House Bill 451, filed with the state legislature on March 27, will cut a full week of early voting and abolish voting on Sunday. While conservative politicians claim that this will save a large sum of tax dollars, little consideration has been given to the impact this bill would have on impoverished and working-class voters.
If this bill passes, workers who cannot obtain time off on Election Day will be far less likely to vote. If this bill becomes law, individuals who do not own a car and who rely on members of their church community to transport them to early voting after their Sunday service will be disenfranchised.
Voters would be forced to wait for hours in the lengthening lines at polling locations on Election Day. Why do these conservative politicians, who have been informed of the damage this bill would have, support its passage? House Bill 451 would most affect those who are least likely to vote for them: people of color, college students and the poor.
— Maurice William Murray III
Asheville
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