Tag Archives: voter ID

Courthouse News reports: The Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday that a citizen-initiated grand jury petition can investigate Secretary of State Kris Kobach on allegations that he intentionally failed to register qualified voters. Petitioner Steven Davis gathered enough signatures to file a petition in Douglas County Court in August 2017. The petition sought a grand jury investigation of Kobach for …

Bloomberg reports: The U.S. Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow to the voter-identification movement, refusing to reinstate North Carolina ballot restrictions that a lower court said target blacks “with almost surgical precision.” Turning away the appeal by state Republican leaders, the justices left intact a ruling that said the provisions were racially discriminatory in violation of federal voting-rights law. In …

The Austin Statesman reports: The Texas voter ID law was enacted in 2011 with the intent to discriminate against minority voters, a federal judge ruled Monday. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos followed a July decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the law had a disproportionate impact on minority voters because they …

Talking Points Memo reports: For the last six years, the Justice Department has sided with the citizens and civil rights groups fighting Texas’ voter ID law, which a federal judge at one point found to be intentionally discriminatory against black and Latino voters. But its position changed Monday when the department decided to drop its claim that Republican state lawmakers …

McClatchy reports: Civil rights groups say a tangle of Republican-backed “voter suppression” laws enacted since 2010 probably helped tip the scale for Republican nominee Donald Trump in some closely contested states on election night. “When we look back, we will find that voter suppression figured prominently in the story surrounding the 2016 presidential election,” said Kristen Clarke, the president and …

Bloomberg reports: An evenly divided U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate North Carolina’s Republican-backed voting restrictions for the November election, leaving intact a lower court’s conclusion that lawmakers intentionally discriminated against racial minorities. The high court rejected the state’s bid to halt much of the federal appeals court ruling, dividing 4-4 on the central questions. The rebuff — issued without …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: Gov. Pat McCrory wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate North Carolina’s voter ID law for the November election. The law, which requires voters to bring a photo ID to the polls, was thrown out by a federal appeals court ruling. Late Monday, McCrory announced that he has sent a formal request to Supreme …

Next stop, SCOTUS. Reuters reports: A U.S. appeals court issued an order on Thursday denying North Carolina’s motion to stay the court’s decision last week striking down the state’s voter ID law. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said staying its ruling now “would only undermine the integrity and efficiency of the upcoming election.” On Friday, the court ruled …

Politico reports: Donald Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric about the general election being rigged, saying in an interview on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Tuesday that he is concerned people are going to “vote 10 times” without voter ID. “You don’t have to have voter ID to now go in and vote, and it’s a little bit scary, and I’ve heard …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday called a news conference to announce that the attorney general will not appeal last week’s ruling by three federal judges throwing out the state’s requirement that voters produce photo identification, along with other changes to election law. The governor said the state would appeal the ruling without help from …

As you can see, North Carolina Pat McCrory has a case of the raging sadz over today’s overturn of his state’s voter ID law, which a federal appeals court declared was a “surgically precise” attack on black citizens. McCrory has vowed to “immediately appeal.” He writes: Roy Cooper opposes Voter ID. Yet photo IDs are required to purchase Sudafed, cash …

Woo-hoo! Via Talking Points Memo: A three-judge panel of the U.S Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has found North Carolina’s controversial GOP-backed voting restrictions were intended to discriminate against African American voters. The Friday ruling is a huge win for voting rights activists in a closely watched case in a potential 2016 swing state. In the opinion, the …

We knew THIS was coming: Alabama now faces a federal lawsuit over its voter ID law after closing 30 or so driver’s licenses offices, many of them in areas with high African-American populations. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is bringing the suit on behalf of Greater Birmingham Ministries and the Alabama NAACP. It was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court …

From an opinion piece on AL.com: Depending on which counties you count as being in Alabama’s Black Belt, either twelve or fifteen Black Belt counties soon won’t have a place to get a driver’s license. Counties where some of the state’s poorest live. Counties that are majority African-American. Combine that with the federally mandated Star ID taking effect next year, …

Last month we learned that Alabama was set to close 45 of its 49 driver’s license bureaus despite a strict voter ID law. The number of planned office closures has since been reduced to 33 and the state is preparing to make that move. Via Montgomery’s NBC affiliate: Governor Robert Bentley is moving ahead with plans to close some driver’s …