elections can easily report these incidents. This resource should be easily accessible from the main NCSBE webpage, and translated into multiple languages so no individual is prevented from reporting an incident because of a language barrier.

Launch a public education campaign to help voters understand voter intimidation – and how to report instances of voter intimidation.

  • As we gear up for the 2022 election season, we ask you to design and launch a
    campaign to educate North Carolinians about voter intimidation. This campaign should
    include an explainer on how to use the voter intimidation reporting tool and updated
    website outlined above.
  • We ask that this public education campaign include multiple media formats (social media, television, radio) and be available in multiple languages. This information should live on a webpage easily accessible from the NCSBE.gov homepage, and could be modeled after the NCSBE’s disinformation webpage.

Launch a public education campaign to help voters understand how voter registration rolls are maintained by election officials.

  • The NCSBE has issued a statement that these “volunteers” were not election officials and that voters do not need to verify their identity or voting status to third-party groups. However, public statements issued primarily to the press are not enough to reach voters.
  • We ask you to launch a campaign to educate voters that election officials will not come to their homes to verify voter registration – and that voters are never obligated to provide third party groups with their voting information.
  • We also ask that this educational campaign include information on how the state and counties maintain voter rolls. Voters must know that this work is held by governmental agencies — not outside entities. They must also have a solid understanding of what this process looks like in practice.
  • We ask that this public education campaign include multiple media formats (social media, television, radio) and be available in multiple languages. This information should live on a webpage easily accessible from the NCSBE.gov homepage, and could be modeled after the NCSBE’s disinformation.

Designate a rapid response team within the NCSBE dedicated to working with voters who are victims of voter harassment and intimidation – and serve as liaisons with organizations statewide supporting voter protection.

  • We urge your agency to create a dedicated team to investigate and respond to incidents of voter intimidation that take place across the state. By proactively addressing early incidents of voter intimidation with clear public information, guidance, training, and necessary redress for voters who have experienced intimidation, you can prevent harmful systemic issues that are more likely to arise when early incidents go unaddressed or appear to be condoned.

Create a voter intimidation and harassment advisory group.

  • We believe meaningfully addressing voter intimidation in 2022 will require a highly coordinated, integrated, and proactive response – and careful, sustained attention in a major election cycle where election officials will have competing priorities.
  • To ensure we successfully unite to focus on addressing this critical concern, we urge your office to swiftly convene a Voter Intimidation Advisory Group.

We believe investment now in an NCSBE advisory group is one important step towards
establishing long-lasting solutions to voter intimidation – a deeply pernicious problem
that has plagued our state long before this election cycle, and a challenge we can sadly
expect to continue well beyond 2022.

With swift action, the NCSBE can help ensure that unaddressed voter intimidation will not be a challenge faced by North Carolinians in 2022.