I found a story from Friday's All Things Considered about NC's new voter ID law absolutely fascinating.
Here's a quick overview, per NPR:
This week, North Carolina's governor signed a new law requiring a state-approved photo ID to cast a vote in a polling place and shortening the period for early voting. The move comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had required large parts of the state to get federal approval before changing voting laws.
Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, says the new law will protect the state from voter fraud. Critics say it reverses crucial reforms designed to help protect the rights of African-Americans, young people and the poor.
NPR's Ailsa Chang visited rural areas of North Carolina to report on how the changes could affect poor minority voters who live there.
If left unchallenged, this policy will ultimately have a deeper impact in the state's rural counties; and per her journalism it's easy to see why. Ms. Chang does a terrific job supporting listeners in developing a sense of empathy for what it means to be a newly disenfranchised voter in Bertie County, NC. Her story is well worth a listen.
Here's a quick overview, per NPR:
This week, North Carolina's governor signed a new law requiring a state-approved photo ID to cast a vote in a polling place and shortening the period for early voting. The move comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had required large parts of the state to get federal approval before changing voting laws.
Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, says the new law will protect the state from voter fraud. Critics say it reverses crucial reforms designed to help protect the rights of African-Americans, young people and the poor.
NPR's Ailsa Chang visited rural areas of North Carolina to report on how the changes could affect poor minority voters who live there.
If left unchallenged, this policy will ultimately have a deeper impact in the state's rural counties; and per her journalism it's easy to see why. Ms. Chang does a terrific job supporting listeners in developing a sense of empathy for what it means to be a newly disenfranchised voter in Bertie County, NC. Her story is well worth a listen.
Alberta Currie, 78, is flanked by her twin daughters, Brenda Bethea (left) and Linda Blue, outside their house in Hope Mills, N.C. Currie says she has voted at polling places since 1956, despite literacy tests and daylong waits in the days before the Voting Rights Act. Under North Carolina's new voter ID law, Currie will have to vote absentee if at all, because she can't get a state photo ID. Photo credit: Ailsa Chang, NPR
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