North Carolina Democratic Party (NCDP) Chair Bobbie Richardson released the following statement in light of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ speeches in Atlanta, Georgia today urging Congress to pass legislation protecting all Americans’ right to vote and the integrity of our elections:

“The stakes have never been higher for protecting the most bedrock American rights: the right to vote. Last January, our country witnessed an unprecedented insurrection that sought to violently overturn the outcome of what the Trump Administration’s top election security officials confirmed was the most secure election in history. An onslaught of partisan attempts to undermine our democracy have since been carried out across the country, threatening whether Americans’ votes will be counted and free, fair, and secure elections will be protected in the future.  

“In North Carolina, protecting the right to vote has been a decades-long fight. Today, a three-judge panel ruled to uphold partisanly gerrymandered maps after Republicans lied to their colleagues in the state legislature by promising a fair and transparent redistricting process. Over the past decade, North Carolina reinstated voter ID laws, which were later held to be intentionally racially discriminatory.

“As President Biden and Vice President Harris forcefully outlined today, the only ways to safeguard North Carolinians and all Americans’ right to vote are for Republicans in the U.S. Senate to get behind the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and pass these critical pieces of legislation into law. The integrity of our democracy depends on it.” 

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