INSTITUTE INDEX: North Carolina turns back the clock on voting rights

Date on which North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature gave final approval to House Bill 589, a broad package of election changes that critics called a "full-scale assault on voting," sending it to Gov. Pat McCrory (R) to sign into law: 7/25/2013

Of the seven bills that were rolled into what started out as a simple voter ID bill, number that had been debated in any committee or the subject of a public hearing: 0

Of North Carolina's 6.4 million voters, number who don't appear to have a state driver's license or state-issued photo ID card, which the bill requires voters show before casting a ballot: 318,643

Percent of voters lacking North Carolina photo IDs who are African-American: 34

Percent of all registered voters in the state who are African-American: 23

Of the over 318,000 people without a North Carolina photo ID, number who voted in the 2012 general election: 115,291

Percent of those voters who are African-American: 36

Percent who are women: 62

Percent who are Democrats: 59

Percent who are Republicans: 22

Over the past decade, number of cases of voter impersonation -- the type of fraud addressed by the voter ID requirement -- that have been documented by the N.C. Board of Elections: 2

Percent of white voters who took advantage of straight-party voting, which the legislation disallows: 45

Percent of African-American voters who cast straight-party ballots: 80

Number of days by which the legislation trims the state's current 17-day early voting period: 7

Percent of North Carolina's early voters who are African-American: 29

After Florida Republicans passed a law cutting the state's early voting period from 14 days to eight, number of hours some people ended up waiting in line to cast ballots in last year's election, with minorities disproportionately affected: 6

Of those North Carolinians who took advantage of the state law allowing people to register and vote on the same day, which the legislation repeals, percent who are African-American: 34

North Carolina's ranking among the states for voter turnout in 1988: 48

North Carolina's ranking in 2012 after it adopted reforms that House Bill 589 repeals: 11

North Carolina's ranking among the states for percentage increase in voter turnout from 2004 to 2008, when its voters chose a Democrat for president for the first time since 1976: 1

Date on which U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department intends to challenge restrictive state election changes under the Voting Rights Act, with one former Justice official specifically mentioning North Carolina's law as a target for legal action: 7/25/2013

Date on which the N.C. NAACP is holding a mass march to the state capitol to protest the voting changes and other regressive legislation: 7/29/2013

{Click on figure to go to source.)