News Release

CHAPEL HILL -- With the 2004 elections only days away, Election Protection North Carolina is launching its final preparations for Election Day (Nov. 2).

Established to educate voters about their rights and to monitor the polls on Election Day, Election Protection North Carolina is a statewide, nonpartisan initiative with local and national partners including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for Civil Rights, the Institute for Southern Studies, N.C. Fair Share, El Pueblo Inc., Just Democracy, North Carolina chapters of the NAACP and other non-profit organizations.

"From the presidency to the governor’s race, elections in North Carolina promise to be closer than any time in recent memory," said Tara Purohit, director of the nonpartisan Voting Rights Project at the Institute for Southern Studies. "This means every vote will make a difference, and it is critical that we ensure all citizens are able to have their votes cast and counted this November."

Election Protection will position volunteer poll monitors throughout the state at precincts with a history of problems or a large number of newly registered voters. Between 250 and 300 poll monitors will be stationed at precincts around the state, from Buncombe County in the west to Pender County in the east. Poll monitors will be on hand to help voters understand election laws and address potential sources of confusion such as the new ID requirements, access to provisional ballots and voting for a straight-party ticket.

In addition to poll monitors, Election Protection is running a legal hotline to assist voters who encounter problems or see suspicious activity at polling locations on Election Day. The hotline will be staffed by attorneys and law students who will take calls from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 2). Organizers plan to have 80 volunteers – 20 phones and four shifts – in place to handle calls. The hotline operations, which will serve all callers from North Carolina, will be based in room 2601 of UNC’s Knapp-Sanders Building (home of UNC’s School of Government). The hotline number is 1-866-OUR-VOTE (or 1-866-687-8683).

Election Protection will also have approximately 25 on-call attorneys who can respond in person to any problems at polling sites that cannot be resolved by hotline volunteers.

"The efforts of Election Protection volunteers are critical this year," said Anita Earls, director of advocacy at UNC’s Center for Civil Rights, a component of UNC’s School of Law. "A disturbing number of voting-related incidents occurred in North Carolina in the last general election, and reports have indicated that this year’s election may present more inaccuracies and errors."

In 2000, more than 100,000 votes for president were uncounted, unmarked or spoiled in North Carolina due to various voting system failures, a greater rate of lost votes than was experienced in Florida. Witnesses documented other problems in 2000. For example, in one heavily African-American precinct in Charlotte, 40 voters were turned away in one hour. In another primarily African-American precinct in Charlotte, the entrance to the polling site was locked. And in a third, registered voters did not appear on the lists and were not given provisional ballots.

Additionally, a number of reports of incidents involving the harassment of Hispanic voters have surfaced in the past couple of months. In October, an Alamance County sheriff ordered a list of Hispanic registered voters in his county and shared it with the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cross-check their immigration status – however, many Latinos are U.S.-born citizens and legitimately will not appear in the match.

In Wake County, a Board of Elections official announced at a public meeting that she had "suspicions" about Hispanic voter registration projects in the county and contacted state elections officials to investigate. She reported that her suspicions were raised when an El Pueblo staff member delivered "a large number" of Hispanic voter registrations to her county office week after week. And in Garner, a Hispanic woman who tried to register to vote at her local Department of Motor Vehicles office was told that the DMV did not do voter registration – even though all DMVs offer voter registration.

"Many Latinos and new citizens will be voting for the first time in November," said Andrea Bazan-Manson, executive director of El Pueblo. "The combination of language barriers, unfamiliarity with the voting process and ethnic profiling creates a volatile situation whereby many eligible voters will be prevented from exercising their right to vote."

Election Protection has already taken steps to ensure that this election will be a fair one. The initiative surveyed about 75 N.C. County Boards of Elections and then shared the results of the survey with the State Board of Elections. In addition, Election Protection has run public service announcements in newspapers and on radio stations statewide, distributed thousands of copies of the N.C. Voter’s Bill of Rights and trained community leaders about key elements of the voting process.

Voters can download a copy of the N.C. Voter’s Bill of Rights in both English and Spanish at www.southernstudies.org. The same Web site provides a guide for community leaders on important aspects of election law, and a guide for ex-felon voting, which is allowed in North Carolina after all terms of an ex-felon’s sentence are complete.

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UNC Center for Civil Rights contacts: Heather Hunt, (919) 843-9807; and Shannah Smith, (919) 962-0226 or shoshans@email.unc.edu

UNC News Services contacts: Print, Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595