NC's highest court: Felons who registered recently can vote

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Certain felons released from prison or never incarcerated and who registered to vote recently in North Carolina will remain eligible as litigation over their right to vote continues, the state’s highest court has ruled.

The state Supreme Court, in a lawsuit challenging when North Carolina residents convicted of felonies have their voting rights restored, essentially declined to reinstate a order last month that declared any offender no longer behind bars could register. That order would have affected about 56,000 people who were still serving probation, parole or other supervision, according to court records.

On Sept. 3, the state Court of Appeals blocked last month’s trial order amid pending litigation filed by civil rights groups and ex-offenders challenging state law on the restoration of voting rights. Those plaintiffs immediately appealed to the Supreme Court, which late Friday declined to block the Court of Appeals order, but also declared it would be implemented only going forward.

That means a felony offender who registered between Aug. 23 and Sept. 3 — when the trial judges' order was in place and based solely on that order — can't be removed from voting rolls and “are legally registered voters" until told otherwise, the Supreme Court wrote.

So those offenders who registered will be able to vote in this fall's municipal elections. Early in-person voting for October elections begins Thursday. It wasn't immediately known how many people who qualified under the Sept. 23 order actually registered.

The plaintiffs in the 2019 lawsuit that led to the orders and appeals said Friday's ruling was disappointing but urged those who registered to cast ballots. The lawsuit contends current state law on restoring voting rights is racially discriminatory by disproportionately...