North Carolina’s Voting Restriction for Felons

Almost all states place some limitation on felons’ right to vote. Those limitations—which can be traced from ancient political traditions of “civil death” for certain crimes to more recent history in the post-Reconstruction United States—vary widely from state to state. They are sometimes controversial. For example, litigation involving Virginia’s restriction was mentioned in the July 29 News Roundup, with a follow-up on the ensuing executive action from the Washington Post here. Politics aside, today’s post covers some of the technical contours of North Carolina’s voting law for felons. North Carolina’s baseline voting restriction is in the state constitution. Article VI, Section 2 sets out the disqualification for a felon, saying that “[n]o person adjudged guilty of a felony against this State or the United States, or adjudged guilty of a felony in another state that would also be a felony if it had been committed in this State, shall be permitted to vote unless that person shall be first restored to the rights of citizenship in the manner prescribed by law.” Several statutes implement that constitutional command. Felons are not allowed to vote, G.S. 163-55, and a registered voter convicted of a felony is removed from the list of eligible voters, G.S. 163-82.14. Procedurally, the State Board of Elections gets conviction information from the courts and then tells each county board of elections about felony convictions in that county. The county boards then remove affected voters from the rolls (after 30 days’ written notice to the voter, who may object). The process for [...]