A group of N.C. State students and professors came to a consensus Monday that several parts of a voting law passed by the North Carolina General Assembly last summer are blatantly discriminatory.
The Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service held its first Compelling Conversations event in Witherspoon Student Center. The night’s discussion emphasized the aspects of the new North Carolina voting law that specifically affects college students and new voters. The law was passed last July after only three days of debate.
Topics included a requirement that voters have a government-issued photo ID to be able to vote, a shortened early voting period, and an elimination of both same-day registration and the ability to cast votes outside of home districts. Republicans have said these changes will help prevent voter fraud.
However the Compelling Conversations participants all said the changes are a blatant attempt to suppress certain demographics of voters. They also said that voter fraud is rare and very difficult to actually achieve.
The participants said that without a tangible threat of voter fraud, lawmakers sought to implement these policies for the sole purpose of increasing the difficulty of voter participation for those demographics that tend to vote democratically. These include college students, most minority groups and lower-income households.
Community Outreach Coordinator of the Student Leadership branch of CSLEPS, Spechel Wooten, said she sought to change the formality of informational panels. She said she wanted to move away from the model in which panelists spout facts at a crowd.
Compelling Conversations features an informal discussion between students and professors in which everyone is free to ask or answer questions about a chosen topic.
“We want to revamp [the panel] so students can actually walk away with more insight versus just getting a bunch of facts,” Wooten said. “We have discussion questions to provoke thoughts on how the changes could affect everyone in the world, not just individuals.”
At the end of the evening, organizers had to stop the discussion about voting rights due to time constraints and the second topic of education was not breached.
Janna Lebrose, a freshman in genetics, said she found the dynamic opinions and viewpoints informational and highly compelling.
“I really enjoyed all the interesting points, because there were very diverse arguments and positions,” Lebrose said. “I think it was good to get everything out there and see what the professionals or what people who really know what’s going on thought about it.”
Barbara Zelter a clinical assistant professor in social work, said she appreciated the opportunity to interact with students who seek knowledge of monumental civic changes to the laws in North Carolina.
“I really enjoy honoring students who have the gumption that try to educate themselves around civics,” Zelter said. “I think it’s important for students to know that faculty care about their initiatives and we care about them outside the classroom too.”
Zelter was arrested in April during a Moral Monday protest and recently appeared in court on charges of violating building rules, failure to disperse and trespassing.
“I’m part of the moral Monday movement, so this is my gig,” Zelter said. “I’m all about getting students more politically aware, knowing their civic rights and becoming engaged, so this is good.”
