2018 midterm voter turnout in North Carolina was the highest its been in decades. But not everyone who wanted to cast a ballot was able to do so. A pre-election analysis from WRAL showed that a change in early voting requirements disproportionately affected rural and poor voters in North Carolina.
Residents in those counties were further away from their polling place than voters in wealthy or urban counties. And on election day, aging machines and a lack of education on voting rules posed challenges for voters.
Host Frank Stasio talks to WRAL investigative reporter Tyler Dukes about his reporting and scholar Irving Joyner about the ongoing gaps in voter access for North Carolinians. Joyner is a professor at the North Carolina Central University School of Law.