the coalition Protect Our Vote NC The coalition said it received more than 3,000 calls on its nonpartisan voter protection hotline, 888-VE-Y-VOTA, from October 15, the start of early voting, through Election Day on November 3. That was the most of any state, the coalition said, ahead of Pennsylvania and Texas.
Of those calls, 125 complaints involved voter intimidation and 112 involved in-person intimidation. police presence.
Five of the voter intimidation complaints involved Latino voters, according to data from Forward Justice, a member of the coalition.
Other concerns included 20 reports of aggressive campaigning and 24 reports of misconduct by election workers or disinformation.
Enlace Latino NC She spoke with Kat Roblez, litigation director at Forward Justice, to better understand what the data means.
“There have always been people who try to intimidate African American and brown voters in particular. But I think we have a very strong coalition, and now we’ve developed it to the point that no matter what part of the state you’re in, no matter what language you speak, you can call and talk to someone,” Roblez said.
Intimidation of Latino voters
Roblez said the coalition began receiving many more reports of intimidation against Latino voters during the 2024 presidential election.
“In the last two [election] cycles, we have noticed an increase in attacks directed at certain communities that are perceived as immigrant communities, because the narrative that there are non-citizens voting has circulated a lot,” Roblez stated.
Voting by people who are not citizens is illegal, and Proven cases are rareAccording to the Brennan Center for Justice, however, in 2024, during the presidential election, there were allegations that non-citizens were fraudulently registering to vote. This narrative fueled tactics of voter intimidation, according to Roblez.
For example, Roblez mentioned that in 2024 the Voter Integrity Project, a conservative election watchdog organization, placed signs in Spanish outside polling places that said, in translation: “If you vote without being a citizen, this is a serious crime, you will be arrested.”
The coalition pushed for the signs to be removed, but some reappeared this year.
“The same signs from the same organization, not in as many places, but we did receive complaints about those signs again,” Roblez explained.
Other tactics of intimidation against Latino voters
Roblez said the complaints also showed that some people were closely monitoring groups that offered help with the language at polling stations.
“There’s always some questioning about that [language help], even though everyone has right to carry someone "Have them translate for you," Roblez said.
Roblez said the coalition also frequently receives complaints about election workers who make comments about voters' names, such as "Why does he have so many last names?" or "His name is very difficult to pronounce."
“We definitely receive those calls, which makes people feel uncomfortable and intimidated because they can see that election workers are only making comments to certain voters,” Roblez said.
Police presence at polling stations
According to the coalition, of the 112 complaints of in-person intimidation and police presence, 23 involved law enforcement officers or private security at or near polling stations.
“There has always been concern about the police presence in the centers,” Roblez said.
But the intimidation isn't limited to police at polling places. It also stems from a broader fear of police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in communities during early voting.
“I think we need to take into account the general feeling that people have in their communities, especially in areas like Charlotte, because there has been an ICE presence and there have been arrests, even of citizens,” Roblez said.
For example, Roblez cited the case of Atilio Portillo, a citizen whom ICE stopped in his vehicle and handcuffed.
“That was during early voting. So I think that’s going to make people feel less comfortable going out to vote, especially if they’re part of a mixed-status family,” Roblez said.
The impact of SB 153
Due to the new state law that allows four state agencies Regarding the signing of agreements with ICE, Roblez commented that the coalition worked this year to quickly identify which agency the agents present at a polling station belonged to whenever it received a complaint of police presence.
“We really worked to make sure that when we received reports of police presence, we understood very quickly who it was. Is it the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police? Homeland Security? Is it private security?” Roblez explained.
Therefore, the coalition volunteers tried to ask what kind of clothing the officers were wearing and what kind of vehicles they were using, in order to understand the nature of the police presence. They also contacted county election boards to confirm whether the police presence had been officially requested.
You may be interested: How does North Carolina verify voter citizenship?
In which counties was there voter intimidation?
According to the coalition, reports of voter intimidation came from 47 counties.
The four counties with the most complaints during early voting were Guilford, with 14; Mecklenburg, with 13; Wake, with 10; and Cumberland, with seven.
The five reports of intimidation against Latino voters came from Wake, Catawba, Forsyth, Lee, and Moore counties.
On election day alone, hotline volunteers received 46 reports of voter intimidation; Wake County had the most, with six.
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