INSTITUTE INDEX: Mobilizing against voter suppression in North Carolina
Rev. William Barber, president of the NAACP's North Carolina chapter, was joined this week by Democracy North Carolina's Bob Hall (to Barber's right) and faith leaders to announce an 80-day mass voter engagement campaign leading up to the March primary. (Image is a still from this Fusion Films video.)
Date on which the North Carolina NAACP, Democracy North Carolina and faith leaders held a press conference to announce the launch of a mass voter engagement campaign in advance of the 2016 elections with the theme, "It's our vote, it's our time": 12/1/2015
Number of years to the day before the press conference that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white passenger, igniting the modern-day civil rights movement: 60
Number of days of voter registration efforts the nonpartisan campaign plans leading up to the March 15 primary: 80
Number of faith denominations involved in the campaign, including Christians, Muslims and Jews: 7
Number of unregistered potential voters in North Carolina who are Latino: more than 100,000
Who are black: more than 280,000
Who are white: more than 600,000
In the next two weeks, number of North Carolina's 100 county boards of election that will hold meetings to craft early voting plans, which the campaign's volunteers will attend to advocate for adequate evening and weekend hours: over 30
Number of volunteers the campaign will send to the polls during the March primary to help voters and to document how the new voting law, widely considered the nation's most restrictive, is being implemented: hundreds
Number of voter-led projects to disseminate voting information across the state that the campaign will support: thousands
Number of churches and other faith centers the campaign plans to engage: over 3,000
Date on which the N.C. NAACP sought an injunction to halt the state's voter ID law, which lawmakers amended this summer to require voters without required ID to fill out paperwork explaining why: 11/26/2015
Number of lawsuits pending against North Carolina's voting law: 4
Date by which voters must register to cast a ballot in North Carolina's March primary: 2/19/2016
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.