Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Just shy of two months until Election Day, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has asked a federal appeals court to uphold an injunction on a law requiring residents to have a form of photo ID in order to vote in future elections.
The measure, which is Senate Bill 824 has been previously blocked by state and federal judges, according to The Hill.
The law will not be in effect for the November election, The Washington Post reported.
The state legislature passed the voter ID law in North Carolina after the same court struck down several restrictive voter laws in 2016, saying the provisions aimed to disenfranchise Black voters, The Hill reported.
Cooper’s attorneys argued that the lifting of the injunction at this point would be “disastrous,” according to The Hill.
“The brunt would be borne by the same voters whom S.B. 824 targeted for disenfranchisement in the first place: minority voters who are both least likely to possess photo IDs that satisfy S.B. 824 and most vulnerable to COVID-19.”
The three judges hearing the case are Pamela Harris, Julius N. Richardson and A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., the Washington Post reported.
Attorneys for the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP told the Court the state’s “unprecedented recent history of racially discriminatory election laws casts a long shadow” over the new photo ID requirement, according to the Washington Post.
“Putting aside historical facts, it doesn’t seem like you could really say this law would be unconstitutional,” Judge Quattlebaum asked the NAACP’s counsel. “Am I right or wrong?”
David H. Thompson, the lawmakers’ attorney, said that citizens without proper photo IDs can cast provisional ballots and pointed out free, no-documentation-required IDs are available, according to the Washington Post.
However, Judge Harris expressed concern that those additional steps could prove to be a burden on voters.
“As a voter, it’s obviously much easier to vote if you have an approved ID,” she said. “It is an extra amount of work. If you have to go through that, you have made it harder to vote.”
A supermajority in the North Carolina legislature overrode the governor’s veto to enact the 2018 law, the Washington Post reported. Voters in the state also approved a ballot measure to create a constitutional requirement that voters present a photo ID in order to vote, but did not specify what types of ID would be accepted.
Civil rights groups estimate hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians do not have a qualifying photo ID.
However, the state elections board and Republican legislative leaders have defended the photo ID requirement, saying the provision is not discriminatory, according to the Washington Post.
The voter ID law in North Carolina “is a state-of-the-art voter ID law that seeks to secure the State’s elections and bolster voter confidence while at the same time ensuring that all registered voters are able to cast a vote that will count, with or without ID,” attorney David H. Thompson wrote on behalf of Senate President Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, the Washington Post reported.
North Carolina is one of 18 states that ask voters to present a photo ID before allowing them to cast a ballot, according to The Hill. Seventeen other states have similar but more lenient laws.
In addition to the voter ID law in North Carolina, the elections board also signaled recently it would not try to block a rule from being enforced that would allow more convicted felons to vote; legislators could still appeal that ruling.
What do you think of the voter ID law in North Carolina? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
Pennsylvania Voters File Lawsuit Alleging Prohibitive Mail-In Ballot Signature Issues
Minnesota Mail-In Ballot Voter Witness Requirement Dropped
Health Side Effects of JUUL May Include Heart and Lung Injuries
2 thoughts onAppeals Court Mulls New Voter ID Law In North Carolina
You need a ID to buy alchohol or cigarettes, you need one to drive. Being someone whom asks on a daily basis for people to hand over a ID having a law to have one to vote is a good idea. As for anyone who says this is racist, maybe you need to think how racist you are being by saying that black folks don’t have a ID. Just a FYI people of all races have ID’s not just the white folks. Also so you know I have more black people whom have given white people direction’s to the DMV also so they know where it is they are no slow nor stupid so please stop treating them as less then you. Just think is is odd that you need an ID to smoke a cigarette but not to pick our leaders.
Back Gov. Cooper to protect our rights…the GOP has done every underhanded thing to Stop a fair election in North Carolina.