NC election officials aren't letting felons register to vote, despite new court ruling

[Nevilledog]

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https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article259939875.html

People with felony records who are out of prison, but still on probation or parole, were granted the right to vote in North Carolina on Monday in a high-profile lawsuit against the state.

One of the lawyers who successfully argued the case, Daryl Atkinson of Durham-based Forward Justice, said Monday’s ruling was “the largest expansion of voting rights in NC since the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” The News & Observer reported.

But an email Tuesday from state officials obtained by The N&O indicates that none of the roughly 55,000 people affected by Monday’s ruling will actually be able to exercise their new voting rights — at least not at the moment.

Elections officials in all 100 counties were instructed by the N.C. State Board of Elections to sit on any such registration applications they get, doing nothing with them until further notice. They were told not to deny the applications, but not to approve them either, and instead keep them in limbo due to questions the state board has about Monday’s ruling.

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