Appeals Court blocks ruling that briefly expanded NC felon voting rights

Plaintiffs in the case quickly asked the state Supreme Court to reverse the reversal, filing Friday afternoon for an immediate temporary stay.

"Unless this court acts, over 56,000 people who have already been told they can legally vote will be disenfranchised, and the administration of North Carolina's upcoming municipal elections will be thrown into confusion," attorneys said in their filing.

Here's the status for now, and going forward unless the N.C. Supreme Court acts:

Among other things, advocacy groups who filed a lawsuit on this in 2019 have argued that requiring people to pay all fines and fees amounts to an unconstitutional poll tax, and they sought reinstatement of voting rights as soon as people leave prison.

They won that, briefly, for an estimated 56,000 people in North Carolina. It's not clear how many of those people registered to vote in the interim between the two court decisions.

State Board of Elections officials said Friday they have updated their forms to comply with the Court of Appeals ruling and are working with the state Department of Public Safety to update data on people ineligible to vote because of a felony conviction so that voter rolls can be checked.

The legislature's Republican majority pressed the Court of Appeals to block the lower court's decision, and they brought in their own attorney to handle legal filings after some resistance from Attorney General Josh Stein's office.

"The decision to block the lower court's ruling affirms that judges can't just replace laws they don't like with new ones," Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke and an elections committee co-chair, said in a statement Friday.

Plaintiffs in the case, led by a group called Community Success Initiative, said in a joint statement that the issue requires "immediate action from the state’s highest court."

"Hundreds of North Carolinians are exercising a new right to vote in this state, encouraged and inspired by the three-judge panel decision. We will not rest until their rights are fully vindicated," the groups said.