Author: Karen Brinson Bell, Executive Director
On Sept. 4, 2020, a Wake County Superior Court entered an injunction requiring that individuals serving an extended term of probation, parole, or post-release supervision solely because of outstanding monetary obligations (fines, fees, or restitution) be permitted to register and vote.1
Voters may now register to vote if all the following criteria apply:
- The voter is serving a term of extended probation, parole, or post-release supervision;
- The voter has outstanding fines, fees, or restitution as a result of their felony conviction; and
- The voter does not know of another reason that their probation, parole, or post-release supervision was extended.
Voters who are currently serving a felony sentence and do not meet all three criteria are not permitted to register to vote.
Voters who are now eligible to register and vote under the court order must re-register to vote if they were previously registered. The State Board is sending a letter and voter registration form to voters identified as potentially eligible to register to vote under the order.
An updated voter registration form is available on the State Board’s website in English and in Spanish. You may direct voters with questions about the order to the Notice of Restoration of Voting Rights to Certain Individuals on Extended Probation (PDF) on the State Board’s website and attached to this memo.
Individuals who may now be eligible to register to vote under the order are now flagged in the data the State Board receives from DPS. As of tomorrow, Sept. 24, 2020, the State Board will process the data so that the felon data provided to the county boards of elections will no longer includes these potentially eligible individuals. This data is used for automated list maintenance processes for denials and removals due to felony conviction flagged by SEIMS and for the Felony Conviction Reports found on the intranet.
Staff are working to determine whether it is possible to update forms in SEIMS used for in-person voting. If you have forms that you use outside of SEIMS or if your county does not use the standard forms provided by the State Board (e.g., ATV, One-Stop Application, etc.), you will need to update the language to reflect the new attestation on the voter registration form. A sample of the updated attestation is included here for reference.
[Download the PDF below for screenshot]
The following forms are being STEPPS: the ATV, One-Stop Application, Notice to Same-Day Registrants, and Provisional Application. Letters and notices, including the denial and removal letters, will also be updated in SEIMS.
Individuals who have been discharged from probation are also eligible to register and vote, even if they still owe money or have a civil lien. These individuals do not appear in the data the State Board receives from DPS because they are not serving a current felony sentence.
1 Community Success Initiative v. Moore, No. 19 CVS 15941, Order on Inj. Relief at 10 (Wake Cty. Sup. Ct.).
[Download the PDF below for a screenshot of the updated attestation and the notice attachment.]