By james art By Howard Peer
Be careful! They are trying to change the North Carolina constitution again.
On November 5th, after we have made all our choices for candidates for political office, we will not be ready. Our ballots will also include an amendment to the state constitution that may appear to only slightly change the wording regarding election qualifications. But the proposed amendment actually has the potential to do significant harm, according to a longtime Wake Forest University law professor and the League of Women Voters.
Why would they do this when it is already the law of the land that a voter must be a US citizen and 18 years old?
WFU Professor Margaret Taylor urged citizens to vote “no” on the constitutional amendment. She explained in a statement that went viral on Facebook that the current text of the state constitution reflects the protections of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, including the protection of voting rights for “every person born in the United States” and “every person , which is naturalized’.
(Article 6, Section 1 of the NC Constitution: “Every person born in the United States and every person who is naturalized, 18 years of age, and possessing the qualifications specified in this articlehas the right to vote in all elections by the people of the state, unless otherwise provided herein.” Italics added.)
The proposed amendment would “provide that only a citizen of the United States who is 18 years of age and otherwise qualified to vote shall be entitled to vote at all elections in this State.” (Italics added.)
“It would weaken voting protections if interpreted to allow the General Assembly to establish those qualifications,” Taylor’s statement said.
The present wording in the Constitution “means that the (North Carolina General Assembly) may not of itself alter the protection of the vote set forth in Article 6, Section 1; instead, the state constitution should be amended. Then, amending the constitution would require a vote by citizens, not just legislators.
The NC League of Women Voters also strongly opposes this amendment. Here’s what they said in an online statement:
“Statewide voting in North Carolina involves a completely unnecessary constitutional amendment that seeks to clarify that only citizens can vote. The amendment is based on unfounded anti-immigrant fears and conspiracy theories that non-citizens are committing widespread voter fraud and threatening our elections. Existing North Carolina law prohibits noncitizens from voting. Therefore, the proposed NC constitutional amendment barring non-citizens from voting points to a problem that does not exist.
The amendment to the NC constitution is similar to legislation, the Protecting the Voting Rights of American Voters (SAVE) Act, already passed by the US House of Representatives, the League said in a statement.
If the SAVE Act becomes law, it “would require documentary proof of citizenship, creating barriers for all eligible Americans to participate in the registration and voting process,” the League said in a statement. This law “is based on unsubstantiated claims about noncitizen voting in federal and state elections and is used as a pretext to spread misinformation and undermine access to voting.”
(The SAVE Act was recently tied to a continuing resolution in the US House of Representatives (CR) to avoid a government shutdown, then later separated from that resolution. However, it remains a priority of the Republican majority, according to a report of the National Association of Counties.)
The League’s statement continued: “Both the NC constitutional amendment and the SAVE Act are blatant attempts to undermine voter confidence ahead of the November election, based on lies about who is voting. They are rooted in an anti-immigrant agenda in direct opposition to the values of this country.
Howard Pear retired after a career as a counselor and manager with NC Vocational Rehabilitation and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has conducted voter registration training workshops and is a member of the Winston-Salem Writers.