The legal battle over a new law requiring North Carolina voters to show a photo ID at the polls will head to federal court on Monday, just six weeks before early voting is set to begin in the state’s presidential primary. The photo ID requirement is perhaps the best-known provision of the Voter Information Verification Act (VIVA), a sweeping overhaul of North Carolina election law signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory in August 2013. Beginning in 2016, it requires voters to show one of government-issued photo IDs in order to vote, or sign an affidavit stating a “reasonable impediment” prevented them from getting an ID. Attorneys representing the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP are suing to overturn ID requirement, claiming it creates an unfair burden for poor, elderly and minority voters.
… This will not be the first time a VIVA provision has been challenged in court. VIVA’s multiple provisions altered nearly every aspect of voting in North Carolina. The 2013 law ended same-day registration, out-of-precinct ballots, straight-ticket voting, shortened the early voting calendar and scrapped a program to pre-register 16- and 17-year olds, among other changes.
By September 2013 a trio of lawsuits seeking to overturn VIVA had been filed in federal court by the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, the North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP, the United States Department of Justice, and other civil rights groups.
Full Article: Lawyers return to court to argue NC voter ID case.