“We are pleased that the legislature has taken steps to make North Carolina’s voter ID requirement less onerous than originally designed, said Bob Phillips with Common Cause North Carolina, while noting that he and others are “still deeply concerned about voting barriers created by the sweeping 2013 elections overhaul.”
On July 13, voting rights advocates led by the NAACP will argue before a court in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that the law unconstitutionally burdens voters of color and low income voters, who disproportionately lack the required forms of ID. They also plan to hold a march and rallyunder the banner “This is our Selma” — linking their current struggle to the demonstrations in 1965 that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Arguing that race-based voter suppression is not a thing of the past, the plaintiffs are citing a new investigation by the organization Democracy North Carolina found that the state’s restrictions depressed voter turnout by at least 30,000 North Carolinians in the 2014 midterm elections. They also found that Africans Americans were more likely to be given a provisional ballot, thousands of which were rejected and not counted.