On December 31, U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs granted an injunction against Gov. Roy Cooper and the North Carolina State Board of Elections and stated the defendants cannot implement the new voter-ID requirements. The decision also denies any communications to the public saying a photo ID will be required for 2020 elections.
The court order means voters will not need a photo ID in the March 3 primary elections.
According to the order, election officials must work with local media and voter-education groups to inform citizens they will not need photo IDs to vote in this election.
This case originated when several North Carolina chapters of the NAACP filed a lawsuit the day after the voting ID requirement became law in December 2018.
In finding that an injunction would be in the public interest, Judge Biggs reasoned that “Electoral integrity is enhanced, not diminished, when all eligible voters are allowed to exercise their right to vote free from interference and burden unnecessarily imposed by others.” She also quoted from an earlier case in noting “No one disputes that North Carolina ‘has a long history of race discrimination generally and race-based vote suppression in particular.’”
--By Bob Bannerman