DURHAM, N.C. – Voter suppression is still an issue, said panelists during the Constitution Day discussion at North Carolina Central University. The panel discussed an attempt by some in the North Carolina Legislature to pass a voter ID law. “Our democracy depends on citizen involvement,” noted Charles Becton, the interim chancellor of the university. It is estimated that more than 40 percent of the active voters in the state do not have a photo ID card.
The Constitution Day event, entitled “Inclusion/Exclusion: Poverty, Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation,” also focused on immigration, education, healthcare and sexual orientation.
Bob Hall, who heads Democracy North Carolina, noted that there was also an effort in the Legislature to cut back on early voting and same day registration. For the most part, Republican legislators pushed for a tighter voter registration requirement. Hall said that the Republican-controlled legislature wanted to spend millions of dollars on voter fraud, but there was little evidence of fraud — less than five cases per million of votes cast. Hall noted voter ID would disproportionally target minorities, the poor, the elderly and students.
Anita Earls, founder and director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said she had also observed an increase in “acts of suppression to keep people from voting in the state.
“There are more efforts to challenge voters’ rights on Election Day, such as challenging those having the same name of someone else,” she said.
During the Immigration panel, Jose Rico Benavides, an undocumented 23-year-old community college student, told about organizing the N.C. Dream Team, an activist organization for undocumented immigrant youth. Benavides was brought to the U.S. as a child and has become a leader in the state’s immigrant rights movement. Benavides, who made good grades in school, wanted to graduate from a four-year college but has found closed doors. He hopes the N.C. Dream Team is raising awareness for immigrant children who were not born in, but brought into the country. Government statistics indicate that 65,000 immigrant students graduate from high school each year with few options for higher education.
During the Access to Higher Education panel, speakers noted that college was more accessible, it was also more expensive. “A college education is increasing the price of admission to the middle class,” said Steve Carbo, who serves as a State Advocacy Director at Demos. The organization supports public policy changes that eliminate barriers to political participation, and provides policy makers with research. Carbo noted that almost two-thirds of the jobs that the country will add by 2018 will require post-secondary education. Also, nearly 60 percent of the jobs in North Carolina will require some post-secondary education by 2018.
