JUST IN: Justice Department To Sue North Carolina Over Voter ID Law
The Justice Department is preparing to sue North Carolina over that state's restrictive new voting law Monday. The lawsuit takes aim at provisions that limit early voting periods and require government photo ID as an illegal form of discrimination against minorities at the ballot box, according to a person briefed on the Justice Department's plans.
Federal authorities are expected to challenge four parts of the state law, passed soon after the Supreme Court in June invalidated a key part of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. Those provisions include: the state's decision to cut back on early voting by a week; the elimination of same day registration during that early voting period; the prohibition on counting certain provisional ballots that are not prepared in a voter's specific precinct; and the adoption of a strict photo identification requirement "without adequate protection" for voters who lack that required ID, the person said.
The case will be announced by Attorney General Eric Holder at a news conference in Washington. It marks the third time this year that the Justice Department has taken action to enforce portions of the Voting Rights Act since the high court voted 5-4 to gut the law's centerpiece: a system that required states with a history of discrimination to seek pre-approval from the federal government before making any election changes.
Forty counties in North Carolina had been covered under that old system and the new Justice Department case will ask a court to re-impose an unspecified period of U.S. oversight under Section 3 of the VRA, a process known as "bail in."
THE REST:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/30/227591062/justice-department-to-sue-north-carolina-over-voter-id-law
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