In 2013, ADL wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice, urging them to investigate whether North Carolina’s Voter ID law complied with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and to subsequently take action against the law.
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A federal appeals court has overturned a 2013 North Carolina law requiring voters to show ID at the polls.
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. But the Fourth Circuit US Court of Appeals’ unanimous decision to strike down the law Friday shows the law was an undeniable tactic used by the state’s elected officials to not so subtly disenfranchise black voters. Questioning the three-judge panel’s impartiality, he noted all three were Democrats appointed by Democratic presidents and their ruling came one day after the Democratic National Convention. In North Carolina, restriction of voting mechanisms and procedures that most heavily affect African Americans will predictably rebound to the benefit of one political party and to the disadvantage of the other.
While Texas imposed the toughest photo ID rules, North Carolina’s law was the most expansive of any in the nation.
What’s more, “Although the new provisions target African Americans with nearly surgical precision, they constitute inept remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist”, the court wrote. Upon receipt of the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting an registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans.
“The Virginia General Assembly didn’t do the kind of stuff North Carolina’s did”, Chambers said. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the intent of North Carolina’s law was unmistakable. The appeals court ruling reinstates those provisions that civil rights groups, led by the state NAACP, said were used disproportionately by African-American voters.
The timing “looks pretty bad to me”, Floyd said, prompting murmurs of agreement from the courtroom packed with opponents of the law, some of whom traveled from North Carolina to the Richmond-based appeals court.
Steve Stone, a Republican and chairman of the Robeson County Board of Elections, is a strong supporter of the photo ID requirement, which he said “protects everyone’s vote”.
North Carolina’s 2013 election law was advertised as preventing voter fraud.
But Friday’s ruling explodes their fictions and makes it easier for all North Carolina voters to be heard and the state’s true values upheld. 589 had eliminated, including a week of early voting, same-day registration, out-of-precinct voting, and a preregistration program for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Steinburg said he felt the ruling was an attempt to help Democratic candidates, particularly presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in North Carolina.
In the Wisconsin lawsuit decided Friday, liberal groups challenged the laws saying they were unconstitutional and discriminate against the poor, racial minorities and younger voters who are more inclined to vote Democratic. The state’s Republican leadership – Senate Leader Phil Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore and Gov. That followed a ruling by a federal judge in Wisconsin that residents without a photo ID will still be allowed to vote.
Messages seeking comment weren’t immediately returned by the state’s Republican governor or legislative leaders.
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Dale Ho, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Projects, questions a witness during a court hearing on whether Kansas must count potentially thousands of votes in state and local races from people who’ve registered without providing proof of their US citizenship, Friday, July 29, 2016, in Topeka, Kan. They blasted the ruling as a partisan and emphasized the law was meant to make voter fraud more hard.
