Thirteen thousand people have signed a petition asking Governor Pat McCrory to order the DMV to stop producing Confederate flag license plates.

Members from two left-leaning advocacy groups had a special delivery for Governor Pat McCrory Thursday morning.

“A few of us from Progress NC and NC Action delivered 13,000 petition signatures to the governor’s office at the Capitol Building,” said Logan Smith, communications director for Progress North Carolina.

The petitioners asked the governor to order the DMV to stop producing North Carolina license plates with Confederate flags. McCrory spoke out against the use of the Confederate flag on state license plates in June after the shooting at Emanuel AME in Charleston.

“It was about a month ago today that Governor McCrory said he would like to take the Confederate flag off of North Carolina license plates, but he just doesn’t have the power,” Smith said.

McCrory argues the legislature would have to take action in order to stop production of Confederate plates. But some legislators and the petitioners say the decision is the governor’s.

“The governor appoints the secretary of transportation, who appoints the person in charge of the DMV. So that agency itself is directly under the governor’s purview,” Smith said.

The petition comes about a month after a Supreme Court decision ruling that states can refuse to issue Confederate flag plates. Virginia’s governor did just that in the wake of the Charleston shooting.

“This is about the symbols that the state chooses to put in the public view,” Smith said. “And whether they have a disclaimer that they don’t endorse it, they still can choose or choose not to display these symbols.”

The DMV has issued more than 2,000 Confederate flag plates to members of the North Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The governor’s office issued a statement on Thursday continuing the claim that the law doesn’t give the governor the authority to end the issuance of the license plates. Governor McCrory again called on the General Assembly to provide a legislative solution.

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