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Isabel Najera was excited to vote in her first election as a U.S. citizen in 2014. The North Carolina mother of four did everything right to cast a ballot that would count. She registered in time, went to the right polling place, and showed up to cast a ballot during early voting. But as she testified in federal court Tuesday, through no fault of her own, Isabel鈥檚 registration was lost and her vote did not count.

Isabel is one of dozens of witnesses testifying this week and next in the trial over North Carolina鈥檚 voter suppression law, without which Isabel鈥檚 vote would have counted. The 吃瓜直播 and are challenging provisions of the law that eliminated same-day registration, out-of-precinct voting, and a full week of early voting. Hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians used these voting options in previous elections before they were repealed by the state鈥檚 Legislature in 2013, in what many observers the worst voter suppression law in the nation.

Isabel was born in Mexico and came to the United States 21 years ago as a legal permanent resident. She worked as a migrant farm worker before getting a job with her local Headstart, teaching 2- and 3-year-olds life and socialization skills. While working, Isabel also earned her GED and eventually an associate鈥檚 degree in early childhood education.

On July 30, 2014, Isabel became a U.S. citizen. Later that year, Isabel went to her local DMV to obtain a commercial driver鈥檚 license so she could transport Head Start students on field trips and visits to doctor鈥檚 offices. While there, she was asked if she would like to register to vote. She said yes. It was the first week of October, and she was told she had registered in time to vote in the upcoming election.

On October 29, during North Carolina鈥檚 early voting period, Isabel went to cast her ballot at her assigned polling location. But when she got in line, election workers could not find her registration. 鈥淭hey said I wasn鈥檛 on the list and they sent me to a different line with a different person,鈥� she testified. 鈥淚 spent two hours over there and they never found my name on the list.鈥�

Ultimately Isabel cast a provisional ballot, but her vote was not counted 鈥� even though she did everything right. In previous elections, Isabel could have used same-day registration to re-register and cast a ballot during early voting鈥攅nsuring that her vote would count. For thousands of North Carolinians, same-day registration has served in past elections as a failsafe against unforeseen problems, guaranteeing they could still cast a ballot even if they had to update a piece of voter registration, or, as in the case of Isabel, their voter registration was lost through an error.

More than 90,000 North Carolinians used same-day registration in the last two presidential elections. In 2014, the first election under North Carolina鈥檚 voter suppression law, more than 11,000 registration forms were submitted during early voting. In years past, the people who submitted those forms could have registered and voted on the same day. But under North Carolina鈥檚 new restrictions, their votes no longer count.