Thursday, January 02, 2020
Federal judge blocks ID requirement for voting due to racial discrimination
The Independent reports on an interesting case in the United States where a federal judge has blocked North Carolina’s new voter identification law, citing the state's “sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression”:
The decision by US district court judge Loretta Biggs will prevent state officials from requiring voters to show identification in the 2020 presidential election after critics said the law unfairly targets African-Americans.
North Carolina could be a key state in this year’s election as voters chose Donald Trump in the last presidential vote but also elected a Democratic governor in 2016.
Republican leaders in the state House and Senate have asked North Carolina’s Department of Justice to appeal Judge Biggs’ decision, which blocks the law until a lawsuit filed by the state NAACP and others is resolved.
“North Carolina has a sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression stretching back to the time of slavery, through the era of Jim Crow, and, crucially, continuing up to the present day,” Judge Biggs wrote.
The judge said the newest version of the law was similar to a 2013 law that was struck down by a federal appeals court in 2016.
In that case, the court said voting restrictions were approved with intentional racial discrimination in mind and the law targeted African-Americans “with almost surgical precision.
Although this ruling has no repercussions for the UK, it does underline that in most cases the introduction of a photo ID requirement for voting in advanced democracies is done for the purposes of voter suppression. Boris Johnson should take note.
The decision by US district court judge Loretta Biggs will prevent state officials from requiring voters to show identification in the 2020 presidential election after critics said the law unfairly targets African-Americans.
North Carolina could be a key state in this year’s election as voters chose Donald Trump in the last presidential vote but also elected a Democratic governor in 2016.
Republican leaders in the state House and Senate have asked North Carolina’s Department of Justice to appeal Judge Biggs’ decision, which blocks the law until a lawsuit filed by the state NAACP and others is resolved.
“North Carolina has a sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression stretching back to the time of slavery, through the era of Jim Crow, and, crucially, continuing up to the present day,” Judge Biggs wrote.
The judge said the newest version of the law was similar to a 2013 law that was struck down by a federal appeals court in 2016.
In that case, the court said voting restrictions were approved with intentional racial discrimination in mind and the law targeted African-Americans “with almost surgical precision.
Although this ruling has no repercussions for the UK, it does underline that in most cases the introduction of a photo ID requirement for voting in advanced democracies is done for the purposes of voter suppression. Boris Johnson should take note.
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What does the public think of voter ID when EVERYBODY has to show proof of identity? Beware the right wing media will sell it as a good thing as a vast amount of people get their info from this bias source. EVERYTHING the Tories do must be viewed as suspicion that it is to their benefit.
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