North Carolina State Board of Elections Officials Respond to Local Latino Committee Petition
The North Carolina State Board of Elections responded to a petition from the Latino Civic Engagement Committee — the organization calling for Latino voter turnout data to be readily available during elections.
State Board of Elections officials say they plan to move forward with including Hispanic demographics in their daily voter report.
Patrick Gannon, director of public information for the council, said the organization would also encourage counties to add ethnicity to their unofficial turnouts, but he says they cannot control their course of action and how they publish election information.
He says: “The data has always been there. It’s just, you know, how we’ve provided it to the public in a more digestible form. But anyone, for many years, could look at our absentee file and extract that data on ethnicity, race, gender, and other demographics as well.”
Gannon explains that this information will not be available for the 2023 municipal elections, but the council plans to add ethnicity to its daily voter record that will be released in the 2024 general election.
This story was produced through a partnership between WFDD and La Noticia. You can read this story in Spanish at La Noticia.
Eileen Rodriguez is a reporter for WFDD and La Noticia through Report for America, where she covers the impact of COVID-19 in Latin American communities.
La Noticia y 88.5 WFDD journalist, Eileen Rodríguez reports on the impact of COVID-19 on the Latina community in North Carolina. Rodríguez is a member of Report for America 2021-2022 reviewers
