A group of North Carolina Republicans filed a bill in the state legislature to ban organizations from handing out voter registration forms at voter registration drives.
House Bill 127 would make it a misdemeanor for people or organizations to provide voter registration applications at the drives. It instead would mandate the State Board of Elections to create a sample voter registration form that may be distributed at voter registration drives. The legislation would also require groups looking to conduct a voter registration drive to “register with the county board of elections in the county in which the voter registration drive is to be held.”
The bill was introduced by Republican state Rep. Harry Warren this week, with Republican state Reps. Hugh Blackwell, Brian Echevarria, and Donnie Loftis listed as primary sponsors of the legislation.
Warren told WRAL that he introduced the bill “to protect people’s personal information and to reduce their exposure to possible identity theft.”
“By providing the eligible voter with a registration worksheet to take with them, including instructions on where to turn it in or how to register online, [it] protects their personal information and ensures they are actually registered, regardless how they designate their political affiliation,” Warren told the outlet.
Critics of the bill, however, argue that it will disenfranchise citizens and make it harder to vote.
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Voter registration drives have been listed by election integrity activists as a key place where fraud can occur when groups are registering voters for elections. Ahead of the 2024 election, the district attorney of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, had raised concerns over fraudulent voter registration forms filed just before the deadline.
The North Carolina legislation would mandate that the sample form provide where the prospective voter may acquire a registration form and where it can be turned in, along with key election dates and deadlines.
