GREENSBORO, N.C. — Ryan Routh, the Florida assassination attempt suspect, is a convicted felon from Greensboro.
He voted in the March primary and he voted in person. It's all in the public record of his voting history. Several News 2 viewers asked us: How did a convicted felon cast a vote? Isn't that illegal in NC?
It's true, that the law has changed a couple of times over the years, in fact just last year there was a change. But here's where the law stands now...
"If you have been convicted of a felony, you must be clear of your parole and supervision. That includes making sure that if you're still under release because of fines or restitution those are cleared up as well. So you have to be completely cleared of that felony to register to vote," said Charlie Collicutt, Guilford County Board of Elections, Director.
There is an entire flow chart from the U.S. Department of Justice to help you understand what is and what isn't allowed.
"If they were registered to vote and we removed them and then now they're clear they have to register again. It's not an automatic we get reports from various state and federal agencies about who, who to remove and there's database checks that when people register that it checks against to, to kind of at least throw flag up," said Collicutt.
In North Carolina people who are in prison or jail awaiting trial or maybe they're serving time but it's not a felony, they can still vote.