NCNAACP SUES THREE COUNTIES
ALLEGING VOTER
SUPPRESSION
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The NCNAACP
is suing three counties in federal court alleging that they are illegally
cancelling voter registrations because of alleged changes in addresses, in
violation of the federal National Voters Registration Act (NVRA). With less
than a week before the Nov. 8th general election, and with early
voting ending on Nov. 5, voting rights advocates are calling the alleged
practice yet another attempt at black voter suppression.
The civil
rights organization filed both a lawsuit and an application for a temporary
restraining in the US District Court for the Middle District for North Carolina
against the state Board of Elections on Monday.
At press time, a hearing was scheduled for federal court in
Winston-Salem Wednesday.
According
to the application for a restraining order put forth by the NCNAACP’s
attorneys, the NVRA “…protects
Americans’ fundamental right to vote by…requiring that states meet certain
requirements before cancelling a voter’s registration on the basis of a change
in residence. Specifically, states must either (1) receive written confirmation
from the voter that he or she has moved to a different residence outside the
county, or (2) send a prescribed notice to which the voter fails to respond,
and then wait for two federal election cycles in which the voter does not vote.
Only after written confirmation, or notice, no response, and the two-cycle
waiting period, may a state proceed with removal from the voter registration
rolls.”
The application continued, “The NVRA also
protects access to the franchise by prohibiting any systematic program to
remove voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.”
The NCNAACP alleges that the boards
of Elections (BOEs) in Moore County, Beaufort County and Cumberland County “…have
cancelled thousands of voters’ registrations on the basis of an alleged change
in residence. Those purges of voter rolls resulted from proceedings that were
triggered by challenges filed by private individuals, based on a single mailing
returned as undeliverable. In most cases, these cancellations of registrations
were supported by no other evidence—and none were supported by written
confirmation from the voters of any alleged change in residence or compliant
with the NVRA’s notice and waiting-period provisions. In many cases, the North
Carolinians purged from voting rolls through these proceedings still reside at
the addresses where they are registered, or have moved within the same county
and remain eligible to vote there. Nonetheless, single items of returned mail
have resulted in cancellation of their registrations,” the complaint states.
And it has been determined that the
majority of voters being removed from the county election rolls are
African-Americans. At least 4500 voters have been purged, 3900 of them in
Cumberland County alone.
The state Board of Elections counters that those local boards are
following state statutes that authorize private citizens to challenge voter
registrations on the basis of returned mailings. The state BOE confirms that “…thousands
of voters have been challenged in the past three months on the basis of
returned mail…” The
NCNAACP is not only asking for a temporary restraining order to immediately stop
the local BOEs from purging black voters before the Nov. 8th general
election, but also a permanent injunction to restore the voting registrations
of all of those purged.
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JUDGE MARGARET EAGLES
JUDGES EAGLES ANND
STEPHENS VIE
FOR THE NC COURT OF
APPEALS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Two veteran jurists are vying for the NC Court of
Appeals, promising to vigorously, but fairly, uphold the law if elected.
Wake County District Court Judge Margaret Eagles has
presided over civil, criminal and family court cases, in addition to serving as
one of two judges in the Abuse, Neglect and Dependence Courtroom. She is also
the lead Domestic Violence judge in Wake County.
The daughter of former NC Appellate Court Chief Judge
Sidney Eagles, Margaret Eagles, analum of Needham Broughton High School, Wake
Forest University and Campbell University School of Law, didn’t intend
originally to study law. “I
enjoyed doing volunteer work and helping those who were less fortunate. Then,
after working as a loan officer at the State Employee’s Credit Union, I knew
that the best way I could continue to serve the hard working people of North
Carolina was through the practice of law. “
Eagles
started her legal career as a judicial clerk for Justice George Wainwright on
the NC Supreme Court, working on appeals in criminal and civil cases. As an
Assistant Attorney General, she represented the state in environmental
enforcement litigation and in criminal appeals in the NC Court of Appeals. In
private practice, Eagles was a civil litigator, handling numerous jury trials
in District and Superior Courts.
Among the
many judges Judge Eagles admires most are former NC Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson “for her
consistent judgment and consummate professionalism,” former Judge Martha Geer,
and of course, her dad former Chief Judge Sidney Eagles, “…not only because he
is my father and I love him, but because I respect his work on the Court, his
true belief in the system and the grace and courtesy he shows to everyone he
encounters. “
Judge Margaret Eagles takes pride in
the work she’s done.
“I worked alongside the
Administrative Office of the Courts and multiple stakeholders to implement
remote electronic filing of complaints for emergency domestic violence
protective orders from Interact, our local rape crisis and domestic violence
agency. I am the co-chair of the Wake County Domestic Violence Task
Force and a member of the Wake County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team.”
“I
am dedicated to the rule of law,” Judge Eagles
says, “am steadfast in my respect to the public trust and committed to
impartiality for all who appear before me as a district court judge, and would
continue to do so if elected to the NC Court of Appeals. If elected, I would
continue to treat all parties in the same manner, regardless of who they are or
who represents them.”
Judge Linda Stephens is running for
re-election to NC Court of Appeals. The first in her family to graduate high
school, she is an alum from the University of South Carolina, and earned her
law degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.
“I see the law as a great equalizer in
society,” Judge Stephens says. “The law should treat everyone equally and never
discriminate based on some portion of one’s identity. In practical life, we all know that there is
implicit bias in the law and the way it is applied, but I have always aimed
higher than that. I have always worked
toward fairness and equality, as promised by our Constitution.”
In her
long career, Judge Stephens was named one of the top 50 female attorneys in
North Carolina by Super Lawyers Magazine, and listed among the Best Lawyers in
America during the last eleven years she was in private practice. She has won
numerous awards for her hard work ethic, and ha served on the state appellate
court for over ten years.
“First,
I believe in adhering to my oath of office,” she says, “ in other words: to
uphold the Constitutions of my Country and my State; to uphold the laws of my
State when they are consistent with the Constitutions; to follow the law in
every case to reach the result the law requires even when that result is different
from my personal beliefs. My record
indicates I have faithfully adhered to that oath.”
Second, over the past 10 years,
I have worked collaboratively and cohesively with my colleagues who are from a
different political party. Political
ideology has never affected my interest in or ability to work with another colleague
on the Court of Appeals.,” Judge Stephens says.
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