A federal judge is once again go to put the kibosh on North Carolina’s attempt to implement Voter ID in elections:
NBC NEWS – Republican attempts to require photo identification to vote in North Carolina are being thwarted again by judges hearing arguments that the mandate is tainted by bias that would deter black and Latino residents.
A federal court announced that next week U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs will formally block a photo ID requirement scheduled to begin in 2020. Unless the upcoming preliminary injunction is successfully appealed, the requirement will be halted until a lawsuit filed by the state NAACP and others is resolved.
Thursday’s short written notice from the federal court in Winston-Salem previewed Biggs’ order because state election officials were planning to expand efforts to educate voters about the ID law within days. Although the mandate would be carried out beginning with the March 3 primary, the requirement would actually start in just a few weeks with mail-in absentee ballot filers, who also would have to provide an ID copy.
The mandate identified several types of qualifying photo IDs and allowed people lacking one to get a free ID card or to fill out a form while voting explaining their “reasonable impediment” to obtaining one.
“…tainted by bias that would deter black and Latino residents…” I’ve just one question: Do black and Latino residents buy alcohol?
These arguments of racial bias are and will always be ridiculous. Heck, the law allows people who don’t already have a valid photo ID “to get a free ID card”. FREE!
It continues…
Voter ID was actually carried out in North Carolina’s 2016 primary elections as the result of a 2013 law. But a federal appeals court struck down several portions of the law in July 2016, saying photo ID and other voting restrictions were approved with intentional racial discrimination in mind.
Republicans strongly disagreed with that decision and put a constitutional amendment on the November 2018 ballot — a strategy designed to give the idea more legal and popular standing. The amendment passed with 55% of the vote. The legislature approved a separate law in December 2018 detailing how to implement that amendment. Lawsuits challenging that new law were filed immediately.
Lawyers for the state and local NAACP chapters told Biggs in a court brief that the latest version of voter ID is a “barely disguised duplicate” of the 2013 voter ID law and “carries the same discriminatory intent as its predecessor,” likely violating the U.S. Constitution.
The people voted on and passed Voter ID and yet leftists are still using the courts to stymie these common sense laws. It’s incredible. Why don’t they just admit that they can’t win without cheating!