Groups denounce Spanish-language signs warning against noncitizen voting as an intimidation tool
Source: NBC News
Oct. 25, 2024, 6:19 PM EDT
During the first week of early voting in North Carolina, civil rights organizations operating voter intimidation hotlines in the state received over a dozen alarming calls from voters and residents about the proliferation of Spanish-language signs at polling sites warning noncitizens not to vote, even though it's already illegal and rare.
More than 500 of these bright yellow signs have been posted across the state by the North Carolina Election Integrity Team, an organization affiliated to the Election Integrity Network, a coalition of conservatives “dedicated to securing the legality of every American vote.”
The Election Integrity Network is run by Cleta Mitchell, a once-liberal Democratic Oklahoma legislator who has constructed a vast conservative apparatus promoting falsehoods about noncitizen voting. Mitchell, an attorney, also played a key role in trying to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. In North Carolina, the signs read in Spanish, “WARNING: if you are not a citizen of the United States of America, you cannot vote in elections. It is illegal! It is a crime. 18 U.S. Code § 611. You could be deported. Don’t do it!”
Kathleen Roblez, a senior voting rights council and litigation manager at Forward Justice, a legal organization helping operate one of the voter intimidation hotlines, said they recently received a call from a poll worker in Durham County who reported seeing the sign outside her voting site and expressed concerns over possible voter intimidation of Latino voters.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/north-carolina-spanish-signs-noncitizen-voting-denounce-rcna177252
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