LOD: Gender Gap Among Voters

What’s the gap between registered voters by gender in North Carolina? Among whites, 53.5% of registered voters are women and 46.5% are men – a 7 percentage point gap, according to Democracy NC’s analysis of election data. For African Americans, the gap is much larger: 58% of registered black voters are women and only 42% are men – a 16 percentage gap, or difference of about 200,000 fewer black men than women. What explains this large gap? The single biggest reason is the disenfranchisement of citizens convicted of felonies in North Carolina – and the confusion about the restoration of their voting rights after the felony sentence is completed. African-American men are disproportionately represented among the nearly 150,000 people supervised by the NC Department of Correction (now Department of Public Safety) at any point during the year – people in prison, on parole or serving probation. Laws disenfranchising felons gained wider use in the South during the Jim Crow era and continue to vary state by state, sometimes becoming harsher as part of a larger voter suppression effort. North Carolina’s law, revamped several decades ago and again more recently, is not as bad as in some states, but many people don’t know how it works. The NC law basically says citizens regain their full voting rights after leaving the custody of the Department of Public Safety. They can register and vote like anyone else, without the need of any special document certifying release or restoration of rights; the temporary loss of voting rights automatically ends when the sentence is served, including any probation or parole. Organizers for the Washington-based Hip Hop Caucus were in Charlotte recently for a workshop to teach people about re-enfranchisement and the personal empowerment that comes through saying, “Respect my vote!”  If you’re interested in this vital area of voter education, contact Democracy NC at info@democracy-nc.org.