The NAACP of North Carolina filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing boards of election in the state of removing eligible voters from their voter rolls, disproportionately affecting African-American voters.
According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the state board and two county election boards have put some 4,500 voters’ ability to vote in limbo. State and local officials are violating the National Voter Registration Act and the Voting Rights Act, the civil rights group said.
“The Tar Heel state is ground zero in the intentional, surgical efforts by Republicans to suppress the voice of voters,” said NAACP-NC President Rev. William Barber II. “The NAACP is defending rights of all North Carolinians to participate in this election. We’re taking this emergency step to make sure not a single voter’s voice is unlawfully taken away. This is our Selma and we will not back down and allow this suppression to continue.”
The NAACP is asking the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina to halt the election boards from continuing to remove people from voter rolls, as well as to restore the registrations of individuals who have been removed.
According to the lawsuit, the removal of the voters happened within the last three months after state and county boards of elections removed voters based on mass mailings that were returned as undeliverable.
The lawsuit comes about a week before Election Day in a state widely considered a battleground state.
