Early voting in North Carolina ended on October 31, and Black and brown voters in Charlotte cast their ballots in the middle of some of the most intense attacks on voting rights since the 1960’s.
In the past month, reporting by WBTV has revealed that officers with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) used a text thread to compete over who could pull over the most Black drivers, with conversations also including repeated racial slurs and discussions about using force against black residents.
Federal immigration agents held a U.S. citizen and his young nephew at gunpoint during a traffic stop, also in Charlotte. And Forward Justice, a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South, has received reports of police presence at and around polling places across the city and state.
These may sound like separate stories, but we know that together, they show how unchecked police power follows our communities from the roadside to the ballot box, and why this election matters so much for determining who holds that power accountable.
For Black families in Charlotte and across the state, the news about the CMPD text thread is not a shock, but another unfortunate confirmation of what we have known for years. The messages put into words the lived experience of far too many of our community members: being stopped, questioned, and searched not because of what they did, but because of who they are. They expose the racial bias that can shape how we are treated by police, and leave people feeling targeted in our own communities.
Views and opinions like this don’t stay in the group chat. They show up in who gets stopped, who gets searched, who gets arrested, and who gets charged.
According to data from NC CopWatch, our statewide law enforcement accountability tool, Black residents make up 33.7% of Charlotte’s population, yet in 2025 alone, they accounted for 53.5% of traffic stops, 80.9% of searches, and 88.9% of use-of-force incidents by CMPD. We also know that for Black and brown people, encounters with law enforcement can end in loss of life, even when we are complying and unarmed.
The harm doesn’t stop with local police. Nearly a year after federal agents carried out Operation Charlotte’s Web, arresting Latino immigrants and separating families across the city, ICE continues to operate in our neighborhoods. Last Wednesday, agents boxed in the pickup truck of Atillo Portillo, a U.S. citizen, on his way to work less than two miles from the Early Voting site at Independence Regional Library. Portillo said an agent pointed a gun at his face as they broke his windows and handcuffed both him and his nephew, also a citizen, for nearly 30 minutes while they verified their status.
Black people recognize this pattern. A vehicle is stopped on pretext, the people inside are forced to prove they belong, and violence comes before any reasonable explanation. Whether the badge says CMPD or ICE, the result is that our communities are treated as suspects first. And for Black immigrants, including Haitian, Jamaican, Nigerian, and Somali families who all call Charlotte and the state of North Carolina home, these two systems overlap every single day.
These situations are also a reminder of why elections matter. At the same time that these reports are exposing the consequences of unchecked police misconduct, the North Carolina General Assembly has eliminated a critical tool for transparency and holding law enforcement accountable. As part of the state budget, lawmakers repealed the statute requiring law enforcement agencies to collect and report data on traffic stops. That repeal took effect July 1, 2026, ending the state’s mandatory traffic stop reporting program.
This is the context in which Charlotte is voting. Historically, law enforcement officers have been used as instruments of voter suppression and racial terror, so it’s understandable that police and law enforcement presence at and around polling places can make voters, especially Black and brown voters, think twice about casting a ballot. T
hat’s why laws exist in North Carolina that make voter intimidation by law enforcement a misdemeanor crime. It’s why federal law prohibits armed troops and other officers from being stationed at polling places. Unfortunately, it’s also why almost a third of the calls that Forward Justice has fielded from voters and volunteers have been reports related to police or law enforcement presence at the polls.
After this news about CMPD, and with ICE active in our neighborhoods just down the street from polling locations, that fear is understandable. But no one should feel watched, intimidated, or unwelcome at the polls. As Attorney General Jeff Jackson has made clear, voter intimidation is a serious crime in North Carolina under both federal and state law, and that includes intimidation by law enforcement.
Every eligible voter has the right to vote free from intimidation, and we encourage people to exercise that right to ensure their voices are heard. We must not allow these same fear-mongering tactics to silence the communities that need to be heard the most. If you live in North Carolina and you experience or witness voter intimidation, call or text the statewide Voter Protection Hotline at 888-OUR-VOTE, and our team of attorneys and advocates will assist you.
We call on CMPD to conduct a thorough review of the traffic stops conducted by the seven officers implicated in the text thread,hold them accountable for all discovered misconduct, and adopt a policy ending all regulatory and equipment-related stops, following the example of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.
We also call on state officials to restore the mandatory statewide traffic-stop data reporting requirement. We urge every eligible North Carolinian to vote early and consider these issues when deciding who should shape the future of public safety and accountability in our state.
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