An attack on voting rights is underway in NC | Opinion
Welcome to NC Voices, where leaders, readers and experts from across North Carolina can speak on issues affecting our communities. Send submissions of 350 words or fewer to opinion@newsobserver.com.
We must protect NC voting rights
The writer is director of North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections.
Democracy is fragile. In our state, we currently face bills that would limit early voting, curtail same-day registration at early voting sites, and remove the grace period for mail-in ballots.
Our elections have also become expensive. In 2022, multiple campaigns for state legislative offices spent over $1 million, largely from out-of-state or anonymous sources.
This year, extremist state legislators have introduced over 150 anti-voter bills in 32 states. Last year’s midterms were the most expensive on record with over $8.9 billion spent on congressional races, empowering big donors at the expense of the people.
The same extremist legislators attacking our voting rights are also pushing through bills like N.C. House Bill 40, aimed at criminalizing our freedom to protest, HB 187, which would limit educators’ abilities to teach the factual history of race and racism in North Carolina, and SB 49, threatening the rights of LGBTQ+ students and teachers.
While our state Supreme Court has largely protected voters in the past, the new conservative majority has decided to rehear a case on voter ID requirements that was previously found to be discriminatory toward Black voters, and to possibly reimplement legislative maps previously overturned for partisan gerrymandering.
In our state, the Freedom to Vote Act, Fix our Democracy Act, and Safeguard Fair Elections Act are pending. Passing them would fund our elections, protect voters and poll workers from intimidation, make voting more accessible, end gerrymandering, improve voter registration, prevent election subversion, and limit the power of big money in state elections.
Similarly, our representatives in Congress must do all they can to support the Freedom to Vote Act, which would provide these protections nationally, and restore the Voting Rights Act.
In the face of these attacks on our democracy, North Carolinians must come together and protect our freedoms. Future generations depend on us.
Melissa Price Kromm, Durham
Do more to protect our kids from guns
The writer is a member of Moms Demand Action.
On Feb. 24, my 14-year-old daughter experienced her first lockdown at school. Not a drill — a for real, there is a person with a gun inside Jordan High School lockdown.
A 14-year-old student was found with a gun. No one was hurt.
That evening I told my daughter how sorry I was that she lived in a world where these things happen. I told her I wished she didn’t have to worry about guns in schools. I told her I wished she lived in a better world. My daughter looked at me and said, “Then do something about it.”
So, I’m reading up on N.C. firearm statistics. I’ve learned that firearms are the No. 1 killer of children and teens in N.C, that 32% of child and teen-related gun deaths in are suicides, and that gun violence costs the state $19.5 billion each year.
I’ve read a lot about metal detectors in schools. We know from other states that they are harmful to our children’s mental well-being. Sure, it’s “doing something,” but it’s lazy, adds to taxpayers costs, and doesn’t address the issue as a whole.
These four steps have been effective in other states and could be a path for North Carolina to “do something” to decrease these deaths.
▪ Increase gun storage laws and punishments.
▪ Raise the minimum to purchase all firearms. You must 21 to consume alcohol, 18 to vote, and science determines the rational part of our brains isn’t fully developed until around age 25.
▪ Require background checks on all gun sales
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, each year in North Carolina the background check system blocks nearly 2,000 illegal sales to convicted felons and nearly 500 illegal sales to domestic abusers. We have no idea how many of them acquire guns via private sales.
The legislature should also put more funding into school-based threat assessment programs, staff every school with mental health counselors, and equip schools to provide programs on secure gun storage.
Surely our state can do these things to make life safer for our children.
Allison Coovadia, Chapel Hill
