Some of the new changes to elections laws that Republican state lawmakers passed into law late last year are likely unconstitutional and should be blocked from going into effect — at least until problems with North Carolina’s same-day registration system are fixed — a federal judge ruled over the weekend.
Sunday’s court order means those new rules likely won’t be used in this year’s elections, when North Carolinians will be voting for president, governor and most other key political positions. The now-blocked changes to the law would’ve affected people who use same-day registration during early voting. That process lets people register to vote, or update their address, and then immediately cast a ballot.
The judge found that the new rules would’ve violated voters’ due process rights, in part by throwing out potentially legitimate ballots without giving voters a chance to fight that decision.
The changes were included in a wide-ranging law that made many other changes to the rules for elections ahead of 2024. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill last year but Republican state legislators overrode his veto to pass it into law.