Posted on 05/06/2024 3:48:15 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s photo voter identification law is set to go to trial Monday, with arguments expected to focus on whether the requirement unlawfully discriminates against Black and Hispanic citizens or serves legitimate state interests to boost public confidence in elections.
The non-jury trial in Winston-Salem begins more than five years after the state NAACP and several local chapters sued over the voter ID law enacted by the Republican-dominated General Assembly in late 2018.
This litigation, along with similar lawsuits in state courts, delayed implementation of the requirement until last year’s municipal elections. The 1.8 million voters who cast ballots in the March primaries also had to comply. State election data showed fewer than 500 provisional ballots cast because of ID-related issues in the primary ultimately didn’t count.
The November general election — with races for president, governor and other statewide seats — could see turnout three times greater than the primary. And the nation’s ninth-largest state is a presidential battleground where statewide races are often close.
A favorable NAACP ruling from U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs could block the requirement in the fall. The trial is expected to last several days, with Biggs already signaling in a document that she won’t immediately rule from the bench.
The NAACP lawyers contend the voter ID requirement, along with two other voting-related provisions in the 2018 law, violate the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act in part because lawmakers enacted them with discriminatory intent.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
It is not fair to hold blacks and browns up to the white man’s standards. That is settled law.
https://ballotpedia.org/Loretta_Copeland_Biggs
Biggs invalidates North Carolina law allowing individual voters to challenge residency status of other voters (2018)
On August 8, 2018, Judge Loretta Copeland Biggs, of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, invalidated a state statute permitting one voter to challenge the residency status of another, finding that the statute contravened the National Voter Registration Act. The case was initiated by the NAACP and others, who alleged that the practice disproportionately targeted black voters. Leah Kang, an attorney for the plaintiffs, praised Biggs’ ruling: “By purging dozens and sometimes of hundreds of voters at a time based on returned postcards, the state was disenfranchising eligible voters and violating federal law. This ruling ensures an end to this illegal practice.” Jay Delancy, North Carolina’s director for the Voter Integrity Project, whose volunteers initiated the residency challenges in question in an attempt to reduce the probability of voter fraud, said, “We followed North Carolina law scrupulously in filing more than 6,000 individualized voter challenges in 2016 and the local election boards acted properly in sustaining those challenges.”[6][7]
NAACP and Clear Air Carolina v. Moore and Berger
See also: NAACP and Clear Air Carolina v. Moore and Berger
On August 6, 2018, the North Carolina NAACP and Clean Air Carolina sued the General Assembly of North Carolina in the Wake County Superior Court. [8] The plaintiffs asked for four constitutional amendments—the Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment, Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment, Voter ID Amendment, and Income Tax Cap Amendment—to be removed from the ballot. The case was not decided before the election; voters approved the Voter ID Amendment and the Income Tax Cap Amendment, and voters rejected the Legislative Appointments to Commissions Amendment and the Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment.
The NAACP and Clean Air Carolina said that since some lawmakers were elected from districts that a federal court ruled were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, the existing North Carolina State Legislature was a usurper legislature. Therefore, the plaintiffs argued that the constitutional amendments should be invalidated.[9]
On February 22, 2019, Judge Bryan Collins ruled in favor of the NAACP and Clean Air Carolina, striking down the Voter ID Amendment and the Income Tax Cap Amendment. Judge Collins said, “Thus, the unconstitutional racial gerrymander tainted the three-fifths majorities required by the state Constitution before an amendment proposal can be submitted to the people for a vote, breaking the requisite chain of popular sovereignty between North Carolina citizens and their representatives. … Accordingly, the constitutional amendments placed on the ballot on November 6, 2018 were approved by a General Assembly that did not represent the people of North Carolina.”[10]
On December 31, 2019, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs ruled in favor of the NAACP and blocked the implementation of the voter ID requirement for the March 3 primary elections. In the conclusion of Biggs’ opinion, she said, “[T]he Court concludes that Plaintiffs have demonstrated a clear likelihood of success on the merits of their discriminatory intent claims for at least the voter ID and ballot-challenge provisions of S.B. 824.” Judge Biggs upheld the provision of S.B. 824 that increase the number of poll-observers from each party.[11]
No it isn’t.
And her verdict will be overturned however, all that matters is that it's in place on November 5th, 2024.
Will the NAACP be able to show that Black and Hispanic citizens are unable, forbidden or otherwise enjoined from obtaining a photo ID? This racist assumption will be interesting to watch play out.
It most definitely is true.
It doesn't matter. Their assertion will be taken as gospel truth, with no dissension allowed by the racist black judge.
Why is it so hard for blacks and Hispanics to get photo ID’s?
I have been showing my ID since I first started voting. It’s not that freakin hard. It is just about the cheat.
It has not been an issue in a single state it has been implemented.
Brainstorm:
Process voter I.D.’s at abortion clinics. These terminally disenfranchised groups all know where that is.
The NAACP claims the law was written with racist intent. The burden of proof is upon them, or should be.
EC
GA and TX now have very strict ID requirements to vote, both have been upheld by courts. However, I expect the Obama judge will rule against NC.
Can someone explain how it is harder for a Black American or Hispanic American to obtain an identification than it is for a White American? What am I missing? Do they have Whites’s Only days at the DMV?
The law which we passed by referendum in 2018 mirrors those in other states which have already been found to be constitutional. Plaintiffs can make no showing that Blacks or Hispanics or any other group is unable to obtain ID.
Of course they can't show that. Because they aren't. So they'll just scream RACISM! RACISM! RACISM!!!! in lieu of evidence. Its the only thing they can do.
Anyone who ”can’t get an ID” shouldn’t vote.
I want the complainant to explain how the photo voter identification law unlawfully discriminates against black and hispanic citizens without, at the same time, discriminating against White citizens. How is that possible?
Blacks and Latinos are MORE likely to have IDs because Blacks and Latinos don’t want to get hung up by the police.
Are you in law enforcement? Please provide data to back your position.
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