Clinton is heavily favored among black Americans over Republican nominee Donald Trump. Eliminating restrictive voter ID laws and restoring measures that provide more options for voters to register and cast a ballot will strengthen our democracy.
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The law had been upheld by a district court judge in April, and North Carolina argued in court papers that the plaintiffs failed to prove the law was an “unconstitutional burden on any voters, much less African-American voters”.
In its ruling, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Fourth Circuit said the state legislature targeted African-Americans “with nearly surgical precision”.
The opinion on North Carolina’s law, from a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, said it was created with discriminatory intent by the state’s new Republican-led government.
This ruling is an enormous victory for voting rights, and not just because voter ID will no longer be required at the polls.
The laws approved by the General Assembly and signed by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory also reduced early voting from 17 to 10 days, eliminated same-day registration during early voting and barred the counting of Election Day ballots cast in the wrong precinct.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that Texas’ strict voter ID law discriminates against minorities and must be weakened before the November elections. The court also rejected lawmakers’ claim that the VIVA law was needed to combat voter fraud, describing the legislation as a bad fix to a non-existent problem. Unlike having to show an ID at the bank or to board an airplane or to buy Sudafed, voting is a sacred, constitutional right, the very basis of our democratic values.
But really, the North Carolina legislature littered its voting law with nearly comically obvious smoking guns.
The appeals court noted that the North Carolina Legislature “requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices” – then, data in hand, “enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans”. It was also shortly after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling changed the requirement that many Southern states receive federal approval before changing voting laws.
North Carolina State University students wait in line to vote in the primaries at Pullen Community Center on March 15, 2016 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Messages seeking comment weren’t immediately returned by the state’s Republican governor or legislative leaders.
In 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States gutted the Voting Rights Act, removing the requirement that certain states with a history of discrimination be “pre-cleared” before changing voting laws and procedures. He ordered the state to quickly issue credentials valid for voting to anyone trying to obtain a free photo ID for voting.
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In the Kansas ruling, a county judge said the state must count thousands of votes in local and state elections from people who did not provide proof of US citizenship when they registered.
