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North Carolina has a long history of voter suppression. Recent attempts to implement a voter-registration law were decisively struck down in 2016 by a federal appeals court, which said its provisions deliberately target African-Americans with almost surgical precision in an effort to depress black turnout at the polls. Another example in 2016 was the redistricting plan that was struck down by a [federal] district court, ruling the plan constituted illegal racial gerrymandering by populating two districts disproportionately with African-American voters. Currently, counties accounting for half of North Carolina registered voters have cut back on hours and decreased the number of polling places.

In order to protect our democracy, we must address these issues and go even further to allocate $4 billion in federal funding for states and mandate the implementation of reforms nationwide like early voting, postage-paid vote-by-mail and online and same-day voter registration.

Woody EisenbergAsheville

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Letter: Protect democracy with voting reforms - Mountain Xpress