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December 10, 2005

Protect Your Right to Vote,

Key provisions of the Voting Rights Act (Civil Rights Act of 1965) are set to expire in 2007. Congress plans to hold hearings on whether such provisions should be reauthorized in the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006. The University of North Carolina Law School Center for Civil Rights, the North Carolina NAACP, and the Rainbow/Push Coalition are holding public hearings to investigate whether minority voting discrimination is occurring in North Carolina. This evidence is necessary to ensure that Congress has a full record before it when considering whether to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. Some past practices of minority voting discrimination have included the following:

* unnecessary difficulties, complications, or obstacles in the process of registering to vote or voting,

* illogical placement and reassignments of voting locations,

* use of racial appeals in campaigns,

* unusual and overly frequent threats of voter fraud prosecutions,

* videotaping of voters at polling places or other threats of retaliation for voting,

* unjustified presence of law enforcement officers at voting sites,

* arbitrary municipal annexations, candidate residency requirements, or at-large elections that unfairly limit minority voters from electing representatives

The next hearing will be held at Estey Hall on the campus of Shaw University, 118 East South St, Raleigh, NC. on January 26th, 2006 at 6:30pm and presided over by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, Jr. (NC NAACP President), Anita Earls (Civil Rights Attorney), and others. If you have any information regarding any attempts at minority voting discrimination, since 1982, please contact Anita Earls at (earls@email.unc.edu, 919-843-7896) or Torrey Dixon (tddixon@email.unc.edu, 919-843-8197).