WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — In 2013, the Republican controlled North Carolina legislature, along with Republican Governor Pat McCrory, passed the Voter Information Verification Act (VIVA) that ended same-day voter registration, as well as imposed stricter voter identification laws.
"No one seems to have noticed that those changes added more than a third of a million miles to the distance between black voters’ homes and their polling places," the study, released on Monday, stated.
From 2012 to 2014, North Carolina increased the number of its early voting sites, but made substantial changes at the locations, according to Insightus.
"While the average white voter’s distance to his or her nearly early voting site increased by just 26 feet in 2014, the average black voter’s distance increased by a quarter mile," the study found.
The aggregate increase in distance for white voters was 21,000 miles compared to more 350,000 miles for black voters, the study added.
At least 113 bills have been introduced or carried out in 2015 that aim to restrict access to voter registration in more than 33 US states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
