Via TP:
North Carolina’s sweeping package of voting restrictions will likely be in place for this fall’s general election, thanks to a decision Monday night from conservative federal Judge Thomas Schroeder. Voting rights groups are already sounding the alarm about the damage the policies could cause in a high stakes election year.
An appointee of President George W. Bush, Judge Schroeder argued in a nearly 500-page ruling that eliminating same-day voter registration, cutting a full week of early voting, barring voters from casting a ballot outside their home precinct, ending straight-ticket voting, and scrapping a program to pre-register high school students who would turn 18 by Election Day does not overly burden voters of color. He also upheld the state’s strict voter ID requirement, which residents argued was passed with the intention of suppressing African American votes.
North Carolina voters of color and the groups supporting them said Tuesday that they will “immediately” appeal, in hopes of reversing the damage before the general election in November.
“We know that people, particularly African Americans and students, have been disenfranchised by this monster voter suppression law,” said Dr. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP. “Yet the court upheld the most sweeping retrogressive voter suppression that we have seen since the 19th century and Jim Crow. Their decision is wrong.”