AG Racine Leads Coalition of 15 AGs Opposing North Carolina's Discriminatory Law Restricting Voting Rights for Returning Citizens

Attorneys General Reinforce Enabling Returning Citizens to Vote Improves Public Safety, Supports Civil Rights & Encourages Civic Engagement

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today led a coalition of 15 attorneys general in filing a friend of the court brief supporting nonprofit organization, Community Success Initiative’s, challenge to North Carolina’s discriminatory law that would restrict the voting rights of returning citizens.  

In their brief before the North Carolina Supreme Court, the attorneys general oppose North Carolina’s felon disenfranchisement law, which prohibits returning citizens from voting until they have completed all the terms of their probation, parole, or post-release supervision. This requirement deprives individuals with felony convictions of their right to vote well beyond the date of their release from incarceration. The attorneys general argue that this law disproportionately harms Black voters and that expanding the right to vote promotes civic engagement, improves public safety, and benefits communities. AG Racine led a 2020 amicus brief in this case when it was before a North Carolina trial court. That court held that North Carolina’s law violated the North Carolina Constitution, and the North Carolina Supreme Court will now review that decision. 

“The process of voting should not be difficult,” said AG Racine. “All citizens—including those who were formerly incarcerated—should be able to exercise their right to vote without oppressive laws put in place to make it nearly impossible for their voices to be heard. That’s why, once again, we are supporting the Community Success Initiative's challenge to North Carolina’s discriminatory law. Research shows that restoring a person’s right to vote upon release from incarceration cultivates civic participation and lessens the chance of them reoffending, which improves public safety for all of us and helps these individuals rejoin and contribute to their communities.”

Many states have begun moving away from broadly disenfranchising individuals with felony offenses and have restored the right to vote to individuals with previous felony convictions. In the past six years, 16 states and the District of Columbia have restored the right to vote for those with felony convictions. Efforts to expand the right to vote illustrate a growing consensus that allowing returning citizens to vote benefits both the returning citizens and the communities they rejoin. An estimated 5.2 million people across the United States were barred from voting in the 2020 election and locked out of the democratic process because of state laws that disenfranchise individuals who were convicted of felony offenses. 

In their brief, the attorneys general collectively support Community Success Initiative’s challenge to the North Carolina felon disenfranchisement law because: 

  • North Carolina’s felon disenfranchisement law is out of step with recent efforts by states to expand the right to vote to formerly incarcerated individuals: Over the past 25 years, many states have restored the right to vote to more than one million people by reforming their laws. These reform efforts have included laws repealing lifetime disenfranchisement, allowing people with felony convictions to vote while completing the terms of their probation or parole, eliminating requirements to pay court fines and fees, and providing information to returning citizens about their voting rights. Some states have even restored the right to vote to some or all individuals living in their communities who are still under the supervision of the criminal justice system. For example, in 2020, DC became the first jurisdiction in the country to enfranchise people who are incarcerated. 
     
  • Expanding the right to vote promotes civic participation and improves public safety: Research shows that individuals who engage in behavior that benefits others when released from incarceration are more likely to reintegrate into their communities and abstain from criminal activities. Allowing people with felony convictions to vote can encourage this positive behavior by allowing them to feel connected to their community and participate in the democratic process. On the other hand, studies suggest that disenfranchisement may be positively correlated with recidivism. 
     
  • Felon disenfranchisement disproportionately harms Black voters: States have recognized the importance of restoring voting rights to returning citizens given the disparate impact of felon disenfranchisement laws on minority communities. As of 2020, over 6.2% of the Black voting age population in the United States could not vote, as compared with only 1.7% of the non-Black population. In North Carolina, Black people make up 21% of those who are of age to vote, and over 42% of those denied the right to vote due to their felon status. Additionally, there is evidence that felon disenfranchisement laws deter people of color from voting generally. Recent research demonstrates that neighborhoods with higher proportions of disenfranchised individuals can have lower voter turnout rates as compared to similar neighborhoods. This indirect effect of felon disenfranchisement has a greater impact on minority—and specifically Black—neighborhoods, diminishing the political power of these communities. 
     
  • North Carolina’s felon disenfranchisement law does not further compelling governmental interests: There is little evidence that extended disenfranchisement promotes any of the traditional goals of the criminal justice system or that it facilitates compliance with outstanding legal financial obligations. The experience of states across the country illustrates that restoring the right to vote upon release from prison results in fewer administrative problems and less confusion among both election officials and returning citizens about voter eligibility.

A copy of the amicus brief is available here.

AG Racine is leading the amicus brief and is joined by Attorney Generals from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington. 

Background   

AG Racine has worked to defend the voices of District voters and voters nationwide. He has led multi-state coalitions opposing unfair voting restrictions against returning citizens in Florida, North Carolina, and Minnesota. In the lead up the 2020 election, AG Racine spearheaded coalitions to protect voting access in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and two Texas cases, and defended deadline extensions for mail-in ballots in Minnesota and North Carolina. He also led a coalition of 23 attorneys general opposing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s baseless effort to invalidate the results of the 2020 election, and secured a preliminary injunction stopping U.S. Postal Service cuts that threatened the right to vote for millions of people planning to vote by mail during the pandemic. In August 2021, AG Racine and AG James led a coalition of 22 attorneys general in opposing Georgia’s discriminatory voting law. And in September 2021, AG Racine and AG James co-authored an op-ed that appeared in Crooked Media about continuing to stand up for the right to vote.