North Carolina: Federal judge rules correspondence, emails over voter ID law a public record | Charlotte News Observer

The North Carolina legislative leaders who led the crafting of the state’s new voter ID law will have to turn over some of their correspondence and email messages to voters and organizations challenging the wide-ranging amendments, according to a federal court ruling. U.S. Magistrate Judge Joi Elizabeth Peake issued a ruling on Thursday that addresses an attempt by lawmakers to quash subpoenas seeking email, correspondence and other documents exchanged while transforming the state’s voting process. In a court hearing earlier this year, attorneys for 13 Republican legislators tried to turn back efforts to get the correspondence released.

North Carolina: Judge tells North Carolina to provide documents about voting law even after it was enacted | Associated Press

North Carolina must provide groups suing to overturn last year’s voting law with documents created even after it was signed in the summer, a judge has ruled. The federal magistrate judge’s order released Tuesday is important to civil rights groups and the U.S. government, which contend portions of the law are unconstitutional and discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act. They argue they need documents about how the law is being implemented to show it’s going to hurt voters in minority groups. Attorneys defending the law argued that state agencies shouldn’t have to provide documents dated past Aug. 12, when Gov. Pat McCrory signed the law. They said the breadth of documents should be limited to before that date, when the General Assembly was developing the legislation.

North Carolina: Many Counties Seek Exemption From Early Voting Requirements | WFAE

More than a third of North Carolina’s counties are asking for an exemption from part of the sweeping election overhaul the General Assembly passed last year. Those exemptions would allow counties to cut early voting periods beyond what the new law already does. There are a couple ways to look at the early voting changes that are part of the overhaul. On a calendar, it’s simple: there are seven fewer days of early voting. But Republicans who back the law have argued that’s not really a cut. Governor Pat McCrory explained how on WFAE’s Charlotte Talks a few months  ago. “The number of hours of early voting is going to be the exact same number of hours,” he said.

North Carolina: Lawyers clash over electronic documents in NC voter ID lawsuit | Digital Journal

Lawyers representing the state of North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory and other defendants were accused of holding back crucial electronic documents in a hearing last Friday as lawsuits seeking to overturn North Carolina’s new voting law move forward.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Bridget O’Connor demanded “real deadlines and consequences for not meeting them,” in a hearing before Magistrate Judge Joi Elizabeth Peake on Friday, February 21. The plaintiffs in three lawsuits are seeking emails and other electronic documents produced by state employees documenting the creation and implementation of the North Carolina’s controversial Voter Identification Verification Law (VIVA). Several parts of the new law, such as a reduction in the number of early voting days and the end of same-day voter registration, are set to go into effect before the November 2014 election.

North Carolina: Voter ID laws challenge out-of-state voters | The Pendulum

Junior political science major Niki Molinaro has voted in every election since she came to Elon University. But new North Carolina voter identification laws may keep her out of the voting booth. Although she considers Elon her home, Molinaro, an official New York resident, must present a North Carolina identification card at the polls if she wants to continue voting in North Carolina. The bill, passed August 2013, does more than require voters to show a government-issued ID at the polls. It also shortens the voting period by one week and ends same-day voter registration. This is particularly a problem for university students who use their college ID cards as a form of identification at the polls. Beginning in 2016, they will no longer be considered acceptable. “I think the new law is meant to keep certain groups of people out of the elections,” Molinaro said.

North Carolina: Judge delays ruling on voting law | Winston-Salem Journal

A federal judge this afternoon held off on ruling whether 13 North Carolina state legislators should comply with subpoenas requesting documents in connection with a trio of lawsuits challenging a voting law passed last year. Magistrate Judge Joi Elizabeth Peak also told parties in the suit to develop a plan to produce electronic documents from the state, and told defense attorneys to produce documents related to how the law is being implemented. The U.S. Department of Justice, along with a group of plaintiffs that include the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, is contesting the Voter Identification Verification Act (VIVA).

North Carolina: Judge tries to speed up voter ID, election lawsuits | Associated Press

A federal judge tried Friday to speed up the flow of documents in three lawsuits challenging North Carolina’s voter ID and elections overhaul law. Several advocacy groups, voters and the U.S. government sued in August and September to block provisions of the law that they argue are racially discriminatory and violate the U.S. Voting Rights Act. Those provisions include a photo identification requirement to voter in person, reducing the number of early voting days from 17 to 10 and eliminating same-day voter registration during the early-voting period. U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Joi Peake already had determined in December the combined lawsuits wouldn’t go to trial until mid-2015. However, plaintiffs’ attorneys are now anxious to collect documents and data they argue lawyers for state agencies and Gov. Pat McCrory aren’t giving them. They face a May deadline to seek an injunction blocking enforcement of the provisions for the November elections. An injunction hearing likely will occur in early July. Voter ID isn’t required until 2016, but preparations already have started.

North Carolina: Judge to hear arguments involving voter ID lawsuits on Friday | News-Record

Plaintiffs in a trio of suits challenging a voter law passed last year are contending that the governor’s office and the state Board of Elections have failed to turn over documents pertinent to their cases. Attorneys will gather in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem Friday for a hearing to determine whether the defendants should produce the materials. A federal judge will also hear arguments about whether subpoenas seeking documents from 13 legislators should be quashed. The documents in question relate to “the consideration and implementation” as well as “the costs and other impacts” of the Voter Identification Verification Act (VIVA). The act, signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory in August, requires that voters show a government-issued photo ID at the polls beginning in 2016.

North Carolina: Voting law hits black voters: Study | MSNBC

North Carolina’s recent voting law changes will disproportionately affect black voters in the state, according to a study published Wednesday by Dartmouth University. “The study provides powerful ammunition for the pending legal challenges,” says Brenda Wright, a voting rights expert with the liberal think tank Demos. “It shows that virtually every key feature of North Carolina’s election legislation will disproportionately cut back on registration and voting by African Americans in North Carolina as compared to whites.” North Carolina was once covered by the Voting Rights Act’s requirement that states and other jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting submit their voting law changes to the Justice Department for approval. After the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional last year the formula for determining which jurisdictions were covered by that requirement, North Carolina’s Republican-dominated legislature passed a package of voting law restrictions.

North Carolina: No more straight-party option in 2014 election | Elkin Tribune

Voters heading to the polls in 2014 will see a missing option when they begin casting their ballots, with no opportunity to elect a straight-party ticket for partisan seats. “There is no straight party anymore,” said Angie Harrison, deputy director for the Surry County Board of Elections. “You actually have to go down the ballot and pick the offices individually.” Voters already had to do that for any nonpartisan seats, such as school boards, municipal boards, judges and for the partisan presidential office, but in the past they had an option to select either Republican or Democrat for all other partisan seats without having to go through each office at stake one by one. This included posts for county commissioners, senators, state and federal representatives, sheriff and others. This is one of many changes being implemented during the next few years after the state Legislature passed the Voter ID law, formally known as House Bill 589, which went into effect Jan. 1.

North Carolina: Justices will not delay 2014 elections | Associated Press

The 2014 elections will go on as planned after North Carolina’s highest court refused to delay them while the justices consider the legality of the most recent version of election districts. The state Supreme Court announced Friday its denial of a motion by election and civil rights advocacy groups and Democratic voters challenging the boundaries for General Assembly seats and North Carolina’s congressional delegation. They wanted to halt the start of the election schedule that begins Feb. 10 with candidate filing, as well as the May 6 primary, until the court ruled whether the boundaries are legal. The state’s highest court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of the maps earlier this month.

North Carolina: Lawmakers try to quash subpoenas that seek details about voter ID law | Charlotte Observer

North Carolina legislative leaders who led the crafting of the state’s new voter ID law have been very open about their support of the measure and other elections changes. But voters and organizations challenging the wide-ranging amendments contend that those same lawmakers are being far too private about email and other correspondence they exchanged while transforming the state’s voting process. Critics of the voting-law changes say that its Republican sponsors had information that the legislation would have a negative impact on African-Americans and other minorities. In federal court filings this month, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Justice Department and others who are suing the governor, state legislators and North Carolina election board members sought a court order for email and other correspondence. Thirteen legislators, all Republicans, asked the court to quash subpoenas requiring them to produce any documents they created or received concerning the “rationale, purpose and implementation” of House Bill 589.

North Carolina: DOJ Suing North Carolina Over Voter ID Law | Inquisitr

The Justice Department is suing the State of North Carolina over voter ID laws. Eric Holder’s agency filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Tar Heel State. The voter ID lawsuit claims that North Carolina violated provisions in Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act when passing the ballot casting legislation.The North Carolina voter ID law reduces the early voting period in addition to requiring photo identification in order to cast a ballot. Governor McCrory’s comments about how similar North Carolina’s voting laws are to those of others states appears to be very accurate. The state is one of 32 which currently offer early voting options for citizens. Unless Eric Holder’s lawsuit is successful, the Tar Heel State will also be one of 34 that already requires or will require some type of voter ID when casting a ballot. North Carolina and 36 other states prohibits same-day voting registration. A total of 43 states do not allow underage voters to pre-register, according to the Secretary of State website.

North Carolina: Civil rights group wants McCrory to speed up special election schedule for 12th District | Associated Press

A civil rights organization pressed North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday not to wait until November to let voters elect a successor to former U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, saying that will deny representation to 12th Congressional District residents for too long. Holding a Nov. 4 election to fill Watt’s unexpired term means more than 700,000 citizens will be without someone in Congress to speak for them on critical legislation like the budget, immigration and possibly the Voting Rights Act for most of 2014, said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “Citizens of North Carolina will be forced to go more than 300 days – almost one year – without their constitutionally guaranteed right to representation,” Barber told reporters. “This is taxation without representation.”

North Carolina: McCrory defends choice to delay special congressional election | The Voter Update

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday responded to a letter from Democratic Congressmen David Price and G.K. Butterfield that criticized his choice to delay a special election filling a vacancy in North Carolina’s 12th congressional district. Last week, Democratic Rep. Mel Watt formally resigned his seat in the district after being confirmed as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. On the same day, McCrory announced that the special election to complete the remainder of Watt’s term will follow the same schedule as this year’s regular elections, leaving the seat open until after a Nov. 4 vote. That decision would mean the 700,000 residents in the Democratic-leaning district, which winds narrowly up I-85 from Charlotte to Winston-Salem and Greensboro, would be without a representative in Congress for most of 2014. Price and Butterfield called the 300-day vacancy “indefensible” in their joint letter to McCrory.

North Carolina: Controversial Voting Laws Attract Protests, Support | Huffington Post

One of the longstanding arguments against voter ID laws has been that there is no history of significant elections fraud. But advocates of North Carolina’s new elections law have been making their way across the state to county elections boards to try to make the case that fraud has existed but has been inadequately investigated. Such allegations have been lodged in Pembroke, a Robeson County town, where the state Board of Elections recently found so many “irregularities” in the November municipal elections that a new vote was ordered and a probe called for by the local district attorney. There also is an effort underway by the Republican-led board in Forsyth County to push out the elections director, an endeavor being fought by the director and one board member. A ruling from the state elections director could come any day.

North Carolina: NAACP Expands Election Law Challenge | Carolina Journal

The head of the state’s NAACP said the civil rights organization is broadening its lawsuit against North Carolina’s new voter ID law and election law changes. The Rev. William Barber, North Carolina NAACP president, said the organization was making it clear in the lawsuit that the new law would have a disparate impact on Hispanics as well as African Americans. He also said that the state would add the elimination of pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds to the lawsuit. Meantime, a former member of the Federal Elections Commission said the expanded lawsuit still fails to prove that aspects of the state’s election reform laws are unconstitutional. “We will take on the issue of Latinos, and how this bill is impacting the Latino community,” Barber said Thursday during a telephone press conference. He said Maria Palmer, a newly elected member of the Chapel Hill Town Council and the first Hispanic elected to that post, was being added to the lawsuit as a plaintiff.

North Carolina: State wants voting law emails kept secret | MSNBC

North Carolina is asking a federal judge to keep secret Republican state lawmakers’ communications as they pushed through the nation’s most restrictive voting law last summer. “They are doing everything they can to try to keep us from finding out what they did and how they did it and who was involved,” Rev. William Barber II, the president of the state’s NAACP chapter, which is challenging the law, told reporters Thursday. “It’s time for what was done in the dark to come into the light.” Barber’s NAACP, backed by the Advancement Project, wants access to the lawmakers’ emails and other internal communications in order to bolster the case that the law’s Republican sponsors knowingly discriminated against racial minorities. In response, the state argued late last week that the communications are protected by legislative privilege. In October, a GOP precinct chair resigned after saying that it would be OK if the law keeps “lazy blacks” from voting. The spat comes as the civil rights groups add more claims to their lawsuit, which was originally filed in August. The U.S. Justice Department has filed its own lawsuit against the measure.

North Carolina: New voting laws attract protests, support | News Observer

One of the longstanding arguments against voter ID laws has been that there is no history of significant elections fraud. But advocates of North Carolina’s new elections law have been making their way across the state to county elections boards to try to make the case that fraud has existed but has been inadequately investigated. Such allegations have been lodged in Pembroke, a Robeson County town, where the state Board of Elections recently found so many “irregularities” in the November municipal elections that a new vote was ordered and a probe called for by the local district attorney. There also is an effort underway by the Republican-led board in Forsyth County to push out the elections director, an endeavor being fought by the director and one board member. A ruling from the state elections director could come any day.

North Carolina: Adams calls for legislation to limit Congressional vacancies | News & Record

State Rep. Alma Adams, D-Guilford, called for legislation Thursday that would limit the amount of time a congressional seat may remain vacant. Adams and other local leaders decried Gov. Pat McCrory’s decision to hold a special election to fill the state’s 12th Congressional District seat on the same schedule as this year’s regular elections. Ryan Tronovitch, a spokesman for the governor’s office, declined to comment on Adams’ proposal. He said in an email that McCrory’s decision took into account several factors, including the estimated $1 million cost of holding a special election and the confusion that voters might experience with multiple primary and general election dates. U.S. Rep. Mel Watt resigned from the 12th District seat Monday when he was sworn in as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Under the special election schedule, 12th District residents won’t have a representative in Congress until November. Adams, who is running for the seat, called McCrory’s decision “shameful.”

North Carolina: Why A Majority-Minority Congressional District May Go Unrepresented For An Entire Year | ThinkProgress

A quirk of North Carolina’s election law may leave voters in the state’s 12th Congressional district without representation until 2015. Though Rep. Mel Watt (D) resigned his seat on the first day of the legislative year to become director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Governor Pat McCrory (R) announced Monday that his replacement will not be elected until November 4. The 12th District, which includes a long swath of central North Carolina running from Charlotte to Greensboro, has a majority of voters who are minorities. McCrory ordered a primary be held on May 6, 2014, the regularly scheduled date for North Carolina primary elections. If none of the candidates receives more than 40 percent of the vote, the second place candidate can request a runoff, which would be held on July 15 (the same day reserved for any regularly scheduled primary runoffs). This situation is quite possible, given that several candidates are reportedly seeking the Democratic nomination in this heavily Democratic district. The general election, again coinciding with the already scheduled state elections, will be held on November 4 — after all of the 2014 session is over, save for a possible lame-duck session. Oddly, the governor’s official writ of election did not include a provision for holding the general election in July if a runoff is not requested. Such a provision could potentially have vastly sped up the process. With the new Representative set to be elected on the same day in the normal general election, it is possible that the 12th District special election winner could serve for just for a lame-duck session — or never be sworn-in at all. McCrory’s office did not immediately respond to a ThinkProgress request for information about the writ.

North Carolina: Mel Watt’s seat in Congress to sit empty until November | News Observer

The special election in North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District will be held along with the state’s regular elections, leaving the seat empty for what appears to be a record length of time. Gov. Pat McCrory made the announcement Monday hours after Democratic Rep. Mel Watt of Charlotte was sworn in as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Before a ceremonial White House ceremony, Watt was sworn in by his Charlotte protege, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The special election to fill his seat will involve the first special primary election in the state’s history, according to legislative counsel Gerry Cohen.

North Carolina: Election Scheduled to Replace Watt in North Carolina | Roll Call

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory announced a Nov. 4 special election to replace longtime Democratic Rep. Melvin Watt, ensuring the contest coincides with previously scheduled elections in the Tar Heel State. The 12th District primary — which will mostly likely determine the next member of Congress from this deeply Democratic district — will be held May 6. A runoff is scheduled for July 15. “Because of the various filing deadlines, ballot preparation time, state and federal calendar requirements for ballot access, voter registration deadlines and to avoid voter confusion, it was determined the most efficient process would be to roll the special election into the already established primary and general election dates,” a news release from McCrory’s office said.

North Carolina: State Supreme Court ponders legality of redistricting | Associated Press

The validity of North Carolina’s legislative and congressional maps is back in the hands of the state Supreme Court as attorneys argued Monday whether the boundaries comply with federal and state laws and previous court opinions. The court’s seven justices offered few of their own questions during 90 minutes of arguments over the districts drawn by Republican legislators in 2011 for the General Assembly and North Carolina’s U.S. House delegation. As usual, the justices gave no indication when they would rule. Many arguments focused upon redistricting decisions the state’s highest court had released over the past 10-plus years for previous boundaries. Thousands of pages of motions, briefs and background have been filed by lawyers since this round of redistricting litigation began in late 2011. “I’m not sure there’s anything left unsaid here,” said Special Deputy Attorney General Alec Peters, defending the maps for the state.

North Carolina: Few in apply for free voter ID card | The Asheville Citizen-Times

Twenty-two people in North Carolina had applied for a free voter identification card as of midday Friday, the second day the card was offered in the state. Voters will need government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot in 2016 under a state law set last year by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. The law that requires the voter identification has other provisions that include ending same-day voter registration, trimming the period for early voting from 17 days to 10 and eliminating a program that encourages high school students to register to vote in advance of their 18th birthdays. The political parties said they would work with their members to make sure those who need the free IDs would get them in time.

North Carolina: The right to vote cannot be voted on | Technician Online

North Carolina’s state government functioned in a state of confusion last summer. Each Monday, Raleigh hosted hundreds of protestors, ranging from those who challenged the proposed, heavily restrictive anti-abortion laws and cuts to teacher salaries as waves of conservative influence exerted itself on the floor of the North Carolina House. While the aforementioned proposals drew attention from major news sources, the legislation that most propelled North Carolina into the national spotlight and the center of heavy media debate was its reintroduction of a new set of regulations relating to voting rights. Suddenly, North Carolina was facing the passage of a bill that, at its surface, seemed to be an attempt to bolster a strong image of voter security. In actuality, voter fraud rarely happens. A study by the U.S. Department of Justice found that between 2002 and 2005, only 40 voters were indicted for voter fraud. North Carolina’s voter ID bill represents the failings of a conservative state legislation in regards to not only the right to vote but also the interests of those in minority status.

North Carolina: Groups challenging redistricting seek delay of 2014 primary elections | News Observer

Groups unhappy with the North Carolina legislative and congressional districts drawn three years ago by the General Assembly have asked the state Supreme Court to delay this year’s primary elections. In a request for a temporary injunction filed with the state’s highest court Thursday, attorneys for Democratic voters and civil rights groups argued that it would be disruptive to proceed with the established election cycle while constitutional questions linger about the 2011 maps. The filing period for candidates seeking seats in the state General Assembly and the U.S. House is set to open Feb. 10 and close on Feb. 28. Primary elections are set for May 6. “Sufficient time may not now exist for this Court to properly resolve the significant federal and state constitutional questions presented in this appeal,” the request for relief states.

North Carolina: Election official ousted for openly supporting Senate candidate | News Observer

The State Board of Elections on Friday ousted a member of the Beaufort County Board of Elections after ruling that he violated state law by openly supporting Republican U.S. Senate candidate Greg Brannon at a local tea party meeting in October. In doing so, the five-member, Republican-controlled state board made it clear that it wouldn’t take it lightly when county board members publicly practice partisan politics. Bob Hall, executive director of the election reform group Democracy North Carolina, lauded the decision, saying he believed the state board members were taking seriously their responsibility to monitor the political activities of local board members, who are charged with overseeing elections. “By their action, they’re sending a signal to the local board members that they need to obey the law, and the law is quite clear about not publicly endorsing or advocating for candidates,” Hall said.

North Carolina: Judicial Watch wants to join fray over voter ID law | News Observer

Judicial Watch, a conservative-leaning organization that uses litigation to make its political points, wants in on the legal fray over North Carolina’s elections law changes. The Washington-based organization filed a motion on Friday to intervene on behalf of North Carolina officials defending the new rules. “We think it’s a case of national importance,” said Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch president. In the court documents seeking status in the four-month-old lawsuit, Judicial Watch highlights an unsuccessful 2012 candidate for Buncombe County commissioner as the basis for the organization’s interest. Christina Kelley Gallegos-Merrill, a Republican who lost her bid for county office by 13 votes, contends that same-day registration during the early-voting period could have played a role in her loss.

North Carolina: Voting changes to go on trial in 2015 | Reuters

Challenges to North Carolina’s new voter regulations that limit early voting and require voters to show photo identification at the polls will not go to trial until after the 2014 mid-term elections, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. The groups protesting the state’s new law will have a chance, however, to argue for some of its provisions to be blocked before the full case is heard, Magistrate Judge Joi Elizabeth Peake said at a hearing in Winston-Salem. The law’s opponents had sought a quicker resolution to the legal battle. A trial ahead of next November’s elections would help prevent “irreparable loss” for some voters, said an attorney for the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “It’s going to determine whether people actually have the right to vote,” said NAACP lawyer Daniel Donovan. “The clock is ticking.”