The morning’s testimony began with video cross-examination of Dr. Lynne Vernon-Feagans, the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Early Childhood, Intervention and Literacy and Professor of Psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Dr. Vernon-Feagans is an expert in child poverty who has studied poor families living in three rural counties of North Carolina. Her video testimony (originally recorded on April 14, 2015) had been interrupted by a computer glitch on Tuesday.
Defense attorney Phillip J.Strach asked Dr. Vernon-Feagans if her previous study had been designed to examine voter behavior or gather data on voter history or preferences.
She said it had not. The study, called the Family Life Project, had looked at the challenges facing poor families in three rural counties. In her previous testimony Dr. Vernon-Feagans outlined a number of problems faced by poor rural families, including lack of access to reliable transportation, telephone or Internet service.
She said researchers had examined how these factors affected the families’ participation in community activities but did not focus on voting alone.
The data excluded urban counties.
Under cross-examination, Dr. Vernon-Feagans admitted the problems she described might not stop African Americans from voting.
Strach asked her if the problems she outlined could be the result of poor decisions made by the families studied.
“We don’t make judgements like that,” she replied.
Low-Literacy Voters and Fundamental Rights
Dr. Kathryn Summers, director of the Information and Interaction Design program at the University of Baltimore, took the stand next to discuss the hurdles facing semi-literate adults as they attempt to register and vote.
Dr. Summers specializes in designing online systems to help low-literacy adults access medical information and information about government services.
She said she has focused on voting for the past four to five years.
“We shouldn’t exclude any group in our society from that fundamental right,” she said.
Plaintiff’s attorneys had asked Dr. Summers to determine if VIVA would place burdens on low-literacy voters. She reported that “the provisions of H.B. 589 (VIVA) are going to pose significant problems” for low-literacy voters in North Carolina, most of whom are African American.
She called the State Board of Elections website “ludicrously unusable” for such voters, who often lack sophisticated computer skills.
She said same-day registration is a better option for such low-literacy voters because they can get direct assistance from poll workers.
In his cross-examination, Strach pointed out that Dr. Summers had conducted her research in Baltimore, Maryland, not North Carolina.
Dr. Summers explained that logistics made it impossible to conduct her study in North Carolina and complete it before the trial.
“You got some [of your research subjects] off the street, didn’t you?” Strach asked. “And at the train station?”
Dr. Summers explained that her team had gathered low-literacy Baltimore residents from a number of places, adding that low-literacy Americans tend to move frequently and lead unstable lives.
In the study Dr. Summer’s team had simulated registering online in North Carolina. Her subjects found the State Board of Elections website difficult to navigate.
Strach pointed out that some of her subjects had registered successfully in Baltimore in the past.
“In the real world they could register,” Strach said. “In your lab world they couldn’t.”
Judge Schroeder asked Dr. Summers what percentage of low-literacy voters use the Internet. Dr. Summers said she didn’t have any exact figures but that studies were being done.
She compared same-day registration to the access ramps in public places mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
“I wish the ADA applied to people with low literacy,” she said.
