League of Women Voters of Dare County

06/19/2026

Juneteenth...The holiday is celebrated on June 19th (thus the name, Juneteenth) because, on that date in 1865, Union soldiers announced to enslaved persons in Texas that the US Civil War had ended and that they had been freed from bo***ge by the Emancipation Proclamation (two years prior in 1863). Freed Black and Afro-Indigenous people from Texas brought the celebration with them when they migrated to nearby places like Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Mexico and—even farther—to California, Oregon, and Washington state 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙤, 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙖
However, the fight for Black liberation was not resolved with the end of slavery and the close of the US Civil War. The US has failed to extend the promise of liberty to all, and while no one is more cognizant of that fact than Black—and Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous—people
"A mirror to the past, a map to the future: The Freedmen's Colony" here in Roanoke
A Union army formed what became known as the “Freedmen’s Colony” in May 1863. The freedmen were given plots of land and a community began to take shape: homes, churches, schools and sawmills were built. Haven Creek Baptist Church, the oldest African American church on Roanoke Island, was established during that time.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the majority of the freedmen were forced to give their land back as the government mandated. They began moving to other parts of the state, and the colony was decommissioned in 1867.

But some freedmen stayed. Eleven families came together and purchased 200 acres of land to set up homesteads. Three other men bought their own plots of land. By 1870, there were about 300 African Americans living on Roanoke Island, and many owned their own homes. Those who stayed worked hard to establish a life for themselves. And many of their descendants still live on or nearby Roanoke Island, like Darrell Collins, the late Virginia Tillett, and Rev. Dr. Michelle Lewis.
Information cited from:
"A mirror to the past, a map to the future: The Freedmen's Colony at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site" from Outerbanksforever.org

06/17/2026

🚨Senate Bill 1084 seeks to reduce North Carolina’s early voting period from 17 to 10 days.
https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewBillDocument/2025/9083/0/DRS35462-BKe-18

Early voting is now the primary way North Carolinians cast their ballots. In the 2024 general election, approximately 74% of all ballots in North Carolina were cast during in-person early voting. This method was chosen by Republicans, Democrats, and Unaffiliated voters alike.

🗣️As you contact your legislators, we encourage you to emphasize several practical considerations shared by voters and election officials across the state:
1. A longer early voting period gives voters more time to resolve registration and photo ID issues that may arise with new voters
2. Consistent early voting schedules help counties manage staffing and logistics more effectively
3. Reducing early voting days or locations can concentrate voter traffic into fewer days and create additional administrative strain
4. Early voting provides flexibility for working voters, caregivers, elderly voters, students, and rural communities
5. Supporting election officials with adequate resources is a more effective solution than reducing voter access opportunities

👉We encourage you to FIND and CONTACT your Legislators here: https://www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators

06/16/2026

🚨The North Carolina General Assembly is moving forward with HB 958: Election Law Changes, a sweeping 36-page elections bill that would significantly alter election administration across our state.

The bill may change when it reaches the Senate, however, as currently written, HB 958 would:
1. Prohibit State and County Board of Elections members from publicly encouraging voter turnout, limiting the role of election officials in promoting civic participation and voter education. This may be the most astonishing item in the bill.
2. Provide the State Auditor sweeping authority to audit county elections and access voting equipment, election records, DMV data, and election personnel. Because the bill grants substantial discretion over which counties are audited and how those audits are conducted, it raises concerns about selective enforcement and the potential for communities to be subjected to unequal scrutiny.
3. Create a new statewide post-election audit process that uses government databases to identify voters and ballots for review after an election.
4. Expand post-election voter challenges, increasing the likelihood that eligible voters could have their ballots questioned after they have already voted.
5. Increase reliance on database matches and government records to trigger voter challenges and voter list maintenance actions, despite the fact that government databases can contain errors or outdated information.
6. Impose additional requirements on military and overseas voters, creating new hurdles for some North Carolinians serving our country or living abroad.
7. Increase the party affiliation requirement for candidates seeking to run in a party primary from 90 days to one year, creating a higher barrier for citizens who wish to seek public office.
8. Ban ranked-choice voting, eliminating local flexibility to consider alternative voting systems in the future.

👎This version of HB 958 moves North Carolina towards a system that not only discourages voting but views voters with suspicion after they have voted, rather than helping eligible voters participate.
📣We encourage members to contact their legislators and members of the House Rules Committee immediately and urge them to oppose HB 958.
(Find your legislators: https://www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators.)

All residents of North Carolina are represented in the United States Senate by both Senators Ted Budd and Thom Tillis. Representation in the NC House, the NC Senate, and the US House is determined by district. Each resident of the state has one representative in each of those legislative bodies, det...

05/20/2026

🚨Attention Members!

Register for our Annual Meeting on Thursday, June 4, 2026 at Duck Woods Country Club starting at 11:30 am.
https://lwvdareannualmeeting2026.rsvpify.com/

Join us for food, laughter and always good company. See you there!!!

05/17/2026

🚨League Members and Supporters,

We need your voice before July 14, 2026. The NC State Board of Elections is proposing a rule change that would make it easier to reject an absentee voter's ballot. Please take five minutes to submit a public comment.

👉🏼Read the changes in detail at this link:

Comment on proposed rules pertaining to the photo identification requirement for in-person and absentee voting.

04/30/2026

The Supreme Courts decision to gut the Voting Rights Act "sends a clear message: racial discrimination in redistricting against Black voters and other voters of color is acceptable as long as you don’t say it out loud."

Read the full statement from the LWV of the US President here:

The League of Women Voters President Dianna Wynn and CEO Celina Stewart issued the following joint statement in response to the US Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, a case concerning the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965:

04/16/2026

Cape Hatteras Elementary School Mock Election

04/16/2026

🤩Ending the school year on a high note with Cape Hatteras Elementary School. Thank you for having us!

Our mock election experience will be back for the 2026-2027 school year. If your school wants to get on the list, reach out to [email protected] for details.

Dare County League of Women Voters returns to CHES for our 3rd Mock Election! 📚🗳️

All kindergarten through fifth-grade students read and reviewed the nominees for this year’s North Carolina Children’s Book Award during library classes over the past several weeks. The North Carolina Children's Book Award program is a children’s choice award where all students in our state are invited to read the nominated books and then vote on their favorite title. It is a great opportunity for students to discover new stories and authors. As we read the titles each week, students compared the stories and also kept track of their favorites by rating each title on review sheets. After reading and reviewing the twelve nominees on this year’s list, CHES kindergarten through 5th graders selected their favorite title in library classes. The top four books advanced to our “Final Four”.

On Tuesday, volunteers with the Dare County League of Women Voters returned to CHES and set up official voting booths for each homeroom to cast their vote to select our school’s winning title. League volunteers shared about the voting process with our students. All students were excited to pick their favorite book and receive “future voter” stickers once they dropped their ballots in the ballot box.

After all of the votes were counted, we are thrilled to announce that our CHES winner for 2026, with 76 votes, was Whale Song by Zachariah Ohora.

We look forward to continuing this partnership with the League again next year and can’t wait to see if our CHES-winning title matches up with the official NCLA award winner!

For more information about the Dare County League of Women Voters, find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lwvdarenc

To see all of the NC Children’s Book Award nominees and to find out the state winner for 2026, visit the NCLA’s website:
https://nccba.blogspot.com/p/2026-picture-book-nominees.html?_sm_au_=iVVfTTFsBWj6jBDPpV8jjKtLqsqFW

Dare County Schools

Dare Librarians

League of Women Voters of Dare County

NCLA: North Carolina Library Association

The Island Free Press