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[The New York Times](
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Saturday, August 4, 2018
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[Taranta Holman, 28, voted for the first time in 2016, at the urging of his mother. Now he faces a felony charge for filling out that ballot.](
Taranta Holman, 28, voted for the first time in 2016, at the urging of his mother. Now he faces a felony charge for filling out that ballot. Travis Dove for The New York Times
[Adeel Hassan](
[Adeel Hassan](
Twelve people in Alamance County â a patchwork of small towns in North Carolina â have been charged with voting illegally in the 2016 election. Nine of the 12 defendants are black. The penalty for voting illegally in the state is up to two years in prison. In the interview below, [Jack Healy]( the national correspondent who reported on the cases, answers questions about the story and election law in the United States.
How did you learn about the Alamance 12? Who are they?
The way you find so many incredible stories â by sheer dumb luck. This spring, I had been talking with rural organizers in North Carolina about their efforts and priorities going into the 2018 midterms, and one of them asked me, Have you ever heard of the Alamance 12?
I read a few stories about the case in the local newspaper and learned they were convicted felons who appeared to have largely voted by accident in the last election, and that nine of the 12 were black. I knew in an instant that I needed to write about this case. It took me a few months of on-and-off efforts to get some of the 12 and their lawyers to agree to talk with me. Thatâs when I got on a plane.
How do voters who are ineligible to vote still end up on the voter rolls?
Ineligible voters can end up on the rolls because of mistakes and imperfect elections databases. When you move from one state to another, you donât always automatically get taken off your old stateâs registration list. People convicted of crimes or who register even though they are not citizens are not always instantly culled by elections databases.
And in some states you have the opposite issue â a veteran in Ohio who sat out a few elections was removed from the voter rolls as part of Ohioâs move to aggressively purge its voter lists. The fight over that policy reached all the way to the Supreme Court, which [issued a divided ruling]( that Ohioâs approach was lawful.
What does the law actually say about what a citizen is required to have with them in order to vote?
This seems like a simple question, but itâs actually a doozy because thereâs no single law that governs voting in this country. We have federal laws that seek to ensure peopleâs right to vote. We have Constitutional amendments that lay out a few fundamental rights â that women can vote, that 18 is the national voting age, that voting cannot be denied because of race.
But we also have 50 states with their own election laws and wildly varying rules. They get to regulate early voting, what kinds of identification voters need to show to prove their identity, whether felons can vote, how ballots are cast and counted. And this is where huge political and legal battles over voter fraud and discrimination are now unfolding.
Some states do not require identification at all when you go vote. But other states â many of them Republican-controlled â have passed laws demanding photo identification or some proof of citizenship from voters. Critics say these laws discriminate against low-income voters, younger voters and racial and ethnic minority groups.
Why would illegal voting be classified as a felony?
Improper voting by a convicted felon is a low-level felony in North Carolina, but itâs still treated as a serious crime, punishable by up to two years in prison. A conviction affects your record. It puts you at risk of being labeled a habitual offender. And it doesnât matter whether you intended to defraud the election system, or whether you simply didnât know the law.
Unlike [several other states]( North Carolinaâs laws about felons voting donât mention intent, and prosecutors donât need to prove that people knew they were committing a crime. They just need to show two things: The person was ineligible. And they voted.
Most prosecutors in the state did not file charges after the state found that 441 felons had voted improperly. But the district attorney in Alamance County was an exception â he said that defending the integrity of the election system was important, and he filed charges.
What happens next for the Alamance 12? Will there be trials? And will the outcome have implications outside of North Carolina?
Three of the 12 have pleaded their cases down to misdemeanors just to be done with the ordeal. The others could decide to fight, and that would mean criminal trials unless the district attorney decided now to drop the charges. They do not have the strongest defense because itâs hard to argue they did not, in fact, vote. But they could argue they were never told they had lost their voting rights. They could try to call probation officers or other court officials as witnesses to testify to that. They could essentially ask a jury to acquit them because they never intended to break the law, even if they technically did.
This may just be the story of 12 people in a small North Carolina county, but I think itâs interesting and important. Itâs about race, history, voting rights, access to the ballot box and so many of the other issues that are swirling in the fight over a basic American right. If thereâs a trial, I hope to be there to bring you the rest of the story.
[Read:[Arrested, Jailed and Charged With a Felony. For Voting.](
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Secrets of Harvard Admission
[]
Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times
This week we learned more about Harvardâs admissions process through court filings in a lawsuit accusing the university of violating federal civil rights in a way that discriminates against Asian-Americans. We offer a brief excerpt here:
By Anemona Hartocollis, Amy Harmon and Mitch Smith
The sorting begins right away. The country is divided into about 20 geographic âdockets,â each of which is assigned to a subcommittee of admissions officers with intimate knowledge of that region and its high schools.
Generally two or three admissions officers, or readers, rate applications in five categories: academic, extracurricular, athletic, personal and âoverall.â They also rate teachersâ and guidance counselorsâ recommendations. And an alumni interviewer also rates the candidates.
Harvard says it also considers âtips,â or admissions advantages, for some applicants. The plaintiffs say the college gives tips to five groups: racial and ethnic minorities; legacies, or the children of Harvard or Radcliffe alumni; relatives of a Harvard donor; the children of staff or faculty members; and recruited athletes.
Whether Harvard gives a penalty â in effect, the opposite of a tip â to Asian-Americans goes to the heart of the current litigation. A 1990 report by the Education Department found that, while Harvard was not discriminating against Asian-Americans, it was not giving them a tip, either.
A 2013 internal report by Harvard found that being Asian-American was negatively correlated with admission, as did an expert analysis for the plaintiffs. But using a different statistical approach, Harvardâs expert found a modest bump for two subgroups of Asian-Americans â women and applicants from California â belying, Harvard said, the overall claim of discrimination.
[Read: [âLopping,â âTipsâ and the âZ-Listâ: Bias Lawsuit Explores Harvardâs Admissions Secrets](
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[Mas Okui and his granddaughters visiting the internment camp in Manzanar, Calif. He was held during there World War II. Follow @racerelated on Instagram for more photos.](
Mas Okui and his granddaughters visiting the internment camp in Manzanar, Calif. He was held during there World War II. Follow @racerelated on Instagram for more photos. James Tensuan for The New York Times
Join us at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesdays as we examine topics related to race and culture on The Timesâs [Facebook page](. This week we discussed how racial and ethnic tensions are heating up pools around the country. [[Watch](
Join us on Aug. 6 in Asbury Park, N.J. to view five short films from Op-Docs, The Timesâs Emmy-winning short documentary series. Hear from some of the filmmakers afterward. The program will include âThe Rebel Puppeteers of Sudanâ by Roopa Gogineni, about a satirical puppet show that mocks an authoritarian ruler, and âThe Blue Lineâ by Samantha Knowles, about racial tensions in her hometown. Use promo code RACERELATED for $5 off the ticket price. [[Tickets](
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Here are some of the stories that weâre talking about, beyond The Times.
A Chicano Renaissance? [[NBC News](
Herman Melville Answers Questions About Racism With Lines From Moby Dick [[McSweeneyâs](
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Chicago Hiked the Cost of Vehicle City Sticker Violations to Boost Revenue. But Itâs Driven More Low-Income, Black Motorists Into Debt. [[ProPublica Illinois](
Editorâs Picks
We publish many articles that touch on race. Here are a few you shouldnât miss.
[A Poem in The Nation Spurs a Backlash and an Apology](
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
After a white poetâs use of African-American vernacular was criticized for being offensive, the magazineâs poetry editors apologized.
[New Yorkâs Economic Spending Shortchanges Nonwhite Communities, Report Says](
By VIVIAN WANG
A new report found that the $5 billion awarded through one of Gov. Andrew Cuomoâs signature development programs has gone to mostly white communities.
[The Azmi Sisters Go Hard in Ball Hockey. Donât Act So Surprised.](
By CURTIS RUSH
Six young Muslim sisters with hijabs and hockey sticks are forcing Canadian sports fans to expand their view of who athletes can be and what they can wear.
[In My Iowa Town, We Need Immigrants](
By ART CULLEN
Some state Republicans were for building a border wall before Donald Trump gave it a thought. But in many rural areas, immigrants are keeping the place alive.
[Racism at American Pools Isnât New: A Look at a Long History](
By NIRAJ CHOKSHI
Swimming pools, which exploded in popularity a century ago, are supposed to be places to relax, but black Americans have long faced harassment and violence there.
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