In 2020, voters across the country and right here in North Carolina turned out in record numbers to elect leaders to deliver pandemic relief and rebuild our economy. Despite a deadly global pandemic, more than 5.5 million North Carolinians cast a ballot in the general election, representing 75% of those registered here in North Carolina.

To keep themselves and their loved ones safe, many North Carolina voters used the option to cast their ballot by mail in 2020. Nearly one in five voted by mail, a huge increase from previous years.

In response, a handful of politicians are trying to take us backward, attacking our freedom to vote and creating barriers to vote, especially for Black, brown, and indigenous communities. This is happening in state after state: in Georgia, Florida, Texas, and more. Since the beginning of the year, at least 14 states have enacted new anti-voter legislation. It is part of a coordinated effort led by secretive dark-money groups like Heritage Action for America, which wrote the bills behind the scenes and are pushing state lawmakers to pass them.

Now, this effort to deny our freedom to vote has come to North Carolina. Here is what the latest anti-voter proposals would do:

— Tie the hands of local officials to get the resources they need to administer safe and accessible elections.

— Create deliberate barriers to cast a ballot and have that ballot be counted if you choose to vote by mail.

If this had been law during the 2020 election, more than 11,000 vote-by-mail ballots would have been thrown away. Ultimately that’s the objective of these anti-voter bills.

While at the Public Schools of Robeson County, I was taught that democracy and participation in the democratic process were the most important fundamental values we held as a country. Any obstruction to the democratic process, and any system created for the purpose of disenfranchising voters, are violations of those fundamental values. The right to vote is the most basic right guaranteed to citizens.

Bottom line: This attack on our freedom to vote is un-American and unpatriotic.

There is no reason to compromise on the freedom to vote. A majority of North Carolinians oppose the proposed changes, and voters overwhelmingly support having options to cast a ballot, whether it’s by mail or early in person.

And there is especially no reason to compromise at this moment when more than 400 anti-voter bills have been introduced in 45 states. This is part of a national strategy to silence voters — particularly Black, brown, and indigenous voters. Our laws worked fine when the majority of voters who voted by mail were white. But now that more Black and brown North Carolinians are voting by mail, legislative leaders want to change the rules.

We must come together now to ensure that every North Carolinians can vote so that every voice is heard, and our elections reflect the will of the people. North Carolina lawmakers must not play into the hands of those who want to silence our voices.

Manny Mejia Diaz is the southeastern regional managing organizer for Democracy NC.