The Poor People’s Campaign North Carolina Division hosted a protest against N.C. House Bill 958, a bill focused on new voting regulations, in front of Elon Town Hall. Approximately 40 community members attended the protest, which lasted around an hour Monday evening.
The protest was the third in a series of “Monday Revivals,” with the two previous occurring in Guilford and Forsyth Counties. With one of the organization’s focuses surrounding voting rights, many of the protest’s speakers and attendees expressed their opinions on N.C. House Bill 958.
N.C. HB 958 introduces new guidelines to the state’s voting and election systems. The original bill was split into two, HB 958 and HB 834, by the state Senate. While HB 834 contains much of the bill’s original legislation, HB 958 introduced many notable election changes.
Some of the changes in HB 958 include shortening early voting periods in all elections statewide from 17 days to 10 days, allowing the State Auditor, Dave Boliek, to perform post-election audits for county election systems and using federal databases to determine if deceased individuals remain on voting rolls.
Alex Ruth, the volunteer organizer for the Triad region's Poor People’s Campaign, says that the organization “uplifts issues that impact people,” such as poverty, racism and voting rights. The organization aims to highlight these issues through a “moral voice” as it calls for a nationwide moral revival.
As a part of their moral voice, the organization invites religious leaders to speak at their protests. Rev. Walter Allison, one of the protest’s speakers, said in his speech that this bill “will make it easier to purge voters from the rolls and impose stricter requirements.”
“People feel traumatized by votes, especially Black voters, and it is nice to have people empower themselves and continue to organize for the future they want to see,” said Taron Lilly, Triad regional coordinator and policy strategist for Advance Carolina and member of the Poor People’s Campaign.
The Poor People’s Campaign also encouraged participants to express their opposition to N.C. HB 958 by calling their representatives and attending the upcoming General Assembly session to protest the bill.
“The most important thing to take away from this event is that all of us have to speak up,” said David Smith, organizer for Indivisible Guilford County. “All of us have to make sure our voice is going to be heard in every election.”
Protest organizers encouraged participants to check their voter registration, secure a valid ID and advocate for other community members to do the same.
After the Senate introduced the changes to N.C. HB 958, the bill was sent back to the N.C. House of Representatives. The N.C. House is scheduled to vote again on N.C. HB 958 and HB 834 on Tuesday, Aug. 4.