Suits challenge North Carolina's new voting law
Civil rights groups filed suits challenging North Carolina’s new voter ID law almost immediately after the governor signed the measure.
Gov. Patrick McCrory signed the voter ID bill on Monday, report Reuters, CBS News and the Washington Post’s Post Politics blog. The action makes North Carolina the first state to enact new voting restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the formula used to determine which jurisdictions have to get advance clearance before making changes to voting practices.
The bill requires voters to show a government-issued ID, shortens the early voting period from 17 to 10 days, and ends same-day registration.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed a suit challenging the end to same-day registration and shortened early voting. Meanwhile, the NAACP and the Advancement Project also sued. The lead plaintiff in the NAACP suit, 92-year-old Rosanell Eaton, will have to “incur substantial time and expense” because the name on her birth certificate doesn’t match the name on her driver’s license or voter registration card, the complaint says.
