Supreme Court denies McCrory’s request to reinstate voter ID
A request by Gov. Pat McCrory to reinstate North Carolina’s 2013 voter identification requirement and shortened early voting period was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
McCrory and Republican officials had asked for more time to appeal a July decision by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that struck down what they called “one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history,” saying it targeted African Americans with “almost surgical precision.”
“Pat McCrory needs to stop wasting state money and start living by the Constitution,” said Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville. “It’s hundreds of thousands of dollars. The attorney general [Roy Cooper, who will face McCrory on the ballot in November] advised him not to do it, but he wouldn’t listen to any of it.”
County boards of elections directors across the state like Haywood County’s Robert Inman had been dealing with a fair amount of uncertainty over the summer, complicating plans to roll out a smooth process in this year’s General Election that should feature relatively high turnout due in part to a competitive presidential race.
Prior to July 29, they had prepared to authenticate valid identification required at the polls, and to present a 10-day early voting period to the public; the Fourth Circuit’s ruling on that day removed the ID provision and returned the early voting period back to its pre-2013 length of 17 days.
But McCrory’s mid-August request to Chief Justice John Roberts meant that Inman and others would have to be ready for the possibility that they’d again have to comply with the 10-day early voting period and the voter ID requirements.
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Although McCrory’s effort has failed for now, it’s certainly not over; the Court’s refusal to grant him more time to file an appeal means that such an appeal won’t likely be heard before the November election, but may still be heard after it.
State Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, expressed confidence Aug. 1 that such an appeal on what she and other Republicans are calling a “common sense voter ID law” would be “ultimately upheld in higher court.”
However, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the N.C. NAACP, expressed gratitude in a Sept. 1 press release over what he said was the Court’s rejection of the state’s attempt to implement procedures that clearly held discriminatory intent.
“This critical rejection of the State’s position will allow the people of North Carolina to exercise the fundamental right to vote this November without expansive restrictions by racist politicians or racist policies,” Barber said.
