Name: Lawmakers discuss the protection of NC voting rights
Uploaded: 2021-04-13T09:03:20-0400
Duration: 1177531
Description: Lawmakers discuss the need for the state to pass legislation protecting the voting rights of all North Carolinians.

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Lawmakers discuss the need for the state to pass legislation protecting the voting rights of all North Carolinians.

regarding voting rights And then the other one is fixed. Our democracy and that one is being filed as we speak or in the next 10-20 minutes so we don't have that number. Um We welcome you to ask questions once. Representative smith who is on her way is here. Um but our members today will be speaking in the order of representative moray represent him quick. Representative Clemens, bob phillips of Oh I forgot coming. Sorry it was like candy smith and then we'll have questions. So um the common thread is democracy works best when everyone is involved. So Marcia. Mhm. Oh thank you. Good morning. I am Marcia Morey from Durham and really happy and honored to be filing House Bill 4 46 safeguarding voting rights and really appreciate the sponsor's Representative doll represented candy smith and Representative Quick who you will hear from and we have 36 co sponsors on this bill. This is a bill that gives no favor to any political party and it's very simple. It asked for ease and accessibility to all eligible north Carolinians to exercise their right to vote, which is secure and fair without hurdles or obstacles. It's very simple. We look at 2020s election and despite during a pandemic, we had a record turnout and during that election we had over a million voters vote by mail, absentee voting. We had 3.6 million voters vote early, which is remarkable. And we want to make sure those safeguards stay in place when there is not a pandemic. There are eight main sections in the House Bill 446, we're going to talk about a few of them about voter registration, making it easier, absentee or mail in voting. The recruitment for poll workers, flexibility and early voting hours and the right to vote with a state holiday. I'm going to mention just the section on absentee or mail in voting. This is in section for. And what this would do would expand our mail in voting. That would the board of election would send out to every eligible registered voter, uh an absentee ballot request and it would be posted to pay return. So it be simple for them to fill out to return to the board of elections and then if they ask for an absentee ballot, it will be sent to them. We will keep the same stipulations that we had in 2020. It would be one person to witness the ballot to sign as a witness of the voter send it back in postage paid or a voter can drop it off. And this provision also adds a drop box that would be available in every county throughout the state. Perhaps many drop boxes to just give ease to people sending in these ballots. One big issue has come up how long can a mail in ballot be received to be eligible to be counted because of the delays in mail. Any ballot mailed in could be received and counted three days up to five p.m. after three days after the election. There is a curing provision that if there is a mistake on the witness or the voter, if it's simple, the board of elections, just as they did in 2020 can notify voter and they can cure any simple mistakes when they mailed in their ballots. You know, across the country, there have been scores of bills filed to restrict voting. I think my colleagues and myself strongly believe this is the time we encourage people to vote. We need to make it secure safe and easy and that's the purpose of this bill, appreciate it and I would like to now turn it over to represent them. Amos Quick, Good morning. My name is Amos Quick. I represent north Carolina. House District 58 which is in Guilford County Greensboro. North Carolina also want to applaud my fellow colleagues who are standing here and those who have signed on his co signers for our concern about making sure that voting remains uh safe and that voting remains accessible to all eligible north Carolinians. Part of what it means to be an american is to participate in our democracy and part of what it means to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people is to make sure that such participation in our democracy, particularly our elections are unencumbered and are free and are easily accessible. Uh the right to participate in an election and to vote and be represented by the will of the majority of the people is a foundational pillar of our country and a right to every eligible citizen. It is in fact not a stretch to say that restricting access to the ballot box is undoubtedly un american toe, real strife, resources, blood, sweat and tears have been expanded in the name of making sure that America remains a beacon of hope and a beacon of democracy and an example to all the other nations in the world. And making sure that eligible citizens have a right to select who represents them, resist restricting access to the ballot box are manipulating voting mechanism so that one person's vote matters less than another person's vote is an affront to the sacrifice of our uniform soldiers and battles of war and foot soldiers who have fought for civil rights. The legislation that we are proposing and submitting and have filed this morning when enacted, will assure that north Carolina remains steadfast to the principle of one person, one vote and every vote counts in the order in the area. Rather a voter registration, we champion automatic voter registration. This method provides that eligible voters are automatically registered when they engage with public agencies like the D. M. V. Social services or etcetera. It also provides an easy on ramp to participation in democracy, which should be the goal of legislative bodies across this country casting a vote in north Carolina, never to be seen as a right reserved for a select few, but it ought to be instead seen as a right that has been forced and persevered in the crucible of strife and fighting and advocating for americans and north Carolina is to have the right to vote. Automatic voter registration looks like this person engages a public agency and a person would have to opt out and not up end to the voter registration process. We should make it easier for north Carolinians to participate in voting. We should make it easier. Uh, in fact, we teach in civics across the state that students should engage in the voting process. We encourage, expend millions and millions of dollars every election cycle to ask people to exercise, to register and vote well if we can take care of the registration process, we firmly believe that the voting, uh, that engagement and voting will increase substantially, uh, in many places across the state and municipal elections. Uh, less than 12% of the people participate uh, in voting. One of the hindrances that we have heard is that people don't understand or don't have time or are a little bit intimidated by the registration process. Automatic voter registration would make that process less intimidating and easier for North Carolinians to engage in the process is something that's happening across the country. And we hope with the enactment of House Bill 4 46 that more North Carolinians will participate in our democracy and we will have a more inclusive democracy because of that. I want to turn over now to my colleague from Guilford County, a Representative Ashton Clemens. Good morning. Uh, thank you representative quick and all of the my colleagues that are here today. We will be filing the 2021 fix our democracy bill. I would like to thank representatives Willingham Ball and Farkas who are the primary sponsors of this bill. And we also filed this in 2019 that have expanded it this year as represented. Quick so eloquently said, our democracy works when every single person, no matter who you are and where you come from and what resources you have has an equal voice in choosing the people who will make the decisions that affect each and every one of our lives. Unfortunately, that system of each person having an equal voice is breaking down. It is breaking down when we restrict voter rights, which is why I'm so proud of to support representative moray and representative quakes bill to have increased access to voting rights. It is breaking down when we gerrymander districts to lessen the voice of some voters by packing them into districts across our state and country. The country is breaking down when people with money have a disproportionate impact through super pacs and other spending and campaigns. And it is breaking down when we diminish The strength of having three separate branches of government. The fix, our democracy bill addresses many of these issues. I would like to thank Senator Jeff Jackson and d'Andrea Salvador who will be filing the Senate version today and the many partners who have been part of filing this bill, including Democracy and see Southern Coalition for Southern for Social Justice, Common Cause, the north Carolina Black Alliance Forward Justice, the N double A C P A R P and north Carolina voters for Clean elections. A few pieces that are in this bill, a Citizen's Redistricting Commission to ensure fair voting districts across our state nonpartisan judicial races with reinstatement of the north Carolina Public Campaign Finance Fund to have a separate judicial branch in north Carolina transparency for campaign spending, including digital ads. So we know where the money is coming from, particularly within super pacs and making the work we do here every day in our legislature more transparent and accessible to the people who send us here. North Carolina fans. I am so proud to stand with the members of our caucus today, who want to live up to the democracy. We can be where every north Carolina invoice is equal in electing the people who define our lives. And with that, I will turn it over to bad phillips from Thank you. Um, this is my first time back in the building in more than a year and it's a pleasure to be with folks who are true champions of democracy. This is like music to my ears, particularly someone who's been banging their head on a brick wall or tilting at windmills, Whatever one wants to say about doing the things that we think are important to promoting democracy. Um, certainly I commend the bill sponsors and all the supporters of these bills because what it's doing is what we really want and that is to increase voter participation. Certainly what everyone is saying here today is in north Carolina. We want laws that make voting easier, not harder and we want laws that promotes fair maps and not gerrymandering, which is again, is unfortunately what we have had and I would urge the legislative leadership to embrace the changes. There is no good reason not to, there is nothing to fear about this. These are good things when people participate in democracy voters, when political parties win democracy wins and that's what we want. I think about this time, a year ago, I was working remote like everybody, but I do remember it was when republicans and democrats came together and actually worked on a bill that made voting a little bit better and easier for absentee ballot voting. House bill 11 69 it wasn't a perfect piece of legislation, but it did a heck of a lot of good things and it has been noted about a million people actually took advantage and successfully cast an absentee ballot. That's republicans, democrats and unaffiliated too. Like again, when we have laws that make voting easier participation goes up and we know that there's proof about the time I started it coming cause Many, many years ago at North Carolina, unfortunately ranked in the bottom 10 states for voter participation. But things begin to change when the turn of the century, when laws were passed again that were pro voter, we had the no excuse absentee voting in 2000. We had during the first decade of the, of the century extending the early voting period. And then same day voter registration in 2008. These again, did things to promote voting in North Carolina by 2008 Had catapulted from being in the bottom 10 to the top 10 and voter participation. So we say we are at an opportunity and in a moment to just build upon these things, uh, look at the past election, a record turnout year with no voter fraud, no evidence of any kind of lack of public confidence in this election. Either this is a moment for north Carolina. Do we want to promote voting or do we want to suppress it? Obviously it's a no brainer, whether you're a democrat or republican or unaffiliated. We all want to promote voting. We all want to make sure that everybody has a chance to participate. And again, I would urge the legislative leadership to support these bills. Thank you. Well, I get to be candy smith today. She is stuck in traffic and if anybody tried to get here on time today, they know the Weight Avenue and other roads are so we're gonna talk about nationwide. I keep on forgetting to take this thing off. Um, so restrictions would disproportionately disenfranchised communities of color rather than competing competing for voters. We feel that republicans are trying to defend some voters out and make it harder for them to vote. Absentee ballots have been larger, largely uncontroversial when they were used by older whiter republican leaning americans. But as soon as communities of colors, color started using them, we started to see to see restrictions up until the 2020 elections, there really hadn't been a partisan split in which part of parties use mail in vote and my colleague has just appeared. So I'm going to hand it right over to her and I started With your two points. Please step up unless you want me to cover for you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. So you start with the first two points I did these dead Okay. Um, we'll pick up from there, absentee ballot ballots have been largely controversial, and when they were used by older whiter republicans, there was no issue, but when they start being used by communities of color, that's when we started seeing restrictions coming up. And those restrictions, of course, have now, because the great divide, I just I find it difficult to I think it's okay to find ways to restrict people from voting and that's that's what we're doing overall and we need to make sure that we do something different. We've had a lot of scholars, uh they propose some restrictions that would that would um dramatically curtail the ballot access. And this has happened since the late 19th century, which southern states now, this is what Southern states have done um back in the day. I mean it was just something that was done for a very long time. And what we don't want to do is continue to have those same things they did poll taxing, they made sure that they had literacy tests to restrict individuals from voting. Um And then a lot of that was disenfranchising virtually all black men. So some of the GOP proposals would strain overall the overall election system. And I think that we all know that particularly in states with the history of disenfranchisement with people, people who are voters of color. And so we want to make sure that we are looking at those things and do what we can to make changes because those are hurdles we need to make sure that we overcome. So we're of course disappointed to be added to the number of states with restrictive voting because in North better than We shouldn't be in that type of situation at all, we shouldn't be included as some of those individuals unfortunately. So when we're looking at 47 states doing this, this is just some things that are unheard of. When we think that we're moving forward, It seems like we tend to take 10 steps backwards and that's not what we need to do because our job is to make sure that we're not protecting our jobs but protecting the people that we serve and that's what it should be about. Okay. Do we have any questions entering the home again? Do we have any questions? I know it was an early morning but we had to get the early morning in so we would mess up any other school. Well I want to thank everybody who came. I want to thank all of the representatives and our special guests, bob phillips and I hope you all have a great day. Thank you so much. Okay? Yeah, it was important. Tell you. Thank you. Sorry. All right. Check your email we are coming from. Thank you.

Lawmakers discuss the protection of NC voting rights

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I'm meteorologist, Amy Wilma in the WRL severe weather center, we had a dry warm day today, but a cold front is off to the west of us and it arrives tomorrow and brings the potential for some scattered showers and some thunderstorms. It's a pretty potent system today with a level three out of five risk for part of the Midwest. But the severe weather will be moving eastward as this cold front moves eastward as well. And we'll have the risk for severe storms tomorrow. Although the storm energy will not be as high tomorrow as it is today. There's a lot of storm energy west of us today and that's why they have that higher risk for severe storms. But as this system moves closer to North Carolina, it does weaken. We could still have some isolated severe storms but we have weak to moderate energy. We don't have the strong energy that they have west of us today. So it's a level one risk for most of us Friday. This is in the afternoon and evening. So isolated severe storms possible. The biggest threat will be some damaging winds and a potential for some hail as Well, the first half of the day is dry, so no rain worries for the morning commute. But by the time we get to the afternoon and evening, that's when we'll have scattered showers and storms and any of the storms that do form could become severe. And our highest rain chances are right during the evening commute. So about a 40% chance for rain tomorrow as we move ahead to Saturday, only a slim chance for a shower, a 20% chance for rain. But then a decent chance for rain on Sunday, we don't expect storms, but mainly the second half of our Sunday will have some scattered showers and it will be a cooler day. Here's a look at the rain over the weekend again, just a slim chance for rain on Saturday. Otherwise partly to mostly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low to mid seventies. Sunday morning looks mainly dry with a little bit of rain over some of our southern counties. But then as we head toward the afternoon, a better chance for rain, especially south and east of the triangle. And then during the evening is when some of that rain lifts to the north and includes a good part of the viewing area on Sunday. So the second half of the day certainly looks like the wettest part of the day, still warm Friday with a high of 84. And then we're down into the mid seventies Saturday, high temperatures will be in the low to mid sixties for Sunday and Monday with some chilly mornings, Monday morning and Tuesday morning. Down into the forties, we warm back up next week though. 74 on Tuesday, 78 Wednesday and near 70 for a high temperature on Thursday.

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Good evening. I'm Gayle Hurd. Welcome to tonight's joins for Thursday, April 18th, 2024. Well, let's get started tonight with our Carolina pick three. Our first winning number is a three. Our second number is three also and our third number tonight is two and our pick three. Fireball number is one. Joining me for tonight's drawing is our auditor from mcconal and Jones L LP. Now let's move to the Carolina pick four. Good luck. Everyone is that first winning pick four number. It's a seven. Our second number is six. Third number tonight is seven again and our fourth number is two and our pick for a fireball number is an eight. We're turning now to the Carolina cash five. If no one was the top prize tonight. Tomorrow, our prize is estimated at $235,000. Good luck. Everyone. Who's that first winning cash five number. It's 22. Second number is five third number tonight is it 25. Our fourth number is 10 and the final number in our cash drive this evening is 21. The North Carolina education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education Thanks to your support. Get your winning numbers right here every night in your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education lottery. Thanks for playing. Have a great night.

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Good afternoon. I'm back. Global. Welcome to this news drawings for Thursday, April 18th, 2024. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first pick three numbers zero. The second is one, the third is six that are pick three. Fireball number is one. Joining me for this afternoon's drawing is our auditor for a con and Jones L LP. Now move on to Carolina pick for the first four. Number is three. The second is for the third is 54, is seven in our pick four. Fireball number is nine. The North Carolina education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support and thanks for playing.

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After 22 years in business, Armadillo Grill on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh has closed.



WE HAVE MORE RAIN IN THE FORECAST FOR THE WEEKEND. I'LL SHOW YOU COMING UP. THE LIST OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH BUSINESSES SHUTTING THEIR DOORS IS ARMADILLO GRILL IS THE LATEST TO CLOSE FOR GOOD. >> WRAL'S SEAN GALLAGHER IS IN DOWNTOWN RALEIGH TO FIND OUT WITH THIS MEANS FOR THE GLENN WOOD, SOUTH AREA. SEAN, THIS WAS A SURPRISE TO A LOT OF FOLKS. >> YEAH, THIS WAS VERY ABRUPT SO ABRUPT THAT WE'VE SEEN A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE COMING UP HERE TRYING TO GET LUNCH ON THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND THEY'RE MET WITH THIS SIGN ON THE DOOR, LETTING THEM KNOW THAT THEY ARE SHUT DOWN FOR GOOD, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY AT THIS LOCATION. NOW, THIS TEX MEX RESTAURANT CALL THE CORNER OF GLENWOOD AVENUE AND TUCKER STREET HOME FOR THE LAST. 22 YEARS. IN A FACEBOOK POST, THE OWNERS SAY CHANGES IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY AND RISING COSTS ARE WHY THEY'RE SHUTTING DOWN THIS LOCATION. IT'S THE LATEST IN A STRING OF STAPLE BUSINESSES RALLY, CLOSING CLOUDS BREWING, SHUT DOWN ITS RALEIGH TAVERN ON WEST STREET EARLIER THIS MONTH IN THE CAPITAL CLUB. 16 IS SHUTTING DOWN AT THE END OF THIS MONTH. OUR BELOVED REAL SAID THEY WILL LOOK FOR ANOTHER LOCATION TO SERVE THE RALEIGH COMMUNITY. BUT FOR SHARE MCCRACKEN OF GARDEN SCAPE DESIGNER FOR BUSINESSES AROUND THIS AREA. THIS IS JUST A SIGN OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD. >> IT'S ELEVATING RIGHT NOW. PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT ABLE TO KIND OF ROLL WITH IT. NATURALLY COMING TO AN END AND MAYBE THERE WILL BE ANOTHER SPOT THAT'S PERFECT FOR THEM. BUT YOU CAN DEFINITELY FEEL THAT THERE IS A CHANGE GOING ON ON THE STREETS OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH. >> AN ARMADILLO GRILL WILL ARE STILL OFFER THEIR CATERING SERVICES HERE AND THEY WILL STILL OPERATE THEIR FLAGSHIP LOCATION IN CARRBORO. BUT RENEE, THAT'S ABOUT 40 MINUTES AWAY RIGHT NEAR UNC CAMPUS. >> WHILE CUSTOMERS WILL HAVE TO DRIVE A LOT FARTHER AND WE WILL SEE WHAT ENDS UP TAKING ITS PLACE. THERE ON GLENWOOD

Glenwood South staple Armadillo Grill closes

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Is powerball. Good evening, everyone. I'm Randy Trainer. Tonight. We have our life changing jackpot. It's estimated to be $80.7 million to get your tickets ready. Here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 24. Right after that America. We have the number 54 and congratulations to Lisa Hayes from Illinois. She won $2 million playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning number is 4447. And let's round it out tonight with the number 29 and tonight's win powerball number that's gonna be two and your power play multiplier is two. Let's take a look at tonight's winning numbers. Remember there are multiple ways to win. Good luck, everyone. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

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Crash shuts down I-540 West near Buffaloe Road in Raleigh; Sky 5 is over the scene

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Lawmakers discuss the protection of NC voting rights

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Lawmakers discuss the protection of NC voting rights

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