North Carolina, US – On Monday, Thomas Schroeder, a conservative federal judge, upheld North Carolina’s voting restrictions that may be in place for the upcoming general election for voters. This particular situations will be given unless higher courts intervene. He assured that the tough rules won’t impact African-American and other minority voters.

The measures include 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, scrapping a program to pre-register high school students who would turn 18 by Election Day and a strict voter ID requirement, which is believed to be passed with the intention of suppressing African American votes.

North Carolina’s new voter ID law goes into effect for the next elections causing a rather emergency issue for U.S. citizens without a valid ID who need to have one before being able to vote. Credit: The Nation
North Carolina’s new voter ID law goes into effect for the next elections causing a rather emergency issue for U.S. citizens without a valid ID who need to have one before being able to vote. Credit: The Nation

Voting rights groups are trying to alert people about the damages the policies could cause a big impact in the presidential election in the state. Critics oppose to the law because they considered it as a regressive and discriminatory measure to suppress minority turnout. In the other hand, Republicans supporters, including the governor, claimed that the measures were needed in order to prevent a possible vote fraud.

Carolina’s Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who signed the law, said in a statement that asking for a photo ID to vote it’s a requirement that make sense and it’s completely constitutional. He added that this law will protect citizen’s basic right to vote as well as assure a secure way for people to vote.

Democrats, NAACP and Advancement Project oppose to the law

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Advancement Project –a civil rights organization –oppose to the law and are planning to appeal. According to CNN, a lawyer for the NAACP affirmed that the voting requirements may affect the presidential election. This is especially because without same-day registration people need to be registered, at least 45 days before the Election Day, otherwise they lose the right to vote.

“We will continue our movement challenging regressive and discriminatory voter suppression tactics on behalf of African-Americans, Latinos, seniors,students and all those for whom democracy has been denied,” said Rev. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, in a statement.

People without the photo ID would be unprotected and unable to vote, which, of course, would affect minorities, democrats argued.

In 2013, the Justice Department presented a lawsuit to block parts of the North Carolina voting law and Supreme Court decided to eliminate a law of the Voting Rights Act that required nine states to have federal approval before changing their laws.

Source: CNN