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On September 17, 2021, a three-judge Wake County Superior Court panel ruled 2-1 that North Carolina’s voter identification law violated the state’s constitution. As a result, the court blocked the application of the law.
The court concluded that “the evidence at trial [is] sufficient to show that the promulgation of [the voter ID law] was motivated at least in part by an unconstitutional intention to target African-American voters. The court also ruled that “[o]there, less restrictive voter identification laws would have been sufficient to achieve the legitimate non-racial objectives of implementing the constitutional amendment requiring voter identification, deterring fraud, or enhancing voter confidence. Judges Michael o’foghludha and Vince M. Rozier Jr. formed the majority. Judge Nathaniel J. Poovey dissident. Sam Hayes, general counsel for Speaker of the House Tim Moore (right), said Moore will appeal the ruling.
The court order represents its final judgment on the matter. The court had previously issued a preliminary injunction barring application of the law on a temporary basis, pending resolution on the merits.
The ruling is the most recent in a series of legal developments regarding North Carolina’s voter identification law. On November 6, 2018, voters in North Carolina approved a state constitutional amendment establishing a photo identification requirement for voters. The state legislature, with Republican majorities in both houses, approved implementing legislation (SB 824) in December of the same year, overturning the Democratic governor Roy Cooper’s veto. Lawsuits immediately followed, both in federal courts and at the state level. In December 2019, a federal district court temporarily banned SB 824, but that decision was later overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The state trial behind the September 17 order has been ongoing since 2019.
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