2007, a local republican challenged the voting rights of 18 students at elizabeth city state at the historically black college. he said they didn t really live at the school. all of those challenges failed. then in november 2012, four students who voted in that election got their votes challenged, too. then a few months later in april 2013, there were so many challenges to elizabeth city state voters that the hearing lasted for hours. they challenged 60 voters that day, almost all of them students, at this mostly black college. 56 students had their names struck from the voting rolls in that round. and you know, you might say, why is this one school getting all these challenges while the other school in town says no problem? we re voting, we re never getting challenged and it s all okay. is it because one school is mostly black and the other one is mostly white? is it because one school is bigger? because one school is more conservative? or is it just because of this guy? all those cha
is it because one school is bigg bigger? because one school is more conservative? or is it just because of this guy? all those challenges to the student voters at the local historically black college were brought by one guy. his name is pete bigilbert, on e right, sitting at the table. he s going through students names. student name after student name. if you ve been registered to vote in recent years an encounter with him is likely for you. he lives in the same city ward that includes this historically black mostly african-american school. he says he challenges voters from that school specifically because that is his home precinct. elizabeth city state is on his turf. in north carolina, as that local republican has been trying to kick students off the rolls, he s relied on part of the law that lets you challenge people who vote in the same precinct as yours. the law also would have allowed him to challenge the student voters at the other school at
the other one is called mid-atlantic christian university. used to be called roanoke bible. it s a much smaller school. it s private, religious, mostly a white school. like the historically black school across town, mid-atlantic christian is a civic-minded place. every year they hold a voter registration drive so students can register to vote from school and the school shuttles them downtown to polling places. it s a priority for the school. they take it seriously. i think it s important for us to be involved with our local community as well as national issues when we have presidential elections. so we re responsible as citizens to be a part of what s going on in the world around us. in his seven years at mid-atlantic, vice president ken green says he s never known a student having a problem to register to vote or voting for the school. it s not a problem in atlantic christian. across town at elizabeth city state, students who try to vote from that school, they ve been running into
done? how this might be done in the rest of the state? because this is what she saw that day. acrosses north carolina, republicans have just gained control of all the boards of elections for the first time in 20 years. big state elections board, county boards, republican control all of them because there s a republican who holds the governorship. the new republican majority in the local board here in this case didn t question whether montravius king lived at school for four years. that was not the issue. what they questioned was whether living at school is enough to make you a resident and they said it is not. and in making that decision, they accepted a legal framework for disqualifying students from voting in local elections. that s how reporter john hawley put it. he s talking about students at the black school in elizabeth city. this development could very well affect every student voter, every college, in the state. if that precedent was set, if
as well as the 850 that we lost from the 50 school closings. we are standing up and fighting back. we are taking action. and right now, we re just keeping in prayer with each other and keeping each other lifted. shoniece, are these mostly socially economically challenged neighborhoods? explain them. they are low income african-american communities and latino communities where the schools were closed. but as far as the budget cuts, those are all across the city. kelly high school, predominantly latino. african-american school. they have lost their band and their instructor. so they don t have any music. marcus garvey lost three classroom teachers. we didn t lose music or art, but we lost three classroom teachers. and we already have 25 children in the classroom. so it s really all across the city, we experienced budget cuts.