The voting rights attorney, who argued NC’s partisan gerrymandering case at the U.S. Supreme Court last year, makes the case for opening up voting during the pandemic.
Allison Riggs is the chief counsel on voting rights and interim executive director at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, where she leads the organization’s voting rights program.
Riggs spearheaded the legal fight to combat voter suppression and gerrymandering in North Carolina. And she’s argued twice before the United States Supreme Court, most recently in 2019, when she litigated North Carolina’s partisan gerrymandering case.
Riggs joined me Tuesday afternoon to talk about the case for election reforms, as North Carolina and every state in the nation prepares for a frantic 2020 election in the midst of a pandemic.
Democrats and Republicans in the state have been jousting over this year’s election, with progressives warning that, if COVID-19 remains a dire threat in November, the state needs to be ready to find other ways for people to vote, including mail-in voting.
Republicans have been cool to that proposal, with Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger writing last month that he had “zero trust” in a voting reform process led by Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration and state election officials. However, Berger’s leadership in the General Assembly has produced several allegedly gerrymandered maps, maps Riggs battled to have turned over in recent years.
Riggs says the state needs to keep an open mind about the issue.
“As traumatic and tragic as the current pandemic is, we also have to keep an eye on the fact that if our democracy dies at this time, we’ve lost more than we can ever recover from,” Riggs told Cardinal & Pine.
The voting rights expert also expressed “awe” for the voters who risked their health to turn out in the April 7 primary election in Wisconsin.
For more on Riggs’ interview, watch the video below.
Politics
Biden makes 4 million more workers eligible for overtime pay
The Biden administration announced a new rule Tuesday to expand overtime pay for around 4 million lower-paid salaried employees nationwide. The...
Biden administration bans noncompete clauses for workers
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted on Tuesday to ban noncompete agreements—those pesky clauses that employers often force their workers to...
Local News
The 5 most believable UFO sightings ever reported in North Carolina
Read about five alien encounters that may forever remain unexplained. When you think of the most common places where you might hear a UFO sighting...
Good News Friday: It’s a good day to be a fan of the NC State Wolfpack
The men's and women's teams will compete for a national championship in college basketball this weekend. Plus: How to watch the solar eclipse, and...