Urgent--Fight for our right to vote!

I know you've been getting some pretty bad news from me in the past few weeks, but this latest move takes the cake. Senate leaders have taken what was already an awful voter ID bill and created a nightmarish set of anti-voting measures that is sure to keep thousands of people from voting in the state and are trying to ram it through before the end of the session.
This new version of HB-589 is by far the most anti-democratic bill of the session.

Here's a quick summary of the awful scope of the newly proposed version of HB-589:

No more pre-registration for 16 & 17 year olds
Eliminates same day voter registration
Voter can be challenged by any registered voter of the county rather than precinct
Slices a week off Early Voting
Eliminates straight party ticket voting
Sets up a study instead of mandating electronic filing for state legislators
Increase maximum campaign contribution to $5000 instead of $4000
Weakens disclosure requirements for Independent Expenditure committees
Authorizes vigilante poll observers, lots of them, with expanded range of interference
Expands the scope of who may examine registration records and challenge voters
Repeals out-of-precinct provisional voting
Repeals mandate for high-school registration drives
Eliminates flexibility in opening EV sites at different hours within a county
Makes it more difficult to add satellite polling sites for elderly or voters with disabilities
Changes what is the official ballot, particularly for DRE machines
Limits who can assist a voter adjudicated to be incompetent by court
Repeals 3 public financing programs
Repeals disclosure requirements under Candidate Specific Communications
No more paid voter registration drives
Moves presidential primary to first the Tuesday after South Carolina
Enough craziness for you? Here's what you can do.

We need as many people as possible to come to today's 2:00 pm Senate Rules Committee meeting in LOB Rm 544 to show opposition to this incredibly bad bill. If you can't make it to Raleigh, then listen (Click on "finance committee room&quot or watch it live at wral.com.

Contact your legislators and tell them to Respect Our Vote: Say NO to voter suppression!

Forward this action alert to everyone you know.

This legislation, rammed through at the last minute of the session, is elitist politics at its worst - political bullies looking out for their own narrow interests. We hope that other Senators and House members will bring the legislators to their senses and stop this legislative madness.

And as always, thank you for everything you do.

Kevin Rogers
Policy & Public Affairs Director
Action NC