A Major Win in North Carolina ... AMAC ACTION
T his August, AMAC advocates helped achieve a major victory for election integrity in North Carolina. After continued pressure from the people of North Carolina, the Republican-led legislature intro- duced a bill to safeguard North Caro- lina’s elections. The bill includes provisions to ban the private funding of elections, a crucial step to protecting against dangerous and undemocratic efforts like Mark Zuckerburg’s “Zuck Bucks,” which funneled millions of dollars to local election offices to get out the vote in heavily Democratic precincts. The bill also removes noncitizens from voter rolls, retains election records for 22 months, and requires all mail-in ballots to be received on or before election day — as is the standard in the majority of states. Each of these measures is critical to protecting citizens’ right to vote and ensuring that elections cannot be manipulated or abused by bad actors. Yet, Democrats oppose these common-sense measures, which would undermine their ability to ballot harvest and count the votes of noncitizens.
As left-leaning groups criticized the bill and falsely claimed that it was an “assault on the right to vote,” a hand- ful of squishy Republicans began to buckle to the left’s fear tactics. Before the vote was scheduled, members of the Republican leadership stripped the bill of the crucial measures mentioned above. Immediately, AMAC Action mobi- lized AMAC members in North Caro- lina, and within a matter of days these advocates sent 22,000 messages to legislators in the state, urging them to put these critical election-in- tegrity provisions back into the bill. Working with our partners at the North Carolina Election Integrity Team (NCEIT), we made thousands of contacts to hold Republicans accountable. Before long, one state legislator appealed to Jim Womack, President of the NCEIT, and asked him to “call off the dogs,” confirm- ing that the AMAC messages were being heard. Once state legislators realized that tens of thousands of North Carolina voters were advocating for these election-integrity measures — and knew that voters would hold them accountable — the Republican leader- ship reversed course and did the right
thing. On August 16, both Republi- can-controlled houses passed the bill. Jim Womack credited AMAC members for their critical role in this major legislative victory. “Because of the hundreds of calls, emails, and faxes from AMAC members, several of our legislators were moved to support important changes in North Carolina statutes,” he wrote in a letter of thanks. “We will forever owe AMAC a debt of gratitude for mustering conservative voices in defense of free and fair elections.” But the story doesn’t end there. One week after the legislature passed the election reforms, Democrat Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill. Republi- cans have the votes to override his veto — and now they must have the courage to deliver. The story of AMAC Action’s grass- roots campaign in North Carolina underscores the power of our mission. We exist to amplify the voice of mature conservative citizens across the country who care about our sacred rights enshrined in the Consti- tution and want to preserve American values for the next generation. We give Americans over 50 — one of the largest constituencies in our coun-
38 • AMAC Magazine
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