August 6, 2021/Media, Press

North Carolina Democratic Party Statement on the 56th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Richardson released the following statement on the 56th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: 

“Fifty-six years ago, the Voting Rights Act was passed into law to protect all Americans’ God-given right to vote. While this critical piece of legislation sought to guarantee equal voting protections for Americans no matter their race, recently, an onslaught of anti-voter laws have been introduced in North Carolina and across the country as the most egregious attempts to harm the integrity of our democracy since the Civil War.

“Sadly, North Carolina is no stranger to partisan efforts to restrict voters’ access to the ballot. In the past decade of Republican leadership in the North Carolina General Assembly, GOP legislators have gerrymandered maps and passed suppressive voter identification laws that sparked a flurry of court cases. As recently as 2016, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a law proposed by North Carolina Republican legislators calling it legislation ‘the most restrictive voting law North Carolina has seen since the era of Jim Crow’ and said it would ‘target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.’

“And as we mark the fifty-sixth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, President Biden, Vice President Harris and Democrats in North Carolina and across the country are leading the fight to protect the right to vote by urging Congress to pass the For the People Act and launching initiatives to defend democracy. Denying the right to vote is grounded in racism, and it is undemocratic, un-American, and unpatriotic.”

The Biden-Harris administration and Democrats are leading the fight to protect Americans’ right to vote: 

  • Vice President Harris announced a dramatic expansion of the Democratic National Committee’s ‘I Will Vote’ initiative to address and overcome efforts by Republicans across the country to make voting more difficult and burdensome.
  • The DNC will invest $25 million in voter education, voter protection, targeted voter registration, and technology to make voting more accessible in order and to fight back against Republicans’ unprecedented voter suppression efforts.
    • The $25 million announced is in addition to the initial $20 million investment that Chair Harrison has already announced the DNC will make before the general election in 2022 and the DNC’s $23 million investment in our 57 state and territory strategy — with more investments still to come.
  • With these investments, it’s more than clear the DNC is continuing to lead on matters of voting rights, and that President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Chair Jaime Harrison are putting every available resource into combatting Republican attacks.
  • These whole-of-party, historic, and groundbreaking investments will help expand the DNC’s Voter Protection and Tech teams to the largest ever assembled.
    • The DNC’s Voter Protection team will, for the first time, include state-level coverage and analytics capacity, arming the DNC with the resources and staff to protect the right to vote, use the courts to ensure access to the polls, and defend the rights of voters.
    • The DNC’s Tech team will use data and other tools to identify and contact voters affected by suppression efforts and voter roll purges, to ensure that all eligible voters have the information they need to cast a ballot.
  • The DNC will commit millions to television and digital advertising, especially digital communications, to better educate voters on how to participate — how to register and where and when to vote.
  • In an effort to reach new and younger voters and diverse constituencies, the DNC will partner with social media creators across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to highlight what President Biden and Democrats have achieved, and what they can do to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot.
  • The ‘I Will Vote’ expansion will include millions in funding, including with partners, to register voters, a reflection of the Biden-Harris team’s commitment to those who are doing some of the strongest work on the ground in communities that deeply need additional investment.

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