Neighbors on Call’s NC Policy Update for 4/04/22

Voting Rights

• “The voting rights of more than 50,000 North Carolinians remain in question as a lawsuit over just when the state must restore voting rights for people leaving prison moves through its third year… The underlying lawsuit, Community Success Initiative v. Moore, filed in 2019, argues that North Carolina’s long-standing felony disenfranchisement laws are unconstitutional, a vestige of Jim Crow laws meant to keep Black people from voting.” (More on this topic at Carolina Public Press.) Because this case has not yet reached a resolution, many people who would be affected by its outcome are not able to register to vote, even as absentee ballots are being mailed out for the May 17 primary elections and the April 22 voter registration deadline draws closer.

Health Care Policy

“The legislative committee considering Medicaid expansion and access to health care in North Carolina took up the contentious issue of allowing nurses with advanced degrees [to] diagnose illnesses and prescribe medicine without doctor supervision.”