A federal judge in North Carolina has ruled part of the state’s sweeping new election law is likely unconstitutional.
The ruling blocks changes to the procedure that elections officials use to verify the address of voters who take advantage of same-day voter registration during the state’s in-person early voting period, which this year begins Feb. 15.
If a voter signs up during that time, a county board of elections would then have two business days to determine whether the person is qualified to vote by searching a driver license’s number or social security number. Then the board would send a postcard to verify their address by mail. Under the old procedure, a postcard would have to be returned by the U.S. Postal Service twice before the ballot would not count.
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Under the new law, passed after the Republican-dominated North Carolina General Assembly overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper last year, the postcard would have to be returned once.
Organizations including the North Carolina Democratic Party and voter advocacy group Down Home North Carolina filed suit, saying the new law placed an unreasonable burden on voters.
“We just don't believe that any North Carolinians should be disenfranchised over something that really could have been a typographical error or even a post office error,” said Dreama Caldwell, co-director of Down Home North Carolina. “And that bill was actually going to put that at risk.”
In a statement, one of the defendants in the suit, the North Carolina State Board of Elections said:
“The order requires election officials not to remove a same-day registrant’s ballot from the official count if that voter’s registration card is returned as undeliverable prior to the county canvass of votes, without providing that voter notice and an opportunity to be heard. The State Board is working immediately to put in place such a procedure.”
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There’s no word yet on whether the plaintiffs and Republican leaders in the General Assembly plan to appeal the ruling. They said the new rules on same-day registration and other changes to state voting laws are designed to combat fraud, not disenfranchise voters.
“None of us want voter what they call like voter fraud right to happen,” Caldwell said. “But if your answer to voter fraud is actually voter suppression, that's not the right answer to it.”
Other parts of the law, including photo ID requirements for mail-in absentee ballots, are not impacted by the ruling and remain in effect.
