RALEIGH, N.C. — People with felony records who are out of prison, but still on probation or parole, were granted the right to vote in North Carolina this week in a high-profile lawsuit against the state.
One of the lawyers who successfully argued the case, Daryl Atkinson of Durham-based Forward Justice, said Monday's ruling was "the largest expansion of voting rights in N.C. since the Voting Rights Act of 1965," The News & Observer reported.
But an email Tuesday from state officials obtained by The N&O indicates that none of the roughly 55,000 people affected by Monday's ruling will actually be able to exercise their new voting rights — at least not at the moment.
Elections officials in all 100 counties were instructed by the North Carolina State Board of Elections to sit on any such registration applications they get, doing nothing with them until further notice. They were told not to deny the applications, but not to approve them either, and instead keep them in limbo due to questions the state board has about Monday's ruling.
"Until further instruction, county boards of elections should keep registration applications of voters who are on probation, parole, or post-release supervision it receives in the Incomplete Queue," the email says.
—What does this mean for the primary?
The 2022 primary election is less than two months away, on May 17, and the deadline to register to vote is April 22. That means there are only a few weeks left for the elections board to answer its lingering questions about whether Monday's ruling is enforceable.
A spokesman for the State Board of Elections, Pat Gannon, said an answer is expected in time for the primary.
"We anticipate getting clarity on this issue before early voting starts," he said.
Early voting starts April 28, and anyone who is eligible to vote but misses the April 22 deadline to register can still register in person during early voting.
—Why is there confusion?
The three-judge panel that issued the ruling Monday said in its ruling extending voting rights that a decades-old law is unconstitutional.
"For the avoidance of doubt, under this injunction, if a person otherwise eligible to vote is not in jail or prison for a felony conviction, they may lawfully register and vote in North Carolina," the judges wrote.
But the State Board of Elections nonetheless has doubts.
The board believes Monday's ruling directly conflicts with a different ruling from the North Carolina Supreme Court, Tuesday's email from the board's top attorney to county election officials says.
Complicating matters further is the fact that both rulings came in the same lawsuit, but in different parts of the legal challenges that are currently at different levels of the courts system.
That other ruling, from 2021, came after Republican legislators who want to keep the law had appealed a lower court's ruling that it was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court sent it back down to lower courts, where it's still pending, and ordered that the status quo remain in place in the meantime — which has now created the confusion as to whether Monday's ruling is enforceable.
"We are currently working to determine how to implement this decision," the email says.
—What happens next?
Republicans have yet to appeal Monday's ruling. If they do, it's likely that they would also ask for Monday's order to be put on hold while that appeal goes through.
It would then be up to the North Carolina Court of Appeals to determine whether to grant that request. And if granted, the 55,000 people in question likely wouldn't be able to vote in the primary — but might be able to vote in November's general election. That would depend on how quickly the appeal makes its way through the system and how the higher courts rule on it.
