BBC Radio reporter and producer Giles Edwards first came to North Carolina to look at the politics of voting access in 2014. It was one year after the U.S. Supreme Court had gutted the Voting Rights Act and not long after North Carolina embarked on its own efforts to overhaul voting, including eliminating same-day voter registration and reducing early voting. That legislation was later struck down by the Supreme Court. Through conversations with politicians, activists and experts, Edwards created an audio analysis of the many ways North Carolinians were seeing their voting access change.
Four years later, in the lead up to the 2018 midterms, Edwards returned to the state to interview many of the same people and explore new limitations on voting access and the ongoing debate between Republicans and Democrats over voter fraud and voter suppression.
Host Frank Stasio speaks with Edwards about his audio documentary “The Dark Sides Of American Democracy” which airs this week on BBC World Service and is available online.