Tens of thousands of people in North Carolina serving punishments for felony convictions but who aren’t behind bars can now register to vote and cast ballots

Following an appeals court decision, thousands of people in North Carolina who are currently serving sentences for felonies but are not in jail are now eligible to register to vote and cast ballots.

The State Board of Elections announced that on Wednesday, the day after municipal elections were held in more than a dozen communities, the process of broadening who is eligible to register and vote officially began.

The legislation that forbids someone convicted of a felony from having their voting rights restored while they are still on probation, parole, or post-release supervision was challenged in court, leading to the revision.

The law was declared unconstitutional by a panel of trial judges in March, partly because it discriminates against Black citizens.

An appeal of that judgement was granted permission by the state Supreme Court in May, and the matter is still pending.

However, the justices did not change a Court of Appeals decision that only allowed for the fulfilment of registration requests from felons who were not in jail or prison as of Tuesday.

These applicants will therefore be able to cast ballots beginning with the general election in November, unless the Supreme Court overturns the trial court’s decision.

According to evidence used in a 2021 trial, the contested statute blocked more than 56,000 persons from registering in North Carolina.

In North Carolina, there are about 7.3 million voters that are registered to vote.

Voting rights activists planned an event for late Wednesday in Raleigh’s downtown to highlight the modifications and start contacting offenders to assist them in registering.

The Rev. William Barber of Goldsboro, a co-chair of the national Poor People’s Campaign and a representative of organisations that first contested the law in 2019, is among the speakers.