Late Thursday evening, a federal court announced that they will be be blocking the North Carolina voter ID law at the polls for the 2020 election.
By blocking the identification law, anyone and everyone can go to the polls to vote without proving that they are who they say they are. That means illegal immigrants can vote in our election. Forget about Russia, THAT is a foreign interference!
An order explaining the decision and its full breadth will come next week, but this week's announcement was timed to delay a planned statewide mailing explaining the state's new ID rules. Public notice came via a short note appended to an online case file Thursday in NAACP et al v. Cooper, one of at least two ongoing lawsuits challenging voter ID in the state.
U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs, an Obama appointee, is presiding in the case, which was filed in North Carolina's Middle District, with hearings in Winston-Salem.
"The court gave advance notice that it will rule with plaintiffs and preliminarily enjoin the photo voter ID law next week," attorney Caitlin Swain said in an email on Friday, "We are awaiting the full order, gratified that the court is intervening to prevent this discriminatory law from impeding North Carolinians equal access to the ballot."
North Carolina NAACP President Rev. T. Anthony Spearman held a press conference on Friday evening, and claimed that they are “ecstatic” about the federal block, as he crumbled up a voter ID pamphlet and tossed it.
WRAL reports:
The decision can be appealed. The State Board of Elections had opposed this injunction, which was requested in September.
State Board spokesman Patrick Gannon said Friday morning that it's up to Attorney General Josh Stein now how to proceed, unless the board itself votes to take a position. He also said legislative leadership could attempt an appeal.
Stein spokeswoman Laura Brewer said the Attorney General's Office would wait to review the full order next week before deciding what to do. Speaker of the House Tim Moore called on the State Board, which the governor appoints, to appeal "this last-minute attempt by an activist federal judge to overturn the will of North Carolina voters."
"To issue an injunction against one of the nation’s most lenient voter ID laws – which 34 states already have – without providing an opinion is an outrageous affront to due process, the rights of North Carolina voters, and the rule of law," Moore wrote in an email.