A day after a Federal trial on North Carolina’s photo ID voting requirement wrapped up, the President of North Carolina chapter of the NAACP announced a massive effort to register voters across the state.
The Rev. William Barber said in a conference call with reporters that it is imperative that he and others do everything they can to make sure every voter is able to cast a ballot in the March Primaries, starting March 3rd, 2016, when early voting starts.
Monday marked the end of a six-day trial in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem over the requirement, which took effect this year, that voters show a photo ID at the polls.
The photo ID law either eliminated or reduced voting reforms that voting rights activists say blacks and Hispanics used disproportionately, such as early voting and same-day voter registration. The photo ID requirement, as originally passed, was one of the strictest in the country. Voters need to present one of six kinds of photo ID, such as a driver’s license, to cast a ballot.
Last June, just a few weeks before a Federal trial was to begin on the state’s elections law, the General Assembly amended the photo ID requirement, allowing voters to fill out a “reasonable impediment” declaration form and cast a provisional ballot. At the plaintiffs’ request, U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder delayed legal proceedings on the photo ID requirement until this year.
Barber said Tuesday that a march and rally will be held Feb. 13 in Raleigh. At that march, he said, organizers will begin recruiting volunteers to help register people and educate them about the photo ID requirement. He said efforts will be made to sign up 3,000 faith communities across the state to help with voter registration and education.
Barber said voters need to know that even if they don’t have a photo ID, there is a way they can still cast a ballot.
Schroeder has yet to issue a decision on a Federal trial that dealt with other provisions of North Carolina’s elections law. And it is unlikely he will issue a decision before the March primaries, said Denise Lieberman, one of the attorneys representing the state NAACP.
North Carolina had the distinction of pushing through a package of voting reforms all in one bill a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 5 had required states and communities that had a history of racial discrimination to get federal approval for any changes in elections laws. Forty counties in North Carolina were under that Section 5 requirement.
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