The Daily Tar Heel

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Saturday April 17th

Voting Laws

DTH Photo Illustration. As the election approaches, concerns have been raised about racial disparities among absentee ballot deficiency rates.

Higher rate of deficiencies reported in absentee ballots cast by Black voters in NC

By Sofia Lesnewski | Oct. 6

As the election approaches, there have been concerns about racial disparities in absentee ballot deficiency rates. 

  • The North Carolina State Board of Elections  reports that 3.5 percent of non-Hispanic Black voters and 2.6 percent of Hispanic voters have had their ballots deemed deficient, compared to one percent of non-Hispanic white voters.
  • “I’m sure there are consequences of historical, systemic oppression that sort of plays into that as well in terms of just access to the ballots and familiarity with election procedures,” said Jeff Loperfido, senior counsel for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice
  • Voters can track the status of their mail-in ballots using BallotTrax. 

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The North Carolina State Legislative building is located at 16 W. Jones St. in downtown Raleigh. 

More student IDs can be used for voting following clarifications to voter ID law

By Marin Wolf | Jun. 6, 2019

This past week, Roy Cooper signed into law a bill that clarifies exactly what types of photo ID are eligible to be used to vote in North Carolina. Previously, there had been confusion on whether certain types of student ID cards would qualify.  The previous law required universities to have been the ones to take the photos. Now, students can submit their own photos and have their ID be eligible, as long as the university can verify the student is submitting their own photo.

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