Voter registration among first impacts of NC elections law

The law ended same-day registration during the early voting period, which North Carolina implemented only six years earlier.

Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, said it's a security issue. People shouldn't be able to vote before election officials can confirm they're eligible, he said.

"How are you going to document whether that person is indeed from that precinct or that county or whatever?" Rucho said. "How do you come to be able to do that on that short notice, walk in the door and vote?"

Rep. Angela Bryant, D-Nash, opposed the repeal of same-day registration, noting that statistics show it disproportionately hurts black voters.

"There was no evidence of fraud with same-day registration. It is very well documented," Bryant said. "The whole process was bar-coded and tracked and even retrievable if, in fact, there were a problem."

Voting rights groups are challenging the new law.

Without same-day registration, state law requires that all voters be registered 25 days before an election, which means that all new registrations must be postmarked by April 11.

Anyone who has moved since the last election but still lives in the same county, however, can update their registration at the polls, according to Veronica DeGraffenreid, election preparation and support manager for the State Board of Elections.

"You can update your name (and) update your address during early voting at any one-stop site," DeGraffenreid said, "as long as it's within the same county in which you are currently registered."